ML19209C056
| ML19209C056 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 10/09/1979 |
| From: | Felton J NRC OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION (ADM) |
| To: | Fialka J WASHINGTON STAR |
| References | |
| FOIA-79-382 NUDOCS 7910110444 | |
| Download: ML19209C056 (30) | |
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%.,,,c OCT 0 91979 Mr. John J. Fialka The Washington Star 225 Virginia Avenue, S.E.
IN RESPONSE REFER Washington, DC 20061 TO F0IA-79-382
Dear Mr. Fialka:
This is in response to your letter dated August 30, 1979, in which you requested, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, those portions of certain of the Incident Response Center telephone tapes which were not transcribed.
In order to prepare the transcripts from the Incident Response Center tapes, as expeditiously as possible, the NRC awarded a contract to Dictaphone Corporation to transfer the master 24-hour, 20-channel tapes, for the 14-day monitoring period, onto 30-minute cassettes, and concurrently to preview the cassettes to indicate the location of voice recording on the cassettes, thereby_ reducing the time and cost of preparing transcriptions.
The method Dictaphone chose to indicate conversation was the use of log sheets such as Enclosure 1.
These log sheets were prepared for each day's channel, with the shaded portion indicating the presence of conver-sation.
A contract was subsequently awarded to Neal R. Gross and Company, Inc.
to transcribe those cassettes which were identified as containing conversations.
This contractor was instructed to transcribe all audible conversations, including background and cross-channel speech.
Unintelligible conversations in whole or in part were to be annotateo as INAUDIBLE.
Neal R. Gross and Company, Inc. asserted that the cassettes were poorly previewed, and that the transcribers were encountering unshaded areas on the log sheets that contained clearly audible' conversation.
The company offered to re-preview the cassettes. The contractor never provided NRC with any substantial evidence to support this assertion.
Based upon NRC's review of portions of Dictaphone's work for accuracy, this offer was denied.
Neal R. Gross and Company, Inc. was informed that its contractual responsibility was only to listen to those areas that were shaded on the log sheets and to transcribe all audible conversation within those shaded areas.
1125 358 7910 1o cf 2
NRC management was not aware that portions of the cassettes were not transcribed, and there never was an intent on NRC's part not to transcribe the entire cassettes.
Copies of NRC's contracts with Dictaphone Corporation and Neal R. Gross and Company, Inc. are available for inspection and copying in the NRC Public Document Room,1717 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC.
Enclosures 2, 3, and 4 are transcriptions of the two cassettes referenced in your letter and a similar reference which we found in the transcripts.
These transcriptions will be made a part of the permanent record.
We appreciate your having brought these omissions to our attention.
Sincerely, J. M. Felton, Director Division of Rules and Records Office of Administration
Enclosures:
As stated 1125 359