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IA-15-059_Jason Smith - Notice of Violation and Investigation Report 4-2015-005
	ML15289A267
Person / Time
Site:	Columbia
Issue date:	10/16/2015
From:	Dapas M; NRC Region 4
To:	James Smith; - No Known Affiliation
References
	IA-15-059, OI 4-2015-005
	Download: ML15289A267 (14)
	v • d • e

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION REGION IV 1600 E. LAMAR BLVD.

ARLINGTON, TX 76011-4511 October 16, 2015 IA-15-059 Mr. Jason Smith

[NOTE: HOME ADDRESS DELETED UNDER 10 CFR 2.390(a)]

SUBJECT:

NOTICE OF VIOLATION AND INVESTIGATION REPORT 4-2015-005

Dear Mr. Smith:

This letter refers to the investigation completed on May 29, 2015, by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRCs) Office of Investigations at Columbia Generating Station. The investigation was conducted to determine whether you, as a former contract employee at Energy Northwests Columbia Generating Station in Richland, Washington, willfully attempted to subvert a fitness-for-duty test in violation of NRC regulations.

As a result of the investigation, the NRC has determined there is sufficient evidence to conclude that you deliberately submitted information to the licensee that you knew was inaccurate in some respect material to the NRC. Specifically, on October 28, 2014, during a pre-access fitness-for-duty drug test, you deliberately submitted a substitute urine sample. You certified by signature on an Energy Northwest custody-and-control form that the urine sample that you submitted for testing was yours and not adulterated. This was in an effort to subvert the fitness-for-duty test to avoid detection of illegal drug usage. You admitted to submitting a substituted sample and provided the device used for substitution after the testing facility collector noted that the sample was not within the acceptable temperature range.

Since your actions were deliberate, you violated the NRCs deliberate misconduct rule, 10 CFR 50.5(a)(2), which prohibits employees of licensees from deliberately submitting information to the NRC or a licensee that the person submitting the information knew to be incomplete or inaccurate in some respect material to the NRC. The submittal of this urine sample was material to the NRC because drug testing is required by NRC regulations in 10 CFR Part 26, Fitness-for-Duty Programs.

During telephone conversations on September 14 and 21, 2015, between Mr. John Kramer, of my staff, and yourself, we informed you that the NRC was considering escalated enforcement action for an apparent violation of 10 CFR 50.5(a)(2) for deliberately submitting on October 28, 2014, information to the licensee that you knew to be inaccurate. We also informed you that we had sufficient information regarding the apparent violation to make an enforcement decision.

In addition, we gave you the opportunity to address the apparent violation by either attending a predecisional enforcement conference or providing a written response before the NRC made its final enforcement decision on this matter. You indicated that you did not believe attending a

J. Smith 2 predecisional enforcement conference or submitting a written response was necessary and accepted the enforcement action. However, you indicated that you wanted to reply to the violation. As stated in the Notice of Violation, the reply should be addressed to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ATTN: Regional Administrator, Region IV, 1600 East Lamar Blvd, Arlington, TX 76011-4511 and marked Open by Addressee Only - Response to a Notice of Violation; (IA-15-059).

Accordingly, based on the evidence obtained by the NRCs Office of Investigations, the NRC has determined that a violation of NRC requirements occurred. The purpose of the Commissions fitness-for-duty requirements is to provide reasonable assurance that nuclear power plant personnel work in an environment that is free from drugs and alcohol, and the effects of the use of these substances. By attempting to subvert the fitness-for-duty program, you have failed to comply with the licensees fitness for duty program and committed a violation of NRC requirements. Because of the significance of the underlying issue, the deliberate nature of your actions, the violation is categorized as a Severity Level III violation in accordance with the NRC Enforcement Policy. The current Enforcement Policy is included on the NRCs Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/regulatory/enforcement/enforce-pol.html. The violation is cited in the enclosed Notice of Violation (Notice).

Since you are no longer employed by Energy Northwest, and are no longer eligible for unescorted access authorization in accordance with 10 CFR 26.75(b) at Columbia Generating Station, the NRC does not plan to take any additional action and, therefore, you are not required to respond to this letter. Should you choose to respond, follow the instructions specified in the Notice.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's Rules of Practice, a copy of this letter, its enclosure, and your response, if you chose to provide one, will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room and from the NRCs Agency-wide Documents Access and Management 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 http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/enforcement/actions/.

In addition, this letter will be maintained by the Office of Enforcement in an NRC Privacy Act system of records, NRC-3, Enforcement Actions Against Individuals. This system, which is not publicly-accessible, includes all records pertaining to individuals who are being or have been considered for enforcement action, whether such action was taken or not. The NRC-3 system notice, which provides detailed information about this system of records, can be accessed from our Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/foia/privacy-systems.html.

Please feel free to contact Mr. John Kramer of my staff at 817-200-1121 if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Marc L. Dapas Regional Administrator

Enclosure:

Notice of Violation

SUNSI Review By: JGK ADAMS Yes Publicly Available Non-Sensitive Keyword:

OFFICE SES C:PSB1 TL:ACES D:DRS RC OE NSIR OGC RA NAME JKramer MSHaire MCHay AVegel KFuller DFurst SCoker RCarpenter MDapas SIGNATURE /RA/ /RA/ /RA/ /RA/ /RA/ /RA/E /RA/E /RA/E /RA/

DATE 10/1/15 10/5/15 10/5/15 10/6/15 10/7/15 10/15/15 10/15/15 10/15/15 10/16/15 Letter to Jason Smith from Marc Dapas dated October 16, 2015.

SUBJECT:

NOTICE OF VIOLATION AND INVESTIGATION REPORT 4-2015-005.

DISTRIBUTION:

OEWEB Resource; RidsSecyMailCenter Resource; RidsOcaMailCenter Resource; RidsOgcMailCenter Resource; RidsEdoMailCenter Resource; RidsOigMailCenter Resource; RidsOiMailCenter Resource; RidsRgn1MailCenter Resource; RidsOcfoMailCenter Resource; RidsRgn2MailCenter Resource; RidsRgn3MailCenter Resource; EDO_Managers; RidsNrrDirsEnforcement Resource; RidsOpaMail Resource; RidsOeMailCenter Resource; NRREnforcement.Resource; RidsNsirOd Resource; Marc.Dapas@nrc.gov; Karla.Fuller@nrc.gov; Patricia.Holahan@nrc.gov; Kriss.Kennedy@nrc.gov; Bill.Maier@nrc.gov; Nick.Hilton@nrc.gov; Anton.Vegel@nrc.gov; Jeff.Clark@nrc.gov ; John.Wray@nrc.gov; Troy.Pruett@nrc.gov; Michael.Layton@nrc.gov; David.Furst@nrc.gov; Michael.Hay@nrc.gov; John.Kramer@nrc.gov; Gerald.Gulla@nrc.gov; Christi.Maier@nrc.gov; Robert.Carpenter@nrc.gov; Marisa.Herrera@nrc.gov; R4Enforcement; Ryan.Alexander@nrc.gov; Belkys.Sosa@nrc.gov Mark.Haire@nrc.gov; Robert.Fretz@nrc.gov; Kyle.Hanley@nrc.gov; Lauren.Casey@nrc.gov; Dori.Willis@nrc.gov; Victor.Dricks@nrc.gov; Lara.Uselding@nrc.gov; Cindy.Rosales-Cooper@nrc.gov; Shyrl.Coker@nrc.gov; R4ALLEGATION.resource@nrc.gov;

NOTICE OF VIOLATION Jason Smith IA-15-059

[HOME ADDRESS DELETED UNDER 10 CFR 2.390(a)]

Based on the results of an NRC investigation completed on May 29, 2015, a violation of NRC requirements was identified. In accordance with the NRC Enforcement Policy, the violation is listed below:

10 CFR 50.5(a)(2) states, in part, that any employee of a licensee may not deliberately submit to a licensee information that the person submitting the information knows to be incomplete or inaccurate in some respect material to the NRC.

10 CFR Part 26.117(d) states in part, that the collector shall also ask the donor to read and sign a statement on the custody-and control form certifying that the specimen identified as having been collected from the donor is, in fact, the specimen that he or she provided.

Contrary to the above, on October 28, 2014, you, a Columbia Generating Station contract employee, deliberately submitted information to the licensee which you knew was incomplete or inaccurate in some respect material to the NRC. Specifically during a pre-access fitness-for-duty drug test, you deliberately submitted a substitute urine sample and certified by signature on an Energy Northwest custody-and-control form that the urine sample that you submitted for testing was yours and not adulterated. You admitted to submitting a substituted sample to subvert the fitness-for-duty test and provided the device used for substitution after the testing facility collector noted that the sample was not within the acceptable temperature range. The submittal of this urine sample was material to the NRC because drug testing is required by NRC regulations in 10 CFR Part 26, Fitness for Duty Programs.

This is a Severity Level III violation.

Since you are no longer employed by Energy Northwest, and are no longer eligible for unescorted access authorization in accordance with 10 CFR 26.75(b) at Columbia Generating Station, the NRC does not plan to take any additional action and, therefore, you are not required to respond to this letter. However, if you wish to respond, the reply should be addressed to the U.S.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ATTN: Regional Administrator, Region IV, 1600 East Lamar Blvd, Arlington, TX 76011-4511 and marked Open by Addressee Only - Response to a Notice of Violation; (IA-15-059). 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, should you chose to provide one, will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room and from the NRCs Agency-wide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html, to the extent possible, it should not include any Enclosure

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.

Dated this 16th day of October 2015.

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