A “Severity Level IV” violation at Oconee Nuclear

An inspection that was completed June 30 at Oconee Nuclear identified three findings of what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission called “very low safety significance.”  But an additional finding by the inspectors led the NRC to document a Severity Level IV violation. NRC spokesman Joey Ledbetter says no fine is being proposed, but it was a violation the government watchdog takes seriously.  “We did a special inspection at Oconee related to the discovery of a disconnected cable to a transformer.  That particular disconnected cable caused an emergency power path to not be available, and it was not available for 21 minutes,” said Ledbetter.  The violation arose, he said, when Duke failed to report the incident within eight hours.  Instead the company made a written report within 60 days. The NRC account of the December 7 incident says, “This performance deficiency impacted the ability of the NRC to perform its regulatory oversight function and was dispositioned using traditional enforcement.”  Duke has the right within 30 days to contest the findings.