NRC ORDER – ORDER

On September 28, 2015, the NRC issued a Confirmatory Order to Energy Northwest, to formalize commitments made as a result of an alternative dispute mediation session held on August 6, 2015. The commitments were made as part of a settlement agreement between Energy Northwest and the NRC regarding a violation that involved Nuclear Security Officers at Columbia Generating Station being willfully inattentive while on duty, which resulted in them not meeting the requirement to be available at all times inside the protected areas for their assigned response duties, contrary to 10 CFR 73.55(k)(5)(iii). In light of the significant corrective actions Energy Northwest had taken and subject to the satisfactory completion of the additional actions committed to take, as described in the Confirmatory Order, the NRC will not issue a Notice of Violation for the apparent violation. Those actions include, but are not limited to: (1) conducting a common cause evaluation, (2) revising its annual compliance and ethics computer-based training to address deliberate misconduct, (3) presenting at an industry forum to discuss the events that led to the confirmatory order, (4) conducting a targeted nuclear safety culture assessment, and (5) paying a civil penalty of $35,000.