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NRC NEWS
U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION I
475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 | | CONTACT: |
Diane Screnci (610)337-5330/ e-mail: dps@nrc.gov
Neil A. Sheehan (610)337-5331/e-mail: nas@nrc.gov |
or vld@nrc.gov
I-96-39 June 19, 1996
Contact: Diane Screnci FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Victor Dricks
NRC STAFF PROPOSES $50,000 FINE AGAINST
NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORPORATION
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has cited the Niagara
Mohawk Power Corporation for four alleged violations of NRC requirements
at the Nine Mile Point 1 Nuclear Station in Scriba, New York. The staff
has proposed a fine of $50,000 for two of the violations.
The alleged violations were identified during an NRC inspection
conducted between February 17 and March 11. One of the violations for
which the fine is being proposed concerns a safety vulnerability of the
Unit 1 reactor and turbine building blowout panels. These metal panels,
located near the top of the turbine and reactor buildings, are designed
to relieve excess pressure under some accident conditions. However,
based on the results of the NRC inspection it appears the panels would
not have functioned as designed from the time the plant began operating
in December 1969 through March 1995.
Niagara Mohawk was also cited and fined for its failure, in October
1993, to perform a proper safety evaluation when it determined that the
wrong size bolts had been installed on the panels, preventing the panels
from functioning as designed. In a letter to the licensee, NRC Region I
Administrator Thomas T. Martin said, "The NRC is particularly concerned
that a weak safety assessment, coupled with design control deficiencies
involving a calculation error and inadequate design review of that
calculation led to an untimely resolution of the problem identified in
October 1993." The problem has since been corrected.
The two violations for which the licensee was cited, but not fined,
involve the failure to write a deviation event report to address human
performance and personnel performance problems adverse to quality, and
failure in October 1993, to notify the NRC within an hour of a condition
outside the plant's design basis.
Niagara Mohawk has 30 days to either pay the proposed fine or to
request in writing that part or all of it be withdrawn.
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