ML23157A270

4-2022-011 -022 Letter - OI Closure to Licensee

ML23157A270
Person / Time
Site:	Columbia
Issue date:	06/01/2023
From:	Rayo Kumana NRC Region 4
To:	Schuetz R Energy Northwest
References
OI 4-2022-011, OI 4-2022-022
Download: ML23157A270 (1)

Text

-XQH 1, 2023 Robert Schuetz, Chief Executive Officer Energy Northwest MD 1023 P.O. Box 968 Richland, WA 99352

SUBJECT:

CLOSURE OF INVESTIGATIONS (OI 4-2022-011 AND 4-2022-022)

Dear Robert Schuetz:

This refers to two investigations conducted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRCs) Office of Investigations regarding activities at Columbia Generating Station (CGS). The Office of Investigations initiated the first investigation (4-2022-011) to determine whether:

1) At the March 1, 2022, public Regulatory Conference with the NRC and Energy Northwest, CGS deliberately submitted incomplete or inaccurate information regarding the sequence of work steps associated with the glove bag that occurred prior to a May 28, 2021, contamination event (the event);

2) A Radiation Protection (RP) Supervisor at CGS deliberately violated standards of protection against radiation by instructing the pipefitters to, punch a hole in the glove bag.;

3) At the March 1, 2022, public Regulatory Conference, CGS deliberately submitted incomplete or inaccurate information regarding the dose rates encountered prior to the event;

4) At the March 1, 2022, public Regulatory Conference, CGS deliberately submitted incomplete or inaccurate information regarding how the event was discovered and ultimately terminated;

5) CGS personnel deliberately deleted the whole body count dose records from their system for two pipefitters that were contaminated during the event;

6) CGS deliberately failed to take suitable and timely measurements of (1) concentrations of radioactive materials in air in work areas; or (2) quantities of radionuclides in the body; or (3) quantities of radionuclides excreted from the body; or (4) combinations of these measurements, to determine compliance with occupational dose equivalent limits by waiting 7 days to collect the pipefitters urine for analysis after the event;

7) CGS deliberately failed to furnish an NRC Form 5 to an individual within 30 days from the time the request was made by the individual exposed or within 30 days after the exposure of the individual;

8) CGS provided inaccurate information to the NRC concerning the collection of urine samples after the event;

9) CGS management deliberately failed to provide the NRC Form 5 to an individual who received an exposure greater than 100 mrem Total Effective Dose Equivalent (TEDE) in a calendar year; ADAMS Accession# ML23157A270

R. Schuetz 2

10) A CGS manager deliberately submitted information known to be incomplete or inaccurate when they informed the NRC they sent the pipefitters an NRC Form 5, dose assessments, and whole body counts for the May 28, 2021, uptake event; and

11) CGS management deliberately instructed RP supervision to continue work although there was no established Health Physicist (HP) continuous coverage in the Reactor Water Clean Up (RWCU) Heat Exchanger (HX) room and power was lost to all telemetry and cameras.

The Office of Investigations initiated the second investigation (4-2022-022) to determine whether:

1) CGS failed to limit intakes in an airborne radioactivity area (ARA) by use of respiratory protection equipment, and instead down-posted the area when they ran out of such equipment from an ARA to relax the requirements for the use of respirators; and

2) CGS deliberately submitted inaccurate verbal statements to the NRC to the effect that video recordings of an uptake event were not available.

Based on the evidence developed during the respective investigations, the NRC did not substantiate deliberate misconduct associated with these issues. The NRC considers both investigations closed. While the NRC did not substantiate wrongdoing, the NRC separately reviewed several related technical issues and plans to document the results of this review in inspection reports 05000397/2023090 and 05000397/2023092.

You should note that final NRC documents may be made available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act subject to redaction of information pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. Requests under the Freedom of Information Act should be made in accordance with 10 CFR 9.23, Requests for Records. Information is accessible from the NRCs website at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/foia/foia-request.html#how.

R. Schuetz 3

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRCs Agency Rules of Practice and Procedure, a copy of this letter will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC website at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html.

Sincerely, Rayomand Kumana, Acting Team Leader Allegation Coordination and Enforcement Staff Docket No. 50-397 License No. NPF-21 Rayomand J. Kumana Digitally signed by Rayomand J. Kumana Date: 2023.06.01 10:22:13 -05'00'