IR 05000425/1990027
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U2 UNITED ST ATES
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMis$lON
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REGION il q;
g 101 MARIETTA STREET,N.W.
- ATLANTA, GEORGI A 30323 y.....)
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h Docket Nos. 50-424 and 50-425'
I License Nos.- NPF-68 and NPF-81
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EA 90-188 l-Georgia' Power Company
ATTN: Mr. W. G. Hairston III Senior Vice President -
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Nuclear Operations L
Post Office Box 1295-
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Bi mingham, Alabama 35201 i
. Gentlemen:
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NOTICE OF VIOLATION AND PROPOSED IMPOSITION OF CIVIL PENALTY - $50,000 L
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(NRC INSPECTION REPORT NOS. 50-424/90-27AND50-425/90-27)
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This refers to the Nuclear Regulatory Cons.Mion (NRC) inspection conducted by A. Tillman on October 16 - 17, 1990, at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant (VEGP). This special announced inspection was conducted in the area'of physical
protection of sensitive unclassified Safeguards Information (SGI) in response to a licensee-identified and reported safeguards event which occurred on October 11, i
1990, and which involved the discovery of unsecured SGI in the VEGP Security Training Office located within the-licensee's protected area. The report docu-
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menting this inspection was sent to you by letter dated October 29, 1990. As a
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result of this inspection, significant failures to comply with NRC regulatory requirements were identified. An Enforcement Conference was held on November 13, L
1990, in the Region II office to discuss the violations, their cause, and your
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corrective actions to preclude their recurrence. The letter summarizing this
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conference was sent to you by letter dated November 20, 1990.
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The violation described in the enclosed Notice of Violation and Proposed i
F Imposition of Civil Penalty (Notice) includes five instances where SGI was L
. unsecured, unprotected, or unattended at either VEGP or the Vogtle Project
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. Engineering Office in 81mingham, Alabama, since August 2% 1990. On
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October 11 and October 19, 1990 SGI was found unsecured and unattended in
the VEGP Security Training.0ffice. 0n August 29 and October 16, 1990 SGI
was found unsecured and unattended in the Vogtle Project Engineering Office
in Bimingham, Alabama. On November 9, 1990, aperture cards containing SGI were discovered unsecured in Document Control at VEGP.
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In addition to the above, on November 9. 1990 SGI was found unsecured and unattended in the Southern Company Services -(SCS) Bechtel Office in Bimingham,
' Alabama. This event is not being cited as a violation because it was identified
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asipart of corrective action forza previously identified violation.
Problems were identified relative to the marking of documents believed to i
' contain Safeguards. Information. Although overmarking is not' considered a r'{
violation, a document marked as containing SGI must be protected. Over-
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- marking of.iSGI may contribute to poor attention being paid to:information gy
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E 9611040330 960827-PDR FOIA L
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Georgia Power Company-2-FEB 0 51991 i
protection procedures by guard force members if they learn over time that at
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least some of the documents marked as SGI in fact do not contain such infor-
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mation. thereby putting ~ the protection of legitimately-marked documents at i
risk.
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Some of the examples of the violation may have been of minor significance relative to the possible compromise of SGI. However, collectively they repre-
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j sent the continuation of a recurring problem involving the protection of SGI
which you have not_yet brought under adequate control.
In February 1990, Georgia Power Company was assessed a civil penalty (EA 89-227,$7,500)for j
similar Severity Level IV violations.
In June 1990, the licensee was assessed a civil penalty (EA 90-090,$50,000) for a similar violation which was catego-j rized at a Severity Level III. Therefore, in view of the breakdown in manage-j-
ment oversight of the protection of SGI and in accordance with the " General i
Statement of Policy and Procedure for NRC Enforcement Actions," (Enforcement
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Policy).10 CFR Part 2, Appendix C (1990), the violation has been classified as l
a' Severity Level III violation.
i To emphasize the importance of protecting SGI and ensuring that such information is not inadvertently compromised, I have been authorized, after consultation
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with the Director, Office of Enforcement, and the Deputy Executive Director for i
Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Regional Operations and Research, to issue the
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enclosed Notice of Violation and Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalty in the i
amount of $50,000 for the Severity Level III problem. The base value of a civil penalty for a Severity Level III violation is $50,000. The escalation and
j mitigation factors in the Enforcement Policy were considered.
l Mitigation of this civil penalty by 50% is warranted because of your identification and reporting of the violations and by 50% due to the corrective
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actions which you have instituted, including the formation of a Task Force described in your November 20, 1990 letter to examine the causes of these viola-
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tions and recomend appropriate long-tenn solutions. However, escalation of the
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penalty by 100% is appropriate due to your continued poor performance in this
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' area. The remaining factors of multiple occurrences and duration were used to categorize these violations as a Severity Level III problem and, therefore, will-i not be used as escalating factors.
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The continued poor performance by Georgia Power Company with respect to the
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protection of sensitive unclassified Safeguards Information is of great concern to the NRC. Consideration was given to issuance of a more significant enforce-
ment action; however, because Georgia Power Company identified all of the
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current violations and has demonstrated a heightened sensitivity to the problem in its formation of a Task Force, this civil penalty was considered adequate to appropriately emphasize the need for effective and lasting corrective action.
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As 'noted above, previous violations relating to the failure to adequately protect SGI have resulted in two other civil penalties within the past year.
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'the most recent case, the staff had reduced the penalty based on the expected i
effectiveness of the corrective actions. However, the past corrective actions for these violations apparently have been insufficient in depth or breadth to reach the root causes of the violations. Therefore, Georgia Power Company is
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expected to consider whether the Task Force that is being formed to address
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Georgia Power Company-3-FEB 0 51991
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these continuing problems would benefit from the involvement of individuals i-whose experience derives from sources outside of the Georgia Power Company
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L corporate structure in general and Vogtle in particular.
It is important that the Task Force identify the root causes of this problem, whether it is proce-
dures, distribution'of responsibilities, training, management oversight,^or
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l response to identified problems.
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' You are ' required to respond to this letter and should follow the instructions specified in the enclosed Notice when preparing your response.
In your
response, you should document the specific actions taken and any additional
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actions you plan to prevent recurrence. Specifically, you should respond to the issues raised in the preceding paragraph.
In addition, we expect you to provide i.
the NRC with a-detailed scope and schedule for completing your Task Force review i
'by February 15, 1991 as provided in your November 20, 1990 letter.
If that date
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or other dates described in your November 20, 1990 submittal are revised, please
provide us written notification. Please also forward a copy of the Task Force's
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report upon completion of the project. After reviewing your response to this i
Notice, including your proposed corrective actions and the results of future inspections, the NRC will detennine whether further NRC enforcement action is
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necessary to ensure compliance with NRC regulatbry requirements.
In that regard,
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we recognize that you may find additional examples of improper control of SGI.
l Note that the staff may exercise enforcement discretion for these additional
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findings provided your review is being aggressively performed and your i
corrective actions are timely and comprehensive.
In accordance with 10 CFR 2.790 of the NRC's " Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter and its enclosures will be placed in the NRC Public Document Room.
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l The responses directed by this letter and the enclosed Notice are not subject
to the clearance procedures of the Office of Management and Budget as required
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by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 Pub. L. No. 96.511.
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Should you have any questions concerning this letter, please contact us.
Sincerely, j.
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i ou
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Re onalkd n
ator Enclosure:
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Notice of Violation and Proposed
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Imposition of Civil Penalty
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Georgia Power Company-4-FEB 0 51991
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cc w/ enc 1:
R. P. Mcdonald Thomas Hill, Manager Executive Vice President-Nuclear Radioactive Materials Program Operations Department of Natural Resources Georgia Power Company 878 Peachtree St. NE., Room 600 P. O. Box 1295 Atlanta, GA 30309 Birmingham, AL 35201 Attorney General C. K. McCoy Law Department Vice President-Nuclear 132 Judicial Building
Georgia Power Company Atlanta, GA 30334
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P. O. Box 1295 Birmingham, AL 35201 Dan Smith Program Director of Power
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W. B. Shipman Production General Manager, Nuclear Operations Oglethorpe Power Corporation Georgia Power Company 100 Crescent Centre P. O. 1600 Tucker, GA 30085 Waynesboro, GA 30830 i
Charles A. Patrizia, Esq.
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J. A. Bailey Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker Manager-Licensing 12th Floor
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Georgia Power Company 1050 Connecticut Avenue, NW P. O. Box 1295 Washington, DC 20036
Birmingham, AL 35201 State of Georgia D. Kirkland, III, Counsel Office of the Consumer's Utility Council Suite 225, 32 Peachtree Street, NE Atlanta, GA 30302 i
Office of Planning and Budget Room 615B 270 Washington Street, SW Atlanta, GA 30334
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Office of the County Commissioner Burke County Consnission Waynesboro, GA 30830 Lonice Barrett, Commissioner Department of Natural Resources 205 Butler Street, SE, Suite 1252 Atlanta, GA 30334