Samsung fined just $8K for exposing chip fab workers to X-ray radiation

Nothing says 'oops' like a penalty that won’t even dent the electronics giant’s coffee budget

Two Samsung employees suffered X-ray radiation exposure at a chip fab near Seoul, and electronics giant is only facing a small ₩10.5 million (less than $8,000) fine for two violations of South Korea's Atomic Energy Safety Act. 

The country's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) announced its findings into an investigation of the May incident in a meeting today. According to a machine-translated version of the report [PDF] reviewed by The Register, the incident occurred during maintenance on a device that uses X-ray fluorescence to measure the thickness of chemicals applied to semiconductor wafers. 

Per the report, the issue boiled down to a safety interlock device not working. The interlock, which was supposed to cut off power to the X-ray tube when a safety shield was removed, had been improperly wired such that it continued to supply power to the tube when the shield was removed. 

samsung-fab-radiation-machine

The machine behind the incident. Clockwise from upper left, wafer box loading, semiconductor wafer input, rear of the equipment showing two doors, front side - Click to enlarge

As a result, two workers exposed to the machine received a dose of X-rays that while far from deadly, exceeded national annual limits for radiation workers in one go.

According to the NSSC report, one individual received a whole body effective dose of 15 millisieverts (mSv) and a skin equivalent dose of 94 Sieverts; the other experienced 130 mSv of whole-body exposure, and 28 Sv of skin-equivalent dose. The limit for whole-body exposure in South Korea is 50 mSv per year, with a skin limit of 0.5 Sv annually.

(The average person is exposed to about 3 mSv of whole-body background radiation per year from natural sources. A chest X-ray shot typically delivers roughly 0.1 mSv. A CT scan is about 7 mSv. 1 Sv and up is where radiation starts causing sickness, and by 10 Sv it's lethal. The workers thus received about 150 and 1,300 chest X-rays.)

Both are alive and still being monitored following the incident, the commission says. 

Miswiring mystery

The NSSC spent the past few months interviewing employees at the Samsung chip fab in Giheung, where the incident occurred, but it seems like no one had an explanation for the faulty wiring. 

Interviews with 37 maintenance workers found that none were aware of, or admitted to involvement in, "abnormal work" that could have resulted in the failure. Additional technicians who had worked on the machine said they'd never changed the interlock wiring. Logs from both the Samsung plant and the manufacturer were also unhelpful, the watchdog said. 

While the exact cause of the wiring failure hasn't been pinned down, the NSSC still found Samsung in violation of the Atomic Energy Safety Act, resulting in nominal fines. 

Samsung was accused of failing to comply with technical standards for handling radiation-generating devices, which will result in a fine of up to ₩4.5 million, and for failure to comply with radiation hazard prevention measures, worth an additional ₩6 million. 

Samsung's operating profit was ₩10.44 trillion, with ₩74.07 trillion in consolidated revenue for the second quarter of 2024. Samsung hasn't responded to questions for this story. ®

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