No: II-08-021 April 9, 2008 

CONTACT: Ken Clark (404)562-4416 E-mail: OPA2@nrc.gov 

 Roger Hannah (404)562-4417 

NRC PROPOSES $130,000 CIVIL PENALTY AGAINST FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT 

FOR SECURITY VIOLATIONS AT TURKEY POINT NUCLEAR POWER PLANT 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a $130,000 civil penalty against 

Florida Power & Light Co., for violations of security requirements at the Turkey Point nuclear 

power plant, operated by the company on Biscayne Bay near Homestead, about 30 miles 

southeast of Miami. 

 NRC officials said the fine was being proposed because a 2006 investigation found that 

security officers employed by Wackenhut Nuclear Services were willfully inattentive to duty 

(sleeping) from 2004 through 2006. NRC investigators determined that, on multiple occasions 

during that time, security officers at Turkey Point were willfully inattentive to duty or served as 

lookouts so other officers could sleep on duty. Included in these multiple examples is an incident 

that occurred on April 6, 2006, in which a security officer was observed by an NRC inspector to 

be sleeping while on duty at a post in a vital area of the reactor. 

 The NRC concluded that all examples of inattentiveness or complicity or facilitation by 

other security personnel were willful in nature and caused FPL to be in violation of NRC security 

requirements because the officers were not capable of maintaining continuous communication 

with an individual in each continuously manned alarm station. 

 In a letter to the company dated April 9th, Victor McCree, acting administrator of the 

NRC’s Region II office in Atlanta, said the NRC “considers this matter to be a significant 

security concern” and that “the complicity and facilitation by other security personnel of 

inattentive behavior on the part of fellow security personnel “is of particular concern to the NRC 

and “cannot be tolerated.” 

McCree also said that the NRC issued a significant enforcement action and civil penalty 

to FPL in January 2008, for various security-related violations that occurred at Turkey Point 

during the 2004-2006 time period. 

The NRC also issued an immediately effective Confirmatory Order to Wackenhut 

Nuclear Services, dated April 9th, to confirm agreements Wackenhut made to the NRC during an 

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mediation session on Jan. 22, 2008. As part of a 

settlement agreement, Wackenhut agreed to the development and continuation of several 

NRC NEWS

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Office of Public Affairs, Region II 

61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta GA 30303 

Web Site: www.nrc.gov 
initiatives to ensure security officer attentiveness at all facilities supported by Wackenhut and 

agreed to a continuation of periodic communications with the NRC to discuss the status and 

effectiveness of these issues. 

In consideration of these commitments, the NRC agreed to forego issuance of a Notice of 

Violation or other enforcement action against Wackenhut in this matter. 

Copies of the Notice of Violation to FPL and the immediately effective Order to 

Wackenhut may be obtained from the NRC at the above listed telephone number and email 

address or electronically from the internet at www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. The ADAMS 

accession numbers are ML081000196 for FPL and ML081000175 for Wackenhut. 

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