No. I-14-017 April 17, 2014 

CONTACT: Diane Screnci, 610-337-5330 

 Neil Sheehan, 610-337-5331 

NRC Issues ‘White’ Inspection Finding for Ginna Nuclear Plant;

Level of Oversight to be Increased

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will increase its level of oversight at the Ginna nuclear 

power plant following the finalization of a “white” (low to moderate safety significance) inspection 

finding for the facility. The finding, which involves a violation of NRC requirements, is based on a 

failure to properly implement flooding protection measures at the plant, located in Ontario, N.Y., and 

operated by Exelon Generation Co. LLC.

Specifically, NRC inspectors determined that electrical cable penetrations that could allow for 

the flow of water from a manhole into battery rooms were not properly sealed for many years. The 

batteries are part of the plant’s credited emergency back-up power capabilities for events during which 

off-site power -- the plant’s normal source of electricity — is lost. The flooding could have disabled not 

only the batteries but also other emergency back-up sources of power for the plant.

While the company made modifications to fix the problem late last year, the NRC is taking 

enforcement action because of the length of time the vulnerability existed.

“Work to ensure nuclear power plants are protected to the greatest extent possible from flooding 

hazards has taken on even greater importance following the events in Fukushima, Japan, in March 

2011,” NRC Region I Administrator Bill Dean said. “While the vulnerability at the Ginna nuclear 

power plant has now been addressed, this violation calls attention to the fact that this issue did not 

receive the kind of attention it required for far too long.”

Under the NRC’s Reactor Oversight Process, inspection findings are classified by color based 

on their safety significance. The colors range from “green,” for a very low safety issue, to “white,” 

“yellow” or “red,” which connotes high safety significance. Because this finding has been finalized as 

“white,” the plant will move from the Licensee Response Column of the NRC’s Action Matrix to the 

Regulatory Response Column and be subject to additional inspections by the agency.

An NRC inspection report issued in February notes that Constellation – the owner of record for 

the plant until recently — failed to identify the need to correct two non-hydrostatically sealed cable 

penetrations between a manhole located on site property and a battery room after the flood height the 

plant must be able to withstand was changed in 1983. In addition, the company neither promptly 

corrected the problem in May 2013 when the condition was identified nor took timely action in early 

September 2013 when it was presented with evidence by NRC inspectors challenging its May 2013 

evaluation that the penetrations did not represent a potential vulnerability.
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The NRC’s determined that various extreme, low likelihood Deer Creek flooding scenarios 

could lead to water flowing into the manhole in question and then into both of the plant’s battery rooms 

through the inadequate penetration seals.

Prior to making a final enforcement decision, the NRC offered the company the opportunity to 

take part in a Regulatory Conference to provide additional information regarding the apparent violation, 

to submit a written response or to accept the finding without any formal response. The company 

submitted a written response dated March 14 in which it stated that, among other things, it had initiated 

a root cause analysis to better understand why the issue was not identified earlier through the plant’s 

problem identification and resolution program.