ML20153F889

Responds to Expressing Concerns Re Safety of Plant,Including Manner in Which NRC Investigated Allegations Received Through Gap.Gap Allegations Investigated Extensively & in Detail Prior to Commission Decision

ML20153F889
Person / Time
Site:	South Texas
Issue date:	04/08/1988
From:	Zech L NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
To:	Leland M HOUSE OF REP.
Shared Package
ML20153F893	List: ML20153F889 ML20153F910
References
NUDOCS 8805110082
Download: ML20153F889 (2)

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<[g,$.AKICp 'o UNITED STATES

! *' ,, NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

" .C W ASHWGTON, D. C. 20555

\...../

CHAIRMAN April 8, 1988 The Honorable flickey Leland R United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressman Leland:

This is in response to your letter of March 16, 1988, in which you expressed concern about the safety of the South Texas Project. Your concerns are specifically directed toward the manner in which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has investigated allecations received through the Government Accountability Project (GAP).

I The Commission voted to peruit the staff to grant an operating license for South Texas on March 21, 1988. I would like to assure you that, as indicated in the Safety Significance Assessment Team Report, the GAP allegations were investigated i extensively and in detail prior to that decision.

In your liarch 16, 1988 letter, you specifically expressed concerns, based en your review of the site inspection-report,  ;

that certain wrongdoing issues, which were referred to the Office of Investigations for complete evaluation, had not been j adequately addressed to allow a licensing decision. The site j inspection team did, however, review each of these allegations i to determine their safety significance. Any matter which had safety significance was included within the allegations evalu-ated by the site inspection team. However, many of these wrongdoing allegations involved no safety content. They dealt with such things as wasted money, theft, personnel matters, and drug testing. The NRC recognizes that in pursuing allegations such as these there is always the possibility that information will be uncovered that has some bearing on safety. It is in I that context that the report indicated that ". . . the NRC 1 technical staff will further review the safety significance of I any technical concern spun from these investigations." Further-more, in reviewing all of these allegations for safety signi-ficance, the inspection team identified no trends or patterns 8805110082 000409 PDR COMMS NRCC CORHESPONDEGE PDR

indicative of management breakdown in ensuring the cuality of the South Texas installation. The Commission decision to grant South Texas a full power license was based on a determina-tion that all cliegations that had a realistic potential to impact on safety had been thoroughly investigated and resolved.

I hope this information will resolve your concerns about the safety of the South Texas Project.

Sincerc1y, LAJ. .

Lando W. Zec Jr. l

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