ML20058L831
| ML20058L831 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 10/26/1993 |
| From: | Taylor J NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| To: | Mitchell G SENATE |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20058L835 | List: |
| References | |
| CCS, NUDOCS 9312200030 | |
| Download: ML20058L831 (1) | |
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WASHINGTON. D.C. 2055M001 October 26, 1993 j
The Honorable George Mitchell I
United States Senate Washington, D.C.
20510
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Dear Senator Mitchell:
This is in response to your letter of October 5,-1993 to Chairman Selin which forwarded a letter from the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution (NECNP)..As you are aware from the documents you were provided by NECNP, it.has submitted af petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC),: pursuant to 10 CFR 2.206, requesting that a recent civil penalty assessed against the Vermont. Yankee Nuclear Power Corporation be reconsidered and increased.
The NRC staff has received the petition and, in accordance with the 10 CFR 2.206 implementing procedures, notification of the receipt-of the petition has been sent to the Federal Register for publication and to NECNP for information.
A copy of that j
notification is enclosed for your review.
The notification, when published, will inform the public of the existence of the j
petition and the availability of a copy of the petition for review in the NRC's Public Document Room and the Local Public i
Document Room for the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.
Following the publication of the notification, the Director of the Office of Enforcement, who in this case is the responsible office director, will evaluate the petition in detail and advise NECNP in a Director's Decision of his disposition of the petition.
Upon issuance of the Director's Decision, a copy will be provided to your office.
I Independent of the Director's Decision on the magnitude of the civil penalty in this case, I want to assure you that the i
corrective actions that the licensee has already taken have been i
evaluated and determined to be adequate to ensure that the public l
health and safety are protected in this matter.
Sincerely, i
sf.
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.T or ecutive irector for Operations
Enclosure:
As Stated f
9312200030 931026 2A 44 PDR ORG NE ED PDR L
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U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Docket No. 50-271 VERMONT YANKEE NUCLEAR POWER STATION RECEIPT OF PETITION UNDER 10 C.F.R. 4 2.206 Notice is hereby given that on September 1,
- 1993, Messrs. Richard Daley and Jonathan M. Block submitted a Petition on behalf of the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution, to the Executive Director for Operations, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regarding the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station (VY).
The Petition has been referred to the Office of Enforcement for preparation of a response pursuant to 10 C.F.R.
S 2.206.
J The Petitioners request that the NRC reconsider the civil penalty assessed against VY for operating outside Technical Specifications (TS) from October 15, 1993 to April 6,
- 1993, because the Petitioners believe that NRC enforcement action was inadequate.
The Petitioners recite the basic facts that formed the basis for EA 93-112 and assert that the NRC staff did not deal with the Licensee-in a manner commensurate with the severity of the violations.
Specifically, the Petition states that in October of i
1992, routine surveillance of control rod scram insertion revealed that VY was operating outside TS 3.3.C.1.1 and 3.3.C.1.2.
It goes on to state that limiting conditions for A n irlin hi
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. operating the plant require an immediate shutdown under such circumstances and VY did not shut down or report this situation to the NRC.
The Petition then states that VY continued to operate until the situation was again observed in April of 1993 and then an on-site safety inspection of VY was conducted by NRC Region I from April 14 to 16, 1993.
The report of that inspection, which was issued on May 24, 1993, with a cover letter from the Director, Division of Reactor Safety, NRC Region I, contained six questions for VY.
The Petitioners allege that Questions 2 through 5 of that letter were not adequately answered.
Specifically, the disputed questions are as follows:
....(2) the specific reasons for not shutting down the plant when required by i
the Technical Specifications and the approved test procedure, (3) the reasons for not pursuing a root cause determination and corrective actions for approximately six months, (4) the results of your historical reviews of control rod testing to determine if there were previous Technical Specification violations, (5) your design control processes, including one-for-one equivalency evaluaticas, as they apply to material changes in safety-related equipmen The Petitioners' claim that VY did not adequately answer these questions is based upon Petitioners' examination of the available materials VY submitted to the NRC and their belief that this e
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. alleged failure to answer such questions is part of what the Regional Administrator referred to as " programmatic weaknesses" at VY.
The Petition states that these allegedly unanswered questions provide a sufficient basis to warrant review of the penalty assessed to VY and Petitioners ask that such a review be undertaken immediately.
As provided by Section 2.206, appropriate action with regard to the specific issues raised in the Petition will be taken within a reasonable time.
A copy of the Petition is available for inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room at 2120 L Street, N.W.,
Washington D.C. 20555 and at the Local Public Document Room for the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant located at Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, Varmont 05301.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland this I day of bCdCbeF 1993.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission J
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pu Director ic of Enf ame
October 26, 1993 b1STRIBUTION:
JTaylor, EDO JSniezek, DEDR HThcmpson, DEDS JBlaha, AEDO JLieberman, OE JGray, OE JLuehman, OE 7
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