U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs, Region IV

611 Ryan Plaza Drive - Suite 400

Arlington, Texas 76011-8064

RIV: 97-62 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Breck Henderson October 27, 1997

OFFICE: 817/860-8128

PAGER: (800) 443-7243 (065477)

E-MAIL: bwh@nrc.gov

NRC STAFF PROPOSES TO FINE OPPD $110,000

FOR VIOLATIONS AT FORT CALHOUN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a civil penalty of

$110,000 against Omaha Public Power District, operator of Fort Calhoun Station, a

nuclear power plant near Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, for mistakenly disabling a safety

system and allowing it to remain disabled for 12 hours.

The violation was discussed by OPPD and NRC officials during a predecisional

enforcement conference in Arlington, Texas, on October 7. The incident took place

during routine testing on August 21 when a licensed operator mistakenly placed the

switches for both containment spray valves in a position that would not have allowed

them to operate automatically, effectively disabling the automatic feature of the

containment spray system. The containment spray system is one of the redundant

systems designed to reduce the temperature and pressure inside the containment

structure during certain accidents such as a loss of coolant accident.

The switches remained in the improper position for 12 hours despite alarm

indications on the plant control board that operators should have noticed and a shift

turnover during which the oncoming crew should have noticed the mispositioned

switches and alarms.

The staff also noted that this was the second incident of this nature within the

last 18 months. In March, 1996, relief valves were inadvertently disabled during a plant

cooldown. No fine was proposed for this incident, and corrective actions taken in

response should have prevented the August 21 incident.
NRC Regional Administrator Ellis W. Merschoff said in a letter to OPPD,

“Although other systems at Fort Calhoun also are designed to minimize containment

pressure in the event of an accident, the NRC views the August 21, 1997 event

seriously because licensed operating personnel defeated a safety system and then

missed several opportunities to detect it.” The violation has been classified as Severity

Level III in the NRC’s four-level system. Level I is the most severe.

The base civil penalty for a Severity Level III violation is $55,000. However, the

staff doubled that amount, as allowed under NRC procedures, to emphasize the

seriousness with which it views the occurrence of two similar incidents in 18 months.

Mr. Merschoff noted that Fort Calhoun personnel discovered the violation and

reported it to the NRC. He also credited plant managers for taking effective corrective

actions following the incident. These include requiring additional oversight of testing,

marking alarms that are expected during tests, requiring senior reactor operator

concurrence before disabling safety-related equipment, and requiring peer review prior

to operating key switches.

OPPD has 30 days to respond in writing to the NRC’s Notice of Violation. The

response must document specific actions taken to prevent recurrence of the violations.

During this time the company may pay the fine or file a protest.

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