In the Matter of Team Industrial Services, Inc., 58178-58181 [2019-23713]

Agencies

• NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 210 (Wednesday, October 30, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58178-58181]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-23713]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 030-35252; NRC-2019-0206]


In the Matter of Team Industrial Services, Inc.

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Order; modification.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued an order 
imposing a civil monetary penalty (Order) to Team Industrial Services, 
Inc., (licensee) on September 20, 2019. The purpose of the Order was to 
document the NRC's review of the licensee's response to the Notice of

[[Page 58179]]

Violation and Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalty, issued on March 8, 
2019. The licensee's response did not dispute the violation but did 
dispute both the deliberateness associated with the violation and the 
significance of the violation. The licensee also requested that the NRC 
not impose a civil penalty. After consideration of the response, the 
NRC concluded that the significance determination was appropriate and 
that an adequate basis to mitigate the proposed civil penalty amount 
was not provided.

DATES: The Order was issued on September 20, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2019-0206 when contacting the 
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You 
may obtain publicly-available information related to this document 
using any of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0206. Address 
questions about NRC dockets IDs in Regulations.gov to Jennifer Borges; 
telephone: 301-287-9127; email: [email protected]. For technical 
questions, contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT section of this document.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the 
ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``Begin Web-based ADAMS 
Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public 
Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or 
by email to [email protected]. The order imposing civil monetary 
penalty on Team Industrial Services, Inc., is available in ADAMS under 
Accession No. ML19263E598.
     NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public 
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Casey Alldredge, Region IV, U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 
817-200-1217, email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The text of the Order is attached.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 25th day of October, 2019.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Scott A. Morris,
Regional Administrator, NRC Region IV.

Attachment--Order Imposing Civil Monetary Penalty

United States of America

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

    In the Matter of: Team Industrial Services, Inc., Alvin, Texas

Docket No. 030-35252, License No. 42-32219-01, EA-18-124

Order Imposing Civil Monetary Penalty

I

    Team Industrial Services, Inc. (Licensee) is the holder of 
Materials License No. 42-32219-01 issued on January 10, 2000, by the 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission) pursuant to Part 
30 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR). The license 
authorizes the use and possession of nuclear materials in accordance 
with conditions specified therein. The facility is based in Alvin, 
Texas.

II

    The NRC conducted an investigation of the Licensee's activities 
from October 12, 2017, to August 27, 2018. The results of this 
investigation indicated that the Licensee had not conducted its 
activities in full compliance with NRC requirements associated with 
transporting a radiographic device in a locked configuration. 
Specifically, two Team Industrial employees appeared to have 
deliberately failed to follow procedural requirements when unlocking 
and relocating a gamma exposure device, which caused Team Industrial to 
be in violation of Condition 25 of its license. A letter conveying the 
results of the NRC Investigation was issued to the Licensee on January 
4, 2019 (ADAMS Accession ML19007A235), including a factual summary of 
the report. A written Notice of Violation and Proposed Imposition of 
Civil Penalty (Notice) was issued to the Licensee by letter dated March 
8, 2019 (ADAMS Accession ML19066A206). The Notice stated the nature of 
the violation, the provision of the NRC's requirements that the 
Licensee violated, and the amount of the civil penalty proposed for the 
violation.
    The Licensee responded to the Notice in a letter dated May 23, 
2019. In its response, the Licensee did not dispute the violation, but 
stated that it conducted an internal investigation regarding the issues 
and did not consider the violation to be willful on the part of the 
radiographers. The Licensee also stated that the violation was not 
significant because there was no risk of exposure of the source due to 
the unlocked plunger because of redundant safety features of the 
device.

III

    After considering the Licensee's explanation and argument for 
mitigation, the NRC staff has determined that, as set forth in the 
Appendix to this Order, the violation of License Condition 25 occurred 
as stated, and that an adequate basis does not exist for the reduction 
of the severity of the violation or mitigation of the civil penalty 
amount. Therefore, a civil penalty in the amount of $14,500 should be 
imposed.

IV

    In view of the foregoing and pursuant to Section 234 of the Atomic 
Energy Act of 1954, as amended (Act), 42 U.S.C. 2282, and 10 CFR 2.205, 
it is hereby ordered that:
    The Licensee pay a civil penalty in the amount of $14,500 within 30 
days of the issuance date of this Order, in accordance with NUREG/BR-
0254 ``Payment Methods'' (https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/brochures/br0254/). In addition, at the time payment 
is made, the Licensee shall submit a statement indicating when and by 
what method payment was made, to the Director, Office of Enforcement, 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555.

V

    In accordance with 10 CFR 2.202 and 10 CFR 2.309, the Licensee 
must, and any other person adversely affected by this Order may, submit 
a response within 30 days of the issuance date of this Order. In 
addition, the Licensee or any other person adversely affected by this 
Order may request a hearing within 30 days of the issuance date of this 
Order. Where good cause is shown, consideration will be given to 
extending the time to respond or request a hearing. A request for 
extension of time must be directed to the Director, Office of 
Enforcement, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, 
and include a statement of good cause for the extension.
    All documents filed in NRC adjudicatory proceedings, including a 
request for hearing, a petition for leave to intervene, any motion or 
other document filed in the proceeding prior to the submission of a 
request for hearing or petition to intervene (hereinafter 
``petition''), and documents filed by interested governmental entities

[[Page 58180]]

participating under 10 CFR 2.315(c), must be filed in accordance with 
the NRC's E-Filing rule (72 FR 49139; August 28, 2007, as amended at 77 
FR 46562; August 3, 2012). The E-Filing process requires participants 
to submit and serve all adjudicatory documents over the internet, or in 
some cases to mail copies on electronic storage media. Participants may 
not submit paper copies of their filings unless they seek an exemption 
in accordance with the procedures described below.
    To comply with the procedural requirements of E-Filing, at least 10 
days prior to the filing deadline, the participant should contact the 
Office of the Secretary by email at [email protected], or by 
telephone at 301-415-1677, to (1) request a digital identification (ID) 
certificate, which allows the participant (or its counsel or 
representative) to digitally sign submissions and access the E-Filing 
system for any proceeding in which it is participating; and (2) advise 
the Secretary that the participant will be submitting a petition or 
other adjudicatory document (even in instances in which the 
participant, or its counsel or representative, already holds an NRC-
issued digital ID certificate). Based upon this information, the 
Secretary will establish an electronic docket for the hearing in this 
proceeding if the Secretary has not already established an electronic 
docket.
    Information about applying for a digital ID certificate is 
available on the NRC's public website at https://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/getting-started.html. Once a participant has obtained a 
digital ID certificate and a docket has been created, the participant 
can then submit adjudicatory documents. Submissions must be in Portable 
Document Format (PDF). Additional guidance on PDF submissions is 
available on the NRC's public website at https://www.nrc.gov/site-help/electronic-sub-ref-mat.html. A filing is considered complete at the 
time the document is submitted through the NRC's E-Filing system. To be 
timely, an electronic filing must be submitted to the E-Filing 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 email notice confirming receipt of the document. The 
E-Filing system also distributes an email notice that provides access 
to the document to the NRC's Office of the General Counsel and any 
others who have advised the Office of the Secretary that they wish to 
participate in the proceeding, so that the filer need not serve the 
document on those participants separately. Therefore, applicants and 
other participants (or their counsel or representative) must apply for 
and receive a digital ID certificate before adjudicatory documents are 
filed so that they can obtain access to the documents via the E-Filing 
system.
    A person filing electronically using the NRC's adjudicatory E-
Filing system may seek assistance by contacting the NRC's Electronic 
Filing Help Desk through the ``Contact Us'' link located on the NRC's 
Public website at https://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html, by 
email to [email protected], or by a toll-free call at 1-866-672-
7640. The NRC Electronic Filing Help Desk is available between 9 a.m. 
and 6 p.m., Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, excluding government 
holidays.
    Participants who believe that they have good cause for not 
submitting documents electronically must file an exemption request, in 
accordance with 10 CFR 2.302(g), with their initial paper filing 
stating why there is good cause for not filing electronically and 
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, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, Attention: Rulemaking and 
Adjudications Staff. Participants filing adjudicatory documents 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. A presiding officer, having granted an 
exemption request from using E-Filing, may require a participant or 
party to use E-Filing if the presiding officer subsequently determines 
that the reason for granting the exemption from use of E-Filing no 
longer exists.
    Documents submitted in adjudicatory proceedings will appear in the 
NRC's electronic hearing docket which is available to the public at 
https://adams.nrc.gov/ehd, unless excluded pursuant to an Order of the 
Commission or the presiding officer. If you do not have an NRC-issued 
digital ID certificate as described above, click ``Cancel'' when the 
link requests certificates and you will be automatically directed to 
the NRC's electronic hearing dockets where you will be able to access 
any publicly available documents in a particular hearing docket. 
Participants are requested not to include personal privacy information, 
such as social security numbers, home addresses, or personal phone 
numbers in their filings, unless an NRC regulation or other law 
requires submission of such information. For example, in some 
instances, individuals provide home addresses in order to demonstrate 
proximity to a facility or site. 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 submission.
    The Commission will issue a notice or Order granting or denying a 
hearing request or intervention petition, designating the issues for 
any hearing that will be held and designating the Presiding Officer. A 
notice granting a hearing will be published in the Federal Register and 
served on the parties to the hearing.
    If a person other than the Licensee requests a hearing, that person 
shall set forth with particularity the manner in which their interest 
is adversely affected by this Order and shall address the criteria set 
forth in 10 CFR 2.309(d) and (f).
    If a hearing is requested by the Licensee 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. Pursuant to 10 CFR 2.202(c)(2)(i), the Licensee or 
any other person adversely affected by this Order, may, in addition to 
demanding a hearing, at the time the answer is filed or sooner, move 
the presiding officer to set aside the immediate effectiveness of the 
Order on the grounds that the Order, including the need for immediate 
effectiveness, is not based on adequate evidence but on mere suspicion, 
unfounded allegations, or error.
    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 30 days from the issuance 
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 or alternative dispute resolution (ADR) request 
has not been received. If

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ADR is requested, the provisions specified in Section IV shall be final 
upon termination of an ADR process that did not result in issuance of 
an Order.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Scott A. Morris,

Regional Administrator, NRC Region IV.

    Dated this 20th day of September 2019.

Evaluation and Conclusion

    On March 8, 2019, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 
issued a Notice of Violation and Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalty 
(Notice) for a violation identified as the result of an investigation 
conducted by the NRC Office of Investigations (OI). Team Industrial 
Services, Inc., (Licensee) responded to the Notice on May 23, 2019. The 
Licensee did not dispute the violation but did dispute both the 
deliberateness associated with the violation and the significance of 
the violation. The NRC's evaluation and conclusion regarding the 
Licensee's request is documented below.

Summary of the Licensee's Request of Reevaluation of Deliberate 
Determination

    The Licensee stated an internal investigation determined that the 
violation was due to a human error made in completing the daily 
inspection process. The Licensee concluded that there was no intent to 
leave the device in an unlocked state prior to boarding the Navy vessel 
and there was no advantage to relocating the device in the partially 
unlocked condition.

NRC Evaluation of the Licensee's Request of Reevaluation of Deliberate 
Determination

    The Licensee stated that an internal investigation was conducted 
which did not conclude that there was any deliberateness associated 
with the violation. Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 
CFR) 30.10(c) states, in part, that deliberate misconduct by a person 
means an intentional act or omission that the person knows would cause 
a licensee to be in violation of a condition of a license issued by the 
Commission. Both the NRC OI investigation and the Licensee's internal 
investigation indicated that the radiographers were trained on the 
operating and emergency procedures and were knowledgeable in the 
requirements, including the requirement to fully lock the exposure 
device prior to relocating to another physical location.
    The Licensee's investigation determined that the violation was the 
result of a human error made in the completion of the daily inspection 
process. However, the Licensee's description of the internal 
investigation did not include any additional information to support its 
conclusion that was not previously evaluated in the investigation 
conducted by OI. The NRC's position continues to be that the 
circumstances in this case support a willful violation. Based on the 
facts of this case and the testimony of the radiographers, the 
radiographers were: (1) Familiar with the Licensee's operating and 
emergency procedures, (2) aware that the device was required to be 
locked when relocated to a new location, and (3) aware that the device 
was unlocked at the time they relocated the device. Further, OI 
interviewed the Team Industrial Radiation Safety Officer, who testified 
that immediately after the incident, the radiographers explained that 
they had unlocked the device in order to save time. Therefore, the NRC 
found sufficient evidence to conclude that the radiographers 
deliberately transported an exposure device in an unlocked 
configuration.

Summary of the Licensee's Request of Reevaluation of Significance

    The Licensee stated that the radiographic device has three 
independent locking mechanisms to prevent accidental movement or 
exposure of the source. The device has a tungsten shield which provides 
a shielding factor to reduce exposure from the source and provides an 
additional level of security because it prevents the source from 
projecting out of the device unless a guide tube is connected. The 
Licensee also indicated that its operating and emergency procedure is 
more restrictive than the regulation in 10 CFR 34.23(a), since it 
requires the device to be fully locked prior to movement to another 
location. Based on this, the Licensee concluded that the significance 
level of the violation should be reduced.
    The Licensee also stated that the violation was not significant 
because additional barriers were in place to prevent inadvertent 
exposure. The Licensee included additional information about the design 
of the radiographic device, including a description of the three 
locking mechanisms that prevent accidental movement or exposure of the 
source. The Licensee stated that even in the unlocked configuration 
which occurred during the violation, the source was secured and met the 
intent of 10 CFR 34.23(a).

NRC Evaluation of the Licensee's Request of Reevaluation of 
Significance

    The Licensee's investigation did not provide any information that 
the NRC had not already considered as part of the enforcement process. 
The NRC Enforcement Policy Example 6.3.d.3 states, in part, that a 
failure to implement procedures including, but not limited to, 
recordkeeping, surveys, and inventories is a Severity Level IV 
violation. The NRC concluded that, absent deliberateness, based on the 
relatively short duration that the device was carried unlocked, the 
fact that the device was always under the direct surveillance and 
control of a radiographer, and the presence of the additional locking 
mechanisms, the significance of the Licensee failing to adequately 
implement the applicable section of its procedures should be 
characterized as a Severity Level IV violation.
    However, the NRC Enforcement Policy Section 2.2.1.d states that a 
violation may be considered more significant than the underlying 
noncompliance if it includes indications of willfulness. The NRC 
considers factors such as the position, training, experience level, and 
responsibilities of the individuals involved in the violation. In this 
instance, the NRC determined that the violation should be increased to 
a Severity Level III violation, due to the conclusion that it involved 
deliberate misconduct by the radiographers.

Conclusion

    Based on its evaluation, the NRC has concluded that the violation 
occurred as stated and the Licensee did not provide an adequate basis 
to reduce the severity of the violation or modify the willful 
determination.

[FR Doc. 2019-23713 Filed 10-29-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P