ML17056A360
| ML17056A360 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Nine Mile Point  |
| Issue date: | 10/12/1989 |
| From: | Wiggins J NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I) |
| To: | Burkhardt L NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORP. |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8910250081 | |
| Download: ML17056A360 (18) | |
Text
Docket Nos.
50-220 50-410 Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation ATTN:
Mr'. Lawrence Burkhardt, III Executive Vice President Nuclear Operations 301 Plainfield Road
- Syracuse, New York 13212 Gentlemen:
Subject:
Allegation Regarding the Radiation Monitors at Nine Mile Point This requests that Niagara Mohawk address an allegation raised at the August 23,
- 1989, NRC public meeting in Oswego, New York.
The meeting solicited public comments on the NMP Unit 1 Restart Action Plan (RAP).
During the meet-
'ing, Mr. Kevin Bond from New
- Haven, New
- York, stated that he had heard of instances in which the radiation monitors had been turned off during radio-active discharges and unusual events.
Mr. Bond's statement is included in the attached copy of pages 113 to 119 of the transcription of the public meeting, which cover his comments.
We request that you review this al,legation in detail, including additional specifics from Mr. Bond, if possible.
Unless Mr. Bond is able to limit the allegation to either Nine Mile Point Unit 1 or Unit 2, please address the con-cern at both units.
We request that this response be provided within 30 days "of the date of this letter.
We appre'ciate your cooperation in this matter.
Should you have any further questions regarding this matter, please contact Mr. Glenn Meyer of my staff at (215) 337-5183.
Sincerely, (jrigirla> SigABtl Bp:
Jame:-
T. Ngpio":
James T. Wiggins, Chief Reactor Projects Branch No.
1 Division of Reactor Projects
Attachment:
As stated OFFICIAL RECORD COPY MEYER 599 10/11/89 0001.0.0 10/11/89
Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation.
OCT12 1989 cc w/
Attachment:
'C. Mangan, Senior Vice President W. Hansen,
- Manager, Corporate Quality Assurance R. Smith, Unit 2 Superintendent, Operations C.
- Beckham, Manager, Nuclear Quality Assurance Operations R. Abbott, Unit 2 Station Superintendent J.
- Perry, Vice President, Quality Assurance K. Dahlberg, Unit 1 Station Superintendent R. Randall, Unit 1 Superintendent, Operations J. Willis, General Station Superintendent C. Terry, Vice President Nuclear Engineering and Licensing J.
- Warden, New York Consumer Protection Branch T. Conner, Jr.,
Esquire G. Wilson, Senior Attorney J.
Keib, Esquire Di,rector, Power Division, Department of Public Service, State of New York State of New York, Department of Law Public Document Room (PDR)
Local Public Document Room (LPDR)
Nuclear Safety Information Center (NSIC)
NRC Resident Inspector State of New York bcc w/
Attachment:
Region I Docket Room (with concurrences)
J. Wiggins, DRP D. Limroth, DRP G. Meyer, DRP R. Barkley, DRP R. Capra, NRR M.=Slosson, NRR J.
- Dyer, EDO RI: DRP GMeyer/mjd 0/li /89 I:DRP Wiggins ioz (l/ss OFFICIAL RECORD COPY MEYER 599 10/11/89 - 0002.0.0 10/11/89
ATTACHMENT (NRC/Nine Mile)
Kevin Bond, please?
113 MR.
BOND:
My name is Kevin Bond from New Haven.
I live approximately five miles southeast of the plant.
I'm a former CANDO member.
I say former
'nd I would like to emphasize that, because I was in on the founding of the group, me and my sister.
I sat in on one of the first meetings held by the group.
After a month, after they took my $50, I was told that if I could not
'eparate the nuclear power issue from the waste issue, that I did not belong in the group.
So that was your CANDO.group.
Now, for years I lived here I lived here all my life.
Now, I was in the dark on this entire radiation issue up until this waste issue came up.
Over the years, in local bars, I have heard a lot of stories.
I have hung around with the people that built it, the people that, worked there.
They all hang around in the local bars.
And, over the years, we'e heard stories of leaks; we'e heard stories of these people going to work for weeks on end with nothing to do-just going in and hanging out all day long.
GENTRAI NEW YORK REPDRTINI3 SERVIGE 406 HANOVER AVENUE LIVERPOOL NEW YORK 18088
(NRC/Nzne Mz.le)
'14 And there is also been allegations, which cannot.
be confirmed I wouldn't say allega-
.tions; maybe more rhetoric that Niagara Mohawk is being run by the mob here.
I was hoping that wasn't so.
And there has also been a lot of reported cases of drug and alcohol abuses at. the plants.
Is there any type of alcohol and drug abuse
'onitoring program now at Nine Mile 1, FitzPatrick, or Nine Mile 2?
MR.
COOK:
Yes, sir, that's correct.
There is a monitoring program in effect at Nine Mile Point 1 and 2. It is in the process of being changed to conform with the recent ruling by the NRC on a fitness-for-duty-.
MR.
BOND:
Thank you.
There has also been During the'years when the construction was going on, there was a
lot of allegations of, quote: If you want a job, with a couple grand you can get a gob.
You could buy yourself a gob there.
Of course, we know a lot of falsified reports by Niagara Mohawk.
We have also heard of them, in the case of CENTRAL NEW YORK REPORTINB BERYICE, 406 HANOVER AVENUE LIVERPOOL, NEW YORK IBOBB
(NRC/Nine Mile) 115 unusual events or just a discharge of radiation in the environment, that they turn off their monitoring devices.
That's hard to believe.
But all this may or may not be true.
But your restart plan at Niagara Mohawk, by their own self-assessment, they clearly are try-ing to address the inadequacy of the management.
95 percent of all of the corporations in this country or myself, if I was the boss of this place, I would fire every damned one of those idiots.
These people are being paid well to do a job that they'e supposed to know how to do.
How in the world can your people come to me and they come to you and say:
Hey, our people don't know what they'e doing; we need time to retrain.
So, instead of firing these people, they'e hiring just as many more people, experts, to train these people for what they'e already supposed to know what to do. It doesn't make any sense.
Poor management.
Niagara Mohawk also states that their main concern is safety.
For the safety of the
- company, no doubt.
I'm sure not the people I
living around the plant.
CENTRAL NEW YORK REPORTING SERVICE 406 HANOVER AVENUE LIVERPOOI NEW YORK 13088
(NRC/Nine Mile)
The emergency plan has you staying inside in event of a small-scale emergency.
Small amounts of radiation being released, stay inside, keep your windows closed, and there will be something on T.V.
So if there is a major release, the plant blows sky high, 400 pounds of plutonium floating through the air, my "sister has to walk a mile to 10 a damn corner to wait for a bus that Joe Haney 12 13 14 15 says he's not going to drive.
Who do you have responsible to make sure that this has an adequate emergency plan, that the people can get out?
Can you guarantee me that if that plant goes to China syndrome, that every person in the Town of Scriba and Mexico and 17 New Haven, that they will get out?
18 19 21 22 MR. WIGGINS:
No.
There are no guarantees.
It's a planning basis.
I'm telling you the truth.
Emergency planning basis does not In the rules and regulations that'govern off-site emergency planning, do not require absolute guarantees that everyone would be evacuated.
MR. BOND:
So, in other words, the people in New Haven and CENTRAL NEVf YORK REPORTING SERVICE 406 HANOVER AVENUE LIVERPOOL NEW YORK
)BOSS
(NRC/Nine Mile) 117 MR. JIGGINS:
The only standard that is used is reasonable assurance.
Reasonable assurance that public health and safety will be protected.
MR.
BOND:
So, like contamination of the building, which was let go for 11 years, that' reasonable safety?
MR. NIGGINS: It's not a guarantee of absolutes; it's reasonable assurance.
10 MR.
BOND:
Okay.
Fine.
, 12 13 14 Niagara Mohawk has proven to me, once again, with this 11-year-old fiasco, that they are not concerned with my wellbeing.
And they are not even concerned with the radiation levels in the 15 community.
16 17 Now, recently, in the paper, the
/
Soviet Union has come out and said, in north-18 19 21 22 western Siberia, about 25 miles from the Alaskan
- coast, the people that live there were exposed to weapons testing from the bombs in the '60s.
Now they live in a background radiation of approxi-mately twice what they call normal; now they are experiencing a death rate at the age of about 45; and they'e saying they have the highest esophagus cancer in the world.
Two times the CENTRAL NEW YORK REPORTINI3 SERVICE 406 HANOVER AVENUE LIVERPOOI NEW YORK I8088
(NRC/Nine Nile) 118 normal background radiation.
I, for my own protection and my family',
bought an ionizing radiation gauge that will tell you when ionizing radiation is around.
At no special times do I check this.
But I have noticed that the counts are higher at night and in the early morning hours than they are in the daytime; which doesn't make any sense, when the scientists warn you about the radiation from the
- sun, 93 million miles away.
But they don't warn us about the atomic plant 5 miles away.
- Now, my Of all the readings I'e taken, I get an average of around 17 counts per minute; to put it in rems per year, it comes out to about
.8,
.9 rems per year.
In the paper that Burtch guy from Niagara Mohawk says that everybody in New York State should be exposed to approximately
.5 rem per year.
Now, how do you explain his total ignorance of'y family and where they live, liv-ing in almost twice that backgrounN These people don't care.
You people are charged with the responsi, bility of licensing the reactors and making sure CENTRAI NEW YORK REPPRTING SERVICE 406 HANOVER AVENUE LIVERPOOl NEW YORK 1SOSS
(NRC/Nine Mile) 119 the people are safe.
Now this is evidence that we are not safe.
I would like to thank you for coming here tonight.
Thank you for this open meeting.'nd I'd like to emphasize that the direction this whole nuclear program is taking is one of it is about time we woke up and faced the facts, close the barn door, and try to get the horse 10 back.
Thank you.
12 13 14 15 16 17 MR. WIGGINS:
Just to briefly respond, and not to refute what you said, I don't mean to do that:
You should be aware that the NRC has an independent method of monitoring environmental radiation around the reactor.
We have thermal luminescent dosimeters.
18 VOICE:
Can I ask you why the people in Pilgrim and Peach Bottom because we all feel 21 22 24
- united, we all live near disastrous Mark 1's, old G.E. plants.
.And why did the people in Maine, headed up by a state senator, ten years ago set up their own monitoring system, because yours are inadequate'?
Please don't tell me, for the record, that those are satisfactory.
Because in CENTRAI NEW YORK REPORTINI3 SERVICE 4D6 HANDVLR AVENUE LIVKRPOOI NKW YORK 18888