Entergy Agrees to Survey of Safety Culture at Nuclear Plants
The survey will be done by a third party within a year at plants in Mississippi, Arkansas, New York, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Louisiana, to identify safety culture concerns that could be contributing to employees' willful misconduct.
A Confirmatory Order from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission spells out actions that will be taken by Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. and Entergy Operations, Inc. in the wake of an investigation by the NRC at the Entergy Grand Gulf nuclear power plant in Port Gibson, Miss. The agency identified three apparent violations, including:
- An examination proctor provided assistance on general employee training exams to contractor personnel.
- From February to December 2016, three nonlicensed operators failed to tour all required areas of their watch station.
- Three nonlicensed operators created documents indicating their rounds had been performed when they actually had not been completed.
Entergy and the NRC have agreed to a series of actions the companies will take across their fleet of nuclear plants in Mississippi, Arkansas, New York, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Louisiana. These include a survey that will be done by a third party within a year at all plants to identify safety culture concerns that could be contributing to employees' willful misconduct, and Entergy will conduct annual training beginning in 2020 that emphasizes its intolerance of willful misconduct.
Entergy also will perform annual effectiveness reviews of its corrective actions for three years.