ML060690394
| ML060690394 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Salem, Hope Creek  |
| Issue date: | 08/27/2004 |
| From: | Teator J NRC/OI |
| To: | |
| References | |
| -RFPFR, FOIA/PA-2005-0194 | |
| Download: ML060690394 (25) | |
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS INTERVIEW x
IN THE MATTER OF:
- Docket No.
INTERVIEW OF
- (not provided)
BILL WALLACE (CLOSED) x at 2:15 p.m.
Friday, August 27, 2004 Nuclear Training Building Salem Hope Creek Nuclear Station Salem, New Jersey The above-entitled interview was conducted Senior Special Agent JEFFREY TEATOR NEAL R. GROSS aft COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com BEFORE:
Information.
ofilenfo0 2 to Iof 1nfOrilltijO
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2:15 p.m.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
All right, we're on the record.
My name is Jeff Teator, I'm a senior special agent with the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Investigations. It's approximately 2:15 in the afternoon and it's Friday, August 27t, the year's 2004.
This afternoon I'm interviewing Mr. Bill Wallace.
This interview is taking place at the Nuclear Training Building for Salem Hope Creek Nuclear Stations. The training building is located in Salem, New Jersey, and we're in a small classroom in the building that Mr. Wallace obtained.
Mr. Wallace, prior to going on the record did I show you my NRC identification badge?
MR. WALLACE: Yes you did.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Okay. And did I explain to you this is a voluntary interview?
MR. WALLACE:
Yes you did.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Knowing that it's voluntary do you wish to go forward?
MR. WALLACE: Yes I do.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
Thank you. Do you have any objection this afternoon to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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providing sworn testimony?
2 MR. WALLACE: None.
No objection.
3 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
All right.
4 Raise your right hand please.
Mr. Wallace, do you 5
swear that the information that you are about to 6
provide to me is the truth, the whole truth and 7
nothing but the truth?
8 MR. WALLACE: Yes I do.
9 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Thank you.
10 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Mr. Wallace, 11 you're being interviewed today as a witness in an 12 investigation I'm conducting for the Commission into 13 whether requirements and procedures and NRC 14 regulations were violated on the night of September 15 21, 2002, when losed the 22MS42 valve.
C...
16 That's what I'm looking at here, and again you're just 17 being interviewed as a witness.
18 MR. WALLACE:
I understand.
19 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: But being that 20 you were on duty that night, is that correct?
21 MR. WALLACE:
That's correct.
22 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
That's why I 23 need to talk to you about what you remember, what you 24 saw, what you heard about that particular action that 25 was taken.
Okay?
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But prior to going into that I want to get 2
some background information about you.
Can you give 3
me your date and place of birth please?
4 MR. WALLACE:
I was born IS 6
SR.
SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Where's 7
at?
8 MR.
WALLACE:
It would be west of 9
Morristown, New Jersey.
It's about 50 miles north of 10 here.
11 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: All right. And 12 your Social Security number please?
13 MR. WALLACE:
2 14 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Thank you. And 15 for the record Mr. Wallace has provided me with his 16 picture identification for PSE & G.
Thank you, Mr.
17 Wallace.
Your current home address pleas?
18 MR.
WALLACE:
It's 19 20 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Is that up 295?
21 MR. WALLACE:
Yes.
22 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
I think I saw 23 a sign for that.
And your home phone number please?
24 MR. WALLACE:
25 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay. Did you NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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ever serve in the United States military?
2 MR. WALLACE:
No.
3 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Okay. Have you 4
attended college?
5 MR. WALLACE:
No.
6 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: All right. And 7
when were you hired to work at PSE & G?
8 MR.
WALLACE:
I was hired to work 9
originally at Burlington Generating Station, that was 10 let's see, Goember 23, 197' e 11 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Boy, you've got 12 a lot of time around here.
13 MR. WALLACE: Thirty years.
14 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Thirty years, 15 good for you.
16 MR. WALLACE: Almost 31.
17 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Are you getting 18 close to being able to think about --
19 MR. WALLACE: A few years, yes.
20 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Good for you, 21 that's nice.
So you were hired by PSE & G to work at 22 Burlington Generating
- Station, a
non-nuclear 23 generating station on o vember 23, 1973 wfi 24 MR. WALLACE: That's correct.
25 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: At some point NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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did you come to work down here at Artificial Island?
2 MR. WALLACE:
Right, July of 1978.
3 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: And since July 4
of 1978 have you continuously been employed at 5
Artificial Island?
6 MR. WALLACE:
Yes.
7 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Okay. And what 8
is your current job title?
9 MR.
WALLACE:
I'm a nuclear control 10 operator.
11 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Is that a 12 reactor operator?
13 MR. WALLACE:
Reactor operator license.
14 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay. And are 15 you a union member?
16 MR. WALLACE:
Yes.
17 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
The 18 union name please?
19 MR.
WALLACE:
It's the International 20 Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
21 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
And how long 22 have you been a reactor operator, and on which unit 23 are you licensed?
24 MR. WALLACE: Originally I was upgraded in 25 1982 and got my license in 1986.
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SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: So you've been 2
an RO since 1986?
3 MR.
WALLACE:
I've been a licensed 4
operator since 1986, yes.
5 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Right. I use 6
the term RO, reactor operator.
7 MR. WALLACE:
That's fine.
8 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
All right.
9 Okay.
And who is your current supervisor?
10 MR. WALLACE:
Steve Sauer S-A-U-E-R.
11 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: And what shift 12 is that?
13 MR. WALLACE:
I'm on Delta shift.
14 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: All right. And 15 since having been licensed, are you licensed on Salem 16 1 and 2?
Both?
17 MR. WALLACE:
Yes.
18 SR.
SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Have you 19 continuously attended requal, passed requal?
20 MR. WALLACE:
Yes. Like I say since 1986 21 I've been an RO.
22 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
All right.
23 Good. And do you remember working the night of 24 September 21, 2002?
It was a night shift so it went 25 into the 224, but do you remember working that night?
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MR. WALLACE:
Yes I do.
2 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
And do you 3
remember what your position was in the control room?
4 MR. WALLACE: I was plant operator. I was 5
operating the secondary plant on unit 2.
6 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
And that's 7
where the leak was on unit 2.
8 MR. WALLACE:
Right.
9 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Now the plant 10 operator, is that to balance the plant?
11 MR. WALLACE:
Balance the plant, yes.
12 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: And who was the 13 other NCO that night, do you remember who you worked 14 with?
15 MR. WALLACE: I don't even remember who it 16 was. I'm thinking it was Rick Feffer, but I can't be 17 sure.
18 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Do you remember 19 who your CRS was?
20 MR.
WALLACE:
Nope.
21 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
How about the 22 shift manager?
23 MR. WALLACE:
I think it was Van Ford.
24 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
How sure are 25 you of that?
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MR. WALLACE: Relatively sure. I wouldn't 2
say 100 percent.
3 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
And do you 4
remember eing present that night?
5 MR. WALLACE:
Yes.
6 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
Do you 7
know what Cis function was supposed to have been?
8 MR. WALLACE:
He was one of the
- 9 1Ah
__L.M 10 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Do you know why 11 h eIwas there though?
12 MR. WALLACE:
We had a steam leak.
13 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
14 MR. WALLACE:
Wh)4 fhi as there that 15 evening I don't know, outside of we had the steam leak 16 andfibe'nay have been called in.
17 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
All right.
18 Let's talk about the steam leak then a little bit if 19 we could.
Would you have been the first person who 20 noticed the steam leak in the control room, or did 21 someone from outside the control room bring that 22 information in?
Do you remember how that occurred?
23 MR. WALLACE:
That was brought into the 24 control room.
25 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
By NEO?
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MR.
WALLACE:
NEO.
2 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
Do you 3
remember who?
4 MR.
WALLACE:
No.
5 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay. And the 6
leak was on Salem 2, right?
7 MR.
WALLACE:
Yes.
8 SR.
SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
All right.
9 Maybe you can just go through and tell me what you 10 remember about, you know, from the point where the 11 control room is told there's a leak to what happened 12 after that. Maybe you can just give me a narrative of 13 what you remember and I'll ask some questions 14 probably.
15 MR. WALLACE:
The night, as I say that 16 information, like I say I'm sorry I can't remember all 17 the people that were involved, I do remember meeting 18 and having discussions wit~him6 s to 19 what was going on out in the plant.
20 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
21 MR.
WALLACE:
Got a notification that we 22 had a steam leak in a secondary plant and where it was 23 on the MS42 by an NEO.
And the leak was getting 24 worse, slowly getting worse as the night went on.
25 Eventually I got a break and I went out NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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and looked at the leak myself and at that point it was 2
getting bad.
Couldn't tell exactly from where I was 3
looking at it where the leak was coming from, outside 4
it was around the MS42. And the steam was condensing 5
on the ceiling of the floor, you know, the overhead of 6
the next floor up.
7 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
8 MR. WALLACE:
And was collecting around 9
the area of the group buses.
10 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Right.
11 MR. WALLACE: And the floor was becoming 12 saturated at that point and the group buses were 13 getting dripped on.
14 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Right. Is that 15 bad?
16 MR. WALLACE: And that's very bad.
17 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: All right.
18 MR. WALLACE: Group buses feed our reactor 19 cooling pumps and all of our secondary plant.
20 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: The side you're 21 working on that night?
22 MR. WALLACE:
The side I'm working on.
23 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
All right.
24 MR. WALLACE:
I went back up in the 25 control room and, you know, I'd looked at the valve, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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it's up in the overhead, not easy to get to.
2 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
I've seen it.
3 I know where it's at.
4 MR. WALLACE: You'd need at least a ladder 5
to get up to it.
And as the leak got worse, and we 6
kept getting reports that the leak was getting worse, 7
came in and we discussed it an4 (had 8
gone down and looked at it.
And I tol1+ if ou know, 9
I thought it was getting worse, and this wasn't 10 looking good for the operation of the plant.
11 We did start getting some spurious alarms 12 on the group buses.
13 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: What does that 14 mean spurious alarm?
15 MR. WALLACE: Not anything, you know, any 16 other group bus alarms that you would get in --
I mean 17 we didn't get an actuation from them that we would 18 normally get, and exactly which alarms, I'd have to go 19 back and look at the alarm printouts.
20 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Are they a good 21 thing when you get those kinds of alarms?
22 MR. WALLACE:
No, bad.
23 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Thanks.
24 MR. WALLACE:
So we're getting shorts 25 caused by the water, causing alarms, it wouldn't be NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS onr 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 13 too much longer before we started losing the group buses, and that would be a loss, like I say, a loss of the secondary plant and reactor cooling pumps depending which, you know. We have four group buses, each one feeds a reactor cooling pump, four reactor cooling pumps.
So things were getting bad.
It was getting to the point where we had to do something.
And we brought down, the shift supervisor and the reactor operator, myself, we brought the plant down enough to take out the 22 feed pump.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Why? Why was 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 that done?
MR. WALLACE: Because of the steam leak.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
MR. WALLACE:
You know it's steam that's leaking. So we brought the pump down, idled the pump and took it out.
SR.
SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
At whose direction was that done?
MR.
WALLACE:
That was the shift supervisor, that was through the shift supervisor.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
That would be Bill White?
MR. WALLACE:
I think it was Bill White NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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that night, yes. He would be the CRS, I'm sorry, the 2
CRS in the control room.
3 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
All right. Do 4
you recall a direction coming from the CRS or the 5
shift manager?
6 MR.
WALLACE:
That would have come from 7
the CRS.
8 SR.
SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
Go 9
ahead, I'm sorry.
10 MR. WALLACE: But like I say, as the night 11 went on, things were getting worse and worse. We got 12 the pump out, I had already gone down and looked, saw 13 that. Actually, it was getting to be unsafe to go in 14 that area because of the group buses being right there 15 and I mean we're on the floor.
16 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Right.
17 MR. WALLACE:
And like I say, as things 18 went on, came up, i came up in the 19 control room and said something about they had looked 20 at, the leak had been exposed.
I'm not sure whether 21 the insulation blew off or it got knocked off or 22 somebody took it off, I didn't get that information.
23 But the insulation had come off and they could see 24 where the leak was and that by closing the 42 we could 25 isolate the leak.
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1 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Right.
2 MR. WALLACE: Now this part, I don't know 3
whether it became before or after the valve was 4
closed, but said, I'm going to go down and close 5
the valve.
All right.
And I'm pretty sure it was 6
beforehand tha l ave me this information about the 7
valve and that isolating it would isolate the leak.
8 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Right.
9 MR. WALLACE:
And that P
Jouldn't look 10 for volunteers for something like this.
11 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Why not?
12 MR. WALLACE: It's just somethinkh;&would 13 not do.
Knowing I don't know if you'd call it 14 a type A personality or a go-getter.
If I was not 15 stuck in the control room that night, the thought 16 crossed my mind that let me go down and close that 17 valve onc I
@gave me that information but I couldn't 18 leave the control room.
19 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Right. Dij 20 give just you that information or do you remembeE4i3 21 announcing it to the control room?
22 MR. WALLACE: I kno /fopoke to me about 23 it.
I do not know i b
poke to anybody else about 24 it.
I know I relayed the information to at least 25 whoever was in there with me, I think like I say it NEAL R. GROSS iJ COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
It may have been Feffer?
MR. WALLACE: Yes I think it was, I can't remember for sure.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Did you relay that information to the CRS?
MR. WALLACE:
I don't remember if I did or not.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Did you relay that information to Van Ford?
MR. WALLACE:
No.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Why not?
I'm not being critical.
MR. WALLACE:
I just don't know.
I assumed tha ad done that.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Okay. S comes in, tells you this.
MR. WALLACE:e talked to me directly, I was on that side of the horseshoe and4 b
was standing behind the horseshoe.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Right.
MR. WALLACE:
An
( talked to me about it.
I'm not sure who elsbrhe) alked to about, I'm going down and isolate that.
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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 17 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: That's whatfh e told you?
MR. WALLACE:
Right.
And I don't know whether the words "wel or "I" am going to do that.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Isolate it, what does that mean?
MR. WALLACE:
Close the valve.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Close it, okay.
Close the 42.
MR. WALLACE: And that's what I prepared.
It's like 15 minutes later I believe that I --
I'm pretty sure it was hat told me that the MS42 stopped, or closed and the leak stopped.
Okay.
Well, I don't know, from my point of view that was a good thing you know plant wise.
I don't think it was a great idea for personal safety, but losing the group buses would put us in (inaudible) and I've been there before and that's not a place you want to be.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
MR. WALLACE: For the safety of the plant, safety of the personnel, you certainly don't want a steam leak and you certainly don't want all that water around the group buses.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
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MR. WALLACE:
So after the steam leak 2
stopped things started to dry out eventually, and the 3
spurious alarm was cleared up and we went on from 4
there and we continued the operation.
5 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Was there 6
discussion in the control room after the valve was 7
closed about how did that happen? Why did it happen?
8 Who directed that it occur?
Do you remember there 9
being any discussion?
10 MR. WALLACE: I remember there being some 11 questions as to that.
12 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Tell me what 13 you remember.
14 MR. WALLACE:
Just that well who closed
-15 the valve?
did.
/jc-16 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Right.
17 MR. WALLACE:
went down and closed 18 the valve. Okay. I can't remember who asked, I think 19 it was the other CO.
I said going to go 20 down and close the valve, and afte id told them 21 that4he ad and that the leak had stopped.
22 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Right.
23 MR. WALLACE: And that's about as much of 24 it as I remember.
25 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Okay. Are you NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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positive that told yo h was going to go close 2
the valve?
3 MR. WALLACE:
Yes.
4 SR.
SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
All right.
5 Okay. Did any ECP people talk to you about what you 6
heard or what you saw that night? Tom Lake or any of 7
these people?
8 MR. WALLACE:
Nobody has talked to me 9
about this besides you.
10 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay. I'm glad 11 you know we're getting out here late but better late 12 than never.
13 Now you mentioned before about one of the 14 pumps was turned off.
Did you talk about that?
15 MR. WALLACE:
Yes.
But we stopped the 16 pump.
17 SR.
SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
What's the 18 significance of that, why?
19 MR. WALLACE: Well you had to come down to 20 50 percent, there are two 50 percent pumps is what we 21 have to supply our steam --
22 SR.
SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
All 23 right. But was that action taken so that if the plant 24 condition changed, that valve could then be closed?
25 I just want to know why that was done.
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MR. WALLACE: Well we had a serious steam 2
leak on the supply line to that pump, and we were 3
going to lose that pump either way from what we could 4
see.
If that line ruptured we'd lose that feed pump 5
anyway.
6 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
Right.
7 MR. WALLACE: Like I say, in the beginning 8
when we idled the pump it really was the safest way to 9
go, I believe, to take that pump out because obviously 10 one of its pipes was broken in some form.
11 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Right.
Then 12 the other pump would pick up the load?
13 MR. WALLACE:
No.
It'll pick up some of 14 the load but we can go to about 65 percent reactor 15 power with one pump.
16 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
All right.
17 MR. WALLACE:
Like I say they're two 18 basically 50 percent pumps, that's all we have.
19 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
After 20 closed the valve, do you recall Van Ford 7) 21 commenting in any fashion about that being done?
I 22 mean that's a real general question but can you 23 remember anything specific?
24 MR. WALLACE:
Yes later on.
Yes.
25 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Tell me what NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 1s 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 you remember later on.
MR. WALLACE:
Just something about the valve's closed, or you know kind of, something like he wasn't informed.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: All right. Go ahead and explain that.
MR. WALLACE: That's just, you know, it's the impression I got when I think I talked to him.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Your impression was what?
MR. WALLACE: That he didn't know that the valve was being closed.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Can you tell me what gave you that impression?
MR. WALLACE:
Not being closed but had been closed, let me put it that way.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Right. Can you tell me what gave you that impression?
MR. WALLACE:
I forget what his exact words were but that's what I got out of it was oh the valve's closed, something like that.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Did you tell him during that conversation that you knew was going to go close it?
MR. WALLACE:
Yes.
Like I say, I don't NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 22 really remember that part of it but I believe I would have said that.
SR.
SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Yes, because you knew.
MR. WALLACE:
Yes, because I knew that vwwas going to close it. I could have said that at that time but I can't swear that that's what I did.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
MR. WALLACE:
I'd say outside of the actual conversation about I'm going to go close the valve and the valve's closed and the leak's stopped, it's pretty much the specifics I remember.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
But it's pretty important though what you do remember.
MR. WALLACE:
Yes.
SR.
SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
And you're clear that that discussion occurred between you and MR. WALLACE: Yes.
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
All right. I'm going to take a real short break, it's 2:35 and I'm going to turn the tape off for a minute.
(Whereupon, the foregoing matter went off the record at 2:35 p.m. and went back on the record at 2:37 p.m.)
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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23 1
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay, we're 2
back on the record, it's about 2:37. Question. Bill, 3
did you hear tell Van Ford thafieytas 4
going to go close the valve?
5 MR. WALLACE:
No, I did not hear that.
6 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
7 MR. WALLACE: I didn't see any interaction 8
between and Van Ford.
9 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
- Now, 10 id close the valve, can you give me your 11 opinion on whether you thought that was the right 12 thing to do or not, and give me a basis for why you 13 feel that way?
14 MR. WALLACE:
Okay.
Except for a
15 go-getter, I think it was the right thing to do.
16 Closing the valve was definitely the right thing to 17 do.
Maybe going about i egoing out and doing the 18 valve without asking for volunteers might have been 19 questionable, but I don't thinfl1id anything wrong.
20 IV1ut the plant in a safer condition and didn't 21 endanger any more personnel than necessary.
22 It's my belief that if a person, you know, 23 the plant was in a dangerous condition. The secondary 24 plant was certainly dangerous to walk around in with 25 the group buses being wet and a steam leak.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 1
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Right.
2 MR.
WALLACE:
I don't know who Vhhad 3
3 had to have somebody to helf himjust dealing with the 4
ladder.
I don't know who was down there with iiD I 5
know there was a person down there but I don't know 6
who it was.
7 The valve got closed, no one got hurt, and 8
that was my important, you know, that's what's 9
important to me anyway.
10 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay. Are you 11 aware of any information which leads you to believe or 12 think that what did was a violation of 13 any conduct of operations, procedures, anything like 14 that?
15 MR. WALLACE:
No.
16 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: Okay. Is there 17 something more you want to add today?
I don't have 18 any other questions at this point.
19 MR. WALLACE:
The only thing that I can 20 s
iolated was we have a clause where supervisors 21 won't do work.
I think this was an extraordinary 22 circumstance and that although that little clause 23 comes into effect, and it's not such a little clause 24 at times, but in this case I don't thinki9edid 25 anything wrong.
NEAL R. GROSS co COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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25 1
SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR: When you say a 2
clause, are you talking about the union contract?
3 MR. WALLACE:
The union agreement, yes.
4 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Is it the 5-0, 5
is that what they call it?
6 MR. WALLACE:
Right, the 5-0.
7 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
All right.
8 Well it's 2:40 in the afternoon.
I don't have any 9
other questions for you.
If I do I can either e-mail 10 you or try and get a hold of you, I have your home 11 phone number now.
But if I have any follow up 12 questions can I contact you in one of those two ways?
13 MR. WALLACE: Absolutely.
14 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
Okay.
And if 15 you think of something please give me a call, not only 16 regarding this matter but anything else that goes on 17 down here.
18 MR. WALLACE:
Okay.
19 SR. SPECIAL AGENT TEATOR:
It's 2:40 in 20 the afternoon and this interview is concluded. Thank 21 you.
22 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went 23 off the record at 2:40 p.m.)
24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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