The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced that it had issued a Confirmatory Order to FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC), pertaining to a lapse in medical record reporting by one of the plant's licensed operators.
The NRC said that FENOC had taken a number of steps to address the issue prior to the order, but following an investigating that concluded that an operator at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, 21 miles southeast of Toledo, Ohio, had deliberately failed to provide complete and accurate medical information, as is required by the federal regulator.
The order was part of a settlement reached under the Alternative Dispute Resolution Process (ADR) that was requested by FENOC to address the violations, which occurred on multiple occasions between February 2013 and July 2014, according to the NRC.
As a result of the failure to report accurate medical records, FENOC, in turn, provided the regulator with what amounted to as false medical records.
As a result of the ADR process, FENOC agreed to reinforce knowledge of and compliance with requirements for medical qualifications and completeness and accuracy of information pertaining to the health of plant operators at both Davis-Besse and across the FENOC fleet of power plants. FENOC also agreed to complete an effectiveness review of those actions, revise existing procedures on updating operator’s medical records, communicate concerns about this issue across the nuclear power industry and update the regulator on the status of those actions.
Prior to the ADR process, FirstEnergy had already initiated several steps to address the causes of the violations, which included addressing the situation with the operator in question, making sure licensed operators at the plant understood the requirements and reinforcing these expectations with Davis-Besse and FENOC management. They also conducted a review of corrective actions to identify potential trends in medical reporting among their personnel.