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NRC NEWS
U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION |
| Office of Public Affairs |
Telephone: 301/415-8200 |
| Washington, DC 20555-001 |
E-mail: opa@nrc.gov |
No. 96-131 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Wednesday, October 2, 1996)
NRC STAFF PROPOSES $900,000 FINE AGAINST THERMAL SCIENCE
FOR VIOLATIONS OF NRC REQUIREMENTS
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a $900,000 fine against
Thermal Science, Inc., of St. Louis, Missouri, for misrepresentations made by the
company to the NRC concerning its Thermo-Lag fire barrier products.
The NRC bases this action on violations of agency requirements found during a
review of (1) documents submitted to the agency by Thermal Science on or before
October 5, 1991; (2) the transcript of a meeting between the company's president Rubin
Feldman and NRC staff on October 17, 1991; and (3) the transcript of criminal
proceedings against the company in a Federal district court.
Thermal Science submitted information to NRC during the agency's
investigations concerning Thermo-Lag products used for fire protection in nuclear
power plants. NRC has concluded that the company misrepresented the level of
involvement of a test laboratory, Industrial Testing Laboratories, Inc., (ITL), in fire
barrier and other tests. NRC also found that Thermal Science indirectly misrepresented
the respective levels of involvement of the company and of test laboratories, including
ITL, in the testing of Thermo-Lag products when it provided test reports and other
documents, knowing that they contained inaccurate and/or incomplete information.
The NRC cited nine separate violations.
"Violations involving multiple instances in which a vendor deliberately provides
inaccurate and/or incomplete information related to the performance and quality of its
important-to-safety products constitute a very significant regulatory concern, are wholly
unacceptable, and will not be tolerated," James Lieberman, Director of NRC's Office of
Enforcement, said in a letter to Thermal Science. "These violations are further
aggravated because they were committed in the context of an ongoing NRC
investigation into concerns about the quality and performance of Thermo-Lag products
with significant implications regarding the compliance of a substantial number of
nuclear power plant licensees with the Commission's regulations."
NRC's Enforcement Policy sets the base civil penalty at $10,000 for a violation
of this severity level. But, Mr. Lieberman said in his letter, the NRC staff decided to
raise it to the maximum statutory limit of $100,000 for each of the nine violations, for a
total of $900,000
The staff took this action, he said, because of the "egregious, deliberate, and
repeated nature of these violations" and because Thermal Science continued to provide
inaccurate information to NRC long after being informed of the agency's concerns about
Thermo-Lag products. He also noted that supplying insufficiently tested Thermo-Lag
to NRC reactor licensees not only placed those licensees in jeopardy of being in
violation of NRC regulations, but also resulted in a compromise of the level of plant
safety. Mr. Lieberman said the staff took into consideration in determining the civil
penalty the monetary benefit Thermal Science gained by marketing inadequately tested
fire barrier products.
Thermal Science has 30 days to pay the proposed fine or to protest it. If the fine
is protested and subsequently imposed by the NRC staff, the company may request a
hearing.
A copy of this enforcement action is available upon request from the NRC's
Office of Public Affairs. It also has also been posted on the Internet at this address:
http://www.nrc.gov/OE//rpr/rx.htm.
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