Entergy Operations Inc.'s strong response to reports of various falsified records incidents at the Waterford 3 Steam Electric Station has swayed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to back away from issuing the company a Notice of Violation or a civil penalty, the industry regulator said.
The NRC said Friday that it had issued a Confirmatory Order to Entergy, which has agreed to a series of corrective actions following an investigation that determined that workers at the plant, which is 25 miles west of New Orleans, had falsified records of fire inspections that were never done. The workers “failed to perform fire inspections and falsified records,” the NRC said.
The Confirmatory Order is the result of the NRC's Alternative Dispute Resolution process, which Entergy Operations requested in response to a December 2015 inspection report that documented the workers' lapses.
The NRC determined that on multiple occasions between July 2013 and April 2014, seven contract workers falsified records showing they had performed fire inspections they never conducted, the agency said. In addition, an Entergy supervisor went along with the ruse and “willfully failed to identify and take corrective actions when provided with information of suspected wrongdoing by contract fire watch personnel,” the regulator said.
Similarly, a contractor manager “willfully” provided false information to a plant security officer, who was looking into the incidents, according to the NRC.
In response, Entergy has agreed to improve training for personnel and complete a fleet-wide review of its fire watch programs over the next five years. The company will also establish a chain of command for executive oversight of the company's fire watch programs.
The company's response is strong enough for the regulator to avoid seeking punitive actions over the issue, the NRC said.
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