United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs, Region I

475 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19406

Fax: 610/337-5241

Internet: dps@nrc.gov or nas@nrc.gov

I-98-4 January 12, 1998

Contact: Diane Screnci (610/337-5330) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Neil A. Sheehan (610/337-5331)

NRC PROPOSES $55,000 FINE FOR VIOLATION AT SUSQUEHANNA PLANT;

AGENCY CITES LACK OF CONTROLS OVER EMERGENCY DIESEL GENERATOR

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a

$55,000 fine against the operator of the Susquehanna nuclear

power plant for a violation of agency requirements involving a

misaligned emergency diesel generator at the facility.

Susquehanna, which is equipped with two reactors, is located in

Berwick, in northeastern Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated

by PP&L Inc.

A predecisional enforcement conference was held on

December 16 at the NRC Region 1 office in King of Prussia, Pa.,

to discuss the infraction.

Susquehanna has five emergency diesel generators. In the

event of a loss of power to the site, the generators would be

called upon to operate safety-related systems and safely shut

down the plant.

Last July 11, an NRC inspector found that the load limit

setting on one of the generators had been positioned at

approximately 35 percent, when it should have remained at 100

percent. The misalignment, which was subsequently determined to

have occurred sometime between June 16 and July 11, could have

resulted in the generator not starting within the required time

and not being able to provide sufficient emergency backup power

during an accident. Furthermore, the operation of the generator

at a lower-than-normal speed could have damaged emergency core

cooling system motors.

PP&L investigated the misalignment but was unable to

determine the cause, though the utility did not rule out that it

may have been the result of a work sequence error, inadvertent

human interaction or tampering. The company has since taken

steps to prevent a recurrence, including the installation of a

protective cover over the controls, known as the Woodward

governor.

The NRC staff has found that PP&L committed a violation
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by failing to establish adequate controls for the generator’s

alignment.

In a letter to PP&L announcing the enforcement action,

NRC Region 1 Administrator Hubert J. Miller said that failure

caused “important safety-related equipment to be inoperable for

an indeterminate period, thus degrading the plant’s capability to

respond to accidents.”

“Further, the NRC is concerned that you failed to

implement effective controls for the alignment of the Woodward

governor controls despite the fact that multiple events involving

the functioning of the Woodward governors have been identified in

the industry between 1985 and the present,” including three at

Susquehanna, Mr. Miller wrote. “Also, the NRC is concerned that

your investigation of the event could not preclude tampering as a

cause and that the investigations revealed at least two other

recent instances of unexplained misalignment of out-of-service

EDGs (emergency diesel generators) similar to the misalignment of

the ‘A’ EDG.”

The administrator added that it appeared that personnel

performance issues were persisting at the plant, and that there

was an “adverse trend in equipment status control events.”

PP&L has 30 days to pay the fine or request in writing

that all or part of the penalty be withdrawn.

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