Information Notice No. 90-01: Importance of Proper Response to Self-Identified Violations by Licensees
UNITED STATES
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS AND SAFEGUARDS
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555
January 12, 1990
Information Notice No. 90-01: IMPORTANCE OF PROPER RESPONSE TO
SELF-IDENTIFIED VIOLATIONS BY
LICENSEES
Addressees:
All holders of NRC materials licenses.
Purpose:
This information notice is intended to assist licensees in properly
responding to self-identified violations of regulatory requirements. It is
expected that recipients will review this information notice, distribute it
to management and staff involved with licensed activities, including
responsible radiation safety staff, and consider actions, as appropriate, to
assure compliance. This information notice does not constitute any new NRC
requirements, and no specific written response is required.
Description of Circumstances:
In several past cases, licensees have attempted to conceal self-identified
violations from NRC, rather than reporting them or recording them to permit
review during an NRC inspection.
Discussion:
NRC expects a high standard of compliance by its licensees and requires that
licensees provide NRC accurate and complete information and that required
records will also be complete and accurate in all material respects.
Licensees should be aware of the importance placed by NRC on licensee
programs for self detection, correction and reporting of violations or
errors related to regulatory requirements. The General Statement of Policy
and Procedures for NRC Enforcement Actions in Appendix C to 10 CFR Part 2
underscores the importance of licensees responding promptly and properly to
self-identified violations in two ways.
First, in accordance with its exercise of discretion, NRC will not generally
issue a Notice of Violation for a non-repetitive Severity Level IV or V
violation that is self-identified, properly corrected and reported (if
required). For those self-identified licensee violations of a higher
Severity Level which do result in a Notice of Violation with the potential
for elevated enforcement, NRC will generally give credit for the licensee's
performance in identifying, reporting and correcting the violation in making
an enforcement decision.
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January 12, 1990
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For example, if a licensee failed to conduct a required daily dose
calibrator constancy check, but identified the error, noted it in a record
and informed NRC during the next inspection, NRC would not normally cite the
incident as a violation if categorized at a Severity Level IV.
On the other hand, NRC will generally take stronger action against licensees
who conceal self-identified violations, including civil penalties and orders
to modify, suspend or revoke licenses. In addition, the matter may be
referred to the Department of Justice for consideration of criminal
prosecution. As an example, a licensee was found to have not performed a
substantial number of required daily dose calibrator constancy checks and,
in addition, its Radiation Safety Committee (RSC) had not met as required
for a considerable length of time. The licensee had also falsified records
to make it appear that the constancy checks and RSC meetings were taking
place. In addition to citing these violations, NRC issued civil penalties
in this case which were increased by 100% over the base civil penalty for
violations of this type, due to the number and duration of falsified
records.
It is suggested that when a licensee identifies a violation involving an
NRC-required record, the licensee should make a dated notation indicating
identification, either on the record itself or other appropriate
documentation retrievable for NRC review. The record with the
self-identified violation noted should not be altered in any way to mask the
correction. The licensee should determine the cause of the violation,
correct the root cause of the violation, and document such findings in an
appropriate manner. Licensees should also assure that if a report of the
violation is required, the report is submitted to NRC in a timely manner.
These actions will be considered by NRC in making any enforcement decision,
and generally lead to lesser or no civil penalty.
No specific action or written response is required by this information
notice. If you have any questions about this matter, please contact the
technical contact listed below or the appropriate NRC regional office.
Richard E. Cunningham, Director
Division of Industrial and
Medical Nuclear Safety
Office of Nuclear Material Safety
and Safeguards
Technical Contact: George Pangburn, NMSS
(301) 492-0628
1. List of Recently Issued NMSS Information Notices
2. List of Recently Issued NRC Information Notices
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