A-Plant Faces Record Fine of $1.25 Million

The operator of Pennsylvania’s Peach Bottom nuclear power plant was ordered Thursday to pay a fine of $1.25 million, the largest in Nuclear Regulatory Commission history, because 33 reactor workers slept or were negligent on the job.

In addition, the NRC levied fines ranging from $500 to $1,000 against the 33 present and former reactor operators, the first such civil penalties ever proposed for individual operators.

It said the 33 fines “involved sleeping and-or other acts of inattention to duty” at Philadelphia Electric Co.’s closed Peach Bottom plant on the Susquehanna River in Delta, Pa.

Can Deny Allegations

The agency called the levies “proposed fines,” explaining that both Philadelphia Electric and the operators have 30 days to admit or deny the alleged violations.

If the allegations are denied, the NRC staff will study the statements submitted by the workers before making a decision on whether to uphold the penalty. “We say they violated the regulations and, unless they demonstrate they did not, then the fine will be imposed as proposed,” commission spokesman Frank Ingram said.

If the workers admit the allegations, they still may seek to have the fines reduced or withdrawn.

Utilities Share Ownership

Philadelphia Electric executives said that they had not decided whether to appeal the fine. The company owns 42% of Peach Bottom and operates the facility. Other utilities that own part of the plant are Atlantic City Electric Co., Public Service Electric & Gas Co. and Delmarva Power & Light Co.

The fine is the largest since Congress gave the NRC authority to issue civil penalties in 1969. The previous high was a $900,000 fine against Toledo Edison Co. for an incident in which the Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Ohio had a temporary loss of cooling water.

Peach Bottom, which sits near the Pennsylvania-Maryland border and is capable of producing 1 million kilowatts of electric power, was ordered shut down by the NRC on March 31, 1987, because it posed “an immediate threat to the public health and safety.”

Staff Found Sleeping

Sleeping on the job was so common at the plant that on one occasion a shift superintendent and three of the four reactor operators all dozed at once, according to testimony by an NRC official at a commission hearing in April, 1987.

In informing the company of the fine, the NRC staff said: “All levels of plant management at that time either knew or should have known of these facts and either took no action or inadequate action to correct this situation.”