ML20297A534

Cover Letter to TVA Order Imposing Civil Monetary Penalty (EA-20-006) & (EA-20-007)

ML20297A534
Person / Time
Site:	Browns Ferry, Watts Bar, Sequoyah
Issue date:	10/29/2020
From:	George Wilson NRC/OE
To:	Jim Barstow Tennessee Valley Authority
Thompson C
Shared Package
ML20297A525	List: ML20297A534 ML20297A544 ML20297A552
References
EA-20-006, EA-20-007, NRC-2020-0244
Download: ML20297A534 (3)

Text

October 29, 2020 EA-20-006 EA-20-007 Mr. Jim Barstow Vice President Nuclear Regulatory Affairs

& Support Services Tennessee Valley Authority 1101 Market Street, LP 4A-C Chattanooga, TN 37402-2801

SUBJECT:

ORDER IMPOSING CIVIL PENALTY - $606,942 - TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY

Dear Mr. Barstow:

This refers to your letter dated September 23, 2020, in response to the Notice of Violation and Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalty (Notice) sent as an enclosure to our letter dated August 24, 2020. Our letter and Notice describe four violations of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 C.F.R.) § 50.7, Employee Protection, identified during two investigations completed on October 3, 2019, and January 21, 2020, by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRC) Office of Investigations (OI) relating to activities at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

To emphasize the importance of 10 C.F.R. § 50.7 and prompt identification and correction of violations, a civil penalty of $606,942 (2 X $303,471) was proposed.

In your response, you denied all four violations. You also stated that if the NRC continues to believe that the violations occurred, then at a minimum the NRC should reduce the severity level of the alleged violations and commensurately reduce the civil penalty.

For the reasons given in the Appendix attached to the enclosed Order Imposing Civil Monetary Penalty, we have concluded that four violations of 10 C.F.R. § 50.7 occurred as stated and that the penalty proposed for the violations designated in the Notice should be imposed.

Accordingly, we hereby serve the enclosed Order on TVA imposing a civil monetary penalty in the amount of $606,942. Within 30 days of the date of the enclosed Order, you should either (1) pay the civil penalty in accordance with Section IV of the Order or (2) request a hearing in accordance with Section V of the Order.

You may request Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) with the NRC in an attempt to resolve this issue. ADR is a general term encompassing various techniques for resolving conflicts using a neutral third party. The technique that the NRC has decided to employ is mediation. Mediation is a voluntary, informal process in which a trained neutral party (the mediator) works with parties to help them reach resolution. If the parties agree to use ADR, they select a mutually agreeable neutral mediator who has no stake in the outcome and no power to make decisions.

J. Barstow Mediation gives parties an opportunity to discuss issues, be creative, find areas of agreement, and reach a final resolution of the issues. Additional information concerning the NRC's ADR program can be found at http://www.nrc.gov/aboutnrc/regulatory/enforcement/adr.html, as well as NRC brochure NUREG/BR-0317, Enforcement Alternative Dispute Resolution Program, Revision 2 (ADAMS Accession No. ML18122A101). The Institute on Conflict Resolution (ICR) at Cornell University has agreed to facilitate the NRC's program as a neutral third party. If you are interested in pursuing resolution of this issue through ADR, you must contact ICR at (877) 733-9415 within 10 calendar days of the date of this letter. Additionally, please contact Catherine Thompson at 301-287-9515 or email catherine.thompson@nrc.gov, or Ian Gifford at 301-287-9216 or email ian.gifford@nrc.gov within 10 calendar days of the date of this letter if you choose to participate in ADR. A request to pursue resolution through ADR will extend the time period to pay the civil penalty or request a hearing.

In accordance with 10 C.F.R. § 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter, its enclosure(s), and your response, if you choose to provide one, will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRCs document system (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To the extent possible, your response should not include any personal privacy, proprietary, or safeguards information so that it can be made available to the public without redaction. The NRC also includes significant enforcement actions on its Web site (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/enforcement/actions/).

Sincerely, George Digitally signed by George A. Wilson A. Wilson Date: 2020.10.29 12:21:15 -04'00' George A. Wilson, Director Office of Enforcement Docket Nos.: 05000259, 05000260 05000296, 05000327 05000328, 05000390 05000391 License No.: DPR-33, DPR-52, DPR-68, DPR-77, DPR-79, NPF-90, NPF-96

Enclosures:

Order Imposing Civil Monetary Penalty NUREG/BR-0254 Payment Methods NUREG/BR-0317 Enforcement Alternative Dispute Resolution Program

J. Barstow

SUBJECT:

ORDER IMPOSING CIVIL PENALTY - $606,942 - TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY Dated: 10/29/2020 Distribution:

P. Moulding, OGC A. Shuttleworth, OI C. Miller, NRR M. Miller, RII S. Sparks, RII M. Kowal, RII OE ADAMS R/F Publicly Available ADAMS Package Accession No.: ML20297A525 Cover Letter: ML20297A534 Order: ML20297A544 Appendix: ML20297A552 OFFICE OE: CRB OE:CRB OE: CRB/BC OGC/NLO OE: D NAME IGifford CThompson DSolorio SKirkwood GWilson DATE 10/28/2020 10/28/2020 10/29/2020 10/29/2020 10/29/2020 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY