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Two Samsung employees suffered X-ray radiation publicity at a chip fab finish to Seoul, and electronics huge is most attention-grabbing going thru a shrimp ₩10.5 million (lower than $8,000) elegant for two violations of South Korea’s Atomic Energy Safety Act.
The country’s Nuclear Safety and Safety Fee (NSSC) presented its findings into an investigation of the Might perhaps well just incident in a meeting today. According to a machine-translated version of the document [PDF] reviewed by The Register, the incident occurred for the duration of upkeep on a tool that uses X-ray fluorescence to measure the thickness of chemical substances applied to semiconductor wafers.
Per the document, the order boiled down to a security interlock tool no longer working. The interlock, which became as soon as supposed to reduce off energy to the X-ray tube when a security protect became as soon as eliminated, had been improperly wired such that it continued to provide energy to the tube when the protect became as soon as eliminated.
The machine within the assist of the incident. Clockwise from upper left, wafer field loading, semiconductor wafer enter, rear of the equipment showing two doors, front facet – Click on to lengthen
Which ability, two workers uncovered to the machine bought a dose of X-rays that whereas a ways from deadly, exceeded national annual limits for radiation workers in one depart.
According to the NSSC document, one particular person bought a total body efficient dose of 15 millisieverts (mSv) and a skin identical dose of 94 Sieverts; the other experienced 130 mSv of entire-body publicity, and 28 Sv of skin-identical dose. The restrict for entire-body publicity in South Korea is 50 mSv per year, with a skin restrict of 0.5 Sv yearly.
(The practical particular person is uncovered to about 3 mSv of entire-body background radiation per year from natural sources. A chest X-ray shot on the entire delivers roughly 0.1 mSv. A CT scan is set 7 mSv. 1 Sv and up is where radiation begins inflicting sickness, and by 10 Sv or no longer it is deadly. The workers thus bought about 150 and 1,300 chest X-rays.)
Each and each are alive and restful being monitored following the incident, the price says.
Miswiring mystery
The NSSC spent the previous few months interviewing employees at the Samsung chip fab in Giheung, where the incident occurred, however it appears to be like to be love nobody had an rationalization for the execrable wiring.
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Interviews with 37 upkeep workers came upon that none had been acutely conscious of, or admitted to involvement in, “abnormal work” that can perhaps well well also have resulted within the failure. Extra technicians who had worked on the machine said they’d below no circumstances changed the interlock wiring. Logs from every the Samsung plant and the manufacturer had been additionally unhelpful, the watchdog said.
Whereas the right kind cause of the wiring failure hasn’t been pinned down, the NSSC restful came upon Samsung in violation of the Atomic Energy Safety Act, leading to nominal fines.
Samsung became as soon as accused of failing to notice technical standards for coping with radiation-producing units, which is in a arena to lead to a elegant of up to ₩4.5 million, and for failure to notice radiation hazard prevention measures, price a further ₩6 million.
Samsung’s working earnings became as soon as ₩10.44 trillion, with ₩74.07 trillion in consolidated earnings for the 2d quarter of 2024. Samsung hasn’t responded to questions for this story. ®
