NRC ORDER – —

On March 10, 2014, the NRC issued a Confirmatory Order (CO) to South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G) to formalize commitments made as a result of an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mediation session held on October 8, 2013. The commitments were made as part of a settlement agreement between SCE&G and the NRC regarding the apparent violations of 10 CFR 73.56, "Personnel access authorization requirements for nuclear power plants" and 10 CFR 50.9, "Completeness and accuracy of information." The first violation involved the willful actions of the licensee's access authorization staff, which caused the licensee's access authorization program to fail to provide high assurance that individuals granted unescorted access are trustworthy and reliable, such that they do not constitute an unreasonable risk to public health and safety, as required by 10 CFR 73.56(c). Specifically, the licensee's access authorization reviewing officials reviewed, adjudicated, and granted an individual unescorted access authorization by relying unreasonably on a falsified PHQ and fabricated court record to determine their trustworthiness and reliability. The second violation involved the willful failure to comply with the requirements of 10 CFR 50.9(a) which, in part, state that "information required by statute or Commission regulations to be maintained shall be complete and accurate in all material respects." In part, 10 CFR 73.56(o)(2)(i) requires the licensee to retain records of information that must be collected under subparts (d) and (e) of 10 CFR 73.56 that result in the granting of unescorted access for at least 5 years after the licensee terminates, or denies, an individual's unescorted access or unescorted access authorization. As part of the ADR settlement agreement SCE&G agreed that the issues described above resulted in an individual inappropriately being granted unescorted access to Summer Nuclear Station (SNS), which was inconsistent with the requirements of 10 CFR 73.5