United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs

Washington, DC 20555

Phone 301-415-8200 Fax 301-415-2234

Internet:opa@nrc.gov

No. 96-131 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Wednesday, October 2, 1996)

NRC STAFF PROPOSES $900,000 FINE AGAINST THERMAL SCIENCE

FOR VIOLATIONS OF NRC REQUIREMENTS

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a

$900,000 fine against Thermal Science, Inc., of St. Louis,

Missouri, for misrepresentations made by the company to the NRC

concerning its Thermo-Lag fire barrier products.

The NRC bases this action on violations of agency

requirements found during a review of (1) documents submitted to

the agency by Thermal Science on or before October 5, 1991; (2)

the transcript of a meeting between the company's president Rubin

Feldman and NRC staff on October 17, 1991; and (3) the transcript

of criminal proceedings against the company in a Federal district

court.

Thermal Science submitted information to NRC during the

agency's investigations concerning Thermo-Lag products used for

fire protection in nuclear power plants. NRC has concluded that

the company misrepresented the level of involvement of a test

laboratory, Industrial Testing Laboratories, Inc., (ITL), in fire

barrier and other tests. NRC also found that Thermal Science

indirectly misrepresented the respective levels of involvement of

the company and of test laboratories, including ITL, in the

testing of Thermo-Lag products when it provided test reports and

other documents, knowing that they contained inaccurate and/or

incomplete information.

The NRC cited nine separate violations.

"Violations involving multiple instances in which a vendor

deliberately provides inaccurate and/or incomplete information

related to the performance and quality of its important-to-safety

products constitute a very significant regulatory concern, are

wholly unacceptable, and will not be tolerated," James

Lieberman, Director of NRC's Office of Enforcement, said in a

letter to Thermal Science. "These violations are further

aggravated because they were committed in the context of an

ongoing NRC investigation into concerns about the quality and

performance of Thermo-Lag products with significant implications
regarding the compliance of a substantial number of nuclear power

plant licensees with the Commission's regulations."

NRC's Enforcement Policy sets the base civil penalty at

$10,000 for a violation of this severity level. But, Mr.

Lieberman said in his letter, the NRC staff decided to raise it

to the maximum statutory limit of $100,000 for each of the nine

violations, for a total of $900,000

The staff took this action, he said, because of the

"egregious, deliberate, and repeated nature of these violations"

and because Thermal Science continued to provide inaccurate

information to NRC long after being informed of the agency's

concerns about Thermo-Lag products. He also noted that

supplying insufficiently tested Thermo-Lag to NRC reactor

licensees not only placed those licensees in jeopardy of being in

violation of NRC regulations, but also resulted in a compromise

of the level of plant safety. Mr. Lieberman said the staff took

into consideration in determining the civil penalty the monetary

benefit Thermal Science gained by marketing inadequately tested

fire barrier products.

Thermal Science has 30 days to pay the proposed fine or to

protest it. If the fine is protested and subsequently imposed by

the NRC staff, the company may request a hearing.

A copy of this enforcement action is available upon request

from the NRC's Office of Public Affairs. It also has also been

posted on the Internet at this address:

http://www.nrc.gov/OE//rpr/rx.htm.

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