NRC Proposes $130,000 Civil Penalty Against Florida Power & Light for Security Violations at Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a $130,000 civil penalty against Florida Power & Light Co., for violations of security requirements at the Turkey Point nuclear power plant, operated by the company on Biscayne Bay near Homestead, about 30 miles southeast of Miami.

NRC officials said the fine was being proposed because a 2006 investigation found that security officers employed by Wackenhut Nuclear Services were willfully inattentive to duty (sleeping) from 2004 through 2006. NRC investigators determined that, on multiple occasions during that time, security officers at Turkey Point were willfully inattentive to duty or served as lookouts so other officers could sleep on duty. Included in these multiple examples is an incident that occurred on April 6, 2006, in which a security officer was observed by an NRC inspector to be sleeping while on duty at a post in a vital area of the reactor.

The NRC concluded that all examples of inattentiveness or complicity or facilitation by other security personnel were willful in nature and caused FPL to be in violation of NRC security requirements because the officers were not capable of maintaining continuous communication with an individual in each continuously manned alarm station.

In a letter to the company dated April 9th, Victor McCree, acting administrator of the NRC’s Region II office in Atlanta, said the NRC “considers this matter to be a significant security concern” and that “the complicity and facilitation by other security personnel of inattentive behavior on the part of fellow security personnel “is of particular concern to the NRC and “cannot be tolerated.”

McCree also said that the NRC issued a significant enforcement action and civil penalty to FPL in January 2008, for various security-related violations that occurred at Turkey Point during the 2004-2006 time period.

The NRC also issued an immediately effective Confirmatory Order to Wackenhut Nuclear Services, dated April 9th, to confirm agreements Wackenhut made to the NRC during an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mediation session on Jan. 22, 2008. As part of a settlement agreement, Wackenhut agreed to the development and continuation of several initiatives to ensure security officer attentiveness at all facilities supported by Wackenhut and agreed to a continuation of periodic communications with the NRC to discuss the status and effectiveness of these issues.

In consideration of these commitments, the NRC agreed to forego issuance of a Notice of Violation or other enforcement action against Wackenhut in this matter.

Source: NRC News