$ 140 000 fine proposed for operators' Internet use

摘要

On January 9, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed a $140 000 fine against Entergy Operations Inc. because control room operators at the River Bend plant in Louisiana routinely accessed the Internet while on duty and because Entergy did not correct the situation immediately once it was identified. The NRC also issued enforcement violations to nine control room operators. The citation against Entergy is a Severity Level HI violation (the second-lowest of four levels), but the NRC doubled the usual fine of $70 000 because Entergy did not promptly address what the agency sees as a larger safety culture issue. Three of the nine operators accessed the Internet so frequently that they received Severity Level III violations; the other six were cited at Severity Level IV. The infractions took place between January and April 2010; the Web sites visited included ones devoted to news, sports, fishing, and retirement accounts.