Opinion ID: 2237187
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Arthur Young Audit

Text: In conducting its audit on remand, Arthur Young divided Byron I's construction schedule into five major construction periods (milestones). Milestones are the critical paths or major stages of construction which must be completed before further construction phases can begin. Within each milestone, Arthur Young determined what it considered to be a proper time table (mitigated schedule) for completion of that milestone. Arthur Young then compared this mitigated schedule with Edison's actual time table (as-built schedule) for that milestone and determined the amount of delay that elapsed during each milestone period. Arthur Young then determined whether the resulting delay during each milestone was reasonable or unreasonable delay. In the first milestone, first concrete to nuclear steam supply system set (NSSS), the auditor found a delay of 8.5 months due to problems welding the supports for Byron I's steam generators. The auditor found that this 8.5-month delay was reasonable. In the second milestone, NSSS to hydrostatic testing, the auditor found a delay of 12.1 months. Arthur Young determined that 10 months of delay was reasonable. However, the auditor found that 2.1 months of delay during this milestone was unreasonable. The 2.1 months of unreasonable delay resulted from an electrical stop work order issued by Edison because of continuing quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) problems Edison had been experiencing with one of its subcontractors, Hatfield Electric Company (Hatfield). In the third milestone, hydrostatic testing to hot functional testing, Arthur Young found 11.8 months of delay. The auditor contributed 8.0 months of this delay to regulatory and structural/safety changes required throughout the nuclear power industry following the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979. It found this 8.0 month delay to be reasonable. The auditor found that the remaining 3.8 months of delay during this milestone was due to internal delay on Edison's part. The auditor determined that the internal delay resulted from multiple causes, some of which were reasonable and some of which were unreasonable. Arthur Young concluded, however, that, because the reasonable causes would have resulted in the same 3.8-month delay, the reasonable causes masked the unreasonable causes. Therefore, Arthur Young found this 3.8-month delay to be reasonable. In the fourth milestone, hot functional testing to fuel load, the auditor found 15.5 months of delay. Arthur Young found that 1.7 months of delay was reasonable. Arthur Young found that the remaining 13.8 months of delay consisted of overlapping periods of delay: 11.4 months of delay caused by Edison's slow response to fire protection issues; 11.6 months of delay in completing preoperational testing; and 9.6 months of delay due to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Licensing Board's denial of an operating license for Byron I in January 1984. Arthur Young found the 13.8-month delay to be unreasonable. In the fifth milestone, fuel load to commercial operation, Arthur Young found a 0.8-month delay to be reasonable. Based on its mitigated schedule, Arthur Young determined that Byron I should have been ready to load fuel by July 7, 1983 (mitigated fuel-load date). The fuelload date is the date by which the nuclear power plant should be licensed and operational. Byron I's as-built fuel-load date occurred in early November 1984. Consequently, Arthur Young found that Edison was responsible for a total of 15.9 months of unreasonable delay in the operation of Byron I. In Rate Order II, the Commission accepted the auditor's determination that Edison was responsible for four separate periods of unreasonable delay which totalled 15.9 months. These four periods of unreasonable delay occurred as follows: TYPE OF AMOUNT OF DELAY DATE CAUSE DELAY 1. construction 1/10/81-3/13/81 electrical 2.1 months stop work order 2. construction 9/9/83-8/20/84 extended preperational 11.6 months testing 3. construction 9/9/83-8/20/84 fire protection 11.4 months problems 4. licensing 1/13/84-11/2/84 license denial 9.6 months Since there were overlapping periods of unreasonable delay, Arthur Young found, and the Commission agreed, that these delays unreasonably deferred the operation of Byron I by a total of 15.9 months. The Commission adopted the auditor's findings of 15.9 months of unreasonable delay and the July 7, 1983, mitigated fuel-load date and disallowed costs related to the unreasonable delay.