During a routine audit, the licensee identified that a
fire watchstander failed to enter some plant areas required to complete portions of 2
hourly fire watch rounds on both April 30 and May 7, 2007. An NRC Office of Investigation Report 4-2007-038 concluded that the individual willfully failed to complete portions of the required compensatory fire tours and inaccurately indicated on the fire tour log, an NRC-required record that the fire watches had been conducted. This was a violation of
10 CFR 50.9 and Columbia Generating Station License Condition 2.C(14),
Fire Protection Program, (
EA-07-282). Failure to complete compensatory fire watches required by the
fire protection program and falsifying
fire watch records was a performance deficiency. This finding was of more than minor significance because it had the potential to impact the NRCs ability to perform its regulatory function, since required records were falsified. The finding is associated with the
Mitigating Systems Cornerstone attribute of protection against external events. This finding had very low safety significance since proper tours were completed within
2 hours2.314815e-5 days <br />5.555556e-4 hours <br />3.306878e-6 weeks <br />7.61e-7 months <br />. Willful violations are a particular concern to the Commission because its regulatory program is based on licensees and their employees acting with integrity. However, in an effort to encourage licensees to act responsibly in the identification and correction of such violations, the NRC may choose to disposition certain violations by issuing an noncited violation if the licensee identified and corrected the violation. Therefore, in accordance with the
NRC Enforcement Policy, this violation is being dispositioned as a
Severity Level IV noncited violation because the licensee promptly identified and reported this violation and took appropriate corrective action. This issue was entered into the corrective action program under Condition Report 2-07-05033
