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NRC NEWS
U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION III
801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 |
| CONTACT: |
Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663/e-mail: rjs2@nrc.gov |
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Angela Greenman (630) 829-9662/e-mail: opa3@nrc.gov |
NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: RIII-96-46 August 15, 1996
CONTACT: Jan Strasma 630/829-9663
Angela Dauginas 630/829-9662
E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov
NRC STAFF PROPOSES $50,000 FINE AGAINST CONSUMERS POWER COMPANY
FOR FIRE PROTECTION VIOLATIONS AT THE PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a
$50,000 fine against Consumers Power Company for failing to take
prompt action to correct fire protection deficiencies at its
Palisades Nuclear Power Station.
The plant is located near South Haven, Michigan.
In late 1994 Consumers Power began an extensive review of
the Palisades plant to find instances where equipment design and
installation failed to meet NRC fire protection requirements.
In March and April of this year NRC inspectors found
significant fire protection deficiencies which had been
identified during the utility's review but which had not been
adequately and promptly corrected.
In notifying the utility of the proposed fine, NRC Regional
Administrator A. Bill Beach said, "Our review has indicated that
your staff's corrective actions for those issues were not
effective and were not implemented within a time frame consistent
with the potential safety significance of the deficiencies."
He added, "Our inspection also revealed that in instances
where all corrective actions had been completed, the corrective
actions were not sufficiently rigorous to adequately resolve the
issues."
One example of the failure to adequately and promptly
correct deficiencies was the coordination of fuses in the
electrical circuitry for an emergency diesel generator. Fuse
coordination means assuring that a fuse protecting a subsystem
would blow first without affecting the fuse for the entire
system.
This fuse deficiency could have made the diesel generator
inoperable under certain conditions. The NRC inspection found
that the utility failed to give adequate guidance to plant
operators to allow them to take prompt action to recover the
diesel generator in the event of fuse failure.
"While the probability of a fire occurring as described in
NRC regulations is low, the consequences of such an event
occurring at Palisades could have been high," said Mr. Beach.
"The ability to maintain the plant in a safe shutdown condition,
as required by the fire protection regulations, could only have
been achieved by significant operator actions, troubleshooting,
and repair activities to compensate for the design deficiencies."
Once the deficiencies in the corrective actions were
identified in the NRC inspection, the utility began extensive
activities to improve its corrective action process and to
correct the fire protection deficiencies. These actions included
modification of the diesel generator circuitry to correct the
fuse coordination problem.
Consumers Power Company has until September 12 to pay the
fine or to protest it. If the fine is protested and subsequently
imposed by the NRC staff, the utility may request a hearing.
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NOTE: The area code for the NRC Region III office has been
changed to 630.
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