[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 63 (Wednesday, April 2, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18586-18590]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-07397]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 50-395; License No. NPF-12; EA-12-140; NRC-2014-0066]
In the Matter of South Carolina Electric & Gas Company, Virgil C.
Summer Nuclear Station, Unit 1
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Confirmatory order; issuance.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a
confirmatory order to South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G or
Licensee), the holder of License No. NPF-12, authorizing the operation
of Virgil C. Summer Station (SNS), Unit 1. The facility is located on
the Licensee's site in Jenkinsville, South Carolina. The order was a
result of Alternative Dispute Resolution between the NRC and SCE&G, and
required SCE&G to complete a number of corrective actions in response
to an incident involving an individual who falsified documentation to
gain site access.
DATES: Effective Date: March 10, 2014.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2014-0066 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You
may access publicly-available information related to this action by the
following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2014-0066. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-287-
3422; email: [email protected]. For questions about this Order,
contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
section of this document.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may access publicly available documents online in the NRC
Library at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the
search, select ``ADAMS Public Documents'' and then select ``Begin Web-
based ADAMS Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's
Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-
4737, or by email to [email protected]. The Order is available in
ADAMS under Accession No. ML14071A565.
NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carolyn Evans, Enforcement and
Investigations Coordination Staff, Region II, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, 245 Peachtree Center Avenue, Suite 1200, Atlanta, Georgia,
30303; telephone: 404-997-4414; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The text of the Order is attached.
Dated at Atlanta, Georgia, this 26th day of March, 2014.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Leonard D. Wert,
Deputy Regional Administrator for Operations.
Attachment--Confirmatory Order
Confirmatory Order
I
South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G or Licensee) is the
holder of License No. NPF-12, issued by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC or Commission) pursuant to 10 CFR Part 50 on August 6,
1982, and renewed on April 23, 2004. The license authorizes the
operation of Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station (SNS), Unit 1, in
accordance with the conditions specified therein. The facility is
located on the Licensee's site in Jenkinsville, South Carolina.
This Confirmatory Order is the result of an agreement reached
during an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mediation session
conducted on October 8, 2013.
II
On January 16, 2013, the NRC's Office of Investigations (OI),
Region II, completed an investigation regarding a security matter at
SNS. The purpose of the investigation was to: (1) Review the facts and
circumstances surrounding the actions of a former Environmental Health
and Safety Specialist, Stone & Webster, Inc. (Shaw) employee, who in
approximately September of 2010 falsified an SNS Unit 1 Personnel
History Questionnaire (PHQ) and provided a fictitious court record to
deliberately conceal potentially disqualifying criminal history
information in order to obtain employment at the site, and (2)
determine whether the SNS access officials properly adjudicated
potentially disqualifying information in this individual's PHQ, and
supporting materials, prior to granting him unescorted access
authorization (UAA) during the September 2010 time frame.
Based on the investigation and NRC staff review, two apparent
violations were identified, as documented in the NRC's letter to SCE&G
dated June 4, 2013.
The first apparent violation involved the willful actions of the
licensee's access authorization staff, which caused the licensee's
access authorization program to fail to provide high assurance that
individuals granted unescorted access are trustworthy and reliable such
that they do not constitute an unreasonable risk to public health and
safety, as required by Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations at
10 CFR
[[Page 18587]]
73.56(c). Specifically, on September 14, 2010, licensee access
authorization reviewing officials reviewed, adjudicated, and granted an
individual unescorted access authorization by relying unreasonably on a
falsified PHQ and fabricated court record to determine his
trustworthiness and reliability.
The second apparent violation involved the willful failure to
comply with the requirements of 10 CFR 50.9(a) which, in part, states
that ``information required by statute or Commission regulations to be
maintained shall be complete and accurate in all material respects.''
In part, 10 CFR 73.56(o)(2) requires the licensee to retain records of
information that must be collected under subparts (d) and (e) of 73.56
that result in the granting of unescorted access for at least 5 years
after the licensee terminates, or denies an individual's unescorted
access or unescorted access authorization. On September 14, 2010, the
licensee collected and maintained a criminal history record to support
the granting of unescorted access that was inaccurate and incomplete in
a material respect. Specifically, a fabricated court document was
accepted by the Licensee to reflect a favorable disposition of a
criminal matter (i.e., dismissal of arson charges) that, in fact, was
not favorably resolved. This information was material because it was
relied upon to provide the requisite high assurance that the individual
who submitted the document was trustworthy and reliable, and to support
the granting of unescorted access to SNS.
III
On October 8, 2013, the NRC and SCE&G met in an ADR session
mediated by a professional mediator, arranged through Cornell
University's Institute on Conflict Resolution. ADR is a process in
which a neutral mediator with no decision-making authority assists the
parties in reaching an agreement or resolving any differences regarding
their dispute. This confirmatory order is issued pursuant to the
agreement reached during the ADR process. The elements of the agreement
consist of the following:
1. The NRC and SCE&G agree that the issues described above resulted
in an individual inappropriately being granted unescorted access to
SNS, which was inconsistent with the requirements of 10 CFR 73.56(c)
and 10 CFR 50.9. SCE&G does not agree that the violations were
committed willfully, and on this point, the parties agree to disagree.
2. During the ADR, SCE&G described the corrective actions and
enhancements completed in response to the issues described in the NRC's
letter of June 4, 2013. These actions included but were not limited to
the following:
a. Following the event, SCE&G held a stand down with the access
control staff to discuss the event (completed on March 3, 2011).
b. SCE&G performed a root cause analysis of the event (completed on
April 28, 2011).
c. SCE&G shared operating experience involving the event with the
industry through the Nuclear Energy Institute's database, Advanced
Taskforce Operations Management (ATOM) (completed on July 18, 2013).
d. SCE&G performed an extent of condition review of favorably
adjudicated files over the last five years which contained documents
used to grant unescorted access. SCE&G performed an additional review
of a sample of 17 files randomly selected from 2010 (the year of the
event). No issues requiring corrective actions were identified
(completed on April 28, 2011).
e. SCE&G performed industry benchmarking of the issues including
expectations for access officials in reviewing and adjudicating
documents having raised seals (completed in July 2013).
f. SCE&G established an immediate interim requirement that in all
cases where adjudication of a criminal history is required for making
an access decision, the applicant must provide documentation having an
official raised seal from the judicial source (e.g., court of law) or a
telephonic authentication from the appropriate judicial entity
(completed on March 3, 2011).
g. SCE&G made program improvements to its access authorization
procedure, SAP-1005, including requiring a second, independent review
of significant derogatory information, defining the term
``independent'', incorporating an in-process checklist, adding a method
for making corrections to the Personal History Questionnaire (PHQ)
information and ensuring information is marked as corrected, including
a requirement that copies/faxes of official documents used to
adjudicate criminal history must be sent directly to access officials
(completed on August 4, 2011). SCE&G also defined in SAP-1005 a process
for management involvement in the adjudication of derogatory
information and required official documents with raised seals or
copies/faxes of official documents used to adjudicate criminal history
be sent directly to and authenticated with the person or entity that
created the document by access officials without passing through the
applicant's possession (completed on September 26, 2013).
h. SCE&G provided training on the revised SAP-1005 to Reviewing
Officials (completed on September 9, 2011).
i. SCE&G developed a management observation template in accordance
with SAP-1354, Management Observations and Worker Interface, for
performing observations of Reviewing Officials (completed on September
13, 2011).
j. SCE&G added a requirement for a periodic self-assessment of the
Access Control pre-employment screening process; this tasking was added
to the station's self-assessment backbone schedule and is required to
be performed at a three year frequency (completed on September 28,
2011).
k. SCE&G performed a snap shot self-assessment to serve as an
effectiveness review for the root cause analysis (completed on March
14, 2012).
l. SCE&G developed a training and qualification program for initial
and continuing training of Reviewing Officials. Training included
conservative decision making and human performance tools such as
maintaining a challenging and questioning attitude (Qualification
program developed on November 3, 2011; Reviewing Officials completed
qualification requirements on December 1, 2011).
m. SCE&G added warnings, cautions, and case studies to the PHQ
which describes the consequences of not properly disclosing information
(completed on August 4, 2011).
n. SCE&G emphasized applicant responsibility by requiring all
applicants for access authorization to sign a statement attesting that
they have read and understand the warnings and cautions on the PHQ
which state that falsification/intentional omission of information are
grounds for denial of unescorted access authorization (completed on
August 4, 2011).
o. SCE&G performed an additional snapshot self-assessment of SA12-
NP-04S, Review of Adjudication Records (completed on March 13, 2012).
p. SCE&G has conducted ongoing management observations of Reviewing
Officials.
3. Based on SCE&G's review of the incident and NRC's concerns with
respect to precluding recurrence of the violations, SCE&G agrees to the
following corrective actions and enhancements:
a. By December 31, 2014, SCE&G will share operating experience
(i.e., discuss the lessons learned and resulting
[[Page 18588]]
enhancements) regarding this event during the NEI Access Authorization/
Fitness for Duty Conference, and will maintain a copy of related
presentation material for the purposes of NRC verification via follow-
up NRC inspection. In lieu of sharing operating experience during the
NEI Access Authorization/Fitness for Duty Conference, SCE&G may share
lessons learned at a similar event, with prior verbal approval from the
NRC Region II Regional Administrator, or Region II Deputy Regional
Administrator, Operations.
b. By June 30, 2014, SCE&G will conduct annual training on
completeness and accuracy of information, 10 CFR 50.9; deliberate
misconduct, 10 CFR 50.5 and violations committed with careless
disregard or reckless indifference to requirements as part of initial
and continuing plant access training.
c. By June 30, 2014, SCE&G will provide one-time training to SCE&G
supervisors and long-term contract supervisors on the topics in Section
III.3.b above including detailed case studies.
4. The NRC considers the corrective actions and enhancements
discussed in Paragraph III.2 and III.3 above to be appropriately prompt
and comprehensive to address the causes which gave rise to the incident
discussed in the NRC's letter of June 4, 2013.
5. The NRC and SCE&G agree that the above elements will be
incorporated into issuance of a Confirmatory Order.
6. In consideration of the commitments delineated above, the NRC
agrees to fully mitigate a civil penalty and issue a Notice of
Violation (NOV) for all matters discussed in the NRC's letter to SNS of
June 4, 2013 (EA 12-140). The NOV is incorporated into the resulting
Confirmatory Order as Paragraph III.7, below. The Confirmatory Order
will only be considered an escalated enforcement action by the NRC for
future assessment of violations occurring at SNS within one year of the
date of the Confirmatory Order.
7. As referenced in Paragraph III.6 of this Confirmatory Order, the
following two violations are documented below:
a. 10 CFR 73.56(c) requires a licensee's access authorization
program to provide high assurance that the individuals specified in
paragraph (b)(1), and, if applicable, paragraph (b)(2) of this section
are trustworthy and reliable, such that they do not constitute an
unreasonable risk to public health and safety or the common defense and
security, including the potential to commit radiological sabotage.
Contrary to the above, on September 14, 2010, the licensee's access
authorization program failed to provide high assurance that individuals
granted unescorted access to nuclear power plants are trustworthy and
reliable and do not constitute an unreasonable risk to public health
and safety or common defense and security, including the potential to
commit radiological sabotage. Specifically, the licensee's access
authorization reviewing officials granted an individual unescorted
access authorization by relying on deliberate misstatements made in a
PHQ and on a falsified court record to adjudicate potentially
disqualifying information.
b. 10 CFR 50.9(a) requires information provided to the Commission
by a licensee or required by statute or by NRC regulations, orders, or
license conditions to be maintained by the licensee shall be complete
and accurate in all material respects.
10 CFR 73.56(o)(2) requires licensees to retain records of the
information that must be collected under paragraphs (d) and (e) of this
section related to the granting of unescorted access or verifying of
unescorted access authorization. These records must be retained for at
least five years after the licensee grants, terminates, or denies an
individual's unescorted access or unescorted access authorization or
until the completion of all related legal proceedings, whichever is
later.
Contrary to the above, on September 14, 2010, the licensee
collected and maintained a criminal history record supporting the
granting of unescorted access to an individual. This information was
inaccurate and incomplete in a material respect. Specifically, a
fabricated court document stating that arson charges had been dismissed
was accepted by the licensee. In fact, the charges had not been
dismissed and the charges were before a grand jury. This information
was material to the NRC because it was relied upon to provide high
assurance that the individual who submitted the document was
trustworthy and reliable when this was not the case, and allowed the
improper granting of unescorted access.
8. This agreement is binding upon successors and assigns of SCE&G.
On February 28, 2014, SCG&E consented to issuance of this Order
with the commitments, as described in Section V below. The Licensee
further agreed that this Order is to be effective 30 days after
issuance and that it has waived its right to a hearing.
IV
Since the licensee has agreed to take additional actions to address
NRC's concerns, as set forth in Item III above, the NRC has concluded
that its concerns can be resolved through issuance of this Confirmatory
Order.
I find that SCE&G's commitments, as set forth in Section V, are
acceptable and necessary and conclude that with these commitments, the
public health and safety are reasonably assured. In view of the
foregoing, I have determined that public health and safety requires
that SCE&G's commitments be confirmed by this Order. Based on the above
and SCE&G's consent, this Confirmatory Order is effective 30 days after
issuance.
V
Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 104b., 161b., 161i., 161o., 182,
and 186 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and the
Commission's regulations in 10 CFR 2.202 and 10 CFR Parts 50 and 52, it
is hereby ordered, that License No. NPF-12 is modified as follows:
a. By December 31, 2014, SCE&G will share operating experience
(i.e., discuss the lessons learned and resulting enhancements)
regarding this event during the NEI Access Authorization/Fitness for
Duty Conference, and will maintain a copy of related presentation
material for the purposes of NRC verification via follow-up NRC
inspection. In lieu of sharing operating experience during the NEI
Access Authorization/Fitness for Duty Conference, SCE&G may share
lessons learned at a similar event, with prior verbal approval from the
NRC Region II Regional Administrator, or Region II Deputy Regional
Administrator, Operations.
b. By June 30, 2014, SCE&G will conduct annual training on
completeness and accuracy of information, 10 CFR 50.9; deliberate
misconduct, 10 CFR 50.5 and violations committed with careless
disregard or reckless indifference to requirements as part of initial
and continuing plant access training.
c. By June 30, 2014, SCE&G will provide one-time training to SCE&G
supervisors and long-term contract supervisors on the topics in Section
III.3.b above including detailed case studies.
d. SCE&G will implement the continuing actions and activities as
previously discussed in the following sections of this Order: Section
III.2.g (management involvement in the adjudication of derogatory
information);
[[Page 18589]]
Section III.2.j (self-assessment at a three year frequency); and
Section III.2.l, (training and qualification program for initial and
continuing training of Reviewing Officials).
The Regional Administrator, NRC Region II, may relax or rescind, in
writing, any of the above conditions upon a showing by SCE&G of good
cause.
VI
Any person adversely affected by this Order, other than SCE&G, may
submit a written answer and/or request a hearing on this Order within
30 days from the date of this Order, pursuant to 10 CFR 2.302 and 10
CFR 2.309. 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, Washington, DC 20555-
0001, and include a statement of good cause for the extension.
If a hearing is requested by 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.
All documents filed in the NRC adjudicatory proceedings, including
a request for a hearing, a petition for leave to intervene, any motion
or other document filed in the proceeding prior to the submission of a
request for hearing or petition to intervene, and documents filed by
interested governmental entities participating under 10 CFR 2.315(c),
must be filed in accordance with the NRC's E-Filing rule at 10 CFR
2.302. The E-Filing process requires participants to submit and serve
all adjudicatory documents over the internet, or to physically deliver
or mail a copy of documents on optical storage media. Participants may
not submit paper copies of their filings unless they seek and receive
an exemption in accordance with the procedures described below.
To comply with the procedural requirements of E-Filing, at least 10
days prior to the filing deadline, the participant should contact the
Office of the Secretary by email at [email protected], or by
telephone at (301) 415-1677, to request (1) a digital identification
(ID) certificate, which allows the participant (or its counsel or
representative) to digitally sign documents and access the E-Submittal
server for any proceeding in which it is participating; and (2) advise
the Secretary that the participant will be submitting a request or
petition for hearing (even in instances in which the participant, or
its counsel or representative, already holds an NRC-issued digital
certificate). Based on this information, the Secretary will establish
an electronic docket for the hearing in this proceeding if the
Secretary has not already established an electronic docket.
Information about applying for a digital ID certificate is
available on the NRC's public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/apply-certificates.html. System requirements for accessing
the E-Submittal server are detailed in the NRC's ``Guidance for
Electronic Submission,'' which is available on the NRC's public Web
site at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html. Participants
may attempt to use other software not listed on the Web site, but
should note that the NRC's E-Filing system does not support unlisted
software, and the NRC Meta System Help Desk will not be able to offer
assistance in using unlisted software.
If a participant is electronically submitting a document to the NRC
in accordance with the E-Filing rule, the participant must file the
document using the NRC's online, Web-based submission form. In order to
serve documents through the Electronic Information Exchange System,
users will be required to install a Web browser plug-in obtained from
the NRC's Web site. Further information on the Web-based submission
form, including the installation of the Web browser plug-in, is
available on the NRC's public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html.
Once a participant has obtained a digital ID certificate and a
docket has been created, the participant can then submit a request for
a hearing or petition for leave to intervene. Submissions should be in
Portable Document Format (PDF) in accordance with the NRC guidance
available on the NRC's public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html. A filing is considered complete at the time the
documents are submitted through the NRC's E-Filing system. To be
timely, an electronic filing must be submitted to the E-Filing 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 email notice confirming receipt of the document. The
E-Filing system also distributes an email notice that provides access
to the document to the NRC's Office of the General Counsel, and any
others who have advised the Office of the Secretary that they wish to
participate in the proceeding, so that the filer need not serve the
document on those participants separately. Therefore, applicants and
other participants (or their counsel or representative) must apply for
and receive a digital ID certificate before a hearing request/petition
to intervene is filed so that they can obtain access to the document
via the E-Filing system.
A person filing electronically using the NRC's adjudicatory E-
Filing system may seek assistance by contracting the NRC Meta System
Help Desk thorough the ``Contact Us'' link located on the NRC's public
Web site at http://www.nrc/gov/site-help/e-submittals.html, by email to
[email protected], or by a toll free call to 1-866-672-7640. The
NRC Meta System Help Desk is available between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.,
Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, excluding government holidays.
Participants who believe that they have a good cause for not
submitting documents electronically must file an extension request, 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. A presiding officer, having
granted an exemption request from using E-Filing, may require a
participant or party to use E-Filing, if the presiding officer
subsequently determines the reason for the exemption from use of E-
Filing no longer exists.
Documents submitted in adjudicatory proceedings will appear in the
NRC's electronic hearing docket, which is available to the public at
http://ehd1.nrc.gov/ehd, unless excluded pursuant to an order of the
Commission, or the presiding officer. Participants are
[[Page 18590]]
requested not to include personal privacy information, such as social
security numbers, home addresses, or home phone numbers in their
filings, unless an NRC regulation or other law requires submission of
such information. 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 submissions.
If a person other than the licensee requests a hearing, that person
shall set forth with particularity the manner in which his/her interest
is adversely affected by this Order and shall address the criteria set
forth in 10 CFR 2.309(d) and (f).
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 V above shall be final 30 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 V shall be final when the extension expires if a
hearing request has not been received.
Dated this 10th day of March 2014.
For The Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Leonard D. Wert,
Deputy Regional Administrator for Operations.
[FR Doc. 2014-07397 Filed 4-1-14; 8:45 am]
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