The Nuclear Regulator Commission said it had reached a settlement with Dominion Resources Inc., owners and operators of the Millstone Power Station in Waterford, Conn., that implements “a broad range of corrective actions at its Millstone Unit 2,” in response to improper changes at the plant that did not match requests for license amendments.
The settlement was achieved under the NRC's Alternate Dispute Resolution process “after apparent violations of agency regulations were identified during an investigation by the regulator's Office of Investigations."
The NRC called one of the infractions willful, but Dominion disagreed with that assessment. “We agreed to disagree,” the Associated Press quoted Millstone spokesman Ken Holt as saying.
The NRC said in September 2011 it became aware that Dominion had submitted requests for NRC approval of amendments to the Unit 2 operating license that were incomplete and inaccurate. The requests sought to modify the requirements for the unit's charging pumps and irradiated fuel decay time, the NRC said.
“The first violation considered for escalated enforcement was for a willful violation for changes made to the plant's Updated Final Safety Analysis Report, without a license amendment, that removed credit for a specific type of safety-related pump in the mitigation of a postulated accident. The second violation was a non-willful violation for a failure to provide compete and accurate information to the NRC pertaining to the changes. A third apparent violation, related to Dominion's failure to obtain a license amendment prior to making changes related to spent fuel pool heat-load analysis, was not considered for escalated enforcement,” the federal watchdog said.
Regulators offered the company a choice of attending an enforcement conference or ACR to address the apparent violations. This entails use of a neutral mediator working to reach resolutions to the issues, which can lead to long-term corrective actions.
When said and done, based on those discussions, the agency issued a binding Confirmatory Order on August 26. The company was ordered to make changes to plant procedures governing the operation and testing of the charging pumps (and provide an evaluation of the charging pumps), issue a fleet-wide communication advising company personnel of the importance of complete and accurate reporting, complete a 50.59 program, which allows for changes at a nuclear power facility prior to NRC approval under certain conditions, complete a formal sampling program of plant changes made under the 50.59 program since 2002 and provide a presentation at an industry forum to discuss the events that led to the Confirmatory Order.