U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs, Region IV

Walnut Creek Field Office

1450 Maria Lane, Walnut Creek, CA 94596-5378

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 4, 1997

CONTACT: Mark Hammond

RIV-97-22

NRC STAFF PROPOSES $100,000 FINE

FOR VIOLATIONS AT WOLF CREEK

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a civil penalty of

$100,000 against the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp., operator of the Wolf

Creek nuclear power plant near Burlington, Kansas, for three apparent

violations of NRC requirements.

The violations were identified during NRC inspections conducted October

7-11 and 21-25 and were discussed by NRC and Wolf Creek officials at a

predecisional enforcement conference at the NRC Region IV office in Arlington,

Texas, on January 16.

The first violation consists of five instances in which Wolf Creek

failed to identify and correct conflicts between technical specifications,

which govern plant operations, and written interpretations of those

specifications prepared by plant officials. The plant's use of some of the

misinterpretations resulted in violations of technical specifications.

In a letter to Wolf Creek, NRC Regional Administrator Ellis W. Merschoff

said, ``Your staff stated that one cause [of the first violation] was a `mind

set' that permitted the use of operational knowledge in the application of

technical specifications which, in some cases, compromised compliance.

``Although the actual safety significance of this violation was low, the

circumstances surrounding it are of regulatory significance because of: 1) the

management involvement in the violation and 2) the fundamental importance of

complying with technical specification requirements,'' Mr. Merschoff said.

Wolf Creek management failed to recognize and correct the problems

during its review of the issue, Mr. Merschoff said.

The second violation involves an unauthorized change that plant

officials made in January 1995 to the technical specifications concerning the

frequency of testing for reactor coolant pump flywheels.

The third violation involves another conflict between technical

specifications and the plant's written interpretation of those specifications

that address cooling down the reactor system while one of two sets of

instrumentation that helps measure reactor conditions was inoperable.

The NRC informed Wolf Creek that its interpretation was erroneous on

January 16. However, it remained in place until March 21, when NRC staff

informed Wolf Creek that the continued existence of the misinterpretation

constituted a continuing violation and Wolf Creek removed it.

``This is of concern to us because your staff did not either rescind the

[interpretation] after the inspection, request formal clarification from the
NRC or request a change to technical specifications,'' Mr. Merschoff wrote.

The NRC has categorized the violations as Severity Level III. The

agency's enforcement system uses four Severity Levels, with Level I being the

most serious. The utility has 30 days to respond to the NRC's citation, during

which time it may pay the penalty or protest it. If the protest is denied, the

utility may ask for a hearing.

#