Wppss Faces $50,000 Fine

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed fining the Washington Public Power Supply System $50,000 for nine violations between February and April, the agency said Friday.

WPPSS has not yet decided whether to appeal, said spokesman George Tupper. The Supply System has 30 days to either pay the civil penalty or protest it.

“We need to study the details of it a little more before we make a decision on what our response will be. For the most part, the incidents, we admit they all occurred,” Tupper said Friday. “It’s probably doubtful there will be an appeal, but we didn’t want to come out and say that.”

The nine violations all involved workers’ failure to follow procedures, the NRC said.

NRC Regional Administrator L. Joe Callan cited similar personnel errors that occurred in 1993 and 1994, including one that resulted in a foreign material being dropped into the reactor vessel.