NRC Proposes $130,000 Civil Penalty Against Florida Power & Light For Security Violations At Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a $130,000 civil penalty against Florida Power & Light Co., for violations of security requirements at the Turkey Point nuclear power plant, operated by the company on Biscayne Bay near Homestead, about 30 miles southeast of Miami.

NRC officials said the fine was being proposed because a 2006 investigation found that security officers employed by Wackenhut Nuclear Services were willfully inattentive to duty (sleeping) from 2004 through 2006. NRC investigators determined that, on multiple occasions during that time, security officers at Turkey Point were willfully inattentive to duty or served as lookouts so other officers could sleep on duty. Included in these multiple examples is an incident that occurred on April 6, 2006, in which a security officer was observed by an NRC inspector to be sleeping while on duty at a post in a vital area of the reactor.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission