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Inspection Findings

On October 12, 2004, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission completed an inspection of the emergency preparedness program at Vermont Yankee.

The inspectors concluded that Entergy was not making a "best effort" attempt of distributing and maintaining tone alert radios in areas of the emergency planning zone that are outside of siren coverage. Tone alert radios are integral to the Alert Notification System and complement the pole-mounted siren system in areas where there is inadequate "sound" siren coverage such as in a mountainous terrain. The purpose of the sirens and tone alert radios is to alert people to listen to their local emergency broadcast station for information.

In its efforts to advertise the availability of the tone alert radios, Entergy ultimately placed the onus on these individuals who needed or had them and not on Entergy. This is contrary to the NRC’s view of a "best effort" as denoted in FEMA design guidance and for what was accepted by FEMA and the NRC. Contributing to this finding was the fact that an accurate listing or registry of those residents who had or needed tone alert radios was not current; thus, because of the lack of an updated registry, it could not be determined to what extent tone alert radios are needed in the emergency planning zone and, therefore, uncertainty results on how the system was to be maintained.

This finding was assessed using the emergency preparedness significance determination process and was determined to be a white finding (i.e., a finding with some increased importance to safety, which may require additional NRC inspection). The finding is of low to moderate safety significance because the function was not completely lost, just degraded. A majority of the population remained protected by the sirens and a large percentage of tone alert radios remained functional throughout the emergency planning zone.

Entergy has implemented appropriate compensatory measures (route alerting when sirens are actuated for areas covered by tone alert radios), and therefore the finding does not present a safety concern. Entergy is continuing with longer-term corrective measures including making the offers of radios to local citizens and re-establishing a current registry by the end of the year.

Correspondence

Petition for Enforcement Action

On December 7, 2004, the New England Coalition submitted a petition requesting that the NRC order the shutdown of Vermont Yankee until the licensee has developed a workable emergency warning system. The NRC’s Petition Review Board has reviewed the petition with respect to the request for immediate action to order the cold shutdown of Vermont Yankee. The PRB determined that the proposed immediate action is not necessary because the licensee has notified the affected towns to be prepared to do route alerting to ensure that those residents outside of siren coverage are notified in the event of an emergency.

The PRB held a telephone conference with the petitioners to allow them to provide any relevant additional explanation and support for the request. The PRB accepted the petition for review under the process specified in 10 CFR 2.206.

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Monday, February 12, 2007