In the Matter of Keith Davis; Order Prohibiting Involvement in NRC-Licensed Activities, 16013-16015 [E9-7946]

Agencies

• NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 66 (Wednesday, April 8, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16013-16015]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-7946]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 55-61336; License No. SOP-11801 (Terminated); IA-09-014; 
NRC-2009-0156]


In the Matter of Keith Davis; Order Prohibiting Involvement in 
NRC-Licensed Activities

I

    Keith Davis (Mr. Davis) was previously employed as a Senior Reactor 
Operator (SRO) at PPL Corporation's Susquehanna Steam Electric Station 
(SSES or the facility), located in Berwick, Pennsylvania. Mr. Davis was 
the holder of SRO License Number SOP-11801, issued by the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission) pursuant to 10 CFR part 55. 
The license authorized Mr. Davis to direct the licensed activities of 
SSES licensed operators, and to manipulate the controls of the 
facility. The license was terminated on August 1, 2006.

II

    In a letter dated July 2, 2007, the NRC provided to Mr. Davis the 
results of an investigation initiated by the NRC Office of 
Investigations (OI). The letter informed Mr. Davis that the NRC was 
considering escalated enforcement action against him for an apparent 
violation of his SRO license due to his failure to report an arrest as 
required by SSES procedures. The NRC offered Mr. Davis a choice to 
attend a Predecisional Enforcement Conference or to request Alternate 
Dispute Resolution (ADR) to resolve any disagreement over: (1) whether 
a violation occurred; and (2) The appropriate enforcement action. At 
his request, an ADR mediation session was held between Mr. Davis and 
the NRC on September 27, 2007, and a settlement agreement was reached 
regarding his role in this matter. Mr. Davis confirmed his agreement, 
in principle, on November 16, 2007, when he signed the Consent and 
Hearing Waiver form, consenting to the issuance of a Notice of 
Violation and Confirmatory Order containing commitments agreed to in 
the settlement.
    On November 26, 2007, the NRC issued a Notice of Violation (Notice) 
to Mr. Davis for his failure to report the arrest. The Notice 
characterized the violation at Severity Level III. The NRC also issued 
the Confirmatory Order confirming the commitments made as part of the 
settlement agreement. The Confirmatory Order required Mr. Davis to 
complete the commitment actions within three months of the date of the 
Confirmatory Order, and then inform the NRC within one month of 
completion.
    The actions included:
    a. Writing an operating experience report addressing lessons 
learned from the violation;
    b. Providing the report to the NRC for review and then submitting 
it to a minimum of three national organizations for possible 
publication;
    c. Providing a written response to the NRC explaining why the NRC 
can have confidence that Mr. Davis will follow licensee procedures and 
meet NRC regulations, should he work in the nuclear industry in the 
future; and
    d. Preparing a licensed and non-licensed operator training plan 
regarding procedure compliance and the lessons learned from this issue, 
and

[[Page 16014]]

providing the plan to SSES for its potential use.
    In accordance with the Confirmatory Order, Mr. Davis was required 
to notify the NRC, in writing, of completion of these activities by 
March 27, 2008.
    The requirement to respond to an NRC Order is outlined in 10 CFR 
2.202(b), which states, in part: A licensee or other person, to whom 
the Commission has issued an order under this section, must respond to 
the order by filing a written answer under oath or affirmation. Mr. 
Davis failed to respond to the Confirmatory Order.
    After the NRC made several unsuccessful attempts to contact Mr. 
Davis, the NRC OI located and spoke with him on October 17, 2008. At 
that time, Mr. Davis informed OI that he did not agree with the ADR 
settlement to which he had consented, and that it was for this reason 
that he did not accept and/or ignored the NRC's correspondence 
attempts. On October 17, 2008, Mr. Davis also contacted the RI senior 
enforcement specialist by telephone, and explained that he was not in 
agreement with the conclusions of the ADR, and that he chose to not 
complete the Confirmatory Order actions or notify the NRC of his 
disagreement. The senior enforcement specialist instructed Mr. Davis to 
send a letter to the RI Regional Administrator explaining his position 
and reasons for not complying with the Confirmatory Order. As of the 
date of this Order, Mr. Davis has neither provided this letter nor 
otherwise responded to the November 26, 2007 Confirmatory Order.

III

    Based on the above, the NRC has concluded that Keith Davis violated 
10 CFR 2.202(b), by failing to respond to an NRC Confirmatory Order. 
This conclusion is based on: (1) Mr. Davis's statements to the RI OI 
that he no longer agreed with the ADR settlement and that he knowingly 
did not accept and/or ignored NRC correspondence requesting his 
response to the Confirmatory Order; (2) Mr. Davis's failure to contact 
the NRC regarding his disagreement with the ADR settlement; and (3) Mr. 
Davis's continued failure to respond to the Confirmatory Order.
    As a result, I no longer have the necessary assurance that Mr. 
Davis, should he engage in NRC-licensed activities under any other NRC 
license, would perform NRC-licensed activities safely and in accordance 
with NRC requirements, and that the health and safety of the public 
will be protected if Mr. Davis were permitted at this time to be 
involved in NRC-licensed activities.
    Therefore, the public health, safety, and interest require that Mr. 
Davis be prohibited from any involvement in NRC-licensed activities for 
a period of three years from the date of this Order, and that Mr. Davis 
notify the NRC of his first employment in NRC-licensed activities for a 
period of three years following the prohibition period.

IV

    Accordingly, pursuant to sections 103, 161b, 161i, 182 and 186 of 
the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and the Commission's 
regulations in 10 CFR 2.202, 10 CFR 30.10, and 10 CFR 150.20, it is 
hereby ordered that:
    1. Keith Davis is prohibited for three years from the date of this 
Order from engaging in NRC-licensed activities. NRC-licensed activities 
are those activities that are conducted pursuant to a specific or 
general license issued by the NRC, including, but not limited to, those 
activities of Agreement State licensees conducted pursuant to the 
authority granted by 10 CFR 150.20.
    2. If Keith Davis is currently involved with another licensee in 
NRC-licensed activities, he must immediately cease those activities, 
and inform the NRC of the name, address and telephone number of the 
employer, and provide a copy of this order to the employer.
    3. Keith Davis shall, within 20 days following acceptance of his 
first employment offer involving NRC-licensed activities or his 
becoming involved in NRC-licensed activities, as defined in Paragraph 
IV.1 above, provide notice to the Director, Office of Enforcement, U. 
S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, of the 
name, address, and telephone number of the employer or the entity where 
he is, or will be, involved in the NRC-licensed activities.
    The Director, OE, may, in writing, relax or rescind any of the 
above conditions upon demonstration by Mr. Davis of good cause.

V

    In accordance with 10 CFR 2.202, Mr. Davis must, and any other 
person adversely affected by this Order may, submit an answer to this 
Order within 20 days of its issuance. In addition, Mr. Davis and any 
other person adversely affected by this Order may request a hearing on 
this Order within 20 days of its issuance. Where good cause is shown, 
consideration will be given to extending the time to answer or request 
a hearing. A request for extension of time must be directed to the 
Director, Office of Enforcement, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
and include a statement of good cause for the extension.
    A request for a hearing must be filed in accordance with the NRC E-
Filing rule, which the NRC promulgated in August, 2007, 72 FR 49,139 
(Aug. 28, 2007). The E-Filing process requires participants to submit 
and serve documents over the Internet or, in some cases, to mail copies 
on electronic optical storage media. Participants may not submit paper 
copies of their filings unless they seek a waiver in accordance with 
the procedures described below.
    To comply with the procedural requirements associated with E-
Filing, at least five (5) days prior to the filing deadline the 
requestor must contact the Office of the Secretary by e-mail at 
HEARINGDOCKET@NRC.GOV, or by calling (301) 415-1677, to request (1) a 
digital ID certificate, which allows the participant (or its counsel or 
representative) to digitally sign documents and access the E-Submittal 
server for any NRC proceeding in which it is participating; and/or (2) 
creation of an electronic docket for the proceeding (even in instances 
when the requestor (or its counsel or representative) already holds an 
NRC-issued digital ID certificate). Each requestor will need to 
download the Workplace Forms Viewer \TM\ to access the Electronic 
Information Exchange (EIE), a component of the E-Filing system. The 
Workplace Forms Viewer \TM\ is free and is available at https://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/install-viewer.html. Information 
about applying for a digital ID certificate also is available on NRC's 
public Web site at https://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/apply-certificates.html.
    Once a requestor has obtained a digital ID certificate, had a 
docket created, and downloaded the EIE viewer, it can then submit a 
request for a hearing through EIE. Submissions should be in Portable 
Document Format (PDF) in accordance with NRC guidance available on the 
NRC public Web site at https://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html. 
A filing is considered complete at the time the filer submits its 
document through EIE. To be timely, electronic filings must be 
submitted to the EIE system no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on 
the due date. Upon receipt of a transmission, the E-Filing system time-
stamps the document and sends the submitter an e-mail notice confirming 
receipt of the document. The EIE system also distributes an e-mail 
notice that provides access to the document to the NRC Office of the 
General Counsel and any others who have advised the Office of the 
Secretary that they wish to participate in the

[[Page 16015]]

proceeding, so that the filer need not serve the document on those 
participants separately. Therefore, any others who wish to participate 
in the proceeding (or their counsel or representative) must apply for 
and receive a digital ID certificate before a hearing request is filed 
so that they may obtain access to the document via the E-Filing system.
    A person filing electronically may seek assistance through the 
``Contact Us'' link located on the NRC Web site at https://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html or by calling the NRC technical help line, 
which is available between 8:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m., Eastern Time, 
Monday through Friday. The help line number is (800) 397-4209 or 
locally, (301) 415-4737. Participants who believe that they have good 
cause for not submitting documents electronically must file a motion, 
in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302(g), with their initial paper filing 
requesting authorization to continue to submit documents in paper 
format. Such filings must be submitted by (1) first class mail 
addressed to the Office of the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: 
Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff; or (2) courier, express mail, or 
expedited delivery service to the Office of the Secretary, Sixteenth 
Floor, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 
Maryland, 20852, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff. 
Participants filing a document in this manner are responsible for 
serving the document on all other participants. Filing is considered 
complete by first-class mail as of the time of deposit in the mail, or 
by courier, express mail, or expedited delivery service upon depositing 
the document with the provider of the service.
    Documents submitted in adjudicatory proceedings will appear in 
NRC's electronic hearing docket which is available to the public at 
https://ehd.nrc.gov/EHD_Proceeding/home.asp, unless excluded pursuant 
to an order of the Commission, an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, or 
a Presiding Officer.
    Participants are requested not to include personal privacy 
information, such as Social Security numbers, home addresses, or home 
phone numbers in their filings. With respect to copyrighted works, 
except for limited excerpts that serve the purpose of the adjudicatory 
filings and would constitute a Fair Use application, participants are 
requested not to include copyrighted materials in their works.
    If a person other than Mr. Davis requests a hearing, that person 
shall set forth with particularity the manner in which his interest is 
adversely affected by this Order and shall address the criteria set 
forth in 10 CFR 2.309(d).
    If a hearing is requested by Mr. Davis or a person whose interest 
is adversely affected, the Commission will issue an Order designating 
the time and place of any hearings. If a hearing is held, the issue to 
be considered at such hearing shall be whether this Order should be 
sustained. In the absence of any request for hearing, or written 
approval of an extension of time in which to request a hearing, the 
provisions specified in Section IV above shall be final 20 days from 
the date of this Order without further order or proceedings. If an 
extension of time for requesting a hearing has been approved, the 
provisions specified in Section IV shall be final when the extension 
expires if a hearing request has not been received.

    Dated this 1st day of April 2009.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Cynthia A. Carpenter,
Director, Office of Enforcement.
[FR Doc. E9-7946 Filed 4-7-09; 8:45 am]
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