Press Release-IV-12-045, NRC Issues Two White Findings and a Severity Level III Finding to Columbia Generating Station

Press Release-IV-12-045: NRC Issues Two White Findings and a Severity Level III Finding to Columbia Generating Station

ML12299A332
Person / Time
Site:	Columbia
Issue date:	10/25/2012
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region IV
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-IV-12-045
Download: ML12299A332 (2)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Region IV 1600 E. Lamar Blvd.

Arlington, TX 76011 - 4125 Site: www.nrc.gov Blog: http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov No. IV-12-045 Oct. 25, 2012

Contact:

Victor Dricks (817) 200-1128 E-Mail: OPA4.Resource@nrc.gov Lara Uselding (817) 200-1519 NRC ISSUES TWO WHITE FINDINGS AND A SEVERITY LEVEL III FINDING TO COLUMBIA GENERATING STATION The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that two inspection findings at the Columbia Generating Station on the plants emergency preparedness program are white, meaning they had low to moderate safety significance. The plant, operated by Energy Northwest, is located near Richland, Wash.

The first white finding involved the licensees failure to maintain a plan to appropriately characterize emergency action levels which could have delayed recognition of some radiological emergency conditions.

The second white finding involved the licensees failure to maintain adequate methods for assessing and monitoring actual or potential offsite radiation releases from the plant during emergencies. This adversely affected the licensees ability to assess the consequences of a radiological release and had the potential to impact protective action recommendations necessary to protect public health and safety.

These conditions existed between 2000 and 2011 when they were identified and corrected by the licensee. The violations were evaluated by NRC during an inspection conducted between Oct. 18, 2011 and June 27, 2012.

A violation is also being issued because regulations require the licensee to make prompt notification to the NRC of any event that results in a major loss of emergency assessment capability. The NRC identified these issues during its inspection but the licensee did not report them to the NRC in a timely manner, as required.

After the NRC staff issued preliminary findings, a conference was held on Sept. 20 during which Energy Northwest officials presented their perspective on the root cause of the findings and violations and corrective actions. After consideration, the NRC staff has determined that the inspections findings are appropriately characterized as white.

The NRC evaluates regulatory performance at commercial nuclear power plants with a color coded process which classifies findings as either green, white, yellow or red in order of increasing safety significance.

The two white findings will move the Columbia Generating Station into the degraded cornerstone column of the NRCs action matrix, resulting in a higher level of NRC scrutiny.

This is the third highest level of NRC oversight and Columbia joins seven other nuclear plants in that category. The position of all nuclear units within the NRC action matrix is available at:

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/actionmatrix_summary.html .

The NRC staff will determine the most appropriate response and notify Energy Northwest of any additional inspections, meetings or activities the agency may plan.

News releases are available through a free Listserv subscription or by clicking on the EMAIL UPDATES link on the NRC homepage (www.nrc.gov). E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's website. For the latest news, follow the NRC on www.twitter.com/NRCgov.