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Violation Tracker Individual Record

Company: Global Nuclear Fuels - Americas, LLC
Penalty: $17,500
Year: 2011
Date: November 14, 2011
Offense Group: safety-related offenses
Primary Offense: nuclear safety violation
Violation Description: On November 14, 2011, the NRC issued a Notice of Violation and Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalty in the amount of $17,500 to Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas, LLC for a Severity Level (SL) III problem involving the failure to maintain the double contingency principle as it was compromised during the operation of the sinter test grinder and the risk of a high consequence event (criticality accident) increased. The NRC determined that five violations of NRC requirements directly related to the root causes that allowed the event occurred. Specifically, (1) on March 1, 2011, the licensee failed to ensure that a process design incorporated sufficient margins of safety to require at least two unlikely, independent, and concurrent changes in process conditions before a criticality accident was possible; (2) on March 1, 2011, the licensee failed to apply sufficient controls to the extent needed to reduce the likelihood of occurrence of a criticality, high consequence event, in the sinter test grinder HEPA filter enclosure so that, upon implementation of such controls, the event was highly unlikely; (3) on February 4, 2009, the licensee failed to verify as part of the change process that the controls selected and installed for the sinter test grinder HEPA enclosure would limit the UO2 holdup to less than 25 kgs by controlling a differential pressure across the ventilation housing to 4-inches of water or less; (4) on February 18, 2009, the licensee failed to conduct a criticality safety analysis (CSA) on the Sinter Test Grinder; and (5) on August 1, 2010, and January 23, 2011, the licensee failed to notify HVAC and the area manager and request a clean out of the effected Sinter Test Grinder Primary HEPA Filter housing transition when the survey results for the transition exceeded the action limit of 0.5 mr/hr above background.
Level of Government: federal
Action Type: agency action
Agency: Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Civil or Criminal Case: civil
Source of Data: (click here)
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Current parent company note: Parent-subsidiary relationship is current as of the most recent revision listed in the Update Log.