ML061320366

EA 05-203 Peach Bottom-Office of Investigation Case No. 1-2005-015

ML061320366
Person / Time
Site:	Peach Bottom
Issue date:	05/12/2006
From:	Brian Holian Division Reactor Projects I
To:	Crane C Exelon Generation Co, Exelon Nuclear
References
1-2005-15, EA-05-203
Download: ML061320366 (6)

Text

May 12, 2006 EA 05-203 Mr. Christopher M. Crane President and CNO Exelon Nuclear Exelon Generation Company, LLC 200 Exelon Way KSA 3-E Kennett Square, PA 19348

SUBJECT:

NRC OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS CASE NO. 1-2005-015 (Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station)

Dear Mr. Crane:

This letter refers to an investigation initiated by the NRC Office of Investigations (OI), Region I, on April 15, 2005, after your staff informed the NRC that it had identified that a contractor employee was not performing designated hourly fire watches at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station and was falsifying the fire watch logs to indicate that the fire watches were being performed. Your staff determined that this occurred on 199 occasions between January 17 and March 20, 2005, at various locations in the plant.

The OI investigation was initiated to determine if the contractor employee, who was designated to perform the roving fire watches, deliberately failed to complete the required fire watch rounds and deliberately falsified the fire watch logs. Based on the evidence developed during its investigation, including admissions by the contract employee, OI substantiated that the individual deliberately failed to complete the required fire watch rounds and deliberately falsified the fire watch logs to indicate that the rounds had been completed.

The OI investigation report was provided to the U.S. Department of Justice who in turn prosecuted the contractor employee. Subsequently, the contractor employee pled guilty to falsely certifying on the fire watch patrol round sheets that she had conducted numerous daily fire watch safety inspections at Peach Bottom when in fact she had not conducted the fire watch inspections. On March 28, 2006, the individual was fined and sentenced to probation by the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

The actions by the contractor employee resulted in Peach Bottom being in violation of Technical Specification (TS) 5.4.1, Procedures, which requires in part that written procedures be established, implemented, and maintained covering fire protection program implementation.

Exelon Procedure OP-MA-201-007, Rev. 3, Fire Protection System Impairment Control, Section 4.4.4, Fire Watch Performance, requires in part that the individual assigned the fire watch duty shall perform the assigned fire watch and continuously complete the fire watch log until properly relieved or the watch is terminated.

Because you are responsible for the actions of your employees and contractor employees, and because the violation was deliberate, the violation was evaluated under the NRC traditional

Mr. Christopher Crane 2 enforcement process as set forth in Section IV.A.4 of the NRC Enforcement Policy. The NRC Enforcement Policy is available on the NRCs website at http://www.nrc.gov. The violation has been classified at Severity Level IV.

The NRC considered issuance of a Notice of Violation for this issue. However, after considering the factors set forth in Section VI.A.1 of the Enforcement Policy, the NRC has determined that a non-cited violation (NCV) is appropriate in this case for the following reasons:

You restored compliance immediately after identification of the violation by terminating the employee on March 22, 2005, and by conducting a prompt investigation to review the access records for other contractor fire watch staff that concluded that the individuals action was an isolated case. You placed the violation into your corrective action program and took corrective actions to preclude recurrence by: providing an Institute of Nuclear Power Operations Nuclear Network Operating Experience Notification for the event, enhancing your procedure to control contractors, and conducting training on contractor oversight. The violation was not repetitive within the context of the NRC Enforcement Policy. Additionally, although the violation was willful; you identified the violation and notified the NRC, the violation involved the acts of a low-level contractor employee who was not a licensee official within the context of the NRC enforcement policy, the violation resulted from the isolated actions of a single individual without management involvement, and you took significant remedial action which included termination of the individuals employment.

A response to this letter is not required. However, if you contest this NCV or its significance, you should provide a response within 30 days of the date of this letter, with the basis for your denial, to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ATTN: Document Control Desk, Washington DC 20555-0001, with copies to the Regional Administrator, Region I, and the Director, Office of Enforcement, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter, and your response, if you choose to provide one, will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRCs document system (ADAMS),

accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. The NRC also includes significant enforcement actions on its Web site at www.nrc.gov; select What We Do, Enforcement, then Significant Enforcement Actions.

Should you have any questions regarding this letter, please feel free to contact Mr. James Trapp at 610-337-5186.

Sincerely,

/RA/ Original Signed by David C. Lew for Brian E. Holian, Director Division of Reactor Projects Docket No: 50-277/278 License No: DPR-44 & DPR-56

Mr. Christopher Crane 3 cc w/encl:

Site Vice President, Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station Plant Manager, Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station Regulatory Assurance Manager - Peach Bottom Associate General Counsel, Exelon Generation Company Manager, Financial Control & Co-Owner Affairs Manager Licensing, PBAPS Director, Nuclear Training Correspondence Control Desk Director, Bureau of Radiation Protection (PA)

R. McLean, Power Plant and Environmental Review Division (MD)

R. Fletcher, Maryland Department of Environment T. Snyder, Director, Air and Radiation Management Administration, Maryland Department of the Environment (SLO, MD)

Public Service Commission of Maryland, Engineering Division Board of Supervisors, Peach Bottom Township B. Ruth, Council Administrator of Harford County Council Mr. & Mrs. Dennis Hiebert, Peach Bottom Alliance TMI - Alert (TMIA)

J. Johnsrud, National Energy Committee, Sierra Club Mr. & Mrs. Kip Adams Vice President, Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Vice President, Operations Mid-Atlantic Senior Vice President, Nuclear Services Director, Licensing and Regulatory Affairs J. Fewell, Assistant General Counsel

Mr. Christopher Crane 4 DISTRIBUTION:

PBonnett, NRR MJohnson, OE SFigueroa, OE LTrocine, OE BJones, OGC MElwood, OGC GCaputo, OI BSosa, OEDO DRoberts, NRR VNerses, NRR, PM GWunder, NRR DScrenci, RI NSheehan, RI SCollins, RA MDapas, DRA ABlough, DRS RLorson, DRS JTrapp, DRP CKhan, DRP FBower, SRI KFarrar, RI DHolody, RI RSummers, RI RUrban, RI Region I OE Files (with concurrences)

OEMAIL SISP Review Complete: ___jmt______ (Reviewers Initials)

DOCUMENT NAME: E:\Filenet\ML061320366.wpd After declaring this document An Official Agency Record it will be released to the Public.

To receive a copy of this document, indicate in the box: "C" = Copy without attachment/enclosure "E" = Copy with attachment/enclosure "N" = No copy OFFICE RI/ORA RI/DRP RI/DRS RI/OI RI/RC NAME RSummers JTrapp ABlough EWilson KFarrar DATE 04/26/06 05/02/06 04/28/06 04/27/06 04/27/06 OFFICE RI/ORA RI/DRP OE NAME DHolody BHolian MJohnson/rju for*

DATE 04/27/06 05/04/06 04/09/06 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY

• concurrence via e-mail