ML081620037
| ML081620037 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Hatch  |
| Issue date: | 06/06/2008 |
| From: | Reyes L Region 2 Administrator |
| To: | Swans S - No Known Affiliation |
| References | |
| 2-2007-005, IA-07-070 | |
| Download: ML081620037 (6) | |
Text
June 6, 2008 IA-07-070 Mr. Stanley Swans
[Home Address Removed per to 10 CFR 2.390]
SUBJECT:
NOTICE OF VIOLATION (NRC OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS REPORT NO. 2-2007-005)
Dear Mr. Swans:
This letter is in reference to an investigation conducted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission=s (NRC) Office of Investigations (OI) from October 23, 2006, to July 9, 2007. The purpose of the investigation was to determine if you willfully provided false or inaccurate information to gain unescorted site access to the Southern Nuclear Companys (SNC) Hatch Nuclear Plant. The results of the investigation, including the identification of an apparent violation of 10 CFR 50.5, Deliberate Misconduct, were forwarded to you by our letter of March 13, 2008.
Our letter also informed you that the NRC was considering escalated enforcement action against you in accordance with its Enforcement Policy, and you were provided an opportunity to either respond in writing to this apparent violation, attend a predecisional enforcement conference, or request Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) with the NRC in an attempt to resolve this issue.
You provided a written response to the apparent violation by letter dated April 13, 2008.
In your response, you stated that you were not aware of any outstanding arrest warrants when you entered the Hatch Nuclear Plant, and you provided additional information related to your previous arrest in December 2005. You also stated that subsequent to your arrest and during the completion of access authorization paperwork for another NRC licensee, you were notified that your access was denied.
Nonetheless, based on the information developed during the investigation and our consideration of the information that you provided in your written response, the NRC concluded that a violation of NRC requirements occurred. The violation is cited in the enclosed Notice of Violation. On January 25, 2006, as part of a Request for Unescorted Access Authorization to SNCs Hatch Nuclear Plant, you deliberately provided inaccurate information regarding your criminal history.
Specifically, in response to a question contained on the Williams Plant Services form entitled Reinstatement Personal History Questionnaire, section entitled Personal History Data, Criminal History, you annotated (i.e., circled NO) that since your last unescorted access status, you had not been held, detained, taken into custody, charged, arrested, indicted, fined, forfeited bond, cited, or convicted for a violation of any law, regulation or ordinance (e.g., felony, misdemeanor, traffic or military criminal history, etc.) or that you did not have such a case pending. However, as you described in your written response, you were arrested, detained, and/or taken into custody (or had such a case pending) on December 5, 2005, in Savannah, Georgia. As such, the NRC concluded that you engaged in deliberate misconduct in violation of
Mr. Stanley Swans 2 10 CFR 50.5(a), which states, in part, that any employee who knowingly provides to any licensee goods or services that relate to a licensee's activities, may not deliberately submit information that the person submitting the information knows to be incomplete or inaccurate in some respect material to the NRC. In this case, you deliberately failed to disclose information that obscured your trustworthiness and subsequently contributed to the failure of the licensee (Hatch Nuclear Plant) to evaluate your trustworthiness and reliability prior to granting you access to the facility.
Your actions caused the SNC to be in violation of Access Authorization program objectives in 10 CFR 73.56(b)(1), which is to provide high assurance that individuals granted unescorted access are trustworthy and reliable, and do not constitute and unreasonable risk to the health and safety of the public.
The Agency places significant importance on the integrity and trustworthiness of employees of licensees and contractors and their willingness to comply with regulatory requirements. In this case, your actions diminished the Agency=s confidence in your willingness to comply with these requirements, and precluded an NRC licensee from fully evaluating your trustworthiness and reliability in accordance with various access authorization requirements. Given the significance of the underlying issue and the deliberate nature of your actions, this violation has been categorized in accordance with the NRC Enforcement Policy at Severity Level III.
You should be aware that if you are involved in NRC-licensed activities in the future, additional deliberate violations could result in more significant enforcement action or criminal action.
You are required to respond to this letter and should follow the instructions specified in the enclosed Notice when preparing your response. The NRC will use your response, in part, to determine whether further enforcement action is necessary to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter, its enclosures, and your response will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRC=s document system (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/pdr.html. To the extent possible, your response should not include any personal privacy, proprietary, or safeguards information so that it can be made available to the Public without redaction. The NRC also includes significant enforcement actions on its Web site at www.nrc.gov. In addition, this letter will be maintained by the Office of Enforcement in an NRC Privacy Act system of records, NRC-3, AEnforcement Actions Against Individuals.@ The NRC-3 system notice, which provides detailed information about this system of records, can be accessed from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/foia/privacy-systems.html.
If you disagree with this enforcement sanction you may request ADR with the NRC in an attempt to resolve this issue. ADR is a general term encompassing various techniques for resolving conflict outside of court using a neutral third party. The technique that the NRC has decided to employ is mediation. Additional information concerning the NRC's program is described in the enclosed brochure (NUREG/BR-0317) and can be obtained at http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/regulatory/enforcement/adr.html. The Institute on Conflict Resolution (ICR) at Cornell University has agreed to facilitate the NRC=s program as an intake neutral. Please contact ICR at 877-733-9415 within 10 days of the date of this letter if you are interested in pursing resolution of this issue through ADR.
Mr. Stanley Swans 3 If you have any questions or comments concerning this letter, please contact Mr. Joel Munday of my staff at 404-562-4560.
Sincerely,
/RA/ BY VICTOR M. MCREE ACTING FOR Luis A. Reyes Regional Administrator
Enclosures:
- 1. Notice of Violation
- 2. NUREG/BR-0317 CERTIFIED MAIL 7006 2760 0000 8494 1925 RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED
OFFICE EICS:RII DRS ORA OGC OE SIGNATURE /RA/ /RA/ /RA/ /RA/VIA EMAIL /RA/EMAIL NAME CEVANS* KKENNEDY* VMCCREE RBARNES AJONES DATE 5/6/08 5/9/08 6/6/08 6/5/08 6/5/08 E-MAIL COPY? YES NO YES NO YESNO YES NO YES NO YES NO NOTICE OF VIOLATION Mr. Stanley Swans
[HOME ADDRESS REMOVED PER 10 CFR 2.390] IA-07-070 During an NRC investigation conducted from October 23, 2006, to July 9, 2007, a violation of NRC requirements was identified. In accordance with the NRC Enforcement Policy, the particular violation is set forth below:
10 CFR 50.5 states, in part, that any employee of a licensee or contractor, who knowingly provides to any licensee or contractor any goods or services that relate to a licensee's activities, may not deliberately submit to the NRC or a licensee, or a licensee's contractor, information that the person submitting the information knows to be incomplete or inaccurate in some respect material to the NRC.
Contrary to the above, on January 25, 2006, you deliberately submitted information to a licensee that you knew to be incomplete or inaccurate in some respect material to the NRC. Specifically, as part of a Request for Unescorted Access Authorization to Southern Nuclear Companys (SNC) Hatch Nuclear Plant, you responded in writing to a question contained on the Williams Plant Services form entitled Reinstatement Personal History Questionnaire, section entitled Personal History Data, Criminal History. You annotated (i.e., circled NO) that since your last unescorted access status, you had not been held, detained, taken into custody, charged, arrested, indicted, fined, forfeited bond, cited, or convicted for a violation of any law, regulation or ordinance (e.g., felony, misdemeanor, traffic or military criminal history, etc.) or that you did not have such a case pending.
However, you were aware at the time that this written response was inaccurate, in that on December 5, 2005, you were taken into custody, charged, and/or arrested by law enforcement authorities, or had such a case pending, in Savannah, Georgia. This information was material to the NRC, in that it was used by SNCs Hatch Nuclear Plant (an NRC licensee) to determine your trustworthiness and reliability as part of the Access Authorization program objectives in 10 CFR 73.56(b)(1). These objectives provide NRC with high assurance that individuals granted unescorted access are trustworthy and reliable, and do not constitute an unreasonable risk to the health and safety of the public.
This is a Severity Level III Violation (Supplement III, VII).
Pursuant to the provisions of 10 CFR 2.201, Mr. Stanley Swans is hereby required to submit a written statement or explanation to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ATTN: Regional Administrator, Region II, 61 Forsyth Street SW, Suite 23T85, Atlanta, GA 30303, and marked "Open by Addressee Only@, within 30 days of the date of the letter transmitting this Notice of Violation (Notice). This reply should be clearly marked as a "Reply to a Notice of Violation; IA-07-070" and should include for each violation: (1) the reason for the violation, or, if contested, the basis for disputing the violation, (2) the corrective steps that have been taken and the results achieved, (3) the corrective steps that will be taken to avoid further violations, and (4) the date when full compliance will be achieved. If an adequate reply is not received within the time specified in this Notice, an order or a Demand for Information may be issued as to why such other action as may be proper should not be taken. Where good cause is shown, consideration will be given to extending the response time.
Notice 3 If you contest this enforcement action, you should also provide a copy of your response, with the basis for your denial, to the Director, Office of Enforcement, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
Because your response will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRC=s document system (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/pdr.html, to the extent possible, it should not include any personal privacy, proprietary, or safeguards information so that it can be made available to the public without redaction. If personal privacy or proprietary information is necessary to provide an acceptable response, then please provide a bracketed copy of your response that identifies the information that should be protected and a redacted copy of your response that deletes such information. If you request withholding of such material, you must specifically identify the portions of your response that you seek to have withheld and provide in detail the bases for your claim of withholding (e.g., explain why the disclosure of information will create an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy or provide the information required by 10 CFR 2.390(b) to support a request for withholding confidential commercial or financial information). If safeguards information is necessary to provide an acceptable response, please provide the level of protection described in 10 CFR 73.21. This letter will be maintained by the Office of Enforcement in an NRC Privacy Act system of records, NRC-3, AEnforcement Actions Against Individuals.@ The NRC-3 system notice, which provides detailed information about this system of records, can be accessed from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/foia/privacy-systems.html.
Dated this 6th day of June 2008 Enclosure 1