ML19242D883
| ML19242D883 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 05/08/1979 |
| From: | Twilley R BABCOCK & WILCOX CO. |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7908280709 | |
| Download: ML19242D883 (20) | |
Text
i UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION f
I In the Matter of:
2l IE TMI INVESTIGATION INTERVIEW 3l of Mr. Robert C. TWilley, Jr.
Nuclear Service Engineer 4)
Si 6!
7i 8!
Trailer #203 9!
NRC Investigation Sita TMI Nuclear Power Plant
" 0!
Middletown, Pennsy;vania 11!
Ma y 8. 1979 12!
(Date or Interview) 13]
June 29. 1979 (Date Transcrip Typec) 141 186 15j (Tape Numcer(s))
16i 17:
181 19!
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NRC PERSONNEL:
22!
Mr. James S. Creswell 23i Mr. Owen C. Shackleton 24!
b O' L l
7 W 28 701 i
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1 SHACKLETON: This is an interview of Mr. Robert C. Twilley, Jr.
Mr. Twilley 2
is presently a nuclear servira engineer, Plant Performance Service Section i
3 f the Babcock and Wilcox Corpora
- ion.
The time of this interview is 4:40 4
p.m. EDT. May 8, 1979.
This is interview is taking place at the Babcock Sj and Wilcox Offices in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Present to conduct this interview 6j from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commicsion is Mr. James S. Creswell.
Mr.
7j Creswell is presnntly a reactor inspector assigned to Region 3.
My name is i
8j Owen C. Shackleton.
I am an investigator assigned to Region V.
Just prior l
g to beginning this interview on the tape recording, I presented to Mr.
10 Twilley a two page document from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, g
which sets forth the purpose and scope of this investigation.
It identifies the authority of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct this I
investigation and advises Mr. Twilley of his rights to refuse to be inter-131 i
viewed or to submit a signed statement and his right to select someone of 14!
I his choice to be present for this interview.
Mr. Twilley requested, and 15:
present for this interview is, Mr. 3yron D. Nelson.
Mr. Nelson is the Assistant Counsel fcr the Baucock and Wilcox Corporation for their Nuclear 17j Power Generation Division in Lynchburg, Virginia.
On the second page of this 2 page document are three questions that Mr. Twilley responded to in writing, all in the affirmative.
At this time, to make it a matter of 20l record on the tape, I'm going to ask Mr. Twilley to please respond to these 21!
que:tions again orally.
Mr. Twilley did you understand the contents of the 22j l
2 page document I am discussing?
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Pl?
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TWILLEY:
I did.
2 i
SHACKLETON:
I'm sorry, would you repeat that please.
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5l TVILLEY:
I did.
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SHACKLETQ{:
Do we have your permission to tape this interview?
8 g
TWILLEf:
Yes.
10i i
11f SHf riKL ETON:
And would you like a copy of the tape?
12!
FILLEY Yes, I would.
13 14; HA ON:
15 All right, sir, that will be provided at a later date.
We'll send it to you by mail.
And now, Mr. Twilley, to assist those persons who will be listening to this tape for the information that you a;'e about to g.
provide to help us in this investigation, would you briefly give your background as to your education, training, and experience in the nuclear field?
20j l
21!
TWILLEY:
Yes I graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor's degree in nuclear 22!
l engineering from the University of Virginia.
That su-ir I went to work 23!
fulltime with Combustion Engineering as a field servi;e engineer on the 24) startup of the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant Unit No. 1.
I remained 25\\l nn'
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3 lj with Combustion for approximately two and one half years, well into the
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startup of Calvert Cliffs Unit 2, and during those two and half years I 3
provided a variety of services for them at other locations as well as 4j Calvert Cliffs.
I was employed for approximately one year by Duke Power Sj Company at the Oconee Nuclear Station, where I served as a maintenance i
6i engineer, and there had a variety of tasks also, the main one associated 7
with inservice inspection of the reactor vessel.
In January of 1978 I came 8
to work with Babcock and Wilcox here in Lynchburg in my present position gj and have served in that capacity to date.
10!
SHACKLETON:
Thank you very much.
I will now turn the interview over to 11 j
Mr. Creswell.
13l CRESWELL:
Mr. Twilley cou'd you give us your job title?
15; TWILLEY:
I'm a nuclear service engineer in the Plant Performance Services section.
18r CRESWELL: And could you briefly describe what your responsibilities are in that position?
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21!
TdILLEY: Our responsbilities vary with customer needs.
We provide master 22l service capabilities to augment the customer's organization in times of extra manpower needs in the areas of physics testing and plant startup 24i t
testing.
We help to create and publish test specifications and physics 25i t
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documents for customers on the reload startups.
We follow the plants 2l through their operation to try and stay on top of what's going on.
We i
3; provide an analytical service to help people understand exactly what has 4
happened during transients or particular tests.
I think that about does i
Si it.
We're also available for mechanical type work when vou need the extra i
6l hands.
71 8
CRESWELL:
Bob, would 'ou say that your specific area of expertis. would be gj more toward core phy< ics, or do you consider that yvu. ave a specific area 10i f expertise?
11!
TWILLEY:
I would say basically the entire reactor coolant system.. core r
13l physics, thermal hydraulics and mechanics.
14!
CRESWELL.
Ok.
15 In your capacity here at the nuclear power generation division, who do you report to?
6 17!
e r ecdy to Frad Walters.
18:
19i 20t l
21; TWILLEY:
He would be the Supervisor of the Operating Plants, Plant Performanco Services Section.
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1.i CRESWELL:
Ok.
Bob, I'd like to go back in time to t.e date of March 28, gj 1979., and to tho time during that day that you first became aware of an i
3l event that had occurred at the Three Mile Island Unit 2 facility.
Do you i
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recall when you first heard about it?
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l 6i TdILLEY:
Yes, I arrive at work every morning right at about 8 o clock.
7 And that morning as I arrived, my desk is just a few feet from f rank's.
He 8
was putting together some material and he ask that I come along to Bill gj Spangler's office, that they had had a transient at Three Mile Island.
And t
10j since I had followed a good part of the Three Mile Island Unit 2 startup l
here from Lynchburg, he asked that I accompany him to Bill's office to help get the details straight on this transient.
And that was right about d a.m.
14i
, m y u sa a e ave een rn a ers?
15:
16i TWILLEY:
Yes.
17:
i 18i CRESWELL:
Ok.
Upon your arrival at Mr. Spangler's office with Frank 19!
Walters, what was the natura of discussions that you had?
21l l
TWILLEY:
Mr. Spangler infermed us that they had had a transient at the 22j island, that the situation was fairly serious, but he was unable to provida 23!
l anything specific other th the fact, I believe he said that the reactor 24i coolant pumps were not runr.
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lj CRESWELL:
How did that particular bit of information strike you? How did i
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you interpret that?
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TWILLEY:
I asked why they were not running, and the answer that I was 5
given was that they had been manually secured.
61 7
CRESWELL:
Did that particular piece of information concern you?
8 TWILLEY:
Yes.
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10l l
11l CRE5WELL:
From what standpoint?
12 TWILLEY:
3 I never like to hear the reactor coolant pumps are not running unless its part of a planned event..by all my previous experience to date.
15 CRESWELL:
The reactor pumps would be supplying force flow to the reactor
,6; 1
system and if you lost that force flow, what would your concern be?
18!
TWILLEY:
My concern would be that mc re force flow or force ficw is better than natural circulation.
20t l
21!
CRESWELL:
Did you ask whether they had natural circulation?
22; 23l TWILLEY:
No, I did not because I had been informed +. hat all the informa-24) tion that was available at that time had been given to us.
And we were not 25i in direct communication with the site.
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llj CRESWELL:
So you didn't know whether natural circulation had been or had 2{
not been established?
I 3i 4
TWILLEY:
I did not know anything other than the fact that the plant had Sj g ne through a transient, that the reactor was shutdown, ano that the 1
6l reactor coolant pumps were off.
7 CRESWELL:
Ok.
8;I What happened then after you left?
I'm assuming that this gj terminated the conversation and you lef t Mr. Spangler's office.
i 10i
- g TWILLEY:
Well, we decided that there were a lot of people in this building who should be aware of what information we did have.
Everyone disbanded 12, ere an ag ee meet in a very short period of time, I believe it was 13 down in training room D.
So we gathered what notes and material we had and
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15 16:
,t CRESWELL:
O k.
That was yourself, Mr Spangler, and Mr. Walters 17 ',
1Si TWILLEY:
And everyone else who was in Bill Spangier's office at that time.
20j CRESWELL:
Ok, approximately how many people were in Bill Spangler's office?
t 22l TWILLEY:
Roughly a half dozen.
23!
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1; CRESWELL:
Do you recollect who those people were?
?
2:
3; TWILLEY:
Don Hallman was there and I believe Lee Pktkey (phoenetic) was l
4; there.
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6i CRESWELL: When you arrived, they were there when you arrived with Mr.
7 Walters?
i SI gj TWILLEY:
No, we all got there about the same time.
10j CRESWELL:
11l After you went down to training room 8, what happens then?
12!
TWILLEY:
A lot of people showed up.
I'd say there were roughly 35, 40 13 14!
pe ple in training room B.
And Bill Srangler tried to brief the people 15i with the information that he had given us.
And, of course, the usual questions were generated, and oorortunately there was no infr? " tion available to provide answers.
And so they started to develop an action plan.
What g
questions did we want answered, and how should we go about getting the e
answers.
191 20!
CRESWELL.
Was Mr. Spangler in charge of this meeting at this point in time?
23l TWILLEY:
More or less.
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CRESWELL:
Was there someone eise there that seemed to share the responsi-2!
bility?
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4 TdILLEY:
Well, he hma gotten the inital call and so he was more or less in Sj charge.
6l 7
CRESWELL:
Ok, what's the next thing that happens? Could you place in time g
about, or approximately in time, when you were in the training room first!
9!
T ILLEY:
Oh, roughly 8:30.
I'd say we were in there for about a half 10 I
hour.
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12!
CRESWELL:
Ok, so after a half hour what happens?
14!
TWILLEY:
They had drawn up a list of questions that t*ey would like to 15:
have answers to.
They had prioritized that list and they had decided that 16 17l we should send several people immediately to the site to help augment the site force and obtain this information.
19t CRESWELL.
Who made the decision as to who would go?
21l TWILLEY:
Well, it was sort of a joint decision between several managers.
23l l
CRESWELL:
What managers were in the room at that time, besides Mr. Spangler?
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TdILLEY: Many.
I couldn' t tell you everyone, there were many.
But it was 2l decided that Bob Winks and Joe Kelly and originally rank Walters would go.
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However, i.1 a brief discussion we decided that Frank would probably be mor-4; useful here in Lynchburg-number 1, and number 2-my site health physics was Sj up to date so I would have more than likely an easier time gaining access 6
to the site.
7 i
CRESWELL:
Ok. So then the decision was made to substitute you for Mr.
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Walters, based on those consideratior.s.
101 i
TWILLEY:
Yes.
11:
12l CRESWELL:
13 Going back to the training room, do you remember who the highest level manager was in the room? Did you have like a vice president there?
15-TWILLEY:
g Wtil, people kept coming in the room at different times.
When the meeting started, I would say that Alan Womack was the highest level a ge e e.
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ge y e ng gs togenier aM gepare 18!
to leave town, Jim Deddens had come into the room.
20+
,CRESWELL:
Okay.
Were you aware of any communications from the site up until this point of time?
Any additional communications rather than the 22;,
initial call with Mr. Spangler received.
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TWILLEY: No.
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.'y.
3r CRESWELL:
So the decision was made to send three individuals, yourself 4f included, down there.
So what's the next that happens?
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6j TWILLEY:
I vant home and packed.
I came back, got some travel money, the 7
usual things that you get when you go out on the road.
Tried to throw into g
my brief case any engineering paraphernalia that I thought would come in g
handy-graph paper, a calculator, steam tables, pens, pencils straight 10 edge, the normal menagerie of things.
I got myself under way, checked with i
y[j all of the reservations the secretaries had made--the normal things that I
g; you do when you travel and only done in a very short period of time.
6 131 CRESWELL:
About what time would you have left the office here?
14; t
15-TWILLEY:
To go home or to go the airport?
17!
CRESWELL: To go to the airport.
18(
19i TWILLEY:
To go the airnort, I'd say I left here approximately 10:15.
20t 21:
CRESWELL:
Okay.
And about what time did you depart for, I'm assuming that you went to the Lynchburg Airport?
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TWILLEY:
We left from Lynchburg Mur.icipal Airport by charter aircraft.
We l
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left there right at about 10:30.
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4j CRESWELL:
Okay.
And you arrived in, what, at the Harrisburg?
5!
Si TdILLEY:
At the Harrisburg, at the private terminal at approximately 7l noontime.
We proceeded from the terminal to the main terminal, where we 1
gj picked up our cars, rental cars, and from there we proceeded directly to gj the motel, where we called into Lynchburg, as we had been instructed to do.
10!
11 CRESWELL:
And was this motel in Hershey?
12!
i 13j TWILLEY:
Hershey, yes.
14i CRESWELL:
Okay, what happens next?
15 16' 17:l TWILLEY:
I forget exact'y who made the call to Lyncburg and exactly who was called.
g At any rate, the instructions were to get in touch with Greg Schaedel at his home, which we did, and Greg gave us directions to his g
house, and we left immediately and drove over to Greg's home.
21i CRESWELL:
2g Approximately what time would you of arrived at Greg's home?
l 23l T4ILLEY:
Right at about 1 PM.
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CRESWELL:
Upon arrival, what recollections do you have about your discussions 2{
.;ith Mr. Schaedel?
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TWILLEY:
We didn't get to discuss anything with hird right away, I believe Sf he was or' the phone when we came in.
And I don't recall--there were a 6
series of phone calls, all day long.
Sometimes between him and the site and sometimes between him and Lynchburg, and I can not recall who was on I
gj the phone with him at that particular time.
9!
V CRESWELL:
Did Mr. Schaedel give you any kind of a briefing whenever you, 10!
i 11j after he got off the telephone?
12l TWILLEY:
Yes.
He told us that they had tried to start a pump and that 13 they were only recording approximately a hundred amps when that pump was running. I do not know whether it was at that time or scmetime later, but I remember being impressed by the fact that he said that Mr. Rogers was
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speaking from the control room with a respirator on.
18!
CRESWELL:
What did the reactor coolant pump drawing only a hundred amps mean to vou?
20!
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21!
TWILLES:
It meant that the pump was not pumping.
It was either spinning l
in air or one could assume that you had a uncoupled pump from the motor.
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CRESWELL:
What other information did he discuss with you?
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TWILLEY:
At that time, I do not recall exactly what he discussed, exceot 4l that they had tried to start a pump and tnat the indications were they were 5{
unsuccassful in pumping fluid.
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CRESWELL:
Okay.
Do you have any picture in you mind of what sort of core g
conditions could have existed at this point in time?
9!
TWILLEY.
No.
I did not perceive anything to be necessarily wrcng a t that 10 time with the core.
11 12; CRESWELL:
Okay.
Did you have any information about temperatures in the 13 primary system?
15; TdILLEY:
Not until sometime later.
The range of the hot leg RTD instru-
.6 17; mentation is from S20 to 620 F and the calibration data on those RTDs, I believe, ends right around there, but if you extrapalate the curve that 18t that data gives you, you can infer in temperatures, if you !;o in and read 19t the resistance.
We were told from the site that they had gone in and done that and come up with temperatures just slightly abcve 700 degrees fahrenheit.
My steam tables told me that at system pressure, that was super heated 22l steam.
There was a great deal of d4.assion at that point as to whether or 23t not we could believe that instrumentation.
Under years of experience of 24i I
" normal operating conditions" it sounds a bit incredulous.
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If CRESWELL:
Did you believe it?
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3l TWILLEY:
Not at first, I did not.
41 5
CRESWELL:
At that point in time, did you have--this is later that you got i
6l the temperature data--remember I asked you before?
l 7l l
TWILLEY: It was the middle of the afternoon, roughly.
8l 9l 10 CRESWELL:
Did you have any idea of what the conditions were in the reactor i
11j coolant system? At this point in time did you have any information that 12l the pumps were drawing--that they were drawing a low current, a relatively i
13l 1 w current, and that there were indications of high temperatures in the reactor coolant system?
15;
_TWILLEY:
We put those two together and came up with a steam bubble but g
still had a hard time believing it.
Of course, those two things put toge.her made it sound more believable.
181 19i CRESWELL:
Ana this is about the middle of the afternoon, somewhere around two or three o' clock?
21; 22!
TWILLEY:
Roughly, yes.
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CRESWELL:
Ok, with two pieces of information, you said th?t you would i
2; suspect that there was a steam bubble in the prirr.ary ;oolant system?
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TWILLEY:
At least where the hot leg RTDs were.
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Sj CRESWELL:
Ok.
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TdILLEY:
Which are very high up.
91 CRESWELL:
This discussion was it among the group? Was this communic-ted 10 t Lynchburg?
11 12, TWILLEY:
13 He would get the information from the site and he would relay it g
to us as quickly and briefly as he could, and then he would immediately g;
call Lynchburg and relay it them.
So our discussion between the three or four of us at his house was more than likely identical to what would go on down here when they got the same information.
ISI CRESWELL:
Did you..did anyone..its my understand that Mr. Shadel was the one that communicated both with Mr. Rogers and with Lynchburg.. i s that correct?
21; 22l TWILLEY:
Yes.
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CRE5WELL: Ok.
Did he mention to Lynchburg that there was a posiibility of i
2; a steam bubble in the primary coolant system, at this t'me or his next i
3j communication with Lynchburg?
4l St TWILLEY:
Well, he relayed to them what the steam tables told us, ar.d that I
6i was that that indicated super heated steam under a normal pressure condition 7
in the primary coolant.
The indication of temperature under an assumed g
pressure indicates super heated steam, but we did not assume that there was gj a bubble there.
I 10j CRESWELL: But that's what would have been indicated.
11:
I 12!
TWILLEY: A super heated steam bubble.
13 14' CRESWELL: Do you recall any recommendations being given to Mr. Rogers by 15i Mr. Shadel?
16; 17 TWILLEY:
g I believe that someone reiterated the fact that we should try and get a reactor coolant pump going, and the fact that had tried and had drawn 19 :,
a very low current on the motor was reiterated.
40t 21l CRESWELL:
22,j Was there any discussion about increasing system pressure?
i 23l 1
TWILLEY:
I don't recall.
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CRESWELL: Do you recall any discussions about...?
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i 3l TWILLEY:
I believe that I recall them telling us that they had no pressurizer i
4d heaters.
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6i CRESWELL: What was the significance of that information?
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TVILLEY: that ycu could not pressurize without heaters?
9l 10 CRESWELL:
O k.
Was there any discussions about establishing high pressure 11 injection flow, and at any..
12!
t 13l TWILLEY:
There was some discussion about high pressura injection flow but I was not a party to it.
y 15:
CRESWELL:
16i You overheard it or you learned about it later?
?
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TWILLEY:
Right.
g, 191 CRE5WELL:
Who did you learn it frcm?
40 21l TWILLEY:
The other 22;;
eople there were discussing it, and I don't recall the times or the values.
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CRESWELL:
That was in Mr. Schaedel's residence, that would have been Mr.
Winks and Mr. Kelly that would have been discussing it?
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4l TWILLEY: Yes.
i Sl gj CRESWELL: Ok, what's the next thing that happens--we' re around what, two...betw eer 7
two and three o' clock in the afternoan?
8 TWILLEY:
Later than that, probably three to four.
Several calls, like I g
10f say, went back and forth.
I really don't recall anything too specific y
about that time right now.
We were essentially out of the communication i
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path.
We coulc not get on the site. We were told that the site had been secured.
And we were more or less bystanders at that point, there ready to 14'l help out, waiting instructions.
15i CRESWELL.
1m.
What is the next event that you recollect that happened of significance?
17!
18!
TWILLEY:
Dinner.
19!
20; CRESWE.L.
21:
Dinner? (laughter) l 22'
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TWILLE/:
We decided to go get a bite to eat and I honestly can't recall 231 I
whether or not they had gotten a pump running at that point in time.
I 24i celieve that they had not.
We decided to go eat.
I didn't wc.nt to put a 25b l
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burden on Greg's wife and there was a restaurant not too far away so we i
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went out and grabbed some dinner and came back...
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4j CRESWELL:
Where did you eat--incidently, do you recall?
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6i TWILLEY:
Beefsteak Charlies.
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8!
CRESWELL:
Ok.
i 9i 10j TWILLEY:
I believe we made it a point to catch some news before we took l
ff..to see what the media was saying because when we arrived at the 11:
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airport at noontime NBC news was already there.
The complete crew.
We
,[l came back from dinner and it was, I believe--this is just my vague re-34 collection, but it was sometime rinht about the time we returned frcm 13 dinner that they got a reactor coolant pump running and had indications g
that they were pumping fluid.
17:
CRESWELL: O k.
And that information would have come from Mr. Rogers to Mr.
Shadel.
Ok.
,9:
1 20!
TWILLEY:
That was the communicatlor, path all day long, other than our
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brief conversation at the motel where we receiveo instruction to go over to 22!
I Greg's house.
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l e-21 Ilj CRE5WELL:
When oid you gain access to the site?
2!
3!
TWILLEY:
I, myself, did not gain access to the site until the following 4j evening.
That's the 29th, i:1ursday.
We left Greg's house, oh, somewhere i
5l between 9 and 10 p.m., went back to the atel and went to bed, and I remember i
Sj very early in the morning--we had agreed that we would meet back at Greg's 7
house at around 8 o' clock the next morning.
And I guess it was around 5:30 8
or 6:00 o' clock in the morning Bob Winks knocked on the door and be needed g;
scme of the supplies that I had brought, and he saio that he had be:r given 10l instructions to go to tne site and he was on his way.
I gave him the keyr to the car and he took off.
Joe Kelly and I got up and had breakfast.
11, Then sometime later, went over to Greg's house and Greg's wife was there.
3 Greg had gone sometime early in the morning himself, and we could not get lm[!
ahold of anyone who could really tell us what to do so se decided to go to the visitor's center, sin:e Greg's wife had told the other B&W site personnel to go there.
And we spent the entire morning at the visitor's center and we were not allowed inside the Center.
We were not acle tt get in touch with any of our people on the island.
We were not able to get in touch 18;.
with any Met Ed people at the Center who were in charge and we really were lacking direction.
We made one phone call from a pay phone to Lynchburg and they were unable to help us also in gaining access to the site.
Finally 21!
we went out to get some lunch and we came back, and fina.lly sometime in the i
early af ternoon--I guess it was around 1:30 or 2:00--John Flint, who I 23j understand had been on the island, came over and told us that we were going 24l to set up immediately, rotating twelve hour shifts and that I was to be in 25!
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1:
at 8 that evening.
So I immediately went back to the motel tried to get 2l some sleep and reported for work at 8 o' clock that night.
Si 4
CRESWELL:
I'd like to go back early in the morning of the 28th before you 5j left Lynchburg.
Were you aware of any information that was being supplied I
6 by Mr. Floyd of the Metropolitan Edison staff to the Lynchburg staff here?
7 8
TWILLEY:
No I was not.
i 9i 10l CRESWELL:
Ok. At this point in time I'd like to ask you if you had comments that you'd like to maka.
11!
12; 13};
TWILLEY:
No.
14' s
me urn e in erview ack over to Owen for 15-further questions or to terminate the interview.
6 17 SHACKLETON:
Thank you.
Bob, when you went on site at 8 o' clock in the g
night, was it the 29th?
g 20:
TWILLEY:
Yes.
21:
22:
c3l SHACKLETON:
What conditions did you find..you were in the control room, would that be correct?
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lj TWILLEY:
No, I did not get up to the control room until the following 2j evening.
6 3!
4j SHACKLETON:
What was your station assignment the first evening?
i 5!
l TdILLEY:
I manned the telecopier the first evening, to try and keep the 6i 7
inf rmation flow going back and forth.
8l SHACKLETON:
Where is the telecopier located, Bob?
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10 TdILLEY:
g Lee Rogers had brought a telecopier from his office to the superin-I tendent's conference room, which is in sort of a control center, the entrance 12',
to the plant, the first strong security checkpoint just prior to the admini-13$
stration building.
14) 15, SHACKLETON:
50 on the night of the 30th is when you first went into the control room for Unit 2?
Is that correct?
17!
18!
TWI LLE'r :
Rignt.
20:
21l SHACKLETON:
Could you brief^
tell us what you found when you came onboard at 8 o' clock in the night of the 30th in the control room as to the number 22l 1
of people tnat were present?
23l 24j 25l (07
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l y
TWILLEY:
Too many, ia my opinion.
That's strictly an opinion after working y
in control rooms since I was...In my summers in college I worked for a utility, and I've been around control rooms ever since.
The noise level 3
was very high.
I remember at one point several nigh*- later it had reached 5:
a point where a shift supervisor had to literally brJt in order to get I
people t.o tone it down because his men were having to shout back and forth to one another across the board.
One of my main duties was to get infor-mation to Lynchburg, answer questions, provide plant data. I saw it as my 81 first major task in the control room to sort of organi::e the data flow--the 9i plant parameters that really needed to be monitored on a consistent basis, 10l continuous basis.
And once we got that set up, my job got a little bit 11; easier.
There was a table right near us with NRC personnel.
We had a 12!
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phone over ia the corner next to a xerox machine and some NRC people, and 13l in order to get from our phone to the boards to get information, we had to 14' pass all these people and all this noise.
And it was hect k.
It was hard 15 to hear on the telephone.
It was hard to think.
16i 17l
$HACKLETON:
Do you have any idea how many people--what would be your 18t ballpark guess--were prese w 19i 20!
TWILLEY: In the entire control Room?
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22!
SHACKLETON: Right.
23[
241 25 po"
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I, 25 f
TWILLEY:
Well, the entire control room at Three Mile Island includes sort 1.
2f of a hallway behind the boards, which really does not interfer with the i
31 control room activity.
It includes entrances to offices and a restroom on 4j one side, which does not interfere, and it includes a shift supervisor's 3
sort of sound proof air conditioned office right off the main control room, 6i which if the people in there remain in there, does not interfer.
I think 7{
it would be more significant to estitt the number of people in the main 1
8f horseshoe around the main boards.
Normally that would be a handful of g
people--shift supervisor, senior control room cperator, senior reactor 10l perator. two, three others maybe half a dozen people at the most. On this 11l night there were probably, I'd say between two and three dozen people in i
that area above, and that doesn't include the peripheral areas or the shift supervisor's office.
3 14' SHACKLETON:
When you came on site, Bob, did you go on the north bridge or 15:
the south bridge?
17!
TWILLEY: The first few nights we were coming on the north bridge, which is the paved concrete bridge.
J.9 '
20!
SHACKLETON: Were there any security officers present?
22 TWILLEY: Yes, we had to check in there.
That was the security checkpoint.
24j 25; e
buo
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26 SHACKLETON: Once you got beyond that point and you came onto the site, were lj 2l there any other security officers that checked your identification before i
3!
you went into the facility?
4j Sj TWILLEY: No.
61 7l SHACKLETON:
The building, not facility.
8l gj TWILLEY: Not the first few nights. In fact, the first few nights there was 10j hardly anybody coming on.
The number of people riding the bus back and forth at 8:00 in the evening anyway, was maybe only a
'f a dozen p.aple
,2 total, and that may have been an odd shift change time, but the rest of the facility seemed pretty well deserted.
14:
la' SHACKLETON:
How about dosimeters and TLDs, were you provided with these by Met Ed?
17l TWILLEY:
Yes, we always had personnel dosimetry.
We always had TLDs and a self reader.
We always had ou: badges displayed and we were always checked.
But for the first four or five nights, the procedure for picking up your badge, picking up your dosimetry, checking with health physics and checking 21,;
with security, was different.
And I remember there were substantial delays 22,:
in the morning shift change.
We would work from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. and 23!
l typically our shift relief would not arrive where we were until 9:30, 24!
sometimes 10:00, because they would decide, for whatever reason, during the
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27
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t 1l middle of the night that they needec a new system to keep track of people.
2:
They would tell us what the system was, and that night we'd come in and it i
3' would go pretty smoothly, going through all the different checkpoints to 4
get in, but by the next morning when they came i*. had changed again.
5 6l SHACKLETON: Sob, one tiiing that has come up, and I don't know wnether you 7
may have heard any discussion or not, but I'd appreciate your comments g
regarding the transient and the causes.
There have been some gossip, as g;
there is much on this type of an incicent, of a possiblity of sabotage.
Did you ever hear any comments of this concern at all from anyone?
10l 11:
TWILLEY:
I heard them.
Probably the same that you've heard.
The same g
g ssip.
13 14; SHACKLETON:
5 But no one ever gave you any details or any ideas?
16)
TWILLEY:
No.
17'!
18!
SHACKLETON: I have no further questions, Jim.
We'll now discontinue and bring this intervie.s to a close.
The time is now 5:23 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, May 8, 1979.
21F 22l 23!
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