Press Release-II-12-015, NRC Cites Turkey Point Nuclear Plant for Violation of Requirements and Assesses $140,000 Fine

Press Release-II-12-015: NRC Cites Turkey Point Nuclear Plant for Violation of Requirements and Assesses $140,000 Fine

ML12107A419
Person / Time
Site:	Turkey Point
Issue date:	04/09/2012
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region II
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-II-12-015
Download: ML12107A419 (2)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region II 245 Peachtree Center Ave. NE, Suite 1200 Atlanta, GA 30303-1257 Web Site: www.nrc.gov No. II-12-015 April 10, 2012 CONTACT: Roger Hannah (404) 997-4417 E-mail: OPA2@nrc.gov Joey Ledford (404) 997-4416 NRC CITES TURKEY POINT NUCLEAR PLANT FOR VIOLATION OF REQUIREMENTS AND ASSESSES $140,000 FINE The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has determined that Florida Power and Light Co.s failure to properly maintain the Turkey Point nuclear plants onsite emergency response facility is a violation of low to moderate safety significance that may require additional NRC inspection and oversight.

In addition, the utilitys failure to report that the plants Technical Support Center was not fully functional during a seven-month period in 2010-2011 represents a second violation resulting in a $140,000 civil penalty.

The Turkey Point plant, operated by FPL, is located about 25 miles south of Miami near Homestead, Fla.

The NRC evaluates performance at nuclear power plants with a color-coded process that classifies regulatory findings as green, white, yellow or red, in order of increasing safety significance. The NRC has determined that the violation at Turkey Point associated with the companys failure to maintain the emergency response facility was white, meaning it has low to moderate safety significance.

The NRC staff held a conference with FPL Feb. 21 to discuss the inspection findings.

Specifically, on two different occasions, FPL failed to maintain a fully functional TSC because plant personnel disabled portions of the ventilation system and failed to implement appropriate compensatory measures. In this condition, response personnel may not have been protected from radiological hazards in the manner for which the facility was designed.

NRC regulations require licensees to report a major loss of emergency assessment capability within eight hours. The utilitys failure to report the inoperability of the emergency response facility represents a violation of NRC requirements, resulting in the civil penalty.

FPL has 30 days to appeal the NRC staffs significance determination for the white finding, the civil penalty or both.

An NRC inspection report with information on the issue is available through the NRC website at www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. The number to access the report is ML120260599. The letter discussing the final significance determination is available by using the number ML12100A243.

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