Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Fire Protection

In May 2004, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) incorporated the National Fire Protection Association's (NFPA) Standard 805 as a voluntary alternative to the existing fire protection standards as published in Section 50.48, "Fire Protection," and Appendix R of the 10 Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR 50). On March 4, 2009, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) committed to the NRC to transition Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant (BFN) to NFPA 805 by a license amendment date of March 4, 2012.TVA has included the BFN NFPA 805 transition project as part of fire protection risk in its Enterprise Risk Management process. We reviewed the BFN transition to the NFPA 805 program. Our audit objective was to evaluate BFN's performance in transitioning to the NFPA 805 program requirements by the license amendment date.TVA did not meet the NFPA 805 transition date for the License Amendment Request submittal of March 2012 and has revised its commitment date to March 2013. We determined the Nuclear Power Group's delays in transitioning to NFPA 805 adversely impacted BFN's ability to meet the 2012 commitment date. Specifically, historical indecisiveness coupled with a lack of due diligence and inadequate attention to emerging industry fire protection regulations contributed to revising the commitment date. In addition, the Nuclear Power Group's mitigation strategy as provided in Enterprise Risk Management documentation did not include consideration of the consequences of not meeting the revised March 2013 deadline, which would include NRC-assessed penalties.