Text

Transcript of Public Briefing on 790329 in Washington,Dc,Re Incident at Facility.Discussion of Preliminary Info & NRC Response to Events
	ML19199A210
Person / Time
Site:	Crane
Issue date:	03/29/1979
From:	Ahearne J, Bradford P, Gilinsky V, Hendrie J, Kennedy R; NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
To:	;
References
	NUDOCS 7903300285
	Download: ML19199A210 (43)
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y. 7 1 ERA NUCLE AR REGUL ATORY COMMISSION IN THE MATTER OF:

PUBLIC MEETING BRIEFING ON THREE-MILE IS T. AN D INCIDENT Place -

Washington, D. C.

Octe -

Thursday, 29 March 1979 Pages 1

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DISCLAIMER This is an unofficial transcript of a meeting of the United States

'Ihursday, 29 March 1979 in the Muclear Recula ory Commission held on Commission s offices at 1717 H Street, ii. W., Wasnington, D. C.Ini s trar. scrip,e ine i

'neating was open to public attendance and observa:1ca.has not The transcript is intended solely for general informa'tional purposes.

As provided by 10 CFR 9.103, it is not part of the Tormal or informal Excressions or coinion in record of decision of the matters discussed.

this transcriot do not necessarily reflect final ceterainations or.

no ' leadinc or other pacer may te filed with tne Commission in beliefs c

any proceedir.'a as thi resul t of or addressed to any statement or argumen.

contained heriin, except as the Commission may authorize.

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2 642 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2

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31 PUBLIC MEETING i

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5l BRIEFING ON THREE-MILE ISLAND INCIDENT i

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Room 1130 i7i 1717 H Street, N. W.

II W shingt;n, D.

C.

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i Thursday, 29 March 19 79 9 ll i

ll The commission met, pursuant to notice, at 9:55 a.m.

jo ;i l!

11 j BEFORE:

I DR. JOSEPH M. HEND RIE, Chairman 12 VICTOR GILINSKY, Commissioner 13 l

RICHARD T.

KENNEDY, Commissioner ja yl l

4 PETER A. BRADFORD, Commissioner 15 i!

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16lj JOHN F.

AHEARNE, Commissioner i,

17 j; PRESENT:

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18 a Messrs. Eisenhut, Gossick, Jordan, Kelley, Bickwit, 19 : Grimes and Davis.

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29/79 PROCEEDINGS I

1 (9:55 a.m.)

2 l

If the Commission could come to CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

3 i

I order, my understanding is that this morning's briefing on

,4 the events yesterday at Three Mile Island Station

- that the 5,

Commission yesterday afternoon in effect voted a short-notice 6

1 meeting for this briefing, so that we do not need formally to 7

take that matter up, counsel?

8 MR. BICKWIT-Thr.t's correct.

9 CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

You will notice that we have, 10 '

11 I think perhaps for the first time, camera coverage in the room, which in the circumstances seem to Commissioner Gilinsky 12 and I to not be unreasonable.

13 Now, Lee, why don't you go ahead and introduce ja l

15 PeoP e-IIR. GOSSICK:

Thank you, Iir. Chairman.

16 T

I we have an overall briefing on the Commissioners, j7 events at Three Mile Island, its current status.

Mr. Eisenhut 18 I

I 19 !

and Mr. Jordan will provide this briefing.

i 20 1 Before they start, I would like to give you just i

i 21 ;

some overall information on the status of the operation up i

there.

22 l

I Region I has a team of 11 inspectors on the site.

23 l

7 health physicists

- health physics specialists; 24 There are I

.Jeral R eDorters, Inc.

and we have additional assistants 25 l and 4 operations inspectors; I

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being dispatched from other regions.

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l EG&G, a contractor for NRC,.tas two specially l

3-equipped holicopters and a motorized van performing radiat'on I

I 4

surveys at the site, with liaision being furnished by DOE.

5 They have a senior official on the site up there coordinating 6,

the activities of the equipment I just mentioned, the so-called l

7

" arms equipment" out of Andrews, and the two radiological 8

assistance teams from Brookhaven National Laboratory that are 9,

performing surveys and obtaining and analyzing environmental 10 '

samples in the site vicinity.

11 The Coast Guard provided air transport for one of 12 these teams.

13 A team comprised of seven senior people from the la Nuclear Reactor Regulation Staff will be traveling to the 15 site for the purpose -- this morning -- of monitoring the 16 activities of the licensee in recovery operations.

I i

17 NRR will assume lead responsibility for the 18 situation up there on the team's arrival at the site.

Until I

19 l then, I&E, Inspection and Enforcement, are in charge.

l 20 i The Bureau of Radiological Health of HEW, EPA, and I

21 the State of Pennsylvania all are providing support in the 22 l

form of collection and analysis of environmental samples in 1

23l the environment locally.

I 24 A special investigating team is being assembled to i

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25 examine in detail the causes, the sequence of events, and the

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adequacy of corrective measures.

The investigation will i

1 I

u two or three days, 2[

commence within the next i

3l hroughout the incident, JRC has maintained and I

is still maintainin.g the Operations Center on a continuous 4l basis, the headquarters, and has provided frequent status 5

reports on the situation to other interested federal and 6,

l state agencies.

They have been updated as of this morning 7

with the latest status.

g NRC's Region I has also continued to keep in 9

continuous operation its Operations Center since the initial 10,

11 notification about 7:45 yesterday morning.

The Public Affairs Office from NRC's Region I has 12 been relocated to the vicinity of the site to respond to 13 14 inquiries from members of the press covering the incident at 15 the scene, and additional Public Affairs assistance for the 16 l Region I office was dispatched from Atlanta last night from 17 our Region III office.

There have been three press announcements that 18 have been released so far, the last one at just about midnight 19 1 i

20 l last night.

I Unless there are any questions, I will ask 21 Mr. Eisenhut and Mr. Jordan to go ahead with the briefing on 22l

~I the details.

23 l 24 Darrell?

.er i neoorters, inc. !

25 l MR. LISENHUT:

Go ahead, Mr. Jordan.

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MR. JORDAN:

'the Three Mile Island facility is one unit of a two-unit facility located 10 miles southeast of 11

,h Harrisburg.

The license power of the Uni'. 2 reactor is

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,j 2772 megawatts therma].

The unit was onstructed by UE&C.

~q 5l Eabcock and Wilcox is the nuclear steam supply system designer.

l.

The Unit l's reactor is presently in a refueling I

status.

Preceding this event yesterday, the Unit 2 reactor was operating at a pcwer of 98 percent.

We understand that the incident initiated at about 4:00 a.m. yesterday.

91 The Region I office --

10 l

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COMMISSIONER GILINSZY:

Excuse me.

Would you get the microphone closer?

MR. JORDAN:

Certainly.

I'm sorry.

The Region I Office of Inspection and Enforcement was notified at 7:45 a.m.

The Regional Office is near 15,

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the King of Prussia area.

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The resconse center in the region was ictivated a 17 !

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little after 8:00, and the headquarters -- the NRC Headquarters 18 l l

Office was notified at 8:35, and the center was activated in 19 ll II the Phillips building.

,0 4

i Shortly thereafter, at approximately 8:45, the 21 I,l ll Region I response team -- which initially consisted of some 22 'l i

j 5 individuals -- was dispatched to the site, and then 23 h h

subsequent individuals were dispatched shortly therear_ter.

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.er i nexneri. ine-

';he incident was initiated as a result of a feedwater 25 '

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7 1 hlpump trip, and I think we'll need to start working on some 2

slides.

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3i Could we have slide number five, please.

i 4

(Slide.)

5 I think it would be appropriate for Darrell to 6:

give just a brief description, a general description of the 7

reactor system at this point.

, 7 8

MR. EISENHUT:

Yhanks, Ed.

9 This is a hand-sketch we put together of a B&W 2 10 '

applicance.

You see on the right the reactor pressure vessel 11 and the two steam generators which constitute the primary 12 loop.

The little reactor coolant pump is the RCP at the 13 bottom.

There are actually two of those for each of the loops.

14 The pressurizer is at the tcp with the pressurizer 15 l relief val'Je.

The secondary system you see on the left coming 16 out of the steam generator, the steam normally flows through

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6 17 various valves to the turbine where it turns the generator.

18 ihe steam is condensed back to cooling water in the 19 l condenser, flowing back through the various pumps and cleanup l

20 i systems, back to the steam generator.

I 21 The sequence of events that occurred early yester-22 j day morning is a little bit sketchy at this time, out as we h

b 23'; understand them now there was apparently a problem with the i

24 !l! cleanup system in the secondary loop.

seral Reoorters, Inc. f 25 l The cleanup system in the secondary loop resulted I

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in the disabling of that loop and the pumps on the steam 1

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generator.

i 3l Since the water flow back to the steam generator b

4 was lost, the turbine valves closed, tripping off the t

5 turbine.

So we had a situation of a loss of normal feedwater 6l; turbine trip.

Upon turbine trip, you get a reactor trip.

7 Now the normal sequence of events would be that you 8

would continue to cool the plant down on the auxiliary or l

9 emergency feedwater system.

There was apparently a problem 10 '

using the feedwater system and the plant was not normally 11 being cooled down to the steam generator.

12 The main coolant loop therefore began to heat up 13 and to pressurize.

14 COMMISSIONER BRADFORD:

Darrell, can you give us 15 some idea of the time elapsing in the events fou are 16 describing?

17 MR. EISENHUT:

I would like to.

He really don't 18 have them yet.

19 l The sequence of events that we are just generally I

20 l discussing occurred sometime early yesterday morr.ing.

The i

21 early evert we believe began at 4:00 a.m.

So dds sequence 22 g of events occurred in the early hours of yesterday morning.

As Ed mentioned, we were notified about 8:45, and 23 i

1 24 the NRR staf f began following the development about 8:45 eral Reporters, Inc.

25 yesterday morning.

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1 COMMISSIONER BRADFORD:

And Region I was notified l

J earlier?

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3-MR. EISENHUT:

7:45.

i I

4 MR. JORDAN:

7:45.

I 5

MR. EISENHUT:

It was just a simple matter of the 6

Incident Center here was activated at 8:35.

So it was just i

i 7

a matter of making the phone calls, getting the people 8

together, and activating the center as fast as I&E could 9l possibly do it.

I 10 COMMISSIONER BRADFORD:

Do we know yet why it was 11 3 and 3/4 hours before Region I was notified?

12 MR. EISENHUT:

Ue do not know.

13 It is one piece of information we will be following 14 up on of course.

We just don't have it available at this 15.

time.

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16 I MR. EISENHUT:

The system began heating up.

The I

17,

primary loop began -- from the pieces we ' re piecing together,

l 18 l anyway, it appears that the primary system heated up, and the I

19 l pressurizer relief valve opened with high pressure, i

20 I CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

Darrell, what do you we know 21 l about how complete a loss of feedwater and emergency feedwater 4

22 fl, there was?

0 23 MR. EISENHUT:

We know no details on the actual --

l 24 "i the extent, the sequence, the timing, the degree to which we

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25 l lost the main feedwater, auxiliary feedwater, and in fact the o

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sequence of events, as I am going through them, as I said, i

l are really pieced together based on information that we had i

2 before us literally from yesterday morning until this morning.

3 I

4l COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

Darrell, I think it is 5

preliminary; correct?

i MR. EISENHUT:

It is very preliminary.

6 COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

And at some later stage 7

when the tapes, et cetera, have been analyzed, then you will 8

have a firmer view?

9 10 '

MR. EISENHUT:

Yes, sir.

11 And as Mr. Gossick mentioned, there is a team of 12 people on the way to the site right now to try to start 13 l

helping piece more of the pieces together, and to try to pin 14 down these events.

Apparently we now believe the pressurizer relief 15 16 l system relieved -- it is supposed to relieve into a quench 17 tank.

It apparently continued to relieve and ruptured a 18 rupture disk, which is designed to rupture in the quench 19 l tank.

I t

This means the primary system coolant --

20 j COMMISSIONER KENNEDY:

That's when the tank is 21 full, or nearly full?

22 j

l MR. EISENHUT:

Yes.

The tank is a small tank --

23 COMMISSIONER KENNEDY:

To allow continued 24 li ff al RtOOrters, Inc.

25 evacuation.

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i MR. EISENHUT:

Yes.

It blows into the quench 2

tank through the rupture disk into the reactor containment n

3l floor.

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CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

I take it we don't know whether 5

the relief valve hung open, or whether there was simply 6

continued blowdown in order to relieve the energy buildup in t

7 the primary system?

8 MR. EISENHUT:

We don't know whether it hung open.

9 i Ue do have an indication that it hung open enough to blowdown 10 the system; that you had a low pressurizer level indication, 11 and you would of course also have had a steam indication in 12 the containment, safety injection, and the ECCS system did 13 turn on.

14 The -- we understand it automatically came on on 15 low-pressurizer level, i

i 16 l The ECCS system did actuate as it was designed to, I

17 we believe.

It injected water into the reactor vessel system.

18 We have -- some information we have also indicates 19 l that some moments later, the safety injection system of the l'

20 !

ECCS system was manually secured.

i 21 COMMISSIONER GILINSKY:

Turned off.

MR. EISENHUT:

Turned off, yes, sir.

I'm sorry.

22j 23 l This is basically our understanding of the t

l 24 sequence of events that happened.

There now is a gap in the i

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25 sequence of events that we have.

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i 1,l The next item that we do know is that high 4,

il 2 fl radioactivity was noted in the reactor coolant system sample 2j lines.

It was this activity, aigh radiation, that in fact 4

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4' led the site to be declared " emergency ' yesterday morning.

5 COMMISSIONER AHE?RNE:

Did they subsequently turn 6

the ECCS system back on?

7 MR. EISENHUT:

Yes, sir.

The ECCS system was r

8 operable for a considerable period of yesterday until later 9,

in yesterday a more normal mode of cooling was established.

I i

10 '

COMMISSIONER AHEARNE :

You haven't yet gotten an 11 l

explanation from them as to why they manaally turned it off?

12 MR. EISENHUT:

We do not.

That is certainly 13 another area we will be looking into.

14 COMMISSIONER GILINSKY:

Jo you know how lo..g it was 15 off?

16 MR. EISENHUT:

No, we do not.

17 MR. JORDAN:

iio, I do not.

18 l

COMMISSIONER KENNEDY:

What time was this high l

19 !

level of radioactivity noticed first?

h 20 i MR. EISENHUT:

About 7:00 a.m.

yesterday morning.

I 21 COMMISSIONER KENNEDY:

That is when the ECCS system l

22 ; came on first?

I 23 l MR. LISENHUT:

No.

The ECCS system apparently 24[i actuated sometime before that.

The high radioactivity however

.ere\\ pecorws. une.1 25 was noted in the sample lines about 7:00 a.m.

As I said, the

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sequence of events was a little bit sketchy after that.

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plant was -- the plant crew had the plant in somewhat of an r3' emergency cooldown mode for a considerable period of yesterday.

There was another grcup of people who were of course 4

I, monitoring very closely the radiation levels in the contain-5 6'

ment, both on-site and off-site.

l 7l And, Ed, maybe you would like to nummarize the l

kinds of radiation levels we are seeing.

8l 9 h MR. JORDAN:

Okay, the off-site measurements of I

i radioactivity have been monitored continuously by toth federil, 10l 11 NRC, and Department of Energy pertinent state personnel since about 9:00 a.m.

on Wednesday.

12 These measurements, which are both air, water, and 13 soil in a'

general sense, indicate that there is no immediate ja 15 l threat to health and safety.

16l The off-site airborne radioactivity is almost i

17 I exclusively noble gases, primarily xenon 133.

There have I

been small amounts iodine detected in one of several milk 18 l 19 j samples.

This is a very slight increase above the threshold I

20 i of detectability at this point.

i l

We believe that the off-site airborne radioactivity 21 I

l has resulted in minimal exposures to the public in a northerly 22 q

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23 i direction from the plant -- and I wonder if I could have your F

1 24 !j chart.

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(Slide.)

2l In the northerly quadrant, ue had a plume, if you t

3 will, of noble gases that had drifted in a northerly direction f

and the dose rates resulting from the plume were of the 4'

Si order of 2 to 5 millirem per hour.

Throughout this event, there has continued to be a low-level release of the noble 6 1 I

7 7

gases.

COMMISSIONER GILINSKY:

What sort of distance is

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that?

I I

10 '

COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

You aren't implying that --

11 you have a large rossette which is marked with the plant at 12 the center.

You're not implying that that whole shaded area 13 was covered by --

f 14 MR. JORDAN:

No, the distances we're talking about

'15 are out to 5 or 10 miles that we are monitoring.

I 16 COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

Those are the inner I

II

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17 circles on this?

18 MR. JORD AN :

That's correct.

I 19 l Could we have slide 11, please?

It's not as busy, l

20 ;

and I think it vill put us in better context.

I 21 (Slide.)

22 q Okay, the Three Mile Island Station has a coramunity 23 ll directly across the river from it, 2-1/2 miles north -- I'm o

0 24 t' sorry -- 2-1/2 miles north of the site, ::iddle town.

And the

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milliroentgen.

And these are primarily we believe due to J

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the xenon 133 It's just about where the "3"

is, I believe.

4 0

COMMISSIONER GILINSKY:

Where is Gouldsboro?

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4' MR. JORDAN:

Gouldsboro is just about due west, l

5 across the river.

I I

6, MR. GOSSICK:

Just about a mile away.

7l MR. JORDAN:

Harrisburg, which is 8 miles north, i

I 8

has been -- very early on, was at background.

He have no l

9l measurable activities, and we have had fluctuations on the i

10 '

ordar of

.8 mi]lir e. gen due to xenon 133.

11 COMMISSIONER GILINSKY:

What are those dotted 12 lines

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Is that related to this incident?

Or is that 13 something else?

14 MR. JO RJAN :

ihose were the sectors of wind shift 15,

that we have gone throu th.

So that we have had a shifting i

16 l generally frsm -- tcsards <ne northeast to the northwest.

h 17 '

COMMISSIONFR KENNEDY:

Which way is it blowing now?

I I

18 MR. JORDAN:

Okay, as of this morning, I believe 19 ;

the wind is blowing west, cowards the west.

20 )

COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

It's also raining, isn't it?

21 l, MR. JORDAN:

Yes, there was a light rain that I,

1 22 k occurred about 5:00 a.m.

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23 ]

COMMISSIONER GILINSKY:

'..here is the airport?

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24 [ There were readings taken there, weren't there (indicating),

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so it's pretty clore to the station?

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MR. JORDAN:

Yes.

l 2'

MR. EISENHUT:

About 2, 2-1/2 miles.

0 3i COMMISSIONER GILINSKY:

What was the reading there?

J il l

4' MR. EISENHUT:

1 of 12 millirem.

5 COMMISSIONER GILINSKY:

What was it?

6 MR. JO RDAN :

1 of 12.

t 7

COMMISSIONER KENNEDY:

Was that sort of an 8

episodic thing?

Or was it --

9 MR. JORDAN:

The readings are fluctuating somewhat 10 as winddrift causes the clume to shift.

And as far as an i

11 explanation c." the continuing release, this water that was 12 released from the reactor vessel into the quench tank which 13 overflowed into the containment building sump, when --

la apparently when the safety injection was reset, the containment.

15,

building isolation was also reset.

i 16 {

So that that water was pumped from the containment 9

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building sump into the auxiliary building.

The auxiliary 1

18 building is a closed ventilation area.

It has the filters.

I i

19 ;l It has the stall differential pressure, negative pressure, so l

20 that you have controlled paths of radioactivity.

21 l1 The quantity of water that was pumped to the 22,

radiation waste holding area was c'

than the capacity of I.

23 the tanks.

So that that water i on the floor.

It i

24h was at that point that the noble gases were esolved and then eral Reoorters, Inc. I 25 "

swept out of the building through the ventilation building I

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COM'hSSIONER GILINSKY:

how much water seems to have 2

f gotten pu :p e d over there?

3 I

MR. JORD AN :

We do not have a measure.

4 i

CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

Don, do you know what the tank 5

capacity is, approximately?

6:

MR. DAVIS:

es.

The tank capacity is about 450,000 7

nd about 300,000 gallons was pumped out of the tank.

8j l

CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

But that's condensate storage.

9

' IR. JORDAN:

That's condensate atorage.

10 '

MR. DAVIS:

That's storage and water.

11 CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

No, we're talking about waste 12 33 storage tanks that the quench overflow went to.

MR. DAVIS:

That was basically the boric acid from ja the pumpwater storage tank that was pumped by the high-15,

pressure injection pump into the reactor, out through the 16,

U j7 i relief valve into the sump contaimnent for water, and that t

18 l w s pumped to the auxiliary building.

MR. JORDAN:

We really don't know all of the 39 ;

i 20 j quantity --

l 21 l CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

Not all of it, I would think.

MR. DAVIS:

I;o, not all of it.

yl 23 ll CHAIRMAN HENDRIE-I am just trying to find a I

e 4

24 h measure of how much is over there in the auxiliary building.

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MR. EISENHUT:

The figure that Don mentioned is the 25 [

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storage tank is 450,000 gallons.

Certainly --

CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

The tanks I'm interested in are 2

i Ib 3:

the holding tanks --

I MR. EISENHUT:

Yes.

There are a couple of thousand 4

5 gallons.

CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

They're very small -- okay, 6

7 a couple

'f thousand gallons.

MR. EISENHUT:

Yes, they're small.

l-8 I was just going to say that the sequence is that 9

10 '

a very small fraction of that would logically have gone over 11 to the other building.

12 MR. DAVIS:

It's still in the containment.

13 CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

How much iodine sensing have i

14 we had off-site?

15 MR. JORDAN:

We've taken iodine samples, and we've 16 had them counted, and we do not see iodine.

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17 CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

Okay, so apparently the filters 18 are in fact scrubbing the iodine release from this carryover 19 !

water in the auxiliary building, and what we are seeing outside h

20 1 then are the noble gases which are not filterable.

i 21 MR. JORDAN:

Yes.

MR. GRIMES:

Other than that one milk --

22 j

!l MR. JORDAN:

That's correct.

The only iodine 23 l

24 indication we have is the one milk sample, which is --

ar i neporters inc. l 25 !

CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

Is that -- is it clear that that's 10~171 1

2-17 jwb 19 j

a --

MR. JORDAN:

It's not clear --

2 3l CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

-- validated sample?

I MR. JORDAN:

It's only slightly above the threshold,

4 f detection.

5; CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

Ces.

T.iat's what I understood.

6 MR. JORDAN:

So that we're --

7 CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

Those measurements on the g

9!

threshold of detection, you're never quite sure --

I i

10 MR. GOSSICK:

It was 1 out of 6, and the one they i

11 got this very low reading on was from a cow on stored feed in 12 a barn.

13 (Laughter.)

14 CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

Yes, that sounds more like a 15 measurement difficulty down at the threshold of detection.

16 Okay, so ir's noble gas activity which is coming i

17 out of the excess water pumped over from the primary system, jg from the primary containment.

I 19 [

MR. GRIMES:

I don't think we should leave the l

20.,

impression that it's only a minor amount of water, maybe a il i

21 l

s.nall f raction.

There may be still tens of thousands of I

l 22 e gallons in the auxiliary building which is continuing to emit the gases.

23

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24 CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

What do -- Do we know what the serai Aeoorters. Inc.

25 l plant configuration is in the auxiliary building?

Is it in

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2-13 jwb 20 1

some sort of sump?

What's -- Do we have any sense on how 2 l1 physically that fluid lies there?

d 3r MR. EISENHUT:

Yes.

That's one of the things we're i

I 4

working with the licensee right now on.

We're trying to find 5

out where the sump lies and what equipment might be affected 6

by it, how it would be shielded, and where it could get to.

I We are also looking at possible ways -- or the 7

8 licensee is looking at ways, and we're trying to work with them to give them whatever assistance we can, as to what they 9l 1

10 '

might be able to do about pumping it somewhere -- pumping it 11 into another tank, pumping it back into containment, pumping 2

it into a better shielded contained location.

13 COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

Have you been in contact 14 with the A&E, also, on this?

15 MR. EISENHUT:

Yes, we've been in contact with the 16 A&E since yesterday morning, uecause of course they certainly I

17 are -- I'm sorry, they've corrected me.

It's really the 18 nuclear steam supplier.

We haven't really been in contact 19 l that I'm personally aware of with the A&E.

I assume we have l,i 20 i been.

I 21 t 1R. GOSSICK:

I was told last night we were.

MR. EISENHUT:

I guess a couple of comments on the 22 l

23 present plant configuration as it now stands.

l 24 l Last night the operational mode of the plant was

,eral Reporters, Inc. l 25 somewhat stabilized by starting up a reactor coolant pump.

So

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1 one of the main loops was started up.

They were drawing a 2 li bubble in the pressurizer, and the cooling was being done i

I 3 i through the steam generator.

I i

4 They were getting some auxiliary flows, and 5

they were in fact in a somewhat more normal cooldown mode.

6 They have been in that mode essentially since late yesterday.

7 CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

What kind of temperatures are 8

you seeing hot leg and cold leg?

9 MR. EISENHUT:

That was my next sentence.

I 10 '

At the present time, the cold leg temperature at 11 6:30 this morning was about 285 degrees F.

It's essentially 12 at equilibrium, cold and hot leg both.

They're running at 13 around 30 pounds on the steam generator.

14 And to give you an idea of how it's coming down, 15 it dropped 1 degree from 6:30 to 6:45.

He have essentially 16 been monitoring this, both the temperatures in the hot and I

17 1 cold leg, pressures in the pressurizer, temperatures in the I

18 pressurizer, level in the pressurizer, on essentially about 19 1 every-15-minute increments.

l 20 i COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

Are they still aiming at i

h trying to get the RHR?

21 MR. EISENHUT:

Yes, the primary goal right now is 22 l-I 23 l to get the plant down to a temperature configuration where l

24 !

it can switch to the RHR mode.

smi neoorters, Inc. [

25 l COMMISSIONER BRADFORD:

What would that be?

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2-20 jwb 22 1

MR. EISENHUT:

The pressure must be below 400, i

2[

below about 400 psi.

The temperature limitation is also in 3

that same range, out they are already down ro 283, so they l

l 4

are almost there.

i 5

The temperature limit at one point was thought to 6

be about 280, out I -- they can -- we believe that they ci 7

get to the RHR r>de as far as temperature is concerned, at r

g this point.

9 COMMISSIONER GILINSKY:

They're only using one 10 '

steam generator.

Is that right?

11 MR. EISENHUT:

Yes.

One steam generator is being 12 tned at this time.

A second steam generator apparently has 13 a leak, primary to secondary.

14 We are not sure that that leak occurred during 15 this transient accident situation, or whether in fact it 16 occurred somewhat before that situation.

l 17 CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

We're seeing some activity in 18 the secondary side, then.

19 ]

MR. EISENHUT:

Yes, we are.

I 20 l MR. GRIMES:

That's based on one sample early in i

21 the incident.

They took a sample from each and could not find 22 l any activity in one loop, and found some activity in the other i

231l 100P, and decided to just use the loop they knew was clean.

l.

24 ll CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

Do they -- I don't remember.

.eral Reporters, Inc.

25 j Do they have isolation capability where they can lock a loop iff ~ f.7b

23 2-21 jwb 1

out?

2i MR. GRIMES:

No, but they just don't --

3 CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

-- don't pump it from the --

I 4

MR. EISENHUT:

No prirary access.

MR. GRIMES:

They isolate the secondary, but they 5;

l 6c just don't allow the steam to go out --

7 COMMISSIONER KENNEDY:

So they can isolate the 8

secondary.

9' MR. EISENHUT:

les.

They do have isolation 10 capability in the secondary.

11 I think in --

12 CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

There were some -- as I would 13 call in yesterday to get progress reports, there were some 14 hot-leg / cold-leg temperature differences which seemed 15 peculiar to me, and I would be interested in finding out what 16 we understand about those.

l 17 MR. EISENHUT:

'le s.

We had some quite large hot-leg ~

18 cold-leg temperature differentials yesterday of maybe 2-to lo !

300 degrees F.

l 20 1 Our only belief may be that it was associated with l

21 some steam binding, perhaps maybe not steam as much as a bubble somewhere in the system.

22l t

23 l The system was not flowing by natural circulation.

24 !l Because of that, the licensee elected to go on a path of

.erai neoonen, inc. l; 25 '

bringing the system up solid, and heating it up and bringing l

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24 2-22 jw,b 1

it back to pressure to try to either collapse or do away 2 ",

with any bubbles in the system.

3 IIe was on a very deliberate approach to do this, I

4 very methodical, and it took a long time.

He brought the 5

system back solid, and after he got the system solid there 6

was a period of time where the pressurizer heaters were out.

7 The pressurizer heaters were restored, and they 8

began to start drawing a bubble on the pressurizer.

They 9'

drew a small bubble on the pressurizer, and then they tried 10 to use the pressurizer sprays.

but the bubble was too small, i

11 and using the pressurizer sprays just ramped the situation 12 back up and they lost the bubble, or part of the bubble.

It 13 was going in the wrong direction.

14 And it's been oscillating in this situation.

They 15 '

have not yet, as of when we left, had a large enough bubble 16 to be able to turn on the pressurizer sprays to be effective.

I 2

17 COMMISSIONER BRADFORD:

It's the effort to get rid 18 of the steam binding, is it, that prevents their being able 19 l to get the pressures down to a point that they can go on the l

20 i RHR system?

I 21 MR. EISENHUT:

No, the system is -- they've also --

22l sequence of events get even more complicated, because the 23 ll for awhile they lost letdown flow, so they really couldn't be j

24,l, lowering the pressure even after they thought that they may

.Jeral Reporters, Inc.

25 l have eliminated the bubble.

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The situation at this point is, they're letting i

2 the situation gradually slowly cool down to the point where d

2 I they could turn on the pressurizer sprays, for example, and I

I 4

drop the pressure enough to get to the point where RHR could 5

be turned on.

6 While this is being very slowly -- the temperature, 7

as I indicated a minute ago, is cooling down very slowly.

The 8

licensee is checking to verify, of course, that all of his 9

RHR system is in a good configuration and a good situation.

10 He's checked all his valve alignments to be sure 11 that the valves are in f act aligned properly or could be 12 aligned properly, and being sure the RHR system is in good 13 shape.

14 We have every reason to believe at this point -- or 15 we have no reason to believe it's not.

I 1

16 ll CO:iMISSIONER AHEARNE:

Uhat can you say about the n

17 i core?

Anything, yet?

l 18 MR. EISENHUT:

We can't really say too much about 19 the core, except we can make one inference frcm the activity.

l 20 !

The activity levels that we have seen inside the containment i

21 would infer that we have had fuel failure.

To the degree of 22 l

fuel failure, it's just unclear.

I 23 COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

Uhat are the readings that

.I 24 y you're getting inside?

seral Reoorters, Inc '

25 l MR. EISENHUT:

'2he last reading at the operating I

4 9),

is ll l

t

2-24 iwb 26 I

deck was 10R per hour.

We are still receiving --

l COMMISSIONER KENNEDY:

At the " operating deck," you 2

i ll i3j say?

h

\\l 4'

MR. EISENHUT:

At the operating deck, yes.

5 We are still receiving information that states 6

there is a very high level in the dome of the containment on l

7 one monitor on the order of thousands, many thousands of rad 8

per hour, 20,000 rad per hour.

9!

COMMISSIONER BRADFORD:

Are there other monitors l

10 '

in the dome in the containment, as well, that are giving a 11 different reading?

12 MR. EISENHUT:

No, this is One monitor that is 13 reading in the dome at this very high level.

Other locations 14 in the containment are not reading that high level.

So it 15 may well -- at this point, based on the information we see, 16 ;

that appears to be in all likelihood a misleading indication.

, ~

ll 2

17 CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

It sounds like instrument --

18 MR. LISENHUT:

It sounds like an instrument 19 1 problem, yes.

20 COMMISSIONER BRADFORD:

but it has in fact been l

21 going up since yesterday.

I 22 l MR. EISENHUT:

No, it went up yesterday, probably 23 l earlier in sort of the mid-day yesterday, to about 20,000, l

24 'l h

and it has pretty much stabilized and has been reading that.

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25 Very early yesterday, it did go up.

The first j

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27 2-25 jwb 1

indication we had was about 600R per hour, and then it was

'l 2

up to a few thousand, and up to 6000, and 10,000, and 20,000.

3' COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

but right outside the l

4 containment, it has been coming down, hasn't it?

5 MR. EISENHUT:

Yes, that's right.

6 COMMISSIONER KENNEDY:

Can you tell us something 7

about what you are reading outside?

8 MR. JORDAN:

I have that figure.

At the site 1

9 I parimeter, the dose rates have ranged up to 20 milliroentgen I

10 '

throughout this event.

At the north gete --

11 CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

Per what?

12 MR. JORDAN:

Milliroentgen per hour, yes.

13 Thc west boundary has ranged up to 28 milliroentgen 14 per hour.

And this has varied depending on whether you are 15 seeing shine from the actual containment -- the radiation 16 that's contained withi n containment -- or whether you're

^

l 17 seeing the drifting plume from the auxiliary building.

18 CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

What's the shine level, sort 19 l of at the site boundary?

20 MR. JORDAN:

I don't believe we have separated yet l

21 the plume from the shine.

So we have site boundary readings 22l that are on the order of 25 milliroentgen, and in some cases i

they have been as low as 1 milliroentgen.

23 l

l 24 MR. GRIMES:

I think we did make a dif ferentiation

.eral R eporters, Inc.,

25 l of 1 point yesterday.

We had some cross-wind doses of about

'i 10 ?.00 l

l I!

2P 2-26 jwb 1

3 millirem on the edge of the island, which would be consis-l 2h tent with some of the lower readings in the containment that Il 3I we read out.

I I

We've also had measurements immediately outside 4

5 the equipment hatch which would corroborate the lower --

6 !~

COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

Outside the equipment l

7 hatch?

8 MR. GRIMES:

Outside the equipment hatch they have 9'

been falling.

10 !

COMMISSIONER GILINSKY:

What can you say about the 11 status of the monitoring helicopters and so on?

Are they 12 back up?

13 MR. GOSSICK:

They were flying up until late last 14 night, until the weather turned bad, and I understand they 15 stayed on the ground until early this morning.

But they're 16 i back regularly flying surveys now.

~

Ii 17 COMMISSIONER GILINSKY:

And do they report 18 periodically to us?

19 l MR. GOSSICK:

They report after each flight to our I

20i people on the site up there, and that will be fed back to us.

1 21 COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

What is the status of the 22 radiation water -- radioactive water, now?

What plans do l

I 23 they have?

1 24 MR. EISENHUT:

The latest -- when we were -- just i

_Jeral R eporters, t,nc.,

left the incident center an hour or so ago, the licensee had 25 ll 1 r; s m t

i

2-27 jwp 29 1

yet to decide on the course of action.

He's considering a i

2l number of options, and he is right now looking at all the i

3' system accommodations that he has to see what options he l

4 really has before him that are really feasible options.

i COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

And you're keeping track of 5,

f 6 !

these options?

t I

MR. EISENHUT:

Yes.

The incident center has been 7l 8

manned essentially -- not " essentially," -- completely, 24 p ou 9'

hours since the incident began oy a large group of the staff, I

i 10 both systems people, off-site consequences people, a variety 11 of disciplines, and we have essentially through I&E have a 12 !

link to the site that has been open for conversations back 13 and forth literally since the incident began.

14 COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

Will the licensee, once 15 l they make a decision as to how they propose to go, will you 1-6 have a chance to comment on what decision they're taking?

I Z

17 MR. JORDAN:

Yes.

We are interacting with their 18 plans now, with the I&E personnel at the site, and to take 19 Darrell's side, NRR has also transmitted or sent people to l

-2 20 i the site who will look at that recovery operation.

i 21 l

l 22 j

i 23 l 24 \\

I Jeral R eporters, inc.

25 iry inp.

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COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

Do you have one individual I

l 2

who is up there, sort of nominal in charge?

h oo

~,1 MR. GOSSICK:

Mr. Keimig is the I&E representative si there.

He is the on-site team leader, reporting back to 5I us and will remain in charge until we can get the NRR team there under Mr. Vollmer.

l 6

MR. EISENHUT:

I think that team should be getting 7

r i

89 d

there, actually about now.

11 9 lll COMMISSIONER AHEARNE: As far as you know, was 0

10 jj there any dumping of water into the river?

l*

11 MR. JORDAN:

No.

I 12 Water samples have been taken of the circulating 13 water discharge, and there has been no indication of j' l.

releases of liquid from the plant.

h 15 MR. GOSSICK:

We got a report last night from some 16 9 press announcement that there had been and we checked it o

n 17 H I

thoroughly and couldn't find any support of that at all.

18 COMMISSIONER AHEARNE:

Are they still pumping into l

19 !l the auxiliary building, or has that stopped?

'q l

MR. JORDAN:

No, hat apparently ceased sometime 21 before 7; between 4 and 7 we understand is when that l

'2 j!

water was moved into the auxiliary building upon reset of

+i 23 1y the isolation.

I 24 L J

COMMISSIONER BRADFORE: Why was that done?

.Jeral Reoorters, Inc.

25 j MR. JORDAN:

We believe it was inadvertent F

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mm2 1

l associated with-- and this is conjecture -- associated with ll.I 2[

resetting of the saf ety ejectior. so that they no longer had.

l l

3 the containment isolated.

t 11 4

Then the natural pathway would be oumaino from thati 5

sump to the auxiliary building.

i l

COMMISSIONER GILINSKY:

How high are the levels o,

l 7

in there?

l 8

Can the Licensee get peop.le in to work?

i 9,

MR. JORDAN:

The auxiliary building, I think was I

10 10 rem was the maximum.

11 COMMISSIONER KENNEDY:

10 rem?

12 MR. JORDAN:

Yes.

13 COMMISSIONER GILINSKY:

Per hour?

14 MR. JORDAN:

Yes.

15 COMMISSIONER GILINSKY:

And did they have anybody i

l

'6 ll working there in the vicinity that they have to go in?

~ -

17 MR. JORDAN:

Certainly their goal right now is 18 to collect that water and put it into a tank where they 1

19 4 can control the of f-gassing of it through an off-gas scrubbing H

I 20 !

system.

I 21 And as Darrell said, they are progressing in that 22l direction, but we have no definite knowlecge of their plans I

23 right now, l,I 24 h COMMISSIONER AHEARNE: The two teams that vou will

.eral Reporters, Inc.,l 25 ]

have up there, what basically, functions, will they begin to 18 0

i

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22 I

perform?

2 j' MR. GOSSICK: The team up there at precent, of i

I

'l course, are the I&E people that I described that are assisting ti

l on site right now following the events and communicating back I

5I with us.

6>

Mr. Vollmer 's group, when they will arrive,will i

i 7

literally assume the responsibility for seeing that the state r

of the plant is kept in a safe condition; any changes to 9 !

tech specs and all the things that have to be done to 1

10 '

assure the continued safety of everything.

MR. EISENHUT:

By that we don't mean taking the 12 i

primary lead away from the Licensee, i

13 Another way may be to say that when the incident l I l

center closes down at the point t he event is in a stable 15 l

' h mode, Dick Vollmer's team takes over as sort of incident ll 16 llH center on the site.

b Z

17 l I,

C051MISSIONER AHEARNE:

Have you thought through 18 f when you are going to go about examining what happened, 19 !;

recommendations and review?

i 20 'i i

MR. GOSSICK: The investigation team is being formed i

21 up now and will start its operation of making the :sual I

'2 complete investigation of everything that happened.

23 lI pl Thr.t will orobably take, you know, the better part i

24 !

Jeral Reporters. Inc.,

25 ll p

Under our manual chapter on incident response, we H

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have something called incident investigating review t

7 committee, which inthe case of the Browns Ferry evert was i

Il i

na

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headed by Dr. Hanauer.

I And I am proposing to establish such a review 51 committee on this one to review the results of the investiga-lI l

i I

tion, the interaction of the various players in this whole 7I event, and to glean from that lessons learned, any changes

! r 1

8' in our requirements and so forth that are necessary.

.9' 11 And I will be talking to the Commission about who 10

'l I propose to put in charge of that.

b 11 -

CHAIRMAN HENDRIE:

ML19199A210

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