ML18019B093

Requests Attention to Concern Re Facility Emergency Siren for Area Evacuation,Per 860628 Experience W/Plant Personnel & State of Nc Highway Patrol.Concern Treated W/Negligence, Unprofessionalism & Irresponsibility

ML18019B093
Person / Time
Site:	Harris
Issue date:	07/29/1986
From:	Keyworth B, Richardson D AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:	Harold Denton Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
References
NUDOCS 8607290230
Download: ML18019B093 (8)

Text

.~i REQ QRY INFORNATION DISTR IBU SYSTEN (R IDS)

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ACCESSION NBR: 8607290230 DOC. DATE: 86/07/29 NOTARIZED: NO DOCKET 4 FAC IL: 50-400 Sh earon Harri s Nuc lear Pomer P lanti Unit 1 i Car o 1 ina 05000400 AUTH. NAl'lE AUTHOR AFFILIATION KEYNORTH, B. AFfiliation Not Assigned RICHARDSON'. Aff i liation Not Assigned RECIP. NANE REC IP I ENT AFF ILI*TIGN DENTON> H. Office oF Nuclear Reactor Regulation> Direc tor (post 851125

SUBJECT:

Requests attention to concern re facility emergency siren for area evacuationi per 860628 experience e/plant personnel Sr State of NC highway patrol. concern treated e/negligencei unprofessionalism 8r irresponsibility.

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Nr. Harold Denton Director of N.R.R.

United States NRC Mashington, D.C. 20595

Dear Mrs Denton,

Enclosed is a copy of our letter describing our experiences with Shoaron Harris Nuclear Plant personnel and the NC State Highway Patrol office in Raleigh, dune 28. Me feel that our calls to those-people concerning an emergency siren near our home were not taken seriously and that our well-founded concerns vere not responded to. This was to an extent that ve feel constitutes negligence and unprofessionalism, as veil as Irresponsibility. Me would appreciate your attention to this matter. Thank you.

Sincerely, Barbara Keyworth David Richardson gk'zZ/8eza(SIS I'60yg9 - -

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Dear Sir~

The following describes, to the best of our recollection, incidents which occurred during the early morning hours of Saturday, June 28, 1986.

The N.Ci State Highway Patrol and CP8cL'S Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant vere involmd. lie feel that their responses to us were irresponsi.ble, negligent and unprofessional. As the people most responsible for our and the public's safety, ve expected them to.be far more concerned+

At l>55 aim.> Sat., June 28, I vas awakened from a deep sleep by the un'.stakeable, oscillating emergency siren belonging to the Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant which is ileven iU.3es ~m our house in Pittsboro, N.C. The closest siren is approximately one or oneand a half miles away.

I woke DavM and, upon hearing the siren, he called the operator 4o get the number for the police department. Knowing that the sirens mean resi- ,

dents should prepare to evacuate the area and should listen to the radio for directions, ve also turned on the radio. The police expressed surpxise at our call and doubted that we vere hearing a Shearon Harris sizes. I then called the 911 emergency number which is the Chatham Co. line for all emergenciesi %hen I told the dispatcher about the alarm, she was surprised and said she would check on it+ In the meanwhile, we could find nothing on the radio and vere concerned that a light breeze was blowing our direc-tion from the nuclear plant. Though thc plant is not yet in operation, ve both knew that nuclear fuel is on site and. that there is the potential it for an accident while is stored. David decided to call the operator and ask for the number for the Shearon Harris plant. The number he reached was disconnected or no longer in servicei I again called. the Chatham County dispatcher at 911. She suggested I turn on the radio and said she was nov getting calls from other people about the siren. Da&d again called the operator and again asked for numbers for the nuclear plant, after explain-ing that the first one was disconnected. He vas given two numbers, 362-2/20 and $ 62-8891. He dialed 362-2320 and reached Nurdoch Jones in Security.

Nr. Jones said that there had not been an accident and that the horn we vere hearing was the horn for the shift change or break. David explained that ve lived eleven miles away and could not possibly be hearing the break horn. He asked to speak to a supervisors'r. Murdoch ignored the request and said it vas not necessary and insisted that we were hearing the break horn for the 2>00 break. David then called, g2-8891 and reached, David Dean of the payroll office, vho said that the siren

vas for the shift change add that lt went off at 2<00 and 0<00 every xornlng. Nr. Dean acted irritated and lxpatlent and vas sure that ve vere hearing the break horn, even after David told hix we lived ll <<iles away and have never heard any break horn in the past eight years.

Me vere by now very angry. Shearon Harris perionnei were giving as ridiculous, i<<possible answers and refuslng to take seriously ocr report that we had heard an emergency siren ( the siren sounded frox approx. 1<55 to 2<00) ~ Ve both knew that ln the accident at Three Nile Island ln 1979, area residents vere not notified or evacuated until long after the occurrences Rather than sit and wonCer, erpeclally since there still had been no announcement en the radio, I decided to call the State Highway Patrols I knew that hhyy vere supposed,. to be notified in the case of an accident. It took a fex <<ore <<inutes for xe to find. out the nearest patrol station and obtain the nuxber from the operator> Mhen I dialed the Raleigh nuxber, I told Officer Mhitehouse, the night super-visor, that I lived, 11 xlles frox the plant and had heard an emergency siren and wanted to knox if he knew anything about it and if anyone else had. called ln. He did not respond to xy questions, but instead laughed and said "I live six <<iles frox the plant and there's nothing down there."

His tone was totally unserlous and conveyed that he thought vas an I alarxlst l<<aging thlngs. I replied "there's nuclear fuel. there" and he asked "where Cid you hear that'P in a tone which i<<plied that I vas xisinformedo I answered that I knew it and that it vas public infarxa-tion and that, even though the plant vas not yet using the fuel, ani.

accldant could still occur while it ls in storage. I vas becoming frus-trated that I was belng argued with when I had called ln concerning an emergency alar<<. I asked Nr. Whitehouse to eall Shearon Harris and ask

.what had happened< He agreed and came back i<<mediately saying that the people at the plant said ve were hearing the 2>00 break horn I repeated I

that lived, ll <<iles away and said that it wasn't possible for <<e to hear that horn. He then said "they test those sirens all the time,"

I infer<<ed hix that I'e never heard thea, especially in the <<iddle of the nighte He then suggested that <<aybe someone pushed the wrong

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button, and then said he wasn't golng to argue with xe about it at 2 ln the xornlngo I confronted hlx with the vay he had laughed when I called in. He denied this. I hung up,feeling very frustrated and still lacking lnforxation about the siren. I decided to see who I could reach ln the xlddle of the night and tried calling txo radio stations and a trav. station+ David had a hotline number to the governor's offlce and tried it, Ve could not reach anyone. I again eall the 911 dispatcher

(all the while wondering about Wether I could be tying up the ewergency lines) The dispatcher (Ann Milkke) said she had someone frox CpkL on

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the line and he wanted to know what the siren sounded likeo She asked if it could have been a police or fire siren. Mh had been asked the eaae question by the police departaent and Nr. Nhitehouse and. knew it vas neithe ~ I tried to imitate the siren and asked if there were other calle'. She said "yes> several" and then said it vas not an emer-gency and that CPhL did not know why the siren had. gone off. It vas now 2s35, forty sd.nutes after I first heard the siren. It took a lot of persistent work on cur parts to get an answer. lie were awake for another hour, feeling angry and frightened by the siren and by the hostile, indifferent attitudes of the people in charge of eaergency proceedingse At 9 a.n., I again called the Chathaa dispatcher to follow-up on ay calls during the night. I vaa told that CPhL had inforaed the dispatcher that someone down at the plant set off the siren accidentallg."

Later that day, they changed this to say a Vandal had broken into a siren.

It does not matter to us hov the slam vas set off. Mhat does matter is that we had a test case of what can occur when something does go wrong. CPhL and our public safety officials are not prepared to deal h h wonder hov they vill aanage a ~)or evacuation ih the case of an emergency.

Ve are especially concerned about the following~

-l- Nany people vere awakened by the alaxa- and some who should ham heard it did not. CPhL never aade any sort of announcement by radio or television to let us know that what we had heard vas a wistake and that we did not have to worry'n Nonday, Mac Harris of CPhL told one

'of ay neighbors that he had considered calling the xedia, b'at 61d not knox who to call at that tiae of night. OPAL did not release a state-ment until 6y00 pa Saturday, 16 bours later, and that vas released iawediately after the incident vas reported on television. Me, along with our neighbors (sany of whom are in the 70's) vere left to worry+

David talked to an out-of-state camper who said he and his faaily had been frightened and had not know what to do.

The security person manning the phones at Shearon Harris xas unable to responsibly and intelligently handle a serious alara. A second employee at the plant also aoted irresponsibly, The highway patrolman in charge,vas unprofessional and unresponsimo These people ignored important infoaaation and argued with us. They all gave':

us an absurd answer of "you are hearing the break horn" despite our repeated protest that we were ll ailes away and never heard it in several years+ They insisted that we vere wrong and in fact, they were wrong, The HSghway Patroliaan did not know that nuclear feel is stored at the plant and that it is extremely hasardous even while in storage This is essential infmaatien for anyone responsible for eiergencies.

The patrolaan also did not take my call seriously, argued with ae and did not respond to ay inforaation until I asked him to call the nuclear plant and find out about the alara. Then he too disregarded inforaation and chose to believ the improbable breaker hmn story, The Shearon Harris plant does not knox when one of its alaras is sounding. Mhy not? Can they tkll if the alarms are not xmking?

COL did not know what had happened and gave us differsaL'tories.

First> the break horn stmy, second> the alarm xas set off Iistakenly at the plant, third, a vandal set it off at the siren and fourth' report Qirough the MRhL television statS. on that vandals broke 1nto the plant and that CPAL intended to tighten security,

%hat cencarns us the aost is that these people have convinced themselves that nothing can go mong (and that people xho belfsve.

something can go wrong are over-reacting and haagining things) to the extent that when they are confronted with the reality of a problem, they deny it and do nothing. Me feel that this attitude could be extremely hazardous to our safety in the event of a real eaorgency.

Our safety depends on their iamediate concern and iaaediate respon-sible reaction ~ Me do not believe the evacuation plan will wmki It is supposed.to take three hours and 56 ainutes to evacuate a 10 iLLle radius. Mhen does that countdown begin? -froa the time of the actual event or froa the tile when the people in charge acknowledge and adai.t there is a problem? It should not take us aore than Q minutes to find out whether ar not tb leave the area.

Our grsatest~rnyeih:;thht:soaething will go wrong at the nuclear plant and the people in charge will not respond. In our opin1on, they did not respond well Saturday night.

Barbsra Keywmth

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~~u~p David Richarson

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