ML20304A066
| ML20304A066 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Saint Lucie, Turkey Point  |
| Issue date: | 11/17/2020 |
| From: | Caroline Carusone Division of Operating Reactor Licensing |
| To: | Saporito T - No Known Affiliation |
| Brown E-NRR/DORL 301-415-2315 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20304A061 | List: |
| References | |
| 2.206 | |
| Download: ML20304A066 (3) | |
Text
November 17, 2020 Mr. Thomas Saporito 9995 SE Federal Hwy Unit 1763 Hobe Sound, FL 33475
Dear Mr. Saporito,
On September 14 and September 15, 2020 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System Accession Nos. ML20304A063 and ML20304A065) (September submittals), you submitted letters to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) seeking action pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 2.206, Requests for action under this subpart. These submittals were reviewed under NRC Management Directive 8.11, Review Process for 10 CFR 2.206 Petitions. In your letters, you requested the immediate shutdown of the operating nuclear reactors at Turkey Point Nuclear Generating, Unit Nos. 3 and 4 (Turkey Point) and St. Lucie Plant, Unit Nos. 1 and 2 (St. Lucie), issuance of a show cause proceeding to modify, suspend, or revoke the licenses for Turkey Point and St. Lucie, and that the NRC take appropriate enforcement action against the licensees. You also requested issuance of a monetary civil penalty of $5,000,000 to NextEra Energy and Florida Power and Light Company (NextEra, FPL, or the licensee), and issuance of an order prohibiting the former President of the FPL Nuclear Division from participating in NRC-licensed activities for no less than 5 years and the imposition of a $500,000 civil penalty. The proposed sanctions are related to circumstances surrounding your dismissal from FPL in 1988 and subsequent statements made by individuals acting in their official capacity in response to previous reviews conducted by the NRC and the Department of Labor (DOL) in 1994. Your letters focus on the assertion that FPL intentionally misled the NRC, which prevented the NRC from taking significant enforcement action against the licensee.
Title 28 of the U.S. Code, Section 2462, Time for commencing proceedings, states that an action, suit or proceeding for the enforcement of any civil fine, penalty, or forfeiture, pecuniary or otherwise, shall not be entertained unless commenced within five years from the date when the claim first accrued. As such, the NRC may only initiate an action imposing a civil penalty, issue an order to modify, suspend or revoke a license, or issue an order prohibiting involvement in NRC-licensed activities within the 5-year statutory period. Your concerns regarding your dismissal in 1988 were provided to the NRC and other Federal agencies around 1989. The NRC staff acknowledges that other licensee communications and conduct directly related to your 1988 dismissal were subject to NRC review as late as 1994. For those complaints, the statute of limitations to initiate most of your proposed sanctions ended in 1999.
Despite the statute of limitations, the NRC staff reviewed the issues provided in your September submittals in accordance with NRC Management Directive 8.11. Over the last 30 years, you have submitted, and the NRC staff has reviewed multiple versions of the same or similar information regarding your 1988 dismissal. As indicated by the DOL and the NRC in various
responses, you have not provided sufficient evidence supporting your complaints against the licensee and their staff to establish the necessity for the NRC to take further action in the interest of the public health and safety. Additional investigations and/or inspections starting in the late 1980s through the 1990s by the DOL and NRC did not support the need for enforcement action to be taken against the licensee or any of their employees acting in an official capacity. Similarly, given the extensive review of your concerns at the time by the NRC in the late 1980s and early 1990s that did not warrant the immediate shutdown of either Turkey Point nor St. Lucie at the time, the NRC finds no basis to take such action over 20 years later.
Section II.A.2.d.ii of NRC Management Directive 8.11 indicates that the NRC staff will not address general assertions with no supporting facts or duplicative requests for action under the 10 CFR 2.206 petition process. Further, under Section II.A.2.d.iv, a petition must provide information that could reasonably lead the NRC to take an enforcement action. As discussed previously, the information both provided by you and developed by other organizations and Agencies independently continues to be insufficient to reasonably lead to an enforcement action, order, or other regulatory sanctions. As such, your complaint related to your dismissal in 1988 from FPL and the associated staff acting in their official capacity does not meet the threshold for review under 10 CFR 2.206 or initiation of additional reviews under other NRC processes.
If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact Ms. Eva Brown at (301) 415-2315.
Sincerely, Caroline L. Carusone, Deputy Director Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket Nos. 50-250, 50-251, 50-335, and 50-389 Caroline L.
Carusone Digitally signed by Caroline L. Carusone Date: 2020.11.17 12:35:28
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ML20304A066 (letter); ML20304A061 (Package)
- by email OFFICE DORL/LPL2/PM DORL/LPL2/LA OGC DORL/LPL2/BC DORL/DD NAME EBrown BAbeywickrama*
RCarpenter*
UShoop (KGreen for)*
CCarusone*
DATE 11/10/2020 11/3/2020 11/10/2020 11/10/2020 11/17/2020