[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 66 (Wednesday, April 8, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16013-16015]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-7946]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 55-61336; License No. SOP-11801 (Terminated); IA-09-014;
NRC-2009-0156]
In the Matter of Keith Davis; Order Prohibiting Involvement in
NRC-Licensed Activities
I
Keith Davis (Mr. Davis) was previously employed as a Senior Reactor
Operator (SRO) at PPL Corporation's Susquehanna Steam Electric Station
(SSES or the facility), located in Berwick, Pennsylvania. Mr. Davis was
the holder of SRO License Number SOP-11801, issued by the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission) pursuant to 10 CFR part 55.
The license authorized Mr. Davis to direct the licensed activities of
SSES licensed operators, and to manipulate the controls of the
facility. The license was terminated on August 1, 2006.
II
In a letter dated July 2, 2007, the NRC provided to Mr. Davis the
results of an investigation initiated by the NRC Office of
Investigations (OI). The letter informed Mr. Davis that the NRC was
considering escalated enforcement action against him for an apparent
violation of his SRO license due to his failure to report an arrest as
required by SSES procedures. The NRC offered Mr. Davis a choice to
attend a Predecisional Enforcement Conference or to request Alternate
Dispute Resolution (ADR) to resolve any disagreement over: (1) whether
a violation occurred; and (2) The appropriate enforcement action. At
his request, an ADR mediation session was held between Mr. Davis and
the NRC on September 27, 2007, and a settlement agreement was reached
regarding his role in this matter. Mr. Davis confirmed his agreement,
in principle, on November 16, 2007, when he signed the Consent and
Hearing Waiver form, consenting to the issuance of a Notice of
Violation and Confirmatory Order containing commitments agreed to in
the settlement.
On November 26, 2007, the NRC issued a Notice of Violation (Notice)
to Mr. Davis for his failure to report the arrest. The Notice
characterized the violation at Severity Level III. The NRC also issued
the Confirmatory Order confirming the commitments made as part of the
settlement agreement. The Confirmatory Order required Mr. Davis to
complete the commitment actions within three months of the date of the
Confirmatory Order, and then inform the NRC within one month of
completion.
The actions included:
a. Writing an operating experience report addressing lessons
learned from the violation;
b. Providing the report to the NRC for review and then submitting
it to a minimum of three national organizations for possible
publication;
c. Providing a written response to the NRC explaining why the NRC
can have confidence that Mr. Davis will follow licensee procedures and
meet NRC regulations, should he work in the nuclear industry in the
future; and
d. Preparing a licensed and non-licensed operator training plan
regarding procedure compliance and the lessons learned from this issue,
and
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providing the plan to SSES for its potential use.
In accordance with the Confirmatory Order, Mr. Davis was required
to notify the NRC, in writing, of completion of these activities by
March 27, 2008.
The requirement to respond to an NRC Order is outlined in 10 CFR
2.202(b), which states, in part: A licensee or other person, to whom
the Commission has issued an order under this section, must respond to
the order by filing a written answer under oath or affirmation. Mr.
Davis failed to respond to the Confirmatory Order.
After the NRC made several unsuccessful attempts to contact Mr.
Davis, the NRC OI located and spoke with him on October 17, 2008. At
that time, Mr. Davis informed OI that he did not agree with the ADR
settlement to which he had consented, and that it was for this reason
that he did not accept and/or ignored the NRC's correspondence
attempts. On October 17, 2008, Mr. Davis also contacted the RI senior
enforcement specialist by telephone, and explained that he was not in
agreement with the conclusions of the ADR, and that he chose to not
complete the Confirmatory Order actions or notify the NRC of his
disagreement. The senior enforcement specialist instructed Mr. Davis to
send a letter to the RI Regional Administrator explaining his position
and reasons for not complying with the Confirmatory Order. As of the
date of this Order, Mr. Davis has neither provided this letter nor
otherwise responded to the November 26, 2007 Confirmatory Order.
III
Based on the above, the NRC has concluded that Keith Davis violated
10 CFR 2.202(b), by failing to respond to an NRC Confirmatory Order.
This conclusion is based on: (1) Mr. Davis's statements to the RI OI
that he no longer agreed with the ADR settlement and that he knowingly
did not accept and/or ignored NRC correspondence requesting his
response to the Confirmatory Order; (2) Mr. Davis's failure to contact
the NRC regarding his disagreement with the ADR settlement; and (3) Mr.
Davis's continued failure to respond to the Confirmatory Order.
As a result, I no longer have the necessary assurance that Mr.
Davis, should he engage in NRC-licensed activities under any other NRC
license, would perform NRC-licensed activities safely and in accordance
with NRC requirements, and that the health and safety of the public
will be protected if Mr. Davis were permitted at this time to be
involved in NRC-licensed activities.
Therefore, the public health, safety, and interest require that Mr.
Davis be prohibited from any involvement in NRC-licensed activities for
a period of three years from the date of this Order, and that Mr. Davis
notify the NRC of his first employment in NRC-licensed activities for a
period of three years following the prohibition period.
IV
Accordingly, pursuant to sections 103, 161b, 161i, 182 and 186 of
the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and the Commission's
regulations in 10 CFR 2.202, 10 CFR 30.10, and 10 CFR 150.20, it is
hereby ordered that:
1. Keith Davis is prohibited for three years from the date of this
Order from engaging in NRC-licensed activities. NRC-licensed activities
are those activities that are conducted pursuant to a specific or
general license issued by the NRC, including, but not limited to, those
activities of Agreement State licensees conducted pursuant to the
authority granted by 10 CFR 150.20.
2. If Keith Davis is currently involved with another licensee in
NRC-licensed activities, he must immediately cease those activities,
and inform the NRC of the name, address and telephone number of the
employer, and provide a copy of this order to the employer.
3. Keith Davis shall, within 20 days following acceptance of his
first employment offer involving NRC-licensed activities or his
becoming involved in NRC-licensed activities, as defined in Paragraph
IV.1 above, provide notice to the Director, Office of Enforcement, U.
S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, of the
name, address, and telephone number of the employer or the entity where
he is, or will be, involved in the NRC-licensed activities.
The Director, OE, may, in writing, relax or rescind any of the
above conditions upon demonstration by Mr. Davis of good cause.
V
In accordance with 10 CFR 2.202, Mr. Davis must, and any other
person adversely affected by this Order may, submit an answer to this
Order within 20 days of its issuance. In addition, Mr. Davis and any
other person adversely affected by this Order may request a hearing on
this Order within 20 days of its issuance. Where good cause is shown,
consideration will be given to extending the time to answer or request
a hearing. A request for extension of time must be directed to the
Director, Office of Enforcement, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
and include a statement of good cause for the extension.
A request for a hearing must be filed in accordance with the NRC E-
Filing rule, which the NRC promulgated in August, 2007, 72 FR 49,139
(Aug. 28, 2007). The E-Filing process requires participants to submit
and serve documents over the Internet or, in some cases, to mail copies
on electronic optical storage media. Participants may not submit paper
copies of their filings unless they seek a waiver in accordance with
the procedures described below.
To comply with the procedural requirements associated with E-
Filing, at least five (5) days prior to the filing deadline the
requestor must contact the Office of the Secretary by e-mail at
[email protected], or by calling (301) 415-1677, to request (1) a
digital ID certificate, which allows the participant (or its counsel or
representative) to digitally sign documents and access the E-Submittal
server for any NRC proceeding in which it is participating; and/or (2)
creation of an electronic docket for the proceeding (even in instances
when the requestor (or its counsel or representative) already holds an
NRC-issued digital ID certificate). Each requestor will need to
download the Workplace Forms Viewer \TM\ to access the Electronic
Information Exchange (EIE), a component of the E-Filing system. The
Workplace Forms Viewer \TM\ is free and is available at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/install-viewer.html. Information
about applying for a digital ID certificate also is available on NRC's
public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/apply-certificates.html.
Once a requestor has obtained a digital ID certificate, had a
docket created, and downloaded the EIE viewer, it can then submit a
request for a hearing through EIE. Submissions should be in Portable
Document Format (PDF) in accordance with NRC guidance available on the
NRC public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html.
A filing is considered complete at the time the filer submits its
document through EIE. To be timely, electronic filings must be
submitted to the EIE system no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on
the due date. Upon receipt of a transmission, the E-Filing system time-
stamps the document and sends the submitter an e-mail notice confirming
receipt of the document. The EIE system also distributes an e-mail
notice that provides access to the document to the NRC Office of the
General Counsel and any others who have advised the Office of the
Secretary that they wish to participate in the
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proceeding, so that the filer need not serve the document on those
participants separately. Therefore, any others who wish to participate
in the proceeding (or their counsel or representative) must apply for
and receive a digital ID certificate before a hearing request is filed
so that they may obtain access to the document via the E-Filing system.
A person filing electronically may seek assistance through the
``Contact Us'' link located on the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html or by calling the NRC technical help line,
which is available between 8:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m., Eastern Time,
Monday through Friday. The help line number is (800) 397-4209 or
locally, (301) 415-4737. Participants who believe that they have good
cause for not submitting documents electronically must file a motion,
in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302(g), with their initial paper filing
requesting authorization to continue to submit documents in paper
format. Such filings must be submitted by (1) first class mail
addressed to the Office of the Secretary of the Commission, U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention:
Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff; or (2) courier, express mail, or
expedited delivery service to the Office of the Secretary, Sixteenth
Floor, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville,
Maryland, 20852, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff.
Participants filing a document in this manner are responsible for
serving the document on all other participants. Filing is considered
complete by first-class mail as of the time of deposit in the mail, or
by courier, express mail, or expedited delivery service upon depositing
the document with the provider of the service.
Documents submitted in adjudicatory proceedings will appear in
NRC's electronic hearing docket which is available to the public at
http://ehd.nrc.gov/EHD_Proceeding/home.asp, unless excluded pursuant
to an order of the Commission, an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, or
a Presiding Officer.
Participants are requested not to include personal privacy
information, such as Social Security numbers, home addresses, or home
phone numbers in their filings. With respect to copyrighted works,
except for limited excerpts that serve the purpose of the adjudicatory
filings and would constitute a Fair Use application, participants are
requested not to include copyrighted materials in their works.
If a person other than Mr. Davis requests a hearing, that person
shall set forth with particularity the manner in which his interest is
adversely affected by this Order and shall address the criteria set
forth in 10 CFR 2.309(d).
If a hearing is requested by Mr. Davis or a person whose interest
is adversely affected, the Commission will issue an Order designating
the time and place of any hearings. If a hearing is held, the issue to
be considered at such hearing shall be whether this Order should be
sustained. In the absence of any request for hearing, or written
approval of an extension of time in which to request a hearing, the
provisions specified in Section IV above shall be final 20 days from
the date of this Order without further order or proceedings. If an
extension of time for requesting a hearing has been approved, the
provisions specified in Section IV shall be final when the extension
expires if a hearing request has not been received.
Dated this 1st day of April 2009.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Cynthia A. Carpenter,
Director, Office of Enforcement.
[FR Doc. E9-7946 Filed 4-7-09; 8:45 am]
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