NRC Staff to Meet with Commonwealth Edison to Discuss Possible Fitness-for-Duty Program Violations at Zion

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	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532
	CONTACT:	Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663/e-mail: rjs2@nrc.gov
		Angela Greenman Phone: (630) 829-9662/e-mail: opa3@nrc.gov

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RIII-97-103

November 25, 1997

NRC STAFF TO MEET WITH COMMONWEALTH EDISON TO DISCUSS
POSSIBLE FITNESS-FOR-DUTY PROGRAM VIOLATIONS AT ZION

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet Monday, December 1, with representatives of Commonwealth Edison Co. for a predecisional enforcement conference on possible violations of the utility's fitness-for-duty program at the Zion Nuclear Power Station. The Zion Station is located in Zion, Illinois.

The meeting will be at 1 p.m. in the Third Floor Conference Room, NRC Region III Office, 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle, Illinois. The meeting is open to public observation, although a portion of the meeting may be closed if privacy issues are involved.

The fitness-for-duty program provides procedures and guidance to assure that Zion plant employees are not impaired by recent drug or alcohol use or other problems.

The predecisional enforcement conference will cover five instances between September of last year and June of this year when the Zion plant staff did not follow the fitness-for-duty procedures when an employee may have consumed alcohol prior to reporting for work.

These instances are of low safety significance because none of the individuals was involved in direct operation of the plant.

The decision to hold an enforcement conference does not mean the NRC has determined that a violation has occurred or that enforcement action will be taken. Rather, the purpose is to discuss apparent violations, their causes and safety significance; to provide the licensee an opportunity to point out any errors that may have been made in the NRC inspection report; and to enable the company to outline its proposed corrective actions.

No decision on the apparent violations or any contemplated enforcement action, such as a fine, will be made at this conference. Those decisions will be made by senior NRC officials at a later date.