ML120720212
| ML120720212 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Callaway  |
| Issue date: | 01/09/2012 |
| From: | NRC/SECY |
| To: | |
| Thadani, M C, NRR/DORL/LP4, 415-1476 | |
| References | |
| EDATS:OEDO-2011-0680, G20110740, NRC-1379, OEDO-2011-0680 | |
| Download: ML120720212 (75) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[This copy incorporates Corrections of errors and omissions`March 12, 2012]
Title:
10 CFR 2.206 Petition Review Board RE Lawrence S. Crisicione Docket Number: (n/a)
Location: (telephone conference)
Date: Monday, January 9, 2012 Work Order No.: NRC-1379 Pages 1-73 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + +
4 10 CFR 2.206 PETITION REVIEW BOARD (PRB) 5 DISCUSSION WITH PETITIONER 6 LAWRENCE S. CRISCIONE, 7 REGARDING 2.206 PETITION G20110740 8 + + + + +
9 MONDAY 10 JANUARY 9, 2012 11 + + + + +
12 The conference call was convened at 1:00 13 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, Sher Bahadur, Chairperson 14 of the Petition Review Board, presiding.
15 16 PETITIONER: LAWRENCE CRISCIONE 17 18 PETITION REVIEW BOARD MEMBERS 19 SHER BAHADUR, Petitioner Review Board Chairman 20 MOHAN THADANI, Petition Manager for 2.206 21 petition 22 MARILEE BANIC, Petition Review Board Coordinator 23 24 25 NRC HEADQUARTERS STAFF NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 KRISTY BUCHOLTZ, Office of Nuclear Reactor 2 Regulation, Division of Safety Systems 3 BERNARD DITTMAN, NRR 4 LISAMARIE JARRIEL, Office of Enforcement 5 EMILY MONTEITH, Office of General Counsel 6 JENNIFER LYLE, Office of Congressional Affairs 7 MICHAEL MARKLEY, NRR 8 ANTHONY OLSEN, NRR 9 STACEY ROSENBERG, NRR 10 CATHERINE THOMPSON, Office of Enforcement 11 NRC REGIONAL STAFF:
12 TOM BLOUNT, Region IV, Deputy Director of the 13 Division of Reactor Safety 14 HEATHER GEPFORD 15 STEVE HOGAN 16 [NICK] TAYLOR 17 LEONARD WILLOUGHBY 18 LICENSEE REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT:
19 TIM WALSH 20 ALSO PRESENT:
21 KAY DREY 22 [SCOTT] MAXWELL 23 [JANET SAIDI]
24 ED SMITH 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 (1:00 p.m.)
3 MR. THADANI: I'd like to welcome you to 4 this meeting. My name is Mohan Thadani. I'm the 5 Senior Project Manager assigned to Callaway Plant.
6 We are here to allow Petitioner, Mr.
7 Lawrence Criscione, to address the Petition Review 8 Board regarding the 2.206 petition dated October 7, 9 2011.
10 I'm the Petition Manager for this 11 petition. The Petition Review Board Chairman is Mr.
12 Sher Bahadur, Deputy Director, Division of Policy and 13 Rulemaking, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
14 As part of the Petition Review Board's, or 15 PRB's preliminary review of this petition, Mr.
16 Lawrence Criscione has requested the opportunity to 17 address the PRB in person.
18 This meeting is scheduled from 1:00 p.m.
19 to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The meeting is being 20 recorded by the NRCs Operations Center, and is being 21 transcribed by a court reporter. The transcript will 22 also be made publicly available and will be PRB 23 Meeting summary.
24 I'd like to open this meeting with 25 introductions as we go around the room. Please be sure NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 to clearly state for the record your name, your 2 position, and the office that you work for within NRC.
3 I'd like to start off by my name.
4 I'm Mohan Thadani, Senior Project Manager 5 assigned as Petition Manager, to this petition, and 6 let me go on my left here.
7 MR. BAHADUR: I'm Sher Bahadur, Deputy 8 Director for the Division of Policy and Rulemaking in 9 NRR, and the Chair for PRB.
10 MS. BANIC: Lee Banic, 2.206 Petition 11 Coordinator, NRR.
12 MS. ROSENBERG: Stacey Rosenberg, Branch 13 Chief of Generic Communications, NRR.
14 MS. MONTEITH: Emily Monteith, OGC.
15 MS. BUCHOLTZ: Kristy Bucholtz, Technical 16 Specifications Branch in NRR.
17 MS. LYLE: Jenny Lyle, Office of 18 Congressional Affairs.
19 MR. MARKLEY: Mike Markley, Division of 20 Operator Reactor Licensing, NRR.
21 MR. DITTMAN: Bernie Dittman, Division of 22 Engineering, NRR.
23 MR. ULSES: I'm Anthony ULSES, Branch 24 Chief, Reactor Systems, NRR.
25 MS. THOMPSON: Catherine Thompson, Safety NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1 Culture Program Manager in Office of Enforcement.
2 MS. JARRIEL: Lisa Jarriel, Agency 3 Allegation Advisor in the Office of Enforcement.
4 MR. CRISCIONE: Larry Criscione, I'm the 5 Petitioner.
6 MR. THADANI: Are there any NRC employees 7 with us from Region offices on the phone, please 8 identify yourself.
9 MR. BLOUNT: This is Tom Blount. I'm the 10 Deputy Director for the Division of Reactor Safety in 11 Region IV.
12 MR. HOGAN: This is Steve Hogan. I'm the 13 Branch Chief for Project Branch Bravo.
14 MR. WILLOUGHBY: Leonard Willoughby, Senior 15 Project Engineer for Project Branch Bravo.
16 MR. TAYLOR: This is [NICK] Taylor, Senior 17 Allegation Coordinator, Region IV.
18 MS. GEPFORD: Heather Gepford, Agent Branch 19 Chief, Region IV.
20 MS.[SAIDI]: [JANET SAIDI], KBIA Radio, 21 Columbia, Missouri.
22 MR. MAXWELL: [Scott] Maxwell, former 23 Callaway licensed operator.
24 MR. THADANI: Are there any representatives 25 of the licensee on the phone?
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6 1 (No response.)
2 MR. THADANI: Mr. Criscione, could you 3 please introduce yourself.
4 MR. CRISCIONE: Yes. Larry Criscione, I'm 5 the Petitioner. Do you want me to start, or did you 6 have some --
7 MR. THADANI: No, go ahead.
8 MR. CRISCIONE: I'm Larry Criscione. I'm 9 the Petitioner. I used to be a Senior Reactor Operator 10 at Callaway Plant from 2002 through 2007.
11 MR. THADANI: Are there any others, such as 12 members of public on the phone?
13 MR. SMITH: Ed Smith with Missouri 14 Coalition for the Environment.
15 MS. DREY: Kay Drey, Beyond Nuclear.
16 MR. THADANI: I'd like to emphasize --
17 MR. BAHADUR: Excuse me, Mohan. We have 18 late arrivals.
19 MS. SOLOMON: Tahira Solomon from OI here 20 at Headquarters.
21 MR. WYMAN: Steve Wyman, NRR, EICB.
22 MR. THADANI: I would like to emphasize 23 that we each need to speak clearly and loud to make 24 sure that the court reporter can accurately transcribe 25 the meeting.
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7 1 If you have something that you would like 2 to say please first state your name for the record.
3 For those dialing into the meeting, please remember to 4 mute your phones to minimize the background noise or 5 distraction. If you do not have a mute button, this 6 can be done by pressing *6. To [un-mute] press *6 7 again. Thank you.
8 At this time I turn the meeting over to 9 the PRB Chairman, Mr. Sher Bahadur.
10 MR. BAHADUR: Thank you, Mohan. Good 11 afternoon. As I said, I am Sher Bahadur, and I welcome 12 all of you to this meeting on the 2.206 Petition which 13 is submitted by Mr. Lawrence Criscione. Is that the 14 way you pronounce your name, Criscione?
15 MR. CRISCIONE: Criscione.
16 MR. BAHADUR: Criscione. Okay. And if you 17 would bear with me, I'd like to go [over] with some of 18 the background on our process, and also our 19 understanding of the petition just for the record.
20 So, my reading could be somewhat tedious but please 21 bear that with me, and after that you will make your 22 presentation.
23 So, Section 2.206 of Title 10, Code of 24 Federal Regulation describes the petition process.
25 The process permits the public to petition NRC to take NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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8 1 enforcement type action related to NRC licensees or 2 other licensee activities.
3 Now, depending on the results of its 4 evaluation and consistent with the NRC's safety 5 mission focus, NRC could modify, suspend, or revoke an 6 NRC-issued license or take any other appropriate 7 enforcement type action to resolve the problem.
8 The NRC Staff's guidance for disposition 9 of 2.206 petition is in Management Directive 8.11 10 which is publicly available, and I'm sure you have 11 seen that.
12 After the NRC receives a petition, the 13 Executive Director of Operations, as we call the EDO, 14 assigns it to the Director of the appropriate office 15 for evaluation and response. In this particular case, 16 your petition was given to NRR.
17 The original incoming petition is sent to 18 that office, that is NRR in this case, and a copy of 19 the petition is sent to the Office of the General 20 Counsel, OGC.
21 If the petition meets the criteria for 22 review in accordance with Management Directive 8.11, 23 then the petition is evaluated for safety impacts and 24 significance. And the Petition Review Board, or PRB, 25 is convened to provide the Petitioner the opportunity NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 to provide comments.
2 Following the PRB meeting and any follow-3 on evaluations, should new information be provided, 4 the Office Director prepares a written decision 5 addressing the issues raised in the petition. The 6 Office Director can grant, partially grant, or deny 7 the petition.
8 Afterward, the Commission on its 9 initiative may review the Office Director's decision 10 whether or not entertain a petition or request for the 11 Commission review of the Director's decision.
12 The petition by Mr. Criscione is being 13 reviewed consistent with the above guidance as per 14 Management Directive 8.11. So, the purpose of today's 15 meeting is to give the Petitioner, that is Mr.
16 Criscione, an opportunity to provide an additional 17 explanation or support for the petition before the 18 PRB's initial consideration and recommendation.
19 Now, please note this meeting is not a 20 hearing, nor is it an opportunity for the Petitioner 21 to question or examine the PRB on the merits or the 22 issues presented in the petition's request.
23 No decision regarding the merit of this 24 petition will be made at this meeting. Following this 25 meeting, the PRB will conduct its internal NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 deliberations and the outcome of this internal meeting 2 will be discussed with the Petitioner.
3 PRB typically consists of a Chairman, 4 usually a manager in the Senior Executive Service 5 level at the NRC. It has a Petition Manager, and a 6 PRB Coordinator. Other members of the Board are 7 determined by the NRC Staff based on the content of 8 the information in the petition request.
9 At this time, I'd like to introduce the 10 Board. As I said, I'm Sher Bahadur, the PRB Chair. On 11 my right is Mohan Thadani. He's the Petition Manager 12 for the petition under discussion today. Marilee Banic 13 is our Office PRB Coordinator, and our Technical Staff 14 includes Tom Blount, who is NRC's Region IV Deputy 15 Director of the Division of Reactor Safety; Bob 16 Elliott, whom I don't see here. Is anybody 17 representing Bob? Bob is represented by [Kristy 18 Bucholtz], and she is in the Office of NRR, Division 19 of Safety Systems, Technical Specifications Branch.
20 George Wilson I don't see here, but I see -- who is 21 representing him [from DE]?
22 MR. DITTMAN: Bernie Dittman.
23 MR. BAHADUR: Okay. And he is from the 24 Division of Engineering, Instrumentation and Control 25 Branch. Do you still call it Division of Engineering NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1 after the merger.
2 MR. BAHADUR: Okay. Tony Ulses is from the 3 Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Division of 4 Safety Systems. And he's Branch Chief of the Reactor 5 Systems Branch. Kristy Bucholtz is from the Office of 6 NRR, Division of Safety Systems, Technical 7 Specifications, NRR. Pat Jefferson represents Office 8 of Investigations, and Lisamarie Jarriel represents 9 Office of Enforcement.
10 We also, of course, obtain advice from the 11 Office of the General Counsel represented here by 12 Emily Monteith. Okay.
13 So, as described in our process, the NRC 14 Staff may ask clarifying questions in order to better 15 understand the Petitioner's presentation, and to reach 16 a reasoned decision whether to accept or reject, or 17 partially accept the Petitioner's request for review 18 under the 10 CFR 2.206 process.
19 Mr. Lawrence Criscione is previously an 20 employee of Union Electric Company, and currently he's 21 employed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the 22 Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
23 In his petition request dated October 7, 24 2011, Mr. Criscione has stated that the reactor 25 shutdown procedure, that's [OTGZZ00005] at Callaway is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 not compliant with the plant technical specifications.
2 Mr. Criscione has stated that Callaway 3 Plant tech specs require the P4 permissive and all its 4 associated functions to be operable, that is not 5 bypassed when the plant's average cooling temperature 6 above 350 degrees Fahrenheit. P4 is a signal which 7 energizes when the reactor trip breakers are open.
8 One of the functions of P4 signal is 9 feedwater isolation. By bypassing both trains of 10 P4/564 Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal the plant 11 is not in compliance with its tech specs.
12 Mr. Criscione's request states that 13 pursuant to 2.206, the NRC should take several actions 14 as listed on page 10, 11, 12 of his submittal, and as 15 summarized below.
16 The first action, review the green non-17 cited violation of tech specs 3.0.3 from enclosure to 18 EPRI 22-2009, integrated inspection report for Wolf 19 Creek Station, and determine if similar violation 20 applies to Callaway Plant.
21 Review the licensee event report, LER as 22 we call it, [482-2009-009-01], and determine if 23 similar report is required from Callaway Plant. Also, 24 from green non-cited violation of tech specs [3.0.3]
25 from August 22, 2009, integrated inspection report NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 determine if similar violation applies to Callaway 2 Plant.
3 Review the Callaway Plant operating 4 license amendment 126 to determine if the amendment 5 permits the licensee to block P4/564 degrees 6 Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal. And lastly, 7 review the Callaway Plant's shutdown procedures that 8 is [OTG-ZZ-00005], and a screening report to determine 9 if NRC agrees with licensee on tech specs permitting 10 blocking P4/564 degrees Fahrenheit feedwater isolation 11 signal.
12 [ ]As the Agency understands, the 13 Petitioner requests NRC to do four things. First, 14 issue a violation to Callaway Plant licensee for every 15 inadvertent entry into tech specs [3.0.3] as a result 16 of P4/564 degree Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal 17 block. Determine what deficiencies in Callaway Plant 18 licensee's screening process permitted procedural 19 change; review the email trail and investigate if 20 there has been failure of safety culture; and lastly, 21 determine if there has been a failure at Callaway 22 Plant to learn from industry experience. And if there 23 are any deficiencies at Callaway Plant to work with 24 the industry.
25 In addition, the Petitioner requests the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1 following action related to Wolf Creek Nuclear 2 Operating Company. There are four items again. Number 3 one, review 05000482, 2009004-04, and if appropriate 4 withdraw the non-cited violations. Two, review the NCV 5 regarding LER [482-2009-009-00], and if appropriate 6 withdraw this NCV. [Review the] LER 481-2009-009-00, 7 and also 482-2009-009-01, and if appropriate, have 8 Wolf Creek either withdraw the LER or submit 9 revisions. And lastly, if appropriate, reimburse Wolf 10 Creek Nuclear Operating Company for any expenses for 11 any unnecessary processing of LERs and amendment 194 12 of the operating license.
13 Now, the NRC Staff has also received other 14 correspondence in this regard. On October 14, 2011, 15 Mr. David Lochbaum sent an email concerning Callaway 16 Plant regarding the licensee's practice to bypass the 17 P4 reactor trip signal and engineering safety features 18 actuation system.
19 On October 14, 2011, Ms. Kay Drey wrote to 20 express concern regarding Callaway and Wolf Creek 21 Plant practice of bypassing P4 feedwater isolation 22 signal. And lastly, on October 15, 2011, Ms. J. Mott 23 Oxford sent an email to NRC Staff members stating that 24 she is troubled and concerned about the accusation in 25 Mr. Criscione's submittal.
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15 1 [Before] I turn the meeting over to Mr.
2 Criscione, I would like to remind those on the phone 3 again to please mute your phones to minimize 4 background noise and distractions. In addition, since 5 the meeting is being transcribed, if you do have 6 something to say please first state your name for the 7 record.
8 Finally, since this is a public meeting 9 and the names and positions of other individuals 10 mentioned in the petition have been redacted to 11 protect their privacy, I would ask that the PRB 12 members and the Petitioner please refrain from using 13 the names of those other individuals, and also their 14 position titles mentioned in the petition.
15 So, at this time, I'd like to turn the 16 meeting to Mr. Criscione to lead us through his 17 presentation. And as shown in the meeting agenda that 18 you have a copy, perhaps, Mr. Criscione, you have 19 approximately 45 minutes to make your presentation.
20 MR. CRISCIONE: All right.
21 MR. BAHADUR: Will that be sufficient?
22 MR. CRISCIONE: I think it should be.
23 MR. BAHADUR: Please proceed.
24 MR. CRISCIONE: Okay. I'd like to apologize 25 to you, I don't have a PowerPoint in the room. The NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 last time I was at one of these meetings it was 2 available, and I didn't bring handouts.
3 MR. BAHADUR: Okay.
4 MR. CRISCIONE: I will be referencing 5 slides in here, some people on the phone do have the 6 slides, some of you in the room might have your own 7 copies. I apologize for that.
8 Also, you know, it's not my intention to 9 misrepresent anybody, so if you're listening on the 10 phones and you're mentioned and you don't agree with 11 what I'm stating, please feel free to interrupt me and 12 correct me.
13 All right. I'd start off by saying that 14 some of you on the phone know where I currently work.
15 The Board Chairman mentioned it. But with regard to 16 where I work, in my role here today I'm not 17 representing my current employer, so please don't 18 portray my remarks as an official view of the NRC. And 19 I've taken leave to attend this meeting, so I'm not in 20 a work role today.
21 Also, I'd like to note that my petition 22 has been heavily redacted for release to the public. I 23 don't agree with these redactions. I understand NRC's 24 point, but I don't agree with it. I believe it's 25 important that the public knows the names of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 employees involved in this incident and their current 2 and former positions at the plant.
3 If not properly operated and maintained, 4 nuclear plants can pose a grave risk to the public. It 5 is because of this risk that nuclear power plants are 6 regulated by the federal government, and to a lesser 7 yet still important extent by state governments and 8 local permitting boards.
9 Many of the individuals at Ameren who were 10 involved in this incident hold senior reactor operator 11 licenses and RO licenses from the U.S. NRC, and some 12 hold PE licenses from the State of Missouri.
13 In my opinion, the public has the right to 14 know [their] names and positions; however, in respect 15 to the NRC personnel who are hosting this meeting I'll 16 refrain from using names during this discussion.
17 Additionally, I'd like to note that, as 18 the Board Chairman just said, I -- this is my time to 19 give a presentation, and it's my understanding that 20 afterwards the Board will have a chance to ask me 21 questions. If any of you need clarification on 22 something along the way or have a question, I would 23 really prefer you interrupt me and just ask it 24 immediately. I think it would improve our involvement 25 here today. So, I'd like to put that out there; just NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 if you need any clarification, please stop me and I'll 2 go into more detail or I'll answer a specific 3 question.
4 Okay. If any of you on the phones have 5 questions regarding what's being discussed today, my 6 cell phone number, my home address, my personal email 7 address can be found on just about every piece of 8 correspondence I've written. I do, however, ask that 9 you not contact me at work. And if you're having 10 trouble finding my contact information, the NRC might 11 not be allowed to provide my -- I don't have a problem 12 if they provide my personal contact information, but 13 they might not feel comfortable doing that. But they 14 can certainly point you to the location of my petition 15 in ADAMS, and my contact information is on that.
16 Okay. I'm on -- if I had my PowerPoint, 17 I'd be on Slide 3 right now. So, those of you who do 18 have it -- it's been suggested to me that I start off 19 by discussing what I'm ultimately attempting to 20 accomplish and how the meeting today plays a part in 21 it.
22 My ultimate goal is to [ensure] Callaway 23 Plant is led by honest people. It is to [ensure] that 24 Ameren values the input of its engineers and 25 technicians and does not intimidate or otherwise NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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19 1 discourage its employees from honestly stating their 2 opinions and steadfastly holding to their principles.
3 Although it is not in my power to [ensure]
4 any of these things, I hope that by transparently 5 providing this example of significant organizational 6 failings at Ameren I can effect an investigation from 7 which Ameren might recognize some of its deficiencies 8 and take meaningful actions to correct them.
9 Okay, I'm now on Slide 5, or 4 rather.
10 Although the specific details of this incident which I 11 will be addressing in a moment may seem trivial to 12 some of you, I would like you to consider that this 13 incident demonstrates -- what this incident 14 demonstrates about the corporate culture at Ameren and 15 Callaway Plant.
16 Okay, Slide 5.
17 MR. BAHADUR: Excuse me.
18 MR. CRISCIONE: Sure.
19 MR. BAHADUR: Is everybody comfortable not 20 having the copy of his presentation, or would you like 21 to take a five minute break and we can get copies of 22 the presentation? Is it okay the way it's going on 23 right now? Is it okay? All right, please proceed.
24 MR. CRISCIONE: Okay. This incident was far 25 from being a fluke. It is an example of the modus NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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20 1 operandi of Ameren. I have many more examples, the 2 best being the catastrophic failure of the Taum Sauk 3 upper reservoir in December 2005, which nearly killed 4 a family of five. Details of the organizational causes 5 of that incident can be found in the October 24, 2007 6 Initial Incident Report from the Staff of the Missouri 7 Public Service Commission to the Commissioners, and by 8 that I mean the Public Service Commissioners, not the 9 NRC Commissioners.
10 Other examples include Ameren's chronic 11 short staffing of the equipment operator ranks at 12 Callaway Plant, Ameren's neglect of retired sulfuric 13 acid tanks and piping, Ameren's failure to make timely 14 corrections to design flaws in the Callaway Reactor 15 Emergency Pressure Relief System, Ameren's failure to 16 follow its licensing bases with regard to isolating 17 the safety injection accumulators at Callaway Plant, st 18 and Ameren's handling of the October 21 , 2003 and 19 June 17th, 2005 [passive] reactor shutdowns.
20 The details of all these examples are out 21 of the scope of this meeting, but I can provide them 22 to anyone in the public or the NRC who is interested 23 in them.
24 Okay, Slide 6. Since there are members of 25 the public on the phone, at this point I will give a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21 1 brief explanation of the licensing process. If any of 2 the NRC members would like to correct anything I say 3 or add to it, please interrupt me.
4 Because of the potential hazards which an 5 improperly run nuclear reactor plant can pose to the 6 public, all commercial reactor plants in the United 7 States must obtain an operating license from the 8 Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
9 One of the parts of this license is the 10 plant's technical specifications, referred to as tech 11 specs. Tech specs in a sense set the speed limits.
12 Contained in tech specs are things such as how many 13 emergency generators must be available, how high a 14 pressure and temperature can the reactor plant be 15 operated, and what is the maximum amount of power that 16 can be generated by the reactor.
17 I would like to note at this point that 18 although reactor plants are by regulation required to 19 [follow] their tech specs, when they fail to do so 20 they are not necessarily being operated unsafely. My 21 analogy would be to consider speed limit laws.
22 If the speed limit is 55 miles per hour on 23 a stretch of interstate highway designed for 75 miles 24 per hour, and on a clear day with no traffic you 25 operate your vehicle at 56 miles per hour, you are NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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22 1 violating the law but you're not necessarily being 2 unsafe. And similar to automobiles, locomotives have 3 speed limits which they must follow.
4 When a train believes that the speed 5 limits on a stretch of track are too slow, there's an 6 appeals process which they can follow to attempt to 7 prove to their regulators that their locomotives can 8 safely operate on that stretch of track at a higher 9 speed. If they successfully prove their case, the 10 speed limit will be raised.
11 Similarly, a reactor plant's technical 12 specifications are subject to change. The NRC has a 13 license amendment process which a utility can follow 14 to attempt to prove that their reactor can be operated 15 safely with some of the initial design constraints 16 relaxed. If they successfully prove their case, as 17 Wolf Creek did with their license amendment number 194 18 from earlier this year, then the NRC will allow them 19 to relax some of their initial constraints. However, 20 prior to getting the NRC's approval to amend their 21 license, the public expects the utility follow their 22 operating license as it is written.
23 Again, consider the speeding example. Some 24 of you in this room and on the phone might, like me, 25 at times exceed the posted speed limit, but do any of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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23 1 you exceed the speed limit when a police car is 2 following you? Well, as I will argue later that is 3 what Ameren is doing. And the police, which in this 4 case is the NRC, are for whatever reason turning a 5 blind eye.
6 That in and of itself is of only minor 7 concern to me. The reason I am here today is because 8 of how Ameren responded to their own engineers and 9 operators when they were told they were violating 10 their license.
11 Occasional speeding might be acceptable, 12 but ignoring your technical employees is not. Just ask 13 the Toops family who were flushed out of their home as 14 it was demolished from the torrent of water and trees 15 following the failure of the upper reservoir at 16 Ameren's Taum Sauk.
17 Okay, I'm now on Slide 7. At Callaway 18 Plant and other four-loop pressurized water reactors 19 designed by Westinghouse, there's a safety feature I 20 call the P4/564 degree Fahrenheit feedwater isolation 21 signal. P4 is an electrical permissive which energizes 22 when the reactor trip breakers open. So, when P4 23 permissive is present, the plant's circuitry assumes 24 the reactor trip breakers are open and the control 25 rods have all been inserted to squelch the nuclear NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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24 1 fission reaction.
2 564 degrees Fahrenheit is the set point at 3 Callaway Plant for a low average coolant temperature 4 signal. I do not know what the physical significance 5 of the 564 degrees is, but I will note that 564 6 degrees is well above the no-load average coolant 7 temperature for Callaway Plant, which is 557 degrees.
8 So, typically following a reactor trip, the plant 9 trends towards 557 degrees, and along the way a 10 feedwater isolation signal is automatically generated.
11 Now on Slide 8. At the plant, there are 12 two systems for supplying water to the reactor's four 13 steam generators, normal feedwater and auxiliary 14 feedwater. The feedwater isolation signal causes the 15 valves supplying the normal feedwater to shut and the 16 valves supplying the auxiliary feedwater to open.
17 Normal feedwater is drawn from the turbine's 18 condenser, which typically operates above 100 degrees, 19 and is preheated another 100 degrees prior to being 20 injected into the steam generators. I can't remember 21 the temperature, but I think it might have been around 22 325 degrees is what it's injected at.
23 Auxiliary feedwater comes from an outdoor 24 tank and is usually well less than 100 degrees is 25 probably going to the reactor plant in the high 90s.
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25 1 So, when a feedwater isolation signal occurs, 2 significantly colder water is injected into the steam 3 generators. This colder water disrupts the [steam-4 water] equilibrium in the generator and makes it more 5 difficult for the operators to control level.
6 Additionally, it places unneeded thermal shocks on the 7 internal components of the steam generators.
8 Now on Slide 10. By the mid 1990s both 9 Callaway Plant and Wolf Creek were in the habit of 10 using electrical jumpers to bypass the P4/564 degree 11 Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal during certain 12 plant evolutions. Although this practice was in 13 violation of their operating licenses, in their 14 defense they apparently did not recognize it; that is, 15 they were speeding but not intentionally.
16 However, unintentionally speeding will 17 still get you a ticket, which is what occurred at Wolf nd 18 Creek on August 22 , 2009 when the U.S. NRC Resident 19 Inspectors observed this practice.
20 Now on Slide 11. In 1996, Callaway Plant 21 originated an interim modification package to install 22 bypass switches around the P4/564 degree Fahrenheit 23 feedwater isolation signal to avoid having to use 24 jumpers to bypass it. As part of this modification, 25 they applied for an amendment to their operating NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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26 1 license. That amendment was granted by the U.S. NRC 2 on April 23rd, 1998 as license amendment 126.
3 Now on Slide 12. In the safety evaluation 4 for license amendment 126, Amy Cubbage of the Office 5 of Nuclear Reactor Regulation states, "The bases for 6 functional Unit 11B Reactor Trip P4 in Table 3.3-3 7 would be revised to add a note allowing the feedwater 8 isolation function on P4 coincident with low T Av to 9 be blocked." And later states, "The licensee has 10 proposed to install a bypass switch to block this 11 signal during start up and shutdown evolutions with T 12 Av less than or equal to 564 degrees Fahrenheit just 13 prior to opening the reactor trip breakers. The 14 feedwater isolation function would be restored by 15 manually defeating the bypass prior to entering Mode 16 2."
17 It is clear from her statement that after 18 P4 has come in, that is after the reactor trip 19 breakers have been opened and the control rods are on 20 the bottom, then it is acceptable for the utility to 21 block the P4/564 feedwater isolation signal. What is 22 not clear from her statement or the context in which 23 it appears is whether or not the plant is allowed to 24 block that signal prior to receiving P4 signal. That 25 is, it is unclear whether or not Ms. Cubbage intended NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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27 1 to allow the utility to block this signal during power 2 operations when the reactor trip breakers are shut and 3 the control rods are [withdrawn] from the reactor 4 core.
5 Ms. Cubbage is currently on the Fukushima 6 Response Team and has informed me she cannot recall 7 this issue, and cannot comment.
8 Here I would like you to note that in 1998 9 there was no procedure for tripping the plant as part 10 of a normal reactor shutdown. So, when the reactor 11 trip breakers were open and a P4 signal was generated, 12 the reactor would have already been shutdown by the 13 operators fully inserting the control rods. That is, 14 when Amy Cubbage's safety evaluation was done, the 15 bypass switch for the P4/564 degrees Fahrenheit 16 feedwater isolation signal would only be operated when 17 the plant was already shut down, and the control rods 18 fully inserted into the reactor core.
19 I would also like you to take note in the 20 excerpt above -- and I would have a PowerPoint to show 21 you that excerpt, but [here] is the phrase, "The 22 licensee has proposed to install a bypass switch."
23 Now on Slide 13. If the intent of Ms.
24 Cubbage's safety evaluation was to evaluate whether or 25 not the bypass switch could be installed, then her NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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28 1 evaluation is acceptable. If the intent of Ms.
2 Cubbage's safety evaluation was to also allow the use 3 of that switch, then her evaluation is unacceptable.
4 Specifically, the note referred to in the 5 first sentence of Paragraph 2.4 would need to be added 6 to the technical specifications and not the tech spec 7 bases in order for the switch to be used in Modes 1-3.
8 No note was added in the bases. It is 9 believed that this reference in the safety evaluation 10 to a note is a result of the parenthetical phrase 11 which is discussed on the next slide. And that would 12 be Slide 14.
13 One of the intents of license amendment 14 126 was to allow bypassing the P4/564 degree 15 Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal. However, the 16 necessary change to the technical specifications was 17 not requested. Instead, a parenthetical phrase was 18 added to the tech spec bases stating that the P4/564 19 degree Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal "may be 20 manually blocked since this function is not required 21 by the safety analysis."
22 Ameren and Dave Dumbacher, the NRC Senior 23 Resident Inspector at Callaway Plant[,] will tell you 24 that this parenthetical phrase allows Ameren to bypass 25 the P4/564 degree Fahrenheit feedwater isolation NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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29 1 signal in Mode 1, as long as the plant is in a 2 shutdown evolution and plans on restoring the bypass 3 switch prior to entering Mode 2.
4 I will submit to you that if that is the 5 case, then the parenthetical phrase as written also 6 allows the plant to defeat the P4/564 degree 7 Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal any time it so 8 chooses. In actuality, though, the parenthetical 9 phrase allows nothing.
10 The technical specifications cannot be 11 overridden by a parenthetical phrase in the tech spec 12 bases. But if anyone wishes to argue that they can, 13 then I would submit that the above parenthetical 14 phrase places no restrictions on the blocking of the 15 P4/564 degree Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal 16 and, therefore, it is outside of the scope of 17 Paragraph 2.4 of the Safety Evaluation of the license 18 amendment 126.
19 License amendment 126 was not properly 20 processed in that the parenthetical phrase -- I'm now 21 on Slide 15. License amendment 126 was not properly 22 processed in that the parenthetical phrase added to 23 the tech spec bases was neither adequate to restrict 24 the operation of the bypass switch to within the 25 boundaries of Paragraph 2.4 of the Safety Evaluation, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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30 1 nor was it adequate to allow operation of the bypass 2 switch in Modes 1-3 since the change was to the bases 3 and not the actual tech specs.
4 The Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation 5 erred in approving license amendment 126, and as a 6 result, Callaway Plant is in violation of their 7 technical specifications whenever they use the bypass 8 switch, which was installed for that license 9 amendment.
10 Now on Slide 16. An error on the part of 11 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not negate an 12 error on the part of the licensee. The licensee must 13 follow their technical specifications as written 14 regardless of any confusion generated by a poorly 15 submitted license amendment which was approved by NRR rd 16 on April 23 , 1998.
17 The NRC needs to cite Callaway Plant for 18 violating their technical specifications for every 19 instance when the P4/564 degree Fahrenheit feedwater 20 isolation signal was bypassed in Modes 1, 2, and 3.
21 Slide 17. For those that might be 22 sympathetic to Callaway Plant because an error was 23 made on the NRC's part when NRR approved the license 24 amendment 126, I would note that Callaway Plant had 25 ample opportunity to recognize the error during the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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31 1 discussions which occurred in 2006 and 2007, which I 2 will detail momentarily.
3 Additionally, Callaway Plant had ample 4 opportunity to recognize and correct the error 5 following the non-cite violation which was issued to 6 Wolf Creek in [2009], which I will also discuss.
7 Callaway Plant is guilty of willfully 8 capitalizing on NRR's mistake, and the NRC cannot 9 allow that to go by unaddressed.
10 Slide 18. In early 2005, the Outage 11 Manager at Callaway Plant asked me to rewrite the 12 reactor shutdown procedure to allow the operators to 13 trip the reactor -- to use the reactor trip switch 14 during a normal reactor shutdown.
15 Unlike coal plants, nuclear plants have 18 16 months worth of fuel stored in them at the start of 17 their fuel cycle. Coal plants require that coal be 18 consistently supplied to them or else they lose power 19 and quit operating, but nuclear plants have months 20 worth of fuel loaded in them. The operator cannot 21 simply shut them down by quitting to feed them uranium 22 because the uranium is already there.
23 The power in the nuclear plant is 24 controlled not by increasing and decreasing the feed 25 rate of fuel. It is controlled by absorbing more or NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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32 1 less neutrons which are the critical component of the 2 nuclear fission reaction.
3 One of the primary systems used for 4 controlling the availability of neutrons are the 5 neutron absorbing control rods. A reactor trip occurs 6 when the reactor -- when the control rods are de-7 energized and fall into the core. Upon entering the 8 core, enough neutrons are absorbed by the control rods 9 to stop the nuclear fission reaction.
10 Normally, when the operators wish to shut 11 down the reactor, they drive the control rods into the 12 core with the control rod drive mechanisms and use 13 only the trip switch for emergencies.
14 By 2007, a significant number of plants in 15 the U.S. were using a reactor trip for normal 16 shutdowns, as well as for emergencies. There is 17 nothing unsafe in this practice, but one of the 18 drawbacks to it at Callaway Plant is the initiation of 19 the P4/564 degree Fahrenheit feedwater isolation 20 signal which makes the steam generators hard to 21 control and also gives undesired thermal stresses in 22 the steam generator.
23 So, in my endeavor to rewrite the reactor 24 shutdown procedure for the Outage Manager, I desired 25 to bypass the P4/564 degree Fahrenheit feedwater NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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33 1 isolation signal prior to manually tripping the 2 reactor. However, I believe that bypassing this safety 3 feature while at power was not authorized since Table 4 3.3.2 of Callaway Plant's technical specifications 5 indicate that this safety feature is required during 6 power operations. So, on January 9th, 2006 I submitted 7 a request for resolution to the engineering department 8 to determine what the utility needed to do in order to 9 allow the operators to block the P4/564 degree 10 Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal prior to 11 manually tripping the reactor.
12 Slide 20. On pages 16-39 of the enclosure 13 to my petition, there is a 24-page email trail which 14 in a later email one of the Ameren licensing 15 engineers, [mockingly refers]to as the Criscione 16 Trail. Those of you within the NRC who have access to 17 the unredacted petition can review this email trail 18 and see for yourself how dysfunctional the Ameren 19 organization was in 2007 and possibly still is.
20 In the email trail, design engineering, 21 safety analysis, and licensing are continually passing 22 the buck as to whose responsibility it is to make a 23 decision. Licensing first agrees with safety 24 analysis, and then contradicts itself. I am asked to 25 rewrite my request for resolution to make it more NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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34 1 general, and then it is rejected for not being 2 specific enough. It is resubmitted and then 3 incorrectly answered; that is, the responder 4 misunderstood what was being asked and answered the 5 wrong question. And then it is closed without 6 consulting with me.
7 After more than a year it is finally 8 decided that no one will answer my request, but 9 instead representatives from licensing, and from 10 safety analysis will screen and sign the revised 11 reactor shutdown procedure specifically documenting 12 the acceptability of bypassing the P4/564 degree 13 Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal while at power.
14 I would like to note here that members of 15 the public do not have access to this information in a 16 form that is reasonably usable; that is, the publicly 17 released version of my petition is so heavily redacted 18 that major parts of it are unusable to a concerned 19 citizen who is attempting to understand exactly what 20 has occurred.
21 Although it is not my place to bypass the 22 processes which the NRC has established to implement 23 the Freedom of Information Act, it is also not the 24 NRC's place to curtail my rights as a private citizen 25 to freedom of expression.
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35 1 Anyone wishing an unredacted version of my 2 petition please contact me on my personal phone number 3 or email account. Please do not contact me at work, 4 and I will see if I can get you an acceptable copy.
5 If there is anyone who believes this to be out of 6 line, I encourage you to take up the matter with the 7 NRC's Office of Inspector General.
8 Slide 21. The screening promised to me by 9 the licensing department and the safety analysis group 10 was completed on March 1st, 2007. It is located on 11 pages 43-46 of the enclosure to my petition. The 12 author of the screening, in my opinion, made a 13 significant mistake when he used the following 14 justification for allowing the tech spec required 15 P4/564 degree Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal to 16 be blocked.
17 This is quoting from the 10 CFR 50.59 18 screening. "Feedwater isolation signal on P4 19 coincident with low RCS T Av does not meet any of the 20 four criteria for tech spec inclusion in 10 CFR 21 50.36, Paragraph C2(ii)."
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36 1 that per the current technical specifications it is a 2 required function during Modes 1-3. In other words, 3 just because you can make the argument to remove it 4 doesn't mean you can ignore it. You've got to make 5 that argument to the NRC first through the license 6 amendment process, get it removed, and then you don't 7 have to obey it.
8 I would note here that if the above 9 statement and the other -- and this is the statement 10 from the 50.59 screening. I would note here that if 11 the above statement and the other arguments presented 12 in the licensing department's 10 CFR 50.59 screen are 13 satisfactory justification for being able to block the 14 P4/564 degree Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal, 15 then the NRC should be reimbursing Wolf Creek Nuclear 16 Operating Company and their Kansas and Missouri rate 17 payers a significant amount of money. Responding to 18 several non-cited violations, writing two revisions of 19 a licensee event report and preparing a license 20 amendment are not trivial expenses; yet, these 21 expenses were incurred because the NRC's Resident 22 Inspectors at Wolf Creek would not accept a similar 23 argument to the one Callaway Plant has gotten passed 24 their NRC Resident Inspector.
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37 1 note that this screening of the new reactor shutdown 2 procedure was completed one month before the revised 3 procedure was to be used to shut down the reactor for 4 the refueling outage commencing April 1st, 2007.
5 Slide 22. A well seasoned Senior Reactor 6 Operator at Callaway Plant whose name I have [ ] been 7 told I am not allowed to mention in this public 8 meeting, so I'll be referring to him during this 9 discussion as Mr. S., was involved with implementing 10 license amendment 126 and is of the opinion that Ms.
11 Cubbage only intended that the P4/564 degree 12 Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal be bypassed when 13 the reactor is shut down with its control rods on the 14 bottom. And that's similar to what was granted to the 15 Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Company in their license 16 amendment 194, which was given -- granted earlier this 17 year.
18 On March 29th, 2007, I gave Mr. S. a copy 19 of the new reactor shutdown procedure to review. I can 20 no longer recall what caused me to give him a copy but 21 I believe it was because his crew was scheduled to do 22 the upcoming reactor shutdown, which was at that time 23 just a few days away.
24 Mr. S. had a significant concern with the 25 procedure. In his opinion, the procedure violated the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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38 1 plant's technical specifications. It had been 2 unbeknownst to me until that evening that Mr. S. [had]
3 been involved with the operating license amendment 4 126, and had assisted in writing the wording that made 5 it into the NRC's safety evaluation.
6 In his opinion the phrase, "In a shutdown 7 evolution," meant the rod banks were inserted and the 8 operators were at the point of opening the reactor 9 trip breakers; that is, the reactor was already shut 10 down with the control [rods] driven into the core and 11 the operators were in the process of opening the 12 reactor trip breakers to [ensure] the control rods 13 could not be inadvertently withdrawn.
14 Although[,] having been involved in an 15 issue a decade earlier, Mr. S. had insights which I 16 did not[;] [he] was essentially arguing the position 17 which I had held during my 12-month [odyssey] in 18 seeking a resolution from engineering and licensing 19 during 2006. I informed him that if the issue had been 20 screened by both licensing and safety analysis --
21 excuse me. I informed him that the issue had been 22 screened by both licensing and safety analysis, and 23 that if based on his insights from 1996 through '98 he 24 believed that they were wrong, that he should document 25 his concerns with a Condition Report.
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39 1 Slide 23. For those of you who have never 2 worked in the nuclear industry, a Condition Report is 3 a formal process for, among other things, allowing 4 plant workers to document nuclear safety concerns.
5 Mr. S. wrote a Condition Report and it was 6 automatically assigned by the system the designation 7 Callaway Action Request [200703001]. Since the 8 procedure he was concerned with was to be used in just 9 three days to shut down the reactor for the upcoming 10 refueling outage, I sent an email to all involved 11 parties with the subject stating "CARS 12 [200703001]nuclear safety concern with shutdown." This 13 email can be found on page 16 of the enclosure to my 14 petition.
15 The organization's response to this email is on pages 16 13-15 of my petition.
17 Now on Slide 24. Regardless of whether or 18 not myself and Mr. S. were correct in our assessment 19 that the new procedure revision violated the plant's 20 operating license, those of you at the NRC and on the 21 phone need to realize that from a safety culture 22 aspect it doesn't matter; that is, Mr. S. should be 23 free to raise his concerns without fear of retaliation 24 regardless if in the end those concerns are shown to 25 be valid or not.
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40 1 As you can see for yourself from the email 2 trail, if you have a copy of the unredacted petition, 3 Mr. S.'s concerns were not appreciated by the 4 organization. When we came in for the night shift that 5 evening, both he and I had to phone the Operations 6 Manager at home to discuss the matter. The Operations 7 Outage Manager accused me of attempting to sabotage 8 the refueling outage schedule. Despite an inordinate 9 amount of effort on my part to get the organization to 10 seriously look at the issue during the previous 12 11 months, I was accused by the Shift Operations Manager 12 and the Support Operations Manager of failing to 13 thoroughly run down the issue.
14 As typical at Ameren, the employees 15 raising the concerns were blamed and the organization 16 refused to look at how it could have better responded 17 to the concerns. Most people at the NRC have never 18 actually worked for a utility or at a nuclear power 19 plant. And among those who have, few have ever found 20 themselves in a position where they were pressured to 21 change their professional opinion in order to please 22 their supervisors.
23 [Refuel] outages can cost a nuclear 24 utility upwards of $3 million a day. At that rate, an 25 hour2.893519e-4 days <br />0.00694 hours <br />4.133598e-5 weeks <br />9.5125e-6 months <br /> is over $100,000. Delaying the outage schedule by NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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41 1 an hour or more due to not being able to shut down the 2 reactor with a manual trip was serious business. It 3 was something that managers at Callaway Plant would 4 have to explain to their bosses in the corporate 5 offices in St. Louis. So, what would you do? Would 6 you admit to your bosses that your staff at the 7 reactor plant didn't have its act together, or[,] to 8 keep the outage on schedule, would you intimidate your 9 wayward underlings into withdrawing their concerns?
10 Well, here's what Ameren did. They 11 intimidated Mr. S. into withdrawing his concern, 12 and[,] when you think of it from their perspective, an 13 amoral business perspective, it was the right choice 14 to make. Why do I say this?
15 You need to look at it from a pure risk 16 and reward standpoint. Beating down Mr. S. and his 17 inconvenient safety concern may be immoral to some of 18 you, but to look at this as Ameren does, you need to 19 put that thinking aside and focus solely on the 20 financial risk. And, unfortunately, there is very 21 little risk of beating down Mr. S.
22 If Mr. S. was right and the plant was 23 violating their technical specifications, then they 24 faced nothing more than a speeding ticket. In fact, 25 it's really less than a speeding ticket, since there NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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42 1 is no financial penalty for a non-cited violation. And 2 if Mr. S. was wrong, then they really faced nothing at 3 all. Mr. S. would never sue them for their treatment 4 of him, but if he ever did it is extremely unlikely 5 that he could prove his case since most of the 6 intimidation of him was done verbally. If he could 7 prove his case, the company would settle with him for 8 an amount that was less than what they would have lost 9 from changing the refueling outage schedule.
10 And regardless of what the sum amount was, 11 every penny of it would all be passed along to the 12 rate payers as operating costs, since Ameren pays such 13 settlements as Form 1099 payments, the same way they 14 pay contractors that trim the trees around power 15 lines. These payments are[,] in their entirety[,]
16 passed along to the rate payers as any other operating 17 expense would be.
18 In Missouri, the cost of settling a 19 retaliation complaint is borne by the utility's rate 20 payers and not by their shareholders and executives, 21 and certainly not by the supervisors doing the 22 retaliation.
23 Mr. S. grew up in [East] St. Louis, 24 Illinois. Prior to enlisting in the Navy, he worked 25 in the stockyards north of town in the earthen walled NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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43 1 cellars where freshly slaughtered cattle were hung in 2 the days before refrigeration, which by the late 1960s 3 had not yet been fully phased out.
4 By the time I showed up at Callaway Plant, 5 he had been there almost two decades and had seen only 6 one promotion. In nuclear power, as in many 7 professions in America, you don't promote by being 8 competent and honest. As in most corporate endeavors, 9 the path to promotion is being able to flex your 10 principles and always please your superiors.
11 Standing up to the organization when you 12 know you are right brings you nothing but resentment 13 and the label of being a non-team player. Yet, Mr. S.
14 gained more internal happiness from always doing what 15 he thought was right, and by moving up the corporate 16 ladder. And Mr. S. was used to adversity and under-17 appreciation.
18 He'd seen his parish and his neighborhood 19 succumb to some of the worst urban blight in the 20 nation. His service in the Navy was as the Vietnam era 21 was ending, and prior to the Reagan resurgence when 22 the military was looked upon with disdain by many 23 Americans. He could take about just anything in 24 stride, but I cannot emphasize to you how painful it 25 was to watch him withdraw his Condition Report. A man NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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44 1 whom I had never seen back down from an argument 2 decided after being chewed out on the phone by the 3 Operations Manager that fighting to [ensure] the plant 4 obeyed its operating license was just not a fight 5 worth fighting.
6 I doubt the NRC will investigate this 7 incident, but if you do, when you go to Callaway Plant 8 Mr. S. will certainly not tell what you occurred. He 9 did not tell you when you interviewed him in 2008 10 during your inspection of Ameren's Corrective Action 11 process, and I can assure you he will not tell you 12 now.
13 There is nothing but misery and 14 frustration to be gained from speaking to you. If he 15 honestly tells you what occurred, Ameren will know the 16 source. And he knows that even if he were to help you, 17 you will in the end not take any action since there is 18 no way to prove what was said by Ameren management.
19 And, of course, there is the matter of 20 pride. He knows he was right. He doesn't need to go 21 crying to the NRC for validation. But even though he 22 won't speak to you, you have in my petition facts 23 which do not lie. There is a 24-page email trail 24 showing how for over a year the issue was debated at 25 Callaway Plant, and what the arguments were.
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45 1 Although the existence of Callaway Action 2 Request [200703001] can now only be surmised from the 3 gap that exists between CAR [200703000] and CAR 4 [200703002] in the Corrective Action database, you 5 have my email concerning that Condition Report which 6 was sent to the Outage Manager, the Operations 7 Manager, the Licensing Manager, the Plant Director, 8 the Site Vice President, and many others in the 9 organization.
10 The organization was well aware of Mr.
11 S.'s concerns, yet allowed them to go unaddressed. You 12 have the organization's response to my email. You can 13 see how no one encouraged Mr. S. to pursue his 14 concern, and you can see the mocking attitude taken by 15 the licensing department with no response from the 16 rest of the organization.
17 So, continuing on with the saga, as I 18 stated in the final email of the trail to the two st 19 reactor operators[,] on April 1 , 2007[] I [believed]
20 the issue was resolved. Mr. S. had withdrawn his 21 concerns and the shutdown was proceeding with the new 22 procedure, and I [believed] that Mr. S. and I had been 23 in the wrong[:] [that] license amendment 126 allowed 24 Callaway Plant to bypass the P4/564 degree Fahrenheit 25 feedwater isolation signal while at power[.] {B]ut NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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46 1 then in the spring of 2010, I [read] Revision 1 to 2 Wolf Creek's licensee event report 482-2009-009.
3 Slide 25. On August 22nd, 2009, the NRC 4 Resident Inspectors identified a non-cite violation of 5 technical specification 3.0.3 due to operators at Wolf 6 Creek bypassing the P4/564 degree Fahrenheit feedwater 7 isolation signal.
8 Slide 26. As part of the response to their nd 9 August 22 , 2009 non-cite violation, Wolf Creek 10 submitted licensee event report 482-2009-009. One of 11 my ancillary duties at work is to review all the 12 operating experience which comes in from our nation's 13 104 operating reactor plants.
14 After reading LER 482-2009-009, I reviewed 15 for myself the third-quarter integrated inspection 16 report from the Wolf Creek Resident Inspectors, and I 17 realized that they were taking the same stance that 18 Callaway's safety analysis group had taken in 2006; 19 that bypassing the P4/564 degree Fahrenheit feedwater 20 isolation signal was prohibited by technical 21 specifications.
22 In an email to Mark King, I expressed my 23 concerns that the Wolf Creek determination 24 contradicted the way Callaway Plant was operated. Mr.
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47 1 Miller, the Branch Chief in Region IV for the branch 2 which inspects both Callaway Plant and Wolf Creek.
3 Mr. Miller never responded to me.
4 Instead, he informed my boss that it was inappropriate 5 for me to be using the U.S. NRC to settle old scores 6 with Callaway Plant.
7 After a discussion with my boss, I agreed 8 it would be wise to not involve myself in any 9 regulatory matters involving Callaway Plant. And I 10 would like to emphasize here that I have in no way 11 been pressured by my supervisor to look the other way 12 on any concerns which I have. We merely agreed that 13 due to my contentious relationship with Region IV, I 14 was not going to be successful in resolving any issues 15 regarding Callaway Plant internally.
16 So, instead of attempting to resolve the 17 issues internally, as a private citizen I spent the 18 next weekend writing a 10 CFR 2.206 petition, which I 19 then sat on for 18 month waiting to see if Region IV 20 would ever act on my concerns.
th 21 As the October 15 , 2011 Callaway Plant 22 refueling outage approached, I felt I had waited long 23 enough, and I submitted my petition on October 7th, 24 2011 via an email to Bill Borchardt.
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48 1 2011, I received no follow-up from the NRC regarding 2 my petition. On October 13th, 2011, I attempted to 3 electronically submit my petition, but it was rejected 4 by the NRC because several pages at the end of the 5 document, most of which had come from [] NRC generated 6 documents and were obtained through ADAMS[,] did not 7 meet the NRC's searchability criteria.
8 Realizing my petition would not be 9 processed prior to the upcoming Callaway Plant 10 shutdown; that is, prior to the next time Callaway 11 Plant would be violating their operating license by 12 blocking the P4/564 degree Fahrenheit feedwater 13 isolation signal, I appealed to Kay Drey for 14 assistance.
15 In an October 14th, 2011 email, Ms. Drey 16 informed Ameren management and the NRC Resident 17 Inspectors of my petition. Despite being informed of 18 my concerns, Ameren bypassed the P4/564 degree 19 Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal with the reactor 20 at power, and with the NRC's Senior Resident Inspector 21 in the reactor's control room.
22 To me, this is analogous to speeding 23 [past] a police officer and him taking no action, 24 despite being warned by a concerned citizen that you 25 are coming his way. Not really a big term -- not NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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49 1 really a big deal in terms of safety, but it makes you 2 wonder about how dedicated the NRC is to enforcing 3 regulations.
4 Slide 28. So, what are my requests of the 5 NRC? I will summarize them here for the benefit of 6 those on the phone, but they are detailed on pages 10-th 7 12 of the enclosure to my October 7 , 2011 petition, 8 and on page 3 of the January 8th, 2012 petition. There 9 are 16 items listed on those pages of the enclosure, 10 and a 17th in the supplement.
11 I would like a transparent and specific 12 response to the first six items in the enclosure, and 13 the item in the supplement; that is, I would like the 14 response to each of them broken out individually and 15 written in such a way that I can transparently 16 understand what the NRC's position is on each of them.
17 Similarly, for either items 7-12 or items 13-16 of 18 the enclosure, I would like specific and transparent 19 responses.
20 Okay, the next slide will be 29, but 21 actually I'm not going to go through what my specific 22 requests are in the interest of time, just because the 23 Petition Board Chairman covered them, unless you 24 believe there's benefit to that. Okay.
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50 1 I believe is the last slide. I'd like to leave you 2 with some parting thoughts.
3 First, some of you might, like Geoffrey 4 Miller, believe that this is merely about settling old 5 scores. That attitude, however, is what chronically 6 impedes the NRC from impartially assessing concerns 7 brought forth by nuclear industry employees and 8 adequately addressing those concerns.
9 There are individuals in important 10 positions within Ameren who consistently intimidate 11 their technical staffs from raising embarrassing or 12 inconvenient concerns. From your cubicles in 13 Rockville, Maryland you will never become aware of 14 these problems unless a [foolhardy] utility worker 15 brings them to your attention.
16 It's common knowledge amongst nuclear 17 workers that taking your concerns to the NRC is a 18 waste of time. You will just invite more retaliation 19 upon yourself and the bureaucrats at the NRC will be 20 easily misled by the management of the utility who are 21 well practiced at redefining issues in a manner which 22 obscures the true facts.
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51 1 an organization which failed to [ensure] the reactor 2 plant was operated in accordance with its design.
3 Operating large electrical plants is serious business, 4 with potentially serious consequences when things go 5 wrong.
6 If you do not understand this, read Lisa Toops' 7 testimony to the Missouri Highway Patrol concerning 8 [her] family's ordeal during the Taum Sauk upper 9 reservoir failure.
10 Had Ameren not blatantly ignored the 11 concerns of its technical staff regarding the level 12 sensors at Taum Sauk, that disaster would never have 13 occurred. The events of this petition might seem like 14 a trivial matter to you, and certainly compared to 15 Taum Sauk they are, but they are indicative of an 16 organization whose managers continue to place personal 17 gains ahead of public safety, and who are willing to 18 retaliate against engineers and technicians who dare 19 to stand in their way.
20 A second parting thought is this. Many 21 people in the nuclear industry can name six major 22 accidents involving the meltdown of a commercial 23 reactor core. The meltdown of the [Fermi] reactor 24 outside Detroit, Michigan in 1966, the meltdown on 25 Three Mile Island in 1979, the explosion at Chernobyl NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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52 1 in 1986, and the three reactors meltdowns at the 2 Fukushima Daiichi site less than a year ago. But what 3 nobody in the industry can name are the accidents 4 which were prevented.
5 When plant personnel fail to properly 6 operate and maintain the reactor and an accident 7 results from it, the world knows. But when an 8 operator holds his ground and sacrifices his career in 9 a successful effort to prevent his managers from 10 implementing unsafe decisions, nobody knows about the 11 accident which was prevented, not even the person who 12 prevented it. How can you know about something that 13 did not occur?
14 If the Ameren engineers and the 15 technicians involved in the lead up to the Taum Sauk 16 disaster held their ground and got the plant taken off 17 line to fix its level sensors, no one would have ever 18 known the disaster they prevented. However, Mr. Tom 19 Voss and the rest of Ameren upper management would 20 likely have known the names of the troublemakers who 21 caused the Taum Sauk plant to go off line and cost 22 them a few extra tens of thousands of dollars in their 23 2005 bonus checks.
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53 1 is plenty of grief in store for you when you hold your 2 ground against your superiors and get in the way of 3 making money.
4 On this slide, and I'm sorry that I don't 5 have it up there for your benefit -- on this slide 6 there are several quotations which came from a speech 7 given by Admiral Rickover in 1982. Thirty years later 8 all of these quotations are just as relevant as the 9 day they were first uttered. ["]A major flaw in our 10 system of government and even in industry is the 11 latitude allowed to do less than is necessary. Too 12 often officials are willing to accept and adapt to 13 situations they know to be wrong. The tendency is to 14 downplay problems instead of actively trying to 15 correct them. ["]
16 I ask you, the members of the Petition 17 Review Board, to not fall victim to the tendency that 18 Admiral Rickover is warning against in that quote.
19 There are systemic culture problems at Ameren which 20 you know to be wrong. Continuing to downplay them does 21 the public no benefit. We need to actively try to 22 correct them.
23 ["]If responsibility is rightfully your's 24 no evasion, or ignorance, or passing the blame can 25 shift the burden to someone else.["] How this quote NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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54 1 applies to you should be obvious. You have been 2 assigned the responsibility of evaluating my petition.
3 That task is a group effort.
4 I ask that each of you recognize your role 5 in that effort and evaluate the matter with your own 6 mind so that you can actively engage the other 7 members.
8 Some of you are the experts on technical 9 specifications. You have the responsibility to 10 thoroughly understand the issues so that you can give 11 your honest assessment to the group.
12 Some of you are division directors who are 13 in the Senior Executive Service. The citizens of this 14 country look to you to faithfully serve them by 15 honestly tackling difficult issues. Your 16 responsibility is to these citizens, not to your 17 careers. Be willing to make the right choice even if 18 it will not please your office directors.
19 ["]Human experience shows that people, not 20 organizations or management systems, get things 21 done.["] Those are words to live by if I have ever 22 heard any. The management directive for this process 23 is meaningless without the active involvement of all 24 of you. The management directive will not [ensure] my 25 petition gets adequately resolved.
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55 1 My petition will only be adequately 2 resolved if each of you take ownership of your role 3 and strive to make a difference and get things done.
4 [ ] Any one detail followed through to its source 5 will usually reveal the general state of readiness of 6 the whole organization. That phrase, "general state 7 of readiness" is a Navy term. This quote is equally 8 true if you replace general state of readiness with 9 safety culture. And you will find that if you follow 10 the details that I have given you through to their 11 source, it will reveal to you the state[,] or rather 12 the lack of[,] the safety culture at Ameren.
13 On Slide 5 I have provided you five 14 additional examples in case any of you are not 15 convinced by this example.
16 ["]If a subordinate always agrees with his 17 superior, he is a useless part of the organization.["]
18 Please keep this in mind when your superiors are 19 pressuring you to bureaucratically close this petition 20 in order to avoid making NRR look bad for their rd 21 mistakes made on April 23 , 1998 when they approved 22 the inadequately prepared license amendment 126, and 23 to avoid making Region IV look bad for their mistakes 24 made on October 15th, 2011 when[,] despite having been 25 warned by Kay Drey the day before, they did nothing as NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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56 1 Callaway Plant blatantly violated their technical 2 specifications while shutting down the reactor.
3 ["]Do not regard loyalty as a personal 4 matter. [A greater] loyalty [is] one to the Navy or to 5 the country. When you know you are absolutely right 6 and when you're unable to do anything about it, 7 complete military subordination rules becomes a form 8 of cowardice.["]
9 Here again I ask you to keep in mind when 10 your superiors are pressuring you to bureaucratically 11 close this petition the nuclear workers in this 12 country rely on the NRC to be the calvary who come to 13 save the day, and not the keystone cops. Be 14 regulators, not bureaucrats.
15 I thank the Petition Review Board for 16 considering what I have to say. I encourage any 17 members of the public who have questions regarding 18 this incident to contact me at home [and] not through 19 work. As I said at the beginning, my personal contact 20 information is contained on the first several pages of 21 my petition which can be obtained through the NRC.
22 Also, I would like to encourage the 23 Petition Review Board that if you have any questions, 24 need any clarification after this meeting, just give 25 me a call. I'll be glad to answer any of your NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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57 1 questions.
2 I would like to end with a few questions 3 of the Petition Review Board. First, it is unclear to 4 me where we are at in the process. Have you already 5 met and made your decision as to whether or not you 6 will accept my petition? If not, when will you do so?
7 If so, what was your preliminary decision? And, 8 finally, what is the next step, and when should I 9 expect to hear from you?
10 Thank you, and I yield back to the Meeting 11 Chairman.
12 MR. BAHADUR: Thank you, Mr. Criscione, for 13 making a very clear presentation, and also a timely 14 closing of your presentation.
15 The question that you have asked I will 16 ask Mohan to answer that in a second. Does the Staff 17 here at headquarters have any question for the 18 Petitioner?
19 MR. MARKLEY: I have a question. What other 20 plants have you evaluated that were using the P4 in 21 the way that you described besides these two?
22 MR. CRISCIONE: When I was revising the 23 reactor shutdown procedure, I didn't do that 24 evaluation. I don't know if I could mention his name, 25 but an individual from licensing at Callaway Plant NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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58 1 evaluated the other Westinghouse plants. And I don't 2 have the email in front of me, but it is in my 3 petition the responses he got.
4 I know we heard from some Exelon plants. I 5 can't remember if it was Byron or Braidwood, or if it 6 was both. We heard from someone in Region II. I don't 7 know if was Surrey or Dominion. I can't remember, but 8 there was about five. I can get you that answer, 9 though. It's in my petition. But I don't know if this 10 is where you're leading with that.
11 MR. MARKLEY: I'm just curious. You seem to 12 have knowledge -- I'm Mike -- for the court reporter, 13 I'm Mike Markley, NRR. I'm just curious because you've 14 done such analysis on these plants, I was curious what 15 others you had done similar.
16 MR. CRISCIONE: Right. And those -- that 17 feedback was given to me by licensing, and I reviewed 18 it. And none of the plants bypassed the P4/564 degree 19 Fahrenheit feedwater isolation signal prior to 20 tripping the reactor. So -- and I don't know what the 21 case is today, but as of -- this was back in 2006. So, 22 we were really -- in fact, I remember being asked by 23 one of -- a Callaway outlier, but really we were an 24 outlier in that these other plants that were tripping 25 the reactor to start their shutdown, what they did was NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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59 1 they tripped their reactor and they just sucked it up 2 and got [a] feedwater isolation signal, and they 3 restored from it as quickly as they could to minimize 4 the transient on the plant.
5 Now, it was posed to me, you know, why do 6 you want to bypass this signal at power when no one 7 else does? And my answer to that was, you know, it's 8 not always bad to be an outlier. You know, I mean if 9 you're in the top quartile or top 10 percent you're by 10 definition an outlier. All right? Obviously, you 11 [dont] want to be the outlier that's in the low 12 quartile.
13 Well, Callaway Plant was different than 14 all these other plants that we had gotten feedback 15 from in that we could bypass that signal with an 16 installed bypass switch. See, what Wolf Creek was 17 doing and still does, and what Callaway was doing 18 prior to '98 was they would [jumper] around that 19 switch when they wanted to open the reactor trip 20 breakers.
21 Now, keep in mind in the '90s they didn't 22 shut down the plant by tripping it. They shut down the 23 plant by inserting the control rods, by manually 24 driving them in. And there were some times when it was 25 desired because of the outage schedule to open the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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60 1 trip breakers.
2 Now, when the rods are on the bottom, you 3 still have surveillances you need to do to make sure 4 the trip breakers open and that the P4 permissives --
5 you have surveillances that you have to do to make 6 sure they're made. And I think that was the main 7 driver. I think that's why Wolf Creek was doing it on 8 August 22nd, 2009. I'm not certain.
9 But you have things that you might want to 10 do during your outage schedule in Mode 3. And if you 11 didn't want to challenge your operators with a 12 feedwater isolation, and you didn't want to 13 unnecessarily thermally shock your generators -- and 14 when I say "thermally shock," you know, I recognize 15 that they're designed to handle that shock, but just 16 from good engineering practice it's wise to avoid 17 those shocks even though you're designed to handle it, 18 if they're unnecessary.
19 So, what Callaway Plant and Wolf Creek 20 would do, and I don't know if other plants did it or 21 not, what they would do, they would bypass that signal 22 prior to cycling the trip breakers. And this is after 23 the plant was shut down.
24 Now, what I was doing in 2006 was I was 25 wanting to bypass that signal when the reactor was NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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61 1 still critical. I wanted to do it at 10 percent power 2 in Mode 1. And I felt comfortable doing that. I felt 3 that it was a safe thing to do. However, I didn't 4 think we were legally allowed to do it. I thought that 5 it violated our tech specs. So, in January of 2006, I 6 submitted a Request for Resolution, and in the process 7 of that getting kicked around between licensing, 8 safety analysis, and design [engineering], that's when 9 that study was done where they talked to the other 10 plants.
11 MR. MARKLEY: Thank you.
12 MR. CRISCIONE: Yes.
13 MR. BAHADUR: Ms. Jarriel, do you have some 14 information that you wanted to share?
15 MS. JARRIEL: I was just going to point to 16 this page in the petition I think you were referring 17 to.
18 MR. CRISCIONE: Okay.
19 MS. JARRIEL: I think you mention the 20 plants.
21 MR. CRISCIONE: Oh, yes. Let's see. Yes, 22 this is the area, but it's a different page. Okay.
23 Yes, so we got a reply from -- well, it says Exelon 24 Cantera. I don't know what plant that is, but it's 25 probably both Byron and Braidwood. Cantera is their C-NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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62 1 - I can't remember. Kristy, is Cantera the midwest 2 [ROG] or the east coast [ROG] for [Exelon]?
3 MS. BUCHOLTZ: It's west coast.
4 MR. CRISCIONE: All right. Midwest you 5 mean.
6 MS. BUCHOLTZ: Well, yes.
7 MR. CRISCIONE: Okay. All right. So, 8 they'd be Byron and Braidwood. Here's one from -- it 9 looks like this might just come from Westinghouse.
10 Here's another one, though, from [CPSES] Regulatory 11 Affairs. I don't know what that stands for, though.
12 But it's one --
13 MR. MARKLEY: I can read that.
14 MR. CRISCIONE: Okay. Yes.
15 MR. BAHADUR: Any other questions from the 16 headquarters Staff? How about the Regions? Regions, 17 do you have any questions?
18 MR. BLOUNT: This is Tom Blount. I don't 19 have any questions.
20 MR. BAHADUR: Thanks, Tom. Is there any 21 member of the public on the phone?
22 (No response.)
23 MR. BAHADUR: Okay, not hearing any. Hello, 24 were you trying to say something? Before I conclude 25 this meeting --
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63 1 MS. DREY: Hello?
2 MR. BAHADUR: Hello?
3 MS. DREY: Yes, this is Kay Drey in St.
4 Louis. Can you hear me?
5 MR. BAHADUR: Yes, Ms. Drey.
6 MS. DREY: I had my phone muted, and I'm 7 not -- I wasn't sure if you could hear me. Hello?
8 MR. BAHADUR: Yes, we can hear you.
9 MS. DREY: My name is Kay Drey. I'm a Union 10 Electric Ameren Rate Payer. I am also a board member 11 of Beyond Nuclear of Tacoma Park, Maryland. I live in 12 St. Louis.
13 Ever since I first began trying to learn 14 about nuclear power 37 years ago, I have read claims 15 that by standardizing the design and operating 16 procedures of nuclear reactors the cost of nuclear 17 power would decrease, and safety would potentially 18 increase.
19 Callaway Unit 1 in Missouri and Wolf Creek 20 in Kansas were the only two of the originally planned 21 Westinghouse Bechtel SNUPS for -- hello?
22 MR. BAHADUR: Yes.
23 MS. DREY: Okay, SNUPS for standardized 24 nuclear unit power plant system reactors. There were 25 only two that were built and placed on line. So, Wolf NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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64 1 Creek and Callaway Plant were to operate with 2 basically the same technical specifications. So, even 3 after reading about and hearing today's discussion 4 about Callaway's blocking of the feedwater isolation 5 signal in preparation for a planned shutdown, I simply 6 do not understand why the NRC Staff would allow 7 Callaway to operate the plant using different 8 procedures than its twin reactor, Wolf Creek, was 9 allowed to use, and about which the NRC issued a 10 Licensee Event Report to KCP&L, the Wolf Creek 11 licensee.
12 This is particularly perplexing since the 13 Westinghouse Owners' Group of which Ameren or Union 14 Electric and its Callaway Plant is a member, decreed 15 that disabling an engineered safety function 16 specifically bypassing the P4 reactor trip signal in 17 Mode 1 is simply not permitted while the reactor is 18 still in the operating mode; that is, while the 19 operator -- I'm sorry. That is, while the reactor is 20 still in the operating mode during preparation for a 21 controlled shutdown.
22 I understand this is not permitted. The 23 Wolf Creek licensee for some reason, perhaps speed, or 24 convenience, or whatever, wants to continue to block 25 the feedwater isolation valve while the reactor is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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65 1 still in the operating mode. KCP&L, therefore, had 2 applied to the NRC and was granted a tech spec 3 amendment, and the NRC has apparently approved KCP&L's 4 requested amendment to its technical specifications.
5 Ameren, Union Electric, on the other hand 6 had initially been using electrical jumpers and later 7 installed a bypass switch to block the feedwater 8 isolation signal in preparation for a planned 9 shutdown.
10 My question, why did the NRC issue a 11 License Event Report to Wolf Creek in 2009 for having 12 disabled an engineered safety function during a 13 controlled shutdown, and then require and approve an 14 amendment to Wolf Creek's tech specs to allow such a 15 bypass action in the future? And why did the NRC 16 allow Union Electric to continue to block the 17 feedwater isolation signal during a reactor shutdown 18 without requiring an amendment to the Callaway tech 19 specs; that is, in violation of Union Electric's tech 20 specs, and contrary to the safe practices commitment 21 of the Westinghouse Owners' Group? Thank you.
22 MR. BAHADUR: So, how would you like Mr.
23 Criscione to clarify his position to answer your 24 question?
25 MS. DREY: I have no direction about that.
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66 1 I'd leave it up to him.
2 MR. BAHADUR: Okay.
3 MS. DREY: Or I guess I was asking the NRC 4 Staff, but I guess I don't have the right to do that.
5 MR. BAHADUR: No, you could have asked the 6 question to NRC Staff in a different forum, as I had 7 indicated earlier. This meeting was essentially to 8 listen, to hear what Mr. Criscione has to say about 9 his petition, and then to ask clarifying questions to 10 see where we don't understand what he's trying to say.
11 MS. DREY: Well, I guess I would like to 12 ask Mr. Criscione then if he has any understanding of 13 what he thinks happened, why the NRC has treated Wolf 14 Creek, our twin reactor, so differently than it's 15 treated Callaway.
16 MR. BAHADUR: That could be more like a 17 second-guessing on the part of Mr. Criscione, and I 18 don't see that as a part of his petition. But it's 19 entirely up to him if he wants to take a couple of 20 minutes to answer you, that would be okay.
21 MS. DREY: Well, can you tell me how I 22 could rephrase my question that would make it 23 appropriate for your proceedings?
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67 1 in the regulation of Wolf Creek and Callaway Plant.
2 You know, they both fall under the same branch [in]
3 Region IV, but it kind of was perplexing to me, you 4 know, as part of this petition process how Wolf -- and 5 this is how really I got involved in this petition.
6 You know, I read an LER in the spring of 7 2010 about Wolf Creek being cited, a non-cited 8 violation for bypassing the P4/564 degree Fahrenheit 9 feedwater isolation signal while in Mode 3. I informed 10 Geoff Miller, the Branch Chief for Region IV that 11 Callaway Plant not only does it in Mode 3, they do it 12 in Mode 1. And I got told -- well, I didn't get told, 13 but my supervisor got some feedback that, basically, I 14 should but out.
15 But, of course, that doesn't mean that the 16 NRC is not going to do anything about it. But, you 17 know, after waiting for 18 months, I really never saw 18 Region IV address why Callaway Plant is treated 19 differently than Wolf Creek.
20 Now, I think with regard to the Resident 21 Inspectors at Callaway Plant, I met with one of them.
th 22 I met with the Senior Resident on November 8 in St.
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68 1 a similar license amendment when they got their non-2 cite violation. Now, I disagree with that position so 3 really it's a difference of opinion.
4 MR. BAHADUR: Thank you. Thank you very 5 much.
6 MS. DREY: May I please ask -- can you 7 please tell me how do I -- to whom or how do I address 8 my question about the difference between Wolf Creek C-9 - the handling of Wolf Creek and Callaway? To whom 10 should I write it, the NRC?
11 MR. BAHADUR: There are a number of ways 12 you can do that. You could be writing a letter to NRC 13 and it will go to Executive Director of Operations who 14 will refer that to the office that will be in a 15 position to answer your questions.
16 MS. DREY: So, I just write to them? Do I 17 write to the Executive Director of Operations, or do I 18 write to the Commissioners?
19 MR. BAHADUR: That would be your choice, 20 but my suggestion will be that you write to the 21 Executive Director of Operations.
22 MS. DREY: Okay. Thank you very much.
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69 1 able to answer this question. But I don't know if I 2 actually heard a response to the last couple of 3 questions that Mr. Criscione put forth to the NRC in 4 regards to a decision that has been made, or when 5 you'll make a decision, or what would be -- what are 6 the next steps.
7 MR. BAHADUR: We'll see whether we can find 8 the answer right now, or are we going to go back to 9 Mr. Criscione at a later time.
10 MR. CRISCIONE: They're basically on the 11 timing.
12 MS. BANIC: We should be able to answer it.
13 MR. BAHADUR: All right.
14 MS. BANIC: This is Lee Banic, Petition 15 Coordinator. First we'll get the transcript from the 16 court reporter and we'll review that and make any 17 corrections. And then that will be distributed to the 18 members of the Board, and it'll be made publicly 19 available. We'll evaluate the transcript and Mr.
20 Criscione's supplemental information, the members of 21 the Board will, and then we'll schedule a meeting of 22 the Board and discuss all the information, and come up 23 with an initial recommendation. We'll get management 24 approval for that, and then we'll inform Mr. Criscione 25 of our initial recommendation.
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70 1 MS. ROSENBERG: So, we -- so, the PRB has 2 not yet made an initial recommendation.
3 MS. BANIC: Yes. According to our 4 procedure, Mr. Criscione or any petitioner has an 5 opportunity to address the Board and present any 6 information before it meets. And that's where we are 7 in the process.
8 MR. SMITH: Okay. And generally speaking do 9 you know how long it'll be to get an answer back about 10 what's happening, what actions will be taken, 11 generally speaking?
12 MS. BANIC: Well, we'll probably get the 13 transcript in three days, and it'll take what, a week 14 to maybe --
15 MR. BAHADUR: No, one week.
16 MS. BANIC: One week we'll get the 17 transcript and then we'll review that, and it'll take 18 probably a couple of weeks for the Board members to 19 review it and digest it. And then we'll schedule a 20 meeting within a few weeks.
21 MR. SMITH: Okay, thank you.
22 MR. BAHADUR: Any other questions? Well, 23 Mr. Criscione -- I'm sorry.
24 MS. DREY: Hello?
25 MR. BAHADUR: Hello?
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71 1 MS. DREY: This is Kay Drey again. Do I --
2 if I have questions about how the emails were 3 processed that were -- I wrote on October 14th, an 4 email to your Resident Inspectors at the Callaway 5 Plant to alert them to Mr. Criscione's petition and to 6 the fact that Callaway was likely once again to be 7 violating its technical specifications when they were 8 about to shutdown for the 18th refueling outage the 9 next day. I wonder how the NRC processes that kind of 10 email.
11 MR. BAHADUR: Let me see if --
12 MS. DREY: I don't know what the noise is.
13 Can you hear me?
14 MR. BAHADUR: Yes, we can hear.
15 MS. DREY: Okay.
16 MS. ROSENBERG: She could send it to the 17 Region and have the Region answer that question.
18 MR. BAHADUR: Your question has been 19 referred to the Region.
20 MS. DREY: I couldn't hear. I'm sorry. I 21 couldn't hear that.
22 MR. BAHADUR: Your question has been 23 referred to the Region. We're going to get back in 24 touch with them and find out exactly what's the 25 progress.
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72 1 MS. DREY: I can ask Region IV? Is that 2 what you're saying?
3 MR. BAHADUR: You could do that, as well.
4 MS. DREY: And what was the alternative?
5 MR. BAHADUR: For us to do it for you.
6 MS. DREY: I see. Okay. All right. Thank 7 you.
8 MR. BAHADUR: Okay. Is there any other 9 question?
10 MS. DREY: I don't have any other.
11 MR. BAHADUR: Okay. Any other question from 12 the members of the public? Well, Mr. Criscione, thank 13 you so much for taking your time and providing the NRC 14 Staff with this clarifying presentation.
15 MR. CRISCIONE: Thank you.
16 MR. BAHADUR: And as Lee Banic has 17 explained to you, it's in the process and we'll get 18 back in touch with you as the progress takes place.
19 MR. CRISCIONE: Okay.
20 MR. BAHADUR: Now, before I close the 21 meeting, I'd like to ask if the court reporter has any 22 additional information that you need for this 23 transcript?
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73 1 a lot of those names.
2 MR. BAHADUR: Okay. Mohan will provide you 3 the detailed names and their affiliations. And with 4 that, I apologize, the meeting has lasted about 10 5 minutes longer.
6 PARTICIPANT: We have one other person --
7 MR. BAHADUR: Oh, I'm sorry.
8 MR. WALSH: My name is Tim Walsh. I'm with 9 the law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and 10 I'm counsel for Ameren.
11 MR. BAHADUR: Yes, do you have any 12 questions?
13 MR. WALSH: I do not have any questions.
14 MR. BAHADUR: Okay. With that, the meeting 15 is adjourned. Thank you so much for your patience.
16 (Whereupon, the proceedings went off the 17 record at 2:37 p.m.)
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