PP&L, Inc., which took immediate and substantial corrective action after a control knob on a diesel generator was found in the wrong position last July at the Susquehanna nuclear power plant, said Monday (1/12) it will not contest a $55,000 fine proposed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"Upon discovering this situation, we took aggressive and comprehensive actions to correct the immediate problem and to ensure that this type of incident does not occur again," said Herbert D. Woodeshick, PP&L's special assistant to the president for Susquehanna.

"These actions included putting the control knob back in the proper position, testing the affected diesel generator, placing plant security on heightened awareness and checking other similar controls on the other four diesel generators and other equipment to ensure they were positioned and operating properly," he said.

PP&L also conducted several investigations to review the incidentand determine the cause. The investigations identified three possible causes: mechanical failure, movement of the knob by someone by mistake or tampering.

"Although the investigations were inconclusive regarding the cause,PP&L took wide-ranging actions based on all the plausible causes," Woodeshick said. The NRC, in a letter to PP&L, called the corrective actions "prompt and comprehensive."

Among the actions PP&L took to improve plant operations were:

• checking other similar plant components;
• installing special covers and clearly marking the correct position of the control knobs;
• simplifying procedures for work on the diesel generators;
• changing certain aspects of the plant's security access control process.

The Susquehanna plant has five diesel generators in an emergency system that would provide electricity for the plant if power to the plant from both the primary and alternate sources in PP&L's transmission system were lost.

"With the control knob in the wrong position, the affected diesel generator would not be able to reach full capacity and it would automatically shut down," Woodeshick said.

"When events like this happen, we take immediate corrective actions that cover all the bases, even though there are redundancies built into safety systems to prevent a single failure from causing a problem," he noted.

The Susquehanna plant, jointly owned by PP&L, Inc. and AlleghenyElectric Cooperative Inc., is located about five miles northeast of Berwick along Route 11.