ML20140C116

Ack Receipt of Informing NRC of Steps Taken to Correct Violations Noted in Insp Rept 70-1151/97-01 Issued on 970306.Violation Occurred as Stated in Nov.Licensee Full Compliance Achieved Re Eating in Chemical Area

ML20140C116
Person / Time
Site:	Westinghouse
Issue date:	06/03/1997
From:	Dan Collins NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION II)
To:	Fici J WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC COMPANY, DIV OF CBS CORP.
References
70-1151-97-01, 70-1151-97-1, NUDOCS 9706090119
Download: ML20140C116 (5)

Text

-- _ _ . .- . .

14

. 1 June 3, 1997 Westinghouse Electric Corporation l ATTN: Mr. J.'A. Fici, Manager  :

Columbia Plant Commercial Nuclear Fuel Division Drawer R i Columbia, SC 29250 l

SUBJECT:

NRC INSPECTION REPORT N0. 70 1151/97 01 i l

Dear Mr. Fici:

j l

Thank you for your response of March 27, 1997, to our Notice of Violation, i issued on March 6, 1997, concerning activities conducted at your facility. i We have examined your response and found that it meets the requirements of i 10 CFR 2.201.

In your response, you denied Violation A, acknowledged Violation B as stated. I and included the corrective actions that were taken to prevent recurrence.

The implementation of your corrective actions for Violation B will be reviewed during a future inspection. In your response, you denied Violation A on the basis that a violation of procedural requirements did not occur as stated in the Notice of Violation. You indicated that your internal procedure RA 203 prohibits use of chewing gum, food products, etc., and use was not observed by the inspectors. You further stated that for the majority of the Westinghouse findings, only evidence of eating, drinking and chewing in the chemical area was found, actual use was not observed, and evidence found indicates that the i practice is infrequent.

After careful consideration of the basis for your denial of the violation, we have concluded, for the reasons presented in the enclosure to this letter,  :

that the violation occurred as stated in the Notice of Violation. l We have reviewed and found acceptable the corrective actions provided in your response to prevent recurrence of Violation A. No additional res>onse is  ;

necessary. In a telephone conversation with Mr. E. McAlpine of t11s office on May 30,1997, Mr. W. Goodwin of your staff stated that full compliance has been achieved relative to eating, drinking, and chewing in the chemical area.

With regard to the information you provided in Appendix B of your response regarding the NRC's concern for oversight of regulatory requirements, the statement in our letter of March 6,1997, was intended to refer only to the oversight of the shipping container inspections.

9706090119 970603 PDR C

ADOCK 07001151 PDR l{ll ll$ll.a -

\\

st av

4 i

WEC 2 l

We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

Sincerely, Douglas M. Collins, Acting Director  :

Division of Nuclear Materials Safety l i

Docket No. 70 1151 License No. SNM 1107 i l

Enclosure:

Evaluations and Conclusions  :

cc w/ encl:

Wilbur Goodwin, Manager  !

Regulatory Affairs Westinghouse Electric Corporation Commercial Nuclear Fuel Division

- Drawer R '

Columbia, SC 29250 Max Batavia, Chief -

Bureau of Radiological Health  :

S. C. Department of Health and Environmental Control ,

2600 Bull Street  :

Columbia, SC 29201 Distribution w/ encl: I E. McAlpine. RII D. Ayres, RII  ;

G. Shear, RIII  !

C. Cain RIV F. Wenslawski, RIV PUBLIC Distribution w/o encl:

License Fee Management Branch t

• see previous concurrence .

i Orricr p1y.0hMS Rf f fMMS RI1:DNMS RfI:0RA RI1 FfCS 3

$!GNATURE i NAME AGooden* WGloersen* EMcAlpine* CEvans* Buryc*

DATE 06 / / 97 06 / / 97 06 / / 97 06 / / 97 06 / / 97 06 / / 97 COPY 7 YES NO YES NO YES NO YES NO YES NO YES NO 5 Utt1 CIA RECED CUFY DOCUMLNI NAML I:\FFBII\KLRJKib\WLW/Ul. AC C r

WEC 2 We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

\ Sincerely.

\

x Douglas M. Collins, Acting Director Division of Nuclear Materials Safety N

Docket No. 70 1151's License No. SNM 11074

Enclosure:

Evaluationsand Conclusions ,

\

cc.w/ encl: A Wilbur Goodwin, Manager N Regulatory Affairs \ j Westinghouse Electric Corporati'on '

Commercial Drawer R Nuclear Fuel Division \

Columbia, SC 29250 l

Max Batavia, Chief Bureau of Radiological Health S. C. Department of Health i and Environmental Control 1 2600 Bull Street Columbia. SC 29201 1 Distribution w/ encl:

E. McAlpine. RII C. Bassett RII G. Shear, RIII C. Cain. RIV F. Wenslawski, RIV PUBLIC Distribution w/o encl:

License Fee Management Branch OFFICE Rft:DNMS Rif :tHMS R11 DNMS Ntif :DNE / Rif 0DA MI CS SIGNATURE Q (p h rAME AGooden WGloersen EMcAlpine C40se CEvans #

DATE 05 /3D / 97 05/3) /_17 05 / 3 0 / 97 / \97 05 / 3 0 / 97 05 / / 97 COPV7 k NO YES NO ) M NO hES NO\ YES h0') hEh NO Of FICIAL RECORD COPT DOCUMU T M I:\FFBII\RU m ib\WE59/01.ACC V

W EVALUATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS l

i On March 6, 1997, a Notice of Violation (Notice) was issued for a violation identified during a routine NRC inspection. Westinghouse Electric Corporation  :

responded to the Notice on March 27, 1997. The licensee denied Violation A >

based on the belief that a violation of procedural requirements did not occur  ;

as stated. The NRC's evaluation and conclusions regarding the licensee's i arguments are as follows- 1

)

Restatement of Violation A During an NRC inspection conducted on February 3-6, 1997, a violation of NRC l requirements was identified. In accordance with the " General Statement of i Policy and Procedures for NRC Enforcement Actions," NUREG 1600, the violation is listed below:

4 Safety Condition No. S 1 of Special Nuclear Material License Number 1107 requires that material be used in accordance with statements, representations, and conditions in the License Application dated April 30, 1995, and supplements thereto.

Section 3.4.1 of the Application requires that operations to assure safe, compliant activities involving nuclear material will be conducted in accordance with approved procedures.

Regulatory Affairs Procedure RA 203, General HP Rules and Recommendations, Revision (Rev.) 15, dated November 9, 1995, states, in part, that "The use of chewing gum, food products and tobacco products is strictly forbidden in all chemical areas as well as outside 3roduction areas where uranium bearing materials and/or containers may w handled, and on the roof."

Contrary to the above, chewing gum and food products were used in the chemical area as evidenced by discarded chewing gum and candy wrappers found in the chemical area on February 4, 1997. ,

Summary of Licensee Respons_q The licensee disputes the violation because Procedure RA 203, " General HP Rules and Recommendations", prohibits use of chewing gum, food products, etc.,

and use was not observed by the inspectors. The licensee discussed the site internal inspection and audit program results. With one exception, the licensee stated that for the majority of the Westinghouse audit findings, only evidence of eating, drinking and chewing in the chemical area is found, and i actual use is not observed. The one exception noted was an individual observed chewing gum in the chemical area. The licensee stated that disciplinary action was taken and no recurrence had been noted. The licensee  !

contends that the majority of the evidence found has been in and around the  ;

change rooms which suggests that the materials could be discarded by i Enclosure

2

! individuals as they leave the change rooms and before they enter the chemical i area. The licensee concludes that the occurrences of eating, drinking and chewing are probably very infrequent, as evidenced from the paucity of observations of personnel actually eating, drinking, and chewing in the chemical area. ,

NRC Evaluation The NRC staff has carefully reviewed the licensee's response and has concluded that the licensee did not provide information that was not already considered  !

in determining whether a violation occurred and its significance. The NRC  ;

, agrees that no personnel were observed chewing, eating, or drinking in the chemical area (i.e., the contamination controlled area). In its response, however, Westinghouse acknowledged they too had observed evidence of eating, drinking and chewing in the chemical area. Also, Westinghouse acknowledged that they had observed an individual chewing gum in the chemical area and had taken disciplinary action. The evidence observed by the licensee reinforced

the evidence observed by the NRC inspector and demonstrates that the violation occurred as stated. ,

3 The licensee actually observed evidence of eating and chewing gum in the chemical area prior to the NRC inspection, but adequate corrective action had not been taken at the time of the inspection. This evidence was first i detected on October 23, 1996 or 103 days before the inspection. The j licensee's position during the inspection was similar to that presented in i their response - "the infrequent observations of personnel actually violating i this procedure supports the fact that individuals are complying with  !

Management's expectations". NRC does not accept this argument because the infrequency of a violation has no relevance to the question of whether a violation occurred or not. As a result of failing to take prompt and effective corrective action, the relatively minor health physics implications

.of single occurrences of eating and chewing gum in the chemical area persisted and evidence was detected by the NRC inspector. If adequate corrective action had been taken by the licensee prior to the inspection, the exercise of enforcement discretion may have been considered by the NRC.

The candy wrappers and used chewing gum found by the NRC inspector in the chemical area provided sufficient evidence for the NRC to conclude that it was more likely than not that gum was chewed and candy was consumed in the chemical area.

NRC Conclusion )

Although the actual use of gum, candy, foodstuff, etc. was not observed, the NRC concludes that the violation occurred as cited based on the observation of candy wrappers and used chewing gum in the chemical area.

w-