U. S.Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Region II

101 Marietta Street, N. W.

Atlanta, GA 30323

No: II-97-23 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Ken Clark (404) 331-5503 (Thursday, March 13, 1997)

 Roger Hannah (404) 331-7878

NRC STAFF ISSUES DECISION ON PROPOSED ENFORCEMENT ACTION

FOR VIOLATIONS AT CRYSTAL RIVER NUCLEAR POWER PLANT 

Issues Confirmatory Action Letter to Company

Detailing Requirements Prior To Restart

 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has issued a Notice of Violation to

Florida Power Company at its Crystal River nuclear power plant because of what

the NRC describes as "a broad spectrum of problems" and "major weaknesses" in

implementation of the plant's engineering program.

 NRC officials described one group of violations as Severity Level 2, the

agency's second most serious. They involved unreviewed safety questions not

identified in safety evaluations done prior to plant modifications. These could

result in loss of an emergency diesel generator, potential failure of a turbinedriven auxiliary feedwater pump, and potential inadequate control of boron

precipitation in the core during certain postulated loss of cooling water

accidents.

 Two groups of violations were described as being Severity Level 3, the third

most serious level. One, inadequate design control, involved failure to establish

adequate measures to ensure that the plant's regulatory and basic design

requirements were correctly translated into specifications, procedures and

instructions. The other involved failure to establish measures to assure that

conditions adverse to quality were promptly corrected with measures adequate to

preclude recurrence.

 Agency officials said they considered imposition of a significant monetary

civil penalty for the violations but concluded that discretion would be exercised

in this case because (1) the NRC issued a $500,000 fine against the company in

July of last year which included engineering violations; (2) following NRC
identification of the current issues, the company voluntarily extended a shutdown

of the plant and developed a comprehensive program for problem identification and

correction; (3) the company demonstrated that remedial action will be taken to

ensure reestablishment of design (safety) margins prior to plant restart; and (4)

the company's decision to restart Crystal River requires NRC concurrence.

 The NRC issued a Confirmatory Action Letter to the company on March 4 to

assure that FPC's corrective action will include (1) completion of a

comprehensive restructuring of management; (2) completion of indepth reviews and

corrective actions to ensure compliance with the design basis of the facility;

and (3) implementation of broad and indepth engineering program changes.

 

 In a letter to the company, Luis A. Reyes, administrator of the NRC's Region

II office in Atlanta, said that the agency's exercise of discretion not to fine

the company recognizes that FPC "has placed the unit in a safe configuration

and has committed significant resources to identify and correct deficient

conditions."

 He said failure of the company to successfully implement improvement plans

and substantially improve performance in engineering "could lead to more

significant regulatory sanctions and substantially delay NRC concurrence with

restart of Crystal River Unit 3.

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