ML19242D894
| ML19242D894 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 05/16/1979 |
| From: | Davis T METROPOLITAN EDISON CO. |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7908280775 | |
| Download: ML19242D894 (63) | |
Text
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION l
l t
In the Matter of:
i 2l IE TMI INVESTIGATION INTERVIEW 3:
of Mr. Thomas E. Davis, Jr.
Radiation Chemistry Technician, Jr.
41 Si 6i i
7l i
0l Trailer #203 9
NRC Investigation fite TMI Nuclear Power Pio..t 10l Middletown, Pennsylvania i
11!
l May 16,1979 12!
(Date of Interview)
{
13l July 2, 1979 14I (Date Transcript Typec) 199 & 200 15 (Tape Numoer(s))
16!
17f 18i 19l 20l 21!
I, NRC PERSONNEL:
'22!
Mark E. Resner Gregory P. Yuhas 23 24i i
25!
790Pwo 77s o~'
8 i
I lf RESNER:
The following is an interview from Mr. Thomas E. Davis, Jr.
2
Mr. Davis is employed with the Metropolitan Edison Company at the Three 3
l Mile Island Nuclear Facility.
He is a Radiation Chemistry Technician, 4!
J r.
Present time is 0736 a.m., Eastern Daylight Time, and today's date Si j
is May 16, 1979.
This interview is being conducted in trailer 203.
6i Trailer 203 is located just outside the south gate which is at Three 7
Mile Island Facility.
Present for this interview are Mr. Gregory P.
0 Yuhas, and myself, the monitor of this interview, Mark E. Resner.
I'm 9!
an investigator with the Office of Inspector and Auditer of the U. S.
10 Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Mr. Yuhas is a Radiation Specialist with 11 Region I of the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Prior to taping 12j this interview, Mr. Davis was given a two page document, which advised 13!
some of the purpose, scope and authority with which the Nuclear Regulatory 14 has to conduct thir. investigation.
In addition, this document exclained 15 to Mr. Davis that he was entitled to a representative of his choice, 16j should he desire one, ano at no way was he compelled to talk to us if he 17 did not want to, on the second page of this document Mr. Davis has lh answered three questions in the affirmative, which I will repeat at this 19!
time.
Do you understand the above? Mr. Davis has checked yes, is that 20!
correct Mr. Davis?
i 21!
l 22l DAVIS:
Yes, it is.
231 24l RESNER:
Question 2 - do we have your permission to tape the interview?
l 25i Mr. Davis has also checked yes.
Is that correct Mr. Davis?
1'1
() n ]Os LJL i
1 1
i 2
1!
l DAVIS:
Yes.
2!
i 3
RESNER:
Question 3 - do you want a copy of the tape, and Mr. Davis had 4l indicated that he does what a copy.
Is that correct Mr. Davis?
i Si l
DAVIS:
Yes.
7 8
RESNER:
We will see that you are provided with a copy of the tape at 9
the conclusion of the interview.
At this time I would ask Mr. Davis, if 10f you would give us a brief synopsis of his educational and job experience 11 in the nuclear industry?
12!
13 DAVIS:
Ok, my first experience with this industry was when I was in the i
14}
Navy.
My educational background for that was Basic Nuclear Power School 15 in Bainbridge, Maryland, and I went part way through prototype school up 16l in West Milton, New York.
After that I got out of the service and I i
17!
worked a couple of years around the area and then I came here to work in i
18i
'71 with Met Ed as a Operator A Nuclear Trainee.
I went through the 19l course with Met Ed, with their Nuclear cocese, up to a point when I 20 missed some time with an operation, and I flunked out it after that.
21j From there, I went up to Crawford Station, which is a fossile fuel i
22j plant.
I was up there approximately 6 years, and when they closed the i
23l Plant I came back down here, into the Health Physics Department.
The 24l background - according to what they wanted, the standards were generally 25 I
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j high school math and chemistry which I had plenty of both.
Now, on the 2
job training - when I first came down here we had a training course set 3'
up.
I don't remember the time schedule, I believe it was around 6 weeks 4
that we were trained in class room, and from then on it was just on-the-job i
5 training.
6i 7
RESNER:
Ok, thank you very much, Mr. Davis.
At this time I'll going to 8
turn the interview over to Mr. Yuhas.
9 10 YUHAS:
That appears to indicate that you came to Metropolitan Edison in 11 about 1977?
12!
I 13l DAVIS:
1971.
I 141 15l YUHAS:
Excuse me, when you came to Met Ed - Three Mile Island.
16; i
17l DA'/IS:
Two years ago - 1977.
l 18l l
19!
YUHAS:
1977, you came to TMI.
20i l
21l DAVIS:
This time... I was down here first in 71.
t 22l i
23 YUHAS:
How long where you here, '71 till when?
241 l
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4 8
1!
DAVIS:
I was here approximately 3 or 4 months, the first time.
2.
31 l
YUHAS:
Fine, I'd like you now, Mr. Davis, to begin with give us a brief 4l scenario of how you heard of the incident on March 28, and your involvement c:
for the first 3 days.
6l 7
DAVIS:
Ok, to start off with I was assigned to chemistry in the Chemistry 8
Department at the time of the accident itse~r.
I was with another 9
fellow, a Senior Tech, at the time and..- were running analyses on the
(
10 primary chemistry, latdown chemistry ':r Unit 2.
I would say, I believe 11 it was approximately 4:00, 4:30 in the morning, a.m., that we heard over 12 the PA system that they had tripped Unit 1 -- or rather Unit 2 turbine, 13f and then just about right after that they came out and announced Unit 2 14f turbine -- or rather the reactor had tripped.
Ok, at this time, are 15l actions, what we did was to put the Unit 2 RC letdown, which is reactor 16l coolant, we put this on a recirc mainly because we had to draw a sample 17 for an isotopic iodine after two hours from the time they tripped.
Then 18l we put this on a little early. but it takes a 45 minute recirc time 19!
because of the length of the lines from Unit 2 over to the Unit 1 sample 20!
lab.
21!
22 RESNER:
Mr. Davis, when you say, "recirc" you're saying " recirculation"?
23 24 DAVIS:
Yes, it's recircing through the lines from, througr. the system.
25l This way, when we draw a sample after it's been recirced for 45 minutes, c>
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we're almost sure of getting a good sample.
Instead of just opening up 2
the sample line and drawing a sample, I mean, it could of been just 3
laying in the line.
This way, we recirc it for at least 45 minutes for 4!
Unit 2.
Ok, about, I would estimate 6:00, in that area, maybe a little earlier, we were called; they wanted a boron run on the letdown chemistry, 6!
Unit 2.
This was run.
Dave Zieter was running barons this evening.
He ran the boron; he came up with approximately 700, a little over 700 ppm 8
Now this had dropoed from, I believe it was 1036 ppm boron at the first time we sampled it.
This I believe was at 3:30 in the morning.
10 This struck us funny so we drew another sample.
Dave again ran the 11 sample, another boron on the sample, and he came up with a lower number.
12!
It was around 400.
As soon as he'd seen that, I went back and drew one 13 and ran it myself, and I came up with basically the same number he did.
14)
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RESNER:
That's 400 ppm?
16; i
17j DAVIS:
400 ppm boron, yes.
Ok, now we knew something was wrong because 18l they were supposed to be feeding into the system.
At that time I called 19!
Unit 2 control room and I inquired as to what they were doing, as far as 20j feeding and bleeding, to find out what they were putting into the system.
21l I was cold that they were adding, making up with the BWST, the water i
22; from the boric BWST.
23 i
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j YUHAS:
That would be the Borated Water Storage Tank.
2 3
l DAVIS:
Yes, now from the BWST, the samples from that tank generally run 4l!
around 2300 ppm boron, so from this indication, if they were adaing from Si j
that tank, the boron shouldn't of been going down the way it was.
So I 61 informed the control room at that time of what was happening over at the 7
sample lab where we were.
toon after that our alarm went off.
I'm not 8
sure of what the number is on it, -- it is one of the G monitors in the 9!
Unit i Hot Machine Shop, and it's right above the sample lines close to 10 them.
11!
12!
RESNER:
When you say one of the "G" monitors, what do you mean?
13 14!
YUHAS:
That would be radiation monitor G-4 from the Unit 1 Control 15; Room.
16!
17l DAVIS:
That's number 4.
Ok, number 4-G monitor alarmed.
At this point 18 !
Mike Janousk; came in with a meter and we started checking around the 19I lines back in the nuc sample room, where we draw our primary samples.
20f And the sample lines were getting hotter at that time.
I don't remember 21{
what the levels were but they were going up.
They were alot more then 2
what they should have been.
We grabbed the sample -- at one of these 23 times that we grabbed the samples for the borons, we also ran a gross 24l beta gamma on this.
This figure -- the beta gamma came out approximately 25!
4, in activity ac/cc the previous beta gamma that we had run on this
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j sample, before the incident occurred, I believe it was around
.2,
.3, in 2
that area.
So this had increased significantly over this period of 3J l
time.
Now at this time, Mr. Dubiel came in.
He's the supervisor for 4l the department, and he had asked both Dave and myself to stay over and i
]"I work over.
He wanted us to put Scott Air Packs on, plus regular pro-6i tective clothing, and enter Unit 2 containment, specifically for what 7
purpose, I'm not really sure.
I think mainly to check levels to see, 8
you know, see if we could find what was, you know, the problem.
At this 9
time Mike Janouski went over to Unit 2 to grab a sample off of HPR-227, 10 which is the Unit 2 reactor sample point for gases, tritium and so on.
11; 12 YUHAS:
Let me make that clear, HPR-227 samples the containment atmosphere.
13 14l DAVIS:
Yes, for Unit 2.
Ok, he went to pull the particulate and from 15; what I understand he got a handful of liquid, so we decided, "I'm not 16:
going in the building, in the containment" After that, levels started 17l going up all over the place, and reall,y I don't think anyone in there, i
18{
Unit 2 Control Room, or you know, anywhere in the whole site, really 19!
knew what exactly was going on.
20I 21l RESNER:
When you say the levels were going up, are you talking about 22 radiation levels?
23 l
24j DAVIS:
Radiation levels, yes.
Because we had, number 1 - we had the 25!
Unit 2 reactor coolant letdown on the recirc.
Once we'd seen the levels i
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-1 going up we shut this down, but with what was coming over during the 2'
time it was recircing, it had built up the radiation levels in this 3
area, in the nuc sample room, in the aux building, Unit 1 and also the 4!
l thru Unit 2 where they come through there.
?!ow, the oncoming shift came c;
~
on at 7:00.
From then, everything was a little hectic.
We were grabbing air samples in different spots throughout the plant, both Units.
I, 7
myself, went with Dave Zeiter.
We went over to Unit 2 with a meter and 1
0 we started checking dawn in the turbine building basement, at 280 elevation, around the condenser vacuum pumps, to see if we had any radiation levels 10 in that area, checking mainly for primary or secondary leaks.
And we 11 did note that there were levels down there, but levels were anywhere l
12 around
.4, in that area, mR per hour, that is.
So, I mean, they weren't 13 really significant but they were higher than they normally would be.
14i And from then, they started -- they got some results from air samples 15 back -- I'm not sure of the times on, you know, from here on out really --
16i but they got some results back and they started putting respirators on.
I 17!
18i RESNER:
Excuse me, when you refer to "they", who are you speaking of?
19j 20:
DAVIS:
Plant personnel.
We evacuated part of the building; Unit 1 we 21l didn't evacuate; we evacuated Unit 2; then they evacuated Unit 1 in time 22 after this.
I'm not sure if they set us ECS or not.
I don't really i
23l know, I wasn't involved in that.
I know that they had their onsite and l
24l offsite teams out.
I'm not sure where they set it up from or who did it 25j even.
What we did after that was, we sent up a control point at Unit 2 n
f..
9 i
I{f in the HP lab itself, until levels, the radiation levels started to 2
increase to a point where we could not stay there.
We evacuated fru.?
3!
j that point to the service building in Unit 2 -- that's right outside the HP lab.
We sent up control point at that point, and maintained that 5l5 control point for quite awhile.
Now, we were taking air samples, at Gi that point.
The air up there, from the results that I had gotten back 7
at the time, were reasonable good so we where not wearing respirators.
O Now, they evacuated most of the equipment from the HP lab up to the 9
control room in Unit 2 at this time.
Also, when we sent up the control ld point, after a period of time they even evacuated Unit 2 control room 11 itself.
I believe at that time that they evacuated, the only onces left 12!
were a couple of the control :com operators, and maybe the supervisors, 13 but we still maintained our control point where we were in the service 14 building.
Now, once the levels, as far as the activity levels -- air, 15!
I'm talking about, now -- they started going out, we evacuated this 16 control point, went to Unit 1 control room, and set up the control point 17 up there for counting air samples and taking air samples.
And this is 18[
basically what we did until we left, around 2:00 in the afternoon.
191 20l RESNER:
How high did your levels get before you evacuated your.
I 21l 22l DAVIS:
Which levels?
I 23l i
24 RESNER:
The radiation levels, before you evacuated your last control 25l point and meved to your final one.
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DAVIS:
Ok the radiation levels themselves, if I remember correctly, 2t' weren't really that awful high where we were.
At the door going i.'to 3
the Control building, which is where the HP lab itself was, I believe 4;
the levels at that point were at 100 mR an hour.
Where we were, we had a
~
a good bit of shielding.
The levels were low.
The highest, I believe, 61 was around between 1 and 2 mR an hour, at that point where we were.
7 Now, after we left at 2:00 p.m. to go home, from then on, when we came back to work we net at the Observation Center.
I came back that night 9
at 9:00, and we worked over there setting up, more or less, the control 10f for the people coming b ck from Three Mile, deconning them if they 11 needed it.
More or less took over their men's room over there because 12' we had a couple people that were contaminated.
We had to scrub their 13 hair and so on, and get them cleaned up.
And also they were coming back 14!
over in coveralls, you know the paper coveralls, and they were taking i
15:
them off over there, at the Observation Ccenter.
Part of these were 16!
contaminated, and part of them were not.
At the time there was really 17 no control over this.
They were just taking them off and putting them 18!
into a pile in the room there.
You had people eating in there, drinking, 19!
the whole works.
20 21 RESNER:
Were you successful in decontaminating all the individuals who 22 came over with contamination on their body.
23 24 25l
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DAVIS:
All but one.
2!
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RESNER:
Who was that?
41 e
DAVIS:
If I remember correctly it was, Terry Crouse, the Unit 1 Shift 6l Foreman.
From what I understand, he had been the RC evaporator room 7
in Unit 1, and they had a spill, or he got splashed somehow.
He had it 8
on his hair and we couldn't completly get it out.
I mean, with what we 9!
had available at the Observation Center, we got it out the best we 10!
could.
Now, from then, that day... the second day would of been Thurs-l 11 day, Friday whatever...
i 12j l
13l YUHAS:
Wednesday.
14!
l 15; DAVIS:
Wednesday, was the first day?
16!
i 17l YUHAS:
Wednesday was the first day.
You came in at 9:00 Wednesday 18!
night.
19i l'
20l DAVIS:
Right.
21\\
t 22l YUHAS:
So you're working from 9:00 to midnight, and then I guess, till 23 8:00 in the morning.
24 25:
,zq 65
I 12 i
I 1!
l DAVIS:
7:00 in the morning, whatever.
Ok, I came back in Thursday 2t afternoon.
That was my activities, mainly, all through the night at the 3
Observation Center.
Thursday afternoon when I came back in the evening, 4i j
we came and reported to the Observation Center and then we were brought cu
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over to the Unit 2 control room.
From there, we were assigned the jobs Si that they wanted us to do.
Mainly, it was counting air samples or i
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j taking the air samples themselves, and also going into the aux buildine --
8!
l Unit 2's aux building -- with the operators, escorting the operatces in, checking levels -- radiation levels -- as we were going so they could do 10 some switching and tagging and so on, to try and get some of their 11l systems back in service.
I made one entry into the aux building.
We 12 were in approximately 15 minutes and we had -- in there the regular 13 anti-c clothing, plus wet suits and Scott Air packs on.
In that 15 14) minute period that I was in the building, at that time, I believe I 15!
picked up approximately between 400 and 500 mr on my TLD.
Now, from 16 then, I think we went over to Unit I and we started setting up a little 17f bit of a control in Unit 1 for surveys and somewhat.
They wanted to i
18!
draw samples -- try to anyway.
We had to survey the sample room -
nuc I
19!
sample room, radio chem lab and so on, try to assess what, you know, 20 what the levels were, radiation and contamination were in Unit 1.
Right 21l after that, the next morning, that was it for the first three days for 22I me.
23 24 YUHAS:
So you left, that would have been about 0700 the morning of 25l Friday, 3/30/79?
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l' DAVIS:
In that area.
I'm not sure of the time.
2' f
YUHAS:
O k.
4' 5
DAVIS:
I put quite a few hours in, in that period.
7 YUHAS:
You did not return on Friday after you left Friday morning?
9 DAVIS:
No I didn't.
I returned on Sunday.
10' 11l YUHAS:
OK, fine.
We're going to go back now and talk about some specifics.
12l At first you were on the routine assigned shift, is that correct, the 13 night of 28th?
14; 15;.
DAVIS:
Yes.
16!
17 YUHAS:
What time did you come to work that night?
18{
19i DAVIS:
11:00 p.m.
20l 21 YUHAS:
Who else was on shift with you?
22l l
23i DAVIS:
Ok, David Zeiter, a Senior Tech, and Mike Janouski, also a 24 Senior Tech. Mike Janouski was assigned to the HP department, and Dave 25j Zeiter and myself were assigned to chemistry.
l 01 E-
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14 YUHAS:
Was Pat Donnachie also on, as a HP Tech?
2l 3
DAVIS:
No, he was not.
It was just three of us that night, I believe.
RESNER:
At this time we are going to break to change the tape.
It is 6l now 8:04 a.m.
This is a continuation of the interview of Mr. Thomas E.
7 Davis Jr., and the time now is 0806 Eastern Daylight time.
8 9
YUHAS:
I'm going to spell a few names for the record:
David Zeiter is 10 spelled Z E I T E R; Pat Donnachie, Donnachie being spell 0 A N N 0 C H 11' I E (Donnachie); and Michael Janouski being spelled J A N 0 U S K I.
12 Getting back to your job assignment that night, you indicated that you 13!
had completed the Unit 2 reactor coolant letdown chemistry at about 0330 l
14' that morning.
?
15; i
16 OAVIS:
We drew the sample at 3:30 that morning, yes.
17f i
18!
YUHAS:
And at that time you said that the boron concertration was about 19l 1036 parts per million.
20i 21f DAVIS:
Yes.
22' 23 YUHAS:
Ok, and the reactor coolant gross beta / gamma being.2/3 micro-24j curies per cc.
25ll
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(3 8.,)
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li DAVIS:
In that area yes, I don't remember the exact number on that one, 2!
j but it was in the, it was below one.
3!
4j YUHAS:
Can you describe what a Cross beta / gamma activity is?
5 1
6l OAVIS:
How we run it?
7 YUHAS:
Right.
9 10 DAVIS:
Ok, on the letdown samples we take a planchett, which is a round 11l metal disk.
12 i
13!
RESNER:
How are you spelling that?
14I 15i DAVIS:
Planchett?
16!
17 RESNER:
Please.
18f 19i DAVIS:
PLe NCHETT.
20!
21 RESNER:
Thanks.
l 22l 23[
DAVIS:
That's close.
These are clean to begin with, ok, and we use a l
24j new one each time we run one of these analyses. We never use them a 25 second time. Ok, we take one of these and we put it on a hotplate or i
Q 9 'l /
bU}s LO
16 i
ilt' under a heat lamp, whichever you wish to do.
We take a 1 ml Eppendorf 2
pipe.ter, wnich is an automatic pipetter.
After the sample has been 31 purged for a short period of time, we draw the sample into the pipette i
41 tip. Now this is an automati. pipetter and it will only draw.1 ml i
5 sample into that tip.
At that time we mark tre time, we then place this 6
sample onto the planchett, we turn on the heat lights or the heat hot-7!
plate, whichever the case may be, and you cook it down till it evaporates.
I 8!
Ok, we wait 15 minutes from the time we drew the sample until the time 9f we count the sample.
This is what we call a 15 minute gross beta / gamma.
10 Ok, we count this on our GM-2s in the lab, in the' HP lab.
We count 11;!
these for one minute and then we figure out the activity from our back-12l grounds and efficiencies on this instrument.
13 14!
YUHAS:
This would be a degasified sample, in other words by cooking it 15i oft, you would of given off most of the gases in solution.
16l I
17!
DAVIS:
Yes.
18!
19l YUHAS:
And also, do you power correct this sample to previous power 20l history?
21;I 22l DAVIS:
No.
I 23l l
YUHAS:
Ok, so this sample is then just a general indicator of the total 24l 25i activity.
, ;, 7
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f 17 1!
l DAVIS:
Yes.
2:
3 j
YUHAS:
Total particulate reading.
Ok, fine.
When you put the Unit 2 4l reactor coolant circ system on recirc sample, that would have been, 5
what, about 5:00 in tiie morning?
About what time did you put in on 61 recirc?
7 8
DAVIS:
We put it on recirc shortly after they reported that the Unit 2 reactor had tripped.
i 10j i
11' YUHAS:
So this may be as early as 4:15?
12 13 DAVIS:
Anywhere in that area, yes.
14!
15i YUHAS:
Ok, fine.
Is there also a sample of the condensor off gas that 16 needs to be taken after a reactor change of more than 15%, or down power 17!
like that?
I 18l 19l OAVIS:
Yes, this is taken off of VAR 748, which is in the Unit 2 turbine 20j building basement.
21l I
22 YUHAS:
Did either you or Mr. Zeiter collect that sample?
23 24j i
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I 18 i
1 DAVIS:
No, this is handled by the HP department.
21 l
31 i
YUHAS:
I see, so then it would of been Janouski who would have collected 4f that Maranelli, and would they count it or would they bring it over and 5
have you count it?
6l 7
DAVIS:
It would have been -- well, at the time, any of our Senior Techs 8
can use the GeLi, so it could of been either one that would of counted 9
it.
Whichever one was not busy at the time they brought it back, they 10 would of counted it, yes.
11' 12 YUHAS:
For the record GeLi is an abbreviation for Germanium Lithium 13 Crystal and it's GeLi.
Could you describe how you run boron analysis, 14l are you familiar enough with it to describe how to do it?
15!
16l DAVIS:
Yes.
Do you want the whole thing, from running caps on down?
i 17!
l 18[
YUHAS:
Just mention the intentions of running caps to get your operating 19!
number.
i 20!
r 21; DAVIS:
Ok, now we use a cap solution.
We pipette five mis of cap 22 solution into a clean beaker.
We then put 95 mis of demin water into I
23 this beaker with a cap solution.
We titrate the cap solution and we use 24 three of these.
We titrate the cap solution with sodium hydroxide, 25[
using a PH meter.
The probes are in the solution at the time.
We use a oA i OS L ~l
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19 1I stir bar in the beaker and a magnetic stirer underneath the beaker.
And
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we titrate to a 8.5 pH.
Now, to get an operating number so we can 31 j
figure the boron with, our caps -- we have to have two caps that come 4l within.02 PPM -- or PPP, I'm sorry.
Ok, now after we have an operating I
Si j
number, which we take the number of mis of sodium hydroxide we used for 0
the cap and we titrate it, we take this and divide that number into 7
1082, and this will give us an operating number.
Ok, now our boron 8
analysis that we run for the RC chemistry -- or any and other, any 9
analyses actually -- what we do is we take a five m1 solution of this, a 10 sample, put this in the beaker, add 95 mis of demin water, and we titrate 11' this with sodium hydroxide also, to an 8.5 pH, record the number of mis.
12 You take the number of mis that you use to titrate that, times the 4
13 operating number that ycu obtained by using your cap, and you come up 14 with your PPM baron for that sample.
15:
16!
YUHAS:
On the night that you and Zeiter were both getting very low t
17l concentrations of boron, is it possible that both of you forgot to add 18i manitol?
19j 20f DAVIS:
No, the manitol was added.
I didn't add that with what I was 21 saying but we do add manitol to all the analysis that we do, except for i
22' the cap. The cap already has manitol in it when we mix it up for the 23 standard solution.
24i I
25l f
h I
n 70 c a ou3 f
.f
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20 l
fIl YUHAS:
So you're very confident then that at least the quality control i
2{
check that you ran on Mr. Zeiter was performed correctly and that tha 3l 400 was a real number, by virtue of the normal boron analyses.
4!
5 DAVIS:
Yes, that's the reason I ran one myself.
Dave asked me to grab 61, a sample and run it and see what I came up with, mainly because he 7
wasn't sure of his number.
And then when we both "ompared our numbers, 8
our PPM boron for that sample. Now my sample was within 15 minutes after 9
he grabbed his first, you know, his sample that he had the 400 on.
10' 11 YUHAS:
Did you, for instance, or are you able to recall the pH of the 12!
sample, either before you put the manitol in or after you put the manitol 13 in and put it underneath the PH probes.
I 14 15' DAVIS:
Which sample, the one that we got the 400 ppm?
16l I
17!
YUHAS:
That's correct.
I 18i 19!
OAVIS:
No, I'm not.
I 20l t
21l YUHAS:
Did you know the pH of the other ones?
I 22l 23l OAVIS:
The only pH that we recorded was the pH of the original sample 1
24l drawn at approximately 3:30.
25!
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21 1{
YUHAS:
That was prior to shutdown.
2!
l 3l i
DAVIS:
That was p. ior to the accident itself, yes.
4l YUHAS:
At that point the pH was what, about 6.8?
6 7
DAVIS:
Roughly in that area.
I don't remember the exact number but 8
that's approximately where it usually runs, yes.
9f 10 YUHAS:
What is the normal pH of the borated water storage tank?
11:
12 DAVIS:
That, I'm not sure of, without actual going back and looking in i
13 the log books.
i 14!
i 15l YUHAS:
Had you been told by the operations department that sodium 16 hydroxide may have been injected into the reactor coolant system at that 17 time.
18!
19!
DAVIS:
No, we weren't.
2Gl 21 YUHAS:
Did you personally talk to the Shift Operating Foreman, Fred 22l Scheimann, about this low boron, or was that Mr. Zeiter that talked to i
23!
him?
24, 25!
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22 I
i 11 l
DAVIS:
I talked to him myself.
2!
3 YUHAS:
Can you relate to tell us the content of that discussion?
t 4'
i DAVIS:
Well, ok.
I called over and I told him what the baron numbers 6'
were that we getting, and I asked him at that time what they were doing, as far as bleeding and feeding to the system.
And he told me that they 8
were adding makeup from the borated water storage tank.
So I, at that 9f time, asked him if he was positive that that's what they were doing, 10 because of the numbers we were getting. As I said, the boron level in lif the borated water storage tank generally runs around 2300 ppm or higher, 1N!
and if they had been feeding with this amount of baron, we were either l$!
getting a bad sample or they weren't g'.'. ting it where it was supposed to 14 go. So I questioned him about it and he assured me that that's what they 15:
were doing.
And that's about as far as it went.
He didn't tell us, 15 they could have, you know, let the sodium hydroxide in, or anything lh!
else.
18j 19; YUHAS:
Was it this last sample that you withdrawn and you got 400 parts 20j per million boron, that you ran the gross beta / gamma on?
21; i
22l DAVIS:
Yes.
t 23 24f 25 I
I or7 tol iv J Ut J I
23 i
II YUHAS:
About what time frame was that gross beta / gamma activity run?
2t 3!
DAVIS:
I'm not really sure, I know it was before 6:00 p.m. -- or 6:00 4[
a.m., rather.
5 6
YUHAS:
After you got the high 4 microcuries per milliliter gross activity, 7
was that sample put on the multi channel analyzer to get an idea of the 8
gamma isotopes present?
9f 10 DAVIS:
I'm not really sura.
11l' 12 YUHAS:
You do not do it?
13 14!
DAVIS:
I don't do it myself, no. But I mean I prepare samples for the 15 multi channel analyzer but I don't count them myself.
I'm not sure if 16I they did or not.
But we, seeing -- we looked at the results that I ran i
17l on the beta / gamma and I talked this over with Mike Janouski at that 18l time.
And I believe Dick Dubiel was in it this time also, and I reported 19l this to Dick.
And from then on, that's when all the radiation levels 20!
started going up and everything went haywire.
21 22l YUHAS:
Let me review with you the readings that were taken intially on 23 the first area radiation monitor alarm, that would of been RMG-4 in the 1
24 Unit 1 hot machine shop.
When that alarmed, did you hear it or did the 25l control room call down to you and tell you that this is an alarm?
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l 24 i
lt; DAVIS:
We heard the alarm.
It's an audible alarm.
2.
31 i
YUHAS:
But that room is normally locked, is that correct?
4l 5
DAVIS:
It is locked yes.
6i 7
YUHAS:
So Mike Janouski and yourself, prior going into the hot machine 8
shop, you made a survey?
9 10f DAVIS:
We didn't go into the hot machine shop itself.
Mike may have, I i
11l didn't.
We went into the nuclear sampling room, where our Unit 2 sample 12!
lines are, and he checked the levels in there.
I'm not really sure what 13 the levels were.
I came in behind him, that's all.
14j 15 YUHAS:
Do ycu know wnat instrument Mr. Janouski was using?
16!
17i DAVIS:
I believe he had an R02.
18i 19f YUHAS:
In the nuclear sample room, is there not a continuous air monitor 20j called RMA-12?
l 2 11 22l DAVIS:
Yes there is.
I 231 24 I
i 25j
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25 1
YUHAS:
Was that monitor in operation on the morning of the 29th?
2 3l DAVIS:
I don't believe it was.
Normally that one isn't in operation.
+
41 5
YUHAS:
Is there some reasoa that monitor is not normally in operation?
6 i
7 DAVIS:
I don't really know.
8' 9!
YUHAS:
Wculd you remember, if it had bcen in operation, would it have 10 alarmed?
11!
12 DAVIS:
If it had been in operation, it should of alarmed, yes, and if 13 it would have, we would have heard it.
14!
I 15 YUHAS:
Can you describe to us where the detector head for remote monitor 1
16:
RMG-3 is located in the nuclear sample room?
17l 18(
DAVIS:
3, that's in the sample room itself?
That one I'm not sure of.
19l 20; YUHAS:
Do you know the approximate time that Dick Dubiel arrived?
i 21f l
22l DAVIS:
No I'm not.
I don't know if it was around 5:00 a.m. or 6: 00 1
23l a.m., I'm not positive.
24l 25i mr
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I i
l 26 lt YUHAS:
Was it on Mr. Dubiel's own initiative that he requested you make 2
l the containment entry, or do you know if he had been requested by someone 31 i
else to have you make that entry?
41 i
i 5
DAVIS:
I don' t really know.
All I know is, he had asked Dave Zeiter 61 and myself to stay over passed our normal work shift and go into contain-ment.
8 9
YUHAS:
At that ooint, was there any discussion about the fact that your 10 shift was going to end shortly, and that's the reason you didn't want to 11 make the containment entry?
12!
13 DAVIS:
Yes, Dave Zeiter reminded Dick of the fact that we had been 14 working all evening and it fell through the night, and that the new 15; shift was coming in at 7:00 and that it would be better at that time to 16 have those people go in because they would be fresh.
17f i
18i YUHAS:
That was Mr. Zeiter's comment.
Previously you indicated that 19I your reason for not going in was that, was based on the report that Mr.
20!
Janouski made when he went to change the sample on HPR-227, he got a t
21; spray of water out.
I 22 23 DAVIS:
Yes, but this was after he had asked us to go in.
I couldn't 24:
have gone in at the time, mainly because I was not respiratory qualified.
I 25)
But in the situation, the emergency situation that I assumed we were in, I would have gone in if that's what he'd wanted, yes.
-r 7
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27 l!
YUHAS:
With the exception of the fact that Janouski's report.
2' i
i 31 i
DAVIS:
Yes.
l 4!,
5 YUHAS:
So after Janouski's report, you were not going to go in under any circumstances as a volunteer.
7 O
DAVIS:
Well, I would of volunteered to go in but the thing is, they 9i called it off.
Dick Dubiel called it off the entrance itself.
And this i
10 is the way I had understood it.
11!
12!
YUHAS:
And Mr. Dubiel's motivation for not insisting on the entry was I
13 the fact that water came out on HPR-227, is that right?
14i i
15 DAVIS:
I'm not sure of what prompted his action in not having people go 16l into the containment, as far as whether it was just the water coming out 17l or if he had had some levels, radiation levels, from the containment 18l hatch, or what.
I'm not nre.
19f 20l YUHAS:
When RMG-4 alarmed and you and Mr. Janouski made a servey in the i
21l nuclear sample room, did you report those findings to the c.]ntrol room, 22f to the Unit 1 control room?
23l{
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28 i
l!
l DAVIS:
I didn't report them, no.
2!
l 31 l
YUHAS:
Did you hear the Unit I control room pass the word that there 41
{
was a local radiation emergency in Unit I?
St l
6l DAVIS:
Yes, I'm almost positive that's what they announced, but I don't 7
know what time it was that they did it.
8 9f YUHAS:
Was that announcement folicwed within an hour by an announcement 10l that there was a site radiation emergency?
l 11; I
12l OAVIS:
That, of I'm not sure of. I had heard that there was but I 13I couldn't prove it.
14!
15.
YUHAS:
You made the comment that radiation levels were increasing.
Is 16 that based on survey data taken by yourself or Janouski or Zeiters, or 17 was that my additional alarms?
18!
19 DAVIS:
Well, I assumed that the radiation levels were increasing because 20[
of the alarms, number 1,... and also.
21j l
22l YUHAS:
The alarms that you had gotten were RMG-4 and RMG-3.
23l 241 25[
1 e
29 1.
j DAVIS:
3 hadn't gone up.
2 3
YUHAS:
3 had not al6rmed, okay.
4l i
51 DAVIS:
RMG-4 had alarmed.
That indicates high levels of radiation.
l 6i i
Okay, now, the readings that Mike Janouski had taken, from his readings, a
7l yes, the levels had gone up.
8 9!
YUHAS:
Did you personally secure the Unit 2 reactor coolant recircula-l 10' tion flow?
11l l
12l DAVIS:
I don't really remember which one of the two of us did.
I 13l t
14!
YUHAS:
Okay, to secure that flow, how many valves do you have to operate?
f 15!
16l DAVIS:
One.
I 17l ISI YUHAS:
Would that be a motor operated valve on the control panel just 19' by itself?
20t 21l DAVIS:
Yes it ir.
i 22l l
23l YUHAS:
When you were running these various samples, the reactor coolant 24j sample that was taken that you took to run baron and Dave Zeiter's other 25j two, was there an air sample collecting or a continuous air monitor of e
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30 1!
any kind, in your breathing zone, either while you took the sample in 2{
the nuclear sample room or whan you ran the sample in the primary chemistry 3l l
laboratory?
4I i
- i S
DAVIS:
No 6
7 YUHAS:
Is it standard procedure to sample in the nuclear sample room or 8
in the primary chemistry laboratory when you're working with open reactor 9
coolant samples?
10 11 OAVIS:
It's normal procedure to work with these, yes.
12!
13 YUHAS:
Is it normal procedure to draw samples of your breathing air 14!
when your working with the samples?
15; 16!
DAVIS:
We'll put it this way, it may be in procedure to do this but we 17 don't, we haven't.
18f 19!
YUHAS:
When you're doing boron analyses and pH measurements or evaporat-20I inp reactor coolant samples, is this done in a hood in the nuclear i
211 sample -- not nuclear sample room out in the primary chemistry laboratory --
22I is all this work done inside a hood?
23 24, DAVIS:
The work that's done inside of the hood is when you're evaporating 25!
samples or cooking them down for evaporation or beta / gammas or whatever i
l i
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I l
31 I
I i
1l The boron analyses pH conductivity anayises of this type is not done 2l under a hood, no.
3 4j YUHAS:
Is there an air sample, or more than one air sample, in the SI l
primary sample laboratory - primary chemistry laboratory -- that runs 6i continuously collecting and then is changed once a week and analyzed?
7 I
al, DAVIS:
The only air sample, continuous air samples, that are taken that 9I way are off of our monitors, I nelieve it is either RMA-4 or RMA-6.
10
\\
11f YUHAS:
Now would you describe the location of RMA-4 or RMA-6?
12l 13 DAVIS:
Okay, they're side by side, number 1, and they are in the Unit 1 14 auxiliary building, close to the radwaste panel on the 305 elevation.
15i 16 YUHAS:
Then RMA-4 and RMA-6, they sample the effluent release point for 17l the auxiliary building, is that true?
18j 19i DAVIS:
RMA-6 samples the, what is in the vents.
Okay, I believe that 20!
it also has the sample rooms in that I'm not positive of that.
t 21l 22f YUHAS:
Okay, my point being is, they do not discrete 7y nor does ary 23 other monitor discretely sample the breathing air in the primary chemistry 24 1aboratrry.
25l 1
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!lt i
DAVIS:
No.
t 2.
3 YUHAS:
Duri'q that morning after you had made the survey and recircula-tion sample, and the reactor coolant had been secured, did you hear the al "j
site emergency had been declared shortly thereafter?
61 7
DAVIS:
The site emergency?
I heard that an emergency had been declared.
8 I'm almost positive that it was a local.
9l 10 YUHAS:
Who told you to go to Unit 2 to set up a control point over 11{
there?
l 12l l
13l DAVIS:
Okay, after the caylight shift came on, we had more people at 14!
that time' for, you know, to use.
Okay. It was decided that air samples l
15 and radiation levels should be checked in Unit 2, and Dick Duoiel, plus r
16!
the other Foreman that had come in -- and right now I'm not really sure 17j which ones had come in, we had alot of people there at that time -- and i
18j it was decided to go over to Unit 2 to start checking around to see if 19i we had any increase in the radiation levels, air samples, you know, the 20h whole works. It's mainly, you know, just to find out what was, you know, 21f see what we could, what was going on.
f 22l 23 YUHAS:
Do you remember when you got to the Unit 2 auxiliary building 24j control point, who else was over there at that time?
25l l
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/03 bus l
l
i 33 1[
DAVIS:
No, I don't, I know there were some Techs over there, HP Techs 2!
l like myself but I'm not really sure which other ones were over there.
31 4f This is a continuation of the interview of Mr. Thomas E. Davis, Jr..
51 l
The time now is 0836 Eastern Daylight Time.
El 7
YUHAS:
While you were at the Unit 2 control point did any individuals 8
come out with contamination on their bodies?
91 i
10 DAVIS:
The only individual that I remember that came out contaminated 11l in that area was Joe Deman, the HP foremen.
He had been...he was walking i
12 through the Unit 2 Aux Building, I'm not sure which direction he was 13 going at the time but he came out through the control point and he had 14 contamination on him.
It wasn't that great, he cleaned himself up, 15!
himself, and he was okay, there was no problem as far as I remember.
16[
Other than that I don't remember too much contamination.
17!
18[
1 YUHAS:
At about what time did you leave or abandon the Unit 2 control 20l point?
21!
22f DAVIS:
I would say it was close to 10:00, 10:30 in that area.
I 23l
't YUHAS:
When you left and went to the Unit 1 control room, was anyone 23l left in attendance there, either a guard or an operator or an HP tech?
,d 13,,
p 0
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f 34 1!
l DAVIS:
Not at that point, no.
We took the guard with us and everybody 2
that we could from that control room in Unit 2 and all of our techs, we 3t j
gathered all the equipment that we had there that we possibly could 4'
carry and we left.
The word was passed to evacuate that area so we c
]
left.
6i YUHAS:
When you left did this then prevent or this leave access to the O!
Unit 2 Auxiliary Building open essentially?
9f 10l DAVIS:
Yes it did.
11 12f YUHAS:
So the double doors were not locked.
I
- 13f, 14 DAVIS:
No.
15, L6!
YUHAS:
Either set?
So essentially any uninformed individual that, for 17i instance, coming out of the Unit 2 control room, an operator type, could 181 have gone down, walked across the step-off pad and entered areas of l
19!
potentially very high radiation.
20l i
21i OAVIS:
Yes, they could have, but the doors leading to the control i
22!
building, a set of double doors, we had taped those around the openings, 23 mainly because we were getting
. I shouldn't say contamination.
we 24 were getting air from there and we taped this up to cut down the back-1 25l ground because we were using a frisker at that point and with this taped f
up, it cut down the background for us a little.
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35 1.
iL' PAS:
Now this is not the double doors by the nurses area, we first 2!
l aid area, but the double doors at the end of the hallway.
31 4
DAVIS:
Yes.
5 6
YUHAS:
Okay.
i 7
l DAVIS:
Not where the guard sits, at the opposite end of the hallway 9!
from where the guard sits.
10I I
i 11 YUHAS:.
Okay.
In other words an operator still could have got access by 12[
going through the first set of double doors through the chem labs and 13 then in.
14!
15 DAVIS:
Yes.
I 16i 17 YUHAS:
Okay.
When you went to the Uni' I control room can you describe 18(
what was going on there, do you remember vho was in charge, that sor'. of 19l thing.
20l 21{
DAVIS:
Not really who was in charge, no.
It seemed like everybody was I
22 in charge, truthfully.
I believe at that point I think there was an NRC l
23 man up there at that time, I don't really remember who, I'm pretty sure 24 there was.
I think maybe two of them at that time.
Tom Mulleavy was up 25!
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36 1!
there and I am pretty sure Dick Dubiel was.
Fred Huwe, an HP foreman, 2l' he was up there at that time plus I am not sure which supervisors and 3
foremen from the operations group were up there.
4l i
5 YUHAS:
Okay.
When you left that day where did you survey yourself for 51 contamination.
7 8
DAVIS:
Okay.
No. 1, I frisked myself for contamination with the frisker 9
I had with me going into the control room first.
After we put coveralls 10 on, paper coveralls on, entered our vehicles and we went down to the 11!
Observation Center where they directed us down to the 500KV sub(station) l 12 right next to it and we were monitored by a monitor at that point plus 13l we also had our cars checked at that point also and I am not sure but I 14 believe they had friskers, RM-14 friskers, set up in the processing 15 center at that point also.
16 i
17l YUHAS:
Okay, when you returned to work at 9:00 on the 28th, you went to 18 the Observation Center, you stated you that you set up a controlled area 19i for decon inside the men's room there.
Do you know what that men's 20l room, does that have a catch tank ot someway to monitor the amount of 21f contamination that you put down.
22' 23l DAVIS:
I don't really know.
24l 25!
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f 1!
YUHAS:
Okay.
2l 3
i DAVIS:
It was the only place that I had available at the time to try 4l j
and get these pecple cleaned up and I was the only one there, HP wiu 5
so I did what I could.
6i 7
YUHA-Are you sure you were at the Observation Center and not at the I
8 sink 500KV sub?
9l
[
10 DAVIS:
Yes, the Observation Center.
11 12 YUHAS:
Okay.
You said you were the only one there.
13 14!
DAVIS:
HP wise.
t 15; 16I YUHAS:
There was not an HP foreman there.
17, 1
18{
DAVIS:
No. Not at the time I was there, no.
19I 20!
YUHAS:
Okay.
About hcw many people were contaminated that evening?
21 22 DAVIS:
That evening a number of people I seen that were contaminated 23 three or four at the most.
24l 25j n
n<a 3
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38 l;'
YUHAS:
Okay.
Did you fill out log sheets to, you know, to describe i
2l' your contamination and the effectiveness of the removal.
3l l
DAVIS:
No I didn'c.
S 6
YUHAS:
Okay.
Did you...do you feel that you put down significant 7
quantity of radioactive materials into that sink.
8 i
9l DAVIS:
No, I don't really.
I don' t think it was t!'at much.
But it 10' this way, I don't really remember the levels, the counts that I got off 11l these people from the RM-14 that 1 used but none of them were really i
12l that awful great.
I remember Terry Crouse had the highest, I can't 13 really s.:s'r right now to be honest, how much he did have.
It was not 14 logged at the time, it was a complete shambles over there, everybody l
15l running in and out and you know the whole works and it was kind of hard 16:
to try and keep any order at all.
And I wasn't about 1.o let them go 17 home, you know, with contamination on them and just '<alking around there 181 possibly~ contaminate somebody else, the whole works.
I did the oest, 19 you know, what I thought I could do with them.
20l 21; YUHAS:
What was the acceptable release from, at, what point you stopped 22!
trying to decoataminate a percon.
i 23l
\\
24j DAVIS:
If I could get a person down to less than 100 counts over my i
^
25!
background that to me, that's acceptable and in accordance with ourn /. )
7el procedure that is acceptable.
U U
[
39 l'
j YUHAS:
Where were they piling up the ontaminated coveralls, etc.
2' 1
DAVIS:
At one point outside the building itself.
4l i
5 YUHAS:
Do you remember specifically where that might have been.
61 7
DAVIS:
Okay, in the back of the building where you enter into the, 8
I guess a double set of double doors on the ground or the sidewalk 9
out in front of the steps.
This is one point that I found them.
I also 10 found coveralls and respirators piled up in different spots inside t e 11 Observation Center itself.
Now they were trying to keep them in bags 12l plastic bags and so on, but they were really not too successful at it.
l 13j 14 YUHAS:
Then you essentially tried to keep your area policed up to about 15; 7:00 the following morn'ag when you went home and that was your duty for 16f the entire evenin'3 17i 18(
DAVIS:
Well that's what I did, nobody...I didn't really see anybody to 19!
tell me what they wanted me to do.
20' 21l YUHAS:
Okay.
22, 23 OAVIS:
So I just more or less tried to help them maintain order there.
24!
25I
. ' ~
3 f ()
L
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40 1
YUHAS:
Let's talk a little bit about the entry you :nade the following 2
night which would have been the night of the 29th to the morning of the 3
30th.
Do you remember why you went into the Auxiliary Room and who you went with.
Si l
Gi DAVIS:
I went with one of the operators and I don't know his name.
I 1
7 don't know half the people over in Unit 2.
By sight I know but not by 8
name.
Dick Dubiel asked me to go into the Reactor Building as ar, escort 9l cause we were trying to use an HP as an escort so we could pick up, try i
10 and pick up radiation levels as we went and we had to check a couple of 11l valves and breakers and so on the radwaste panel in use in Aux Building 12 and reset I think two or three breakers on the 328 level which is directly 13 above the radwaste pan.l.
t 14!
15, YUHAS:
Okay.
Cid you have any previous survey data to review prior to 16) going in?
17l' 18!
DAVIS:
Not really.
I had heard a couple of people talking about levels, 19f radiation levels in the area, yes.
I knew it was high as far as radiation 20l levels but what they were I wasn't really sure.
i 21I 221 YUMAS:
Can you quantify the word "high". Did you have any of the numbers 23 for what it read up to the, say the 328.
I 24j 25l L
o
(
41 l,
1!
l DAVIS:
No, not really.
Not until after I came out and I wrote down the 2
numbers that I had taken and then the numbers were reviewed with what 3
the HP techs had gotten in there and my numbers were a lot higher than 4j l
what they had received.
5' 61 i
YUHAS:
Okay.
Did Mr. Dubiel tell you how much exposure you and the 7
operator were permitted for this entry.
8 QI',
DAVIS:
Not really.
They told us that we should try to keep it under 10f 1000.
t 11l 12 YUHAS:
Were either yourself or the operator asked if you were volun-13 teering to make the entry.
14!
15:
DAVIS:
Not really.
That's my job.
I'll go in and out, it doesn't 16 matter to me.
17l l
18i YUHAS:
Okay, fine.
Can you describe the dosimetry that you and the 19!
operator wore on this entry.
I 20j 21l DAVIS:
The dosimetry we both had on? We had low range dosimetry on 22 which is the 0-200mR dosimeter and we also had high range dosimeters on.
23 24l 25
?. '-
l (y,3 t
I i
42 1!
1 YUHAS:
You also wore a TLD.
r 2!
3 DAVIS:
Yes.
i 4l c
1 YUHAS:
Thermoluminescent dosimeter?
I 6i 7
DAVIS:
Right.
8 9!
YUHAS:
Can you describe your trip in in terms of... you wen in like l
10 at 300 (level), walked down to the radwaste panel, up the stairway to 11
- , that sort of thing.
12!
I 13!
DAVIS:
Okay.
We entered the Auxiliary Building on the 305 level through l
141 the double doors connecting from the HP lab area.
We went around close 15 to and behind HPR 227, the operator checked something in that area, I 16 don't know what it was.
We came out, went straight down the hallway on 17!
the 305 to the radwaste panel.
I believe that we he did was he tried to i
18j startup a pump or somethirg of this nature, fan, something.
He couldn't 19I do it.
We had to go..we took the stairs from that level which is close 20l to the radwaste panel to the next level which is the 328 and we found 21f the breakers that he had to reset.
He reset those breakers, we came i
22$
down the hallway on the 328 back to the other end of the hallway.
That l
23 was coming back toward the HP control.
We took those steps down to the 24 305 level, exited through the double doors at that, on the 305 level and 25l we walked out through until we got the double doors going into the service building itself.
,,. 3 L'
b, i
43 i
It j
UHAS:
Can you describe what instrument you had with you and what the 2'l readings were as you made this course.
3i DAVIS:
Okay.
I had a teletector with me at this point and all the c
readings that I had gotten... the highest I had picked up on the tele-6 tector were in the 20R range.
This was over close to the radwaste panel 7
in the area of, I believe, the hole they have there, the hatch, whatever 3
it is.
And I was picking up I believe anywhere in the area, general i
9i area, anywhere from 1 to 3R, the whole general area.
This is on the 305 t
10 jeve),
ll:
12 YUHAS:
Now the highest area that you had, this would be the hole that 13 looks down into the decay heat rooms on the 281 elevation.
I 14i 15l DAVIS:
No, this is on the other end by the radwaste panel.
There's a 16 hatch there, just a big hole in the floor really, all it is was a railing 17 on, by the radwaste panel.
I got my highest readings in thf. area.
I 18t 191 YUHAS:
This would be the crane for lowering equipment down.
20!
21 DAVIS:
Yes.
22f 23 YUHAS:
Oc4a to 281.
24i 25!
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f 44 l:'
DAVIS:
Correct.
21 3f YUHAS:
Okay.
l 4l I
c DAVIS:
Okay, now from there we went un to the 281 level, no 328 level, 6
I'm sorry. The levels up there were anywhere from 5 to 10R.
7 8
YUHAS:
Okay, fine.
Do you remember if either you or the operator read 9I what your high range pocket dosemeter indicated?
l 10l l
11' DAVIS:
Both of our high range dosimeters indicated close to IR.
12 13 YUHAS:
Were they zerced before you went in, i
14i 15 DAVIS:
Yes they were.
16!
i 171 YUHAS:
So your pocket dosimeters indicated 1R and your TLDs indicated 18!
500 millirems.
19l 20 DAVIS:
Well he picked up a little bit more, I think he had around 560 21l in that area and mine was I believe it was 430, 460, somewhere in that 22 area.
The only time I was not with him was when he read HPR-227.
He 23 went in behind the monitor, the piping in there and was out of sight 24 roughly for maybe one minute.
The only reason I didn't go in with him 25i is I coulnd't get through.
j/
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45 1!
YUHAS:
Who read your thermoluminescent dosimeters?
2l l
3l l
DAVIS:
I'm not sure who the person was.
4l Si l
YUHAS:
Were they read out at the Observation Center.
Gi 7
DAVIS:
I believe that's where we took...that both of us requested that 8
they be read and they were read at that time mainly because we have...
9 we thought we were close to 1R, you know, dose and we requested they be 10t read and we had them read.
j lli 1~9 l
YUHAS:
At this point I don't have any more specific questions related 13 to your involvement in the first three days of the incident.
What I 14 would like to do now is solicit from you any comments either compli-i 15l mentary or cri+,ical of the Metropolitan Edison's Health Physics program 16; and radiation protection program here at TMI.
17 18 DAVIS:
Well I am a little critical of it to an extent.
Like I say I've 19' only been in here two years, in this department, and this is just speaking i
20l basically of the health physics department itself not the chemistry.
I 21{
don't think there is enough training.
We have new instruments coming 22l in, also,... well for instance, the SAM-2s that we use for air samples i
23l telling the iodine charcoals.
These instruments are placed in the 2l emergency kits which the onsite and offsite teams use.
There was no 25i formal training that I know of, I know I didn't receive any.
A few of gb
46 li l
the people did receive it on how to operate this thing.
I knew how to 2l i
operate it or I could operate it.
I learned how to do it myself mainly 3
by calibrating one of them for running an efficiency background on it.
4l This was the only way I knew how to use the darn thing.
5 YUHAS:
Specifically have you participated in the emergency drills.
7 8
DAVIS:
Yes.
1 91 1
10 YUHAS:
Last year?
11l l
12l DAVIS:
Yes I was.
13 14I YUHAS:
During the course of that drill did someone give you a demon-151 stration on how to operate the SAM-2.
16j i
17{
DAVIS:
No, they did not.
18l l
19!
YUH.TS :
Prior to this incident had you ever collected an air sample and 20l then counted it using the SAM-2.
L 21!
22 DAVIS:
Prior to this incident, yes.
On emergency drills.
23l i
24l YUHAS:
And that would be the time that you figured out how to operate 25i it yourself using the procedure.
l
(;BJ
~
47 1
DAVIS:
Yes.
Now I know some of the techs had been shown how to use 2l these instruments.
3t 4f YUHAS:
Okay.
Lets try to be a little more specific in terms of not 5
enough training.
You indicated that when you came here you received six 61 weeks of instruction both by film and by oral presentation.
7 0
DAVIS:
Yes 3
9 10 YUHAS:
By a contractor, would that have been Ralph Jacobs.
11l 1
12f DAVIS:
Yes.
(
13 14!
UHAS:
Okay.
Did that six weeks of training culminate in a written 15 examination or proficiency exam.
16 17, DAVIS:
Yes.
I 18i 19!
YUHAS:
Okay.
Did you pass that examination.
20 21j DAVIA Yes I did.
22l 1
23l VUHAS:
In the following t..o years were you on a shift rotation with one l
24l shift being scheduled as a training shift.
i 25i
,o
-y ou:
c.
{
48 i
f, 1
DAVIS:
Yes.
2t i
i YUHAS:
Did you receive training on that one training shift as described.
41 Sl DAVIS:
Very seldom.
j 6
7 YUHAS:
Can you refresh us with a descripcion of any formal classroom trair.ing that you had during the last two years other than this first 9
initial.
10 11 DAVIS:
Other than the initial.
The only classroom training that we had 12!
was dealt with first aid.
We had classroom, I believe...I can't think i
131 what it was.
We had it on emergency procedures as far as first aid for 14 I think it was RMC for these drills and we had regular first aid classes.
15!
other than that I don't believe we had any classroom training itself.
i 16!
t 17l YUHAS:
Did you receive 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> of training in radiation protection i
18!
prior to startup of Unit 2 in December of 1978.
i 19!
20i DAVIS:
24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> of radiation training in what way.
21f 2
YUHAS:
In radiation protect, ion training and health physics.
23 24 25 i
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i I
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49 i
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DAVIS:
Informal training classroom.
2!
I 3{
YUHAS:
The training schedules that we have looked at indicated that 4}'
most individuals received 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> of startup health physics training Si j
and that's the extent that we know about it, this is what the records 61 indicate.
7 8
DAVIS:
As far as formal training, no.
t 9I 10l YUHAS:
Can you describe anything that you think may have generated that 11 sort of comment in training folders.
12l 13 DAVIS:
Not really.
I can't be specific on that.
I know things I've 14 heard, I don't want to comment on because I can't prove...I can't be 15i specific with them, with names and dates and so on.
16l; 17l RESNER:
What was the general impression which you heard concerning the 18!
training l
19i 20' DAVIS:
Okay I've heard, for instance with these SAM-2s, I don't know if 21i its in my record that I have received training or not but on a lot of i
22 things they put in our records that we have received training on them, 23 nainly because we, you know, we perform the duties so, you know, they 24 enter we've received training on this, where actually you haven't re-2 ceived formal training.
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50 11 l
YUHAS:
What is formal training to you.
2I 31
[
DAVIS:
Classroom training.
Not on the job.
4I i
e'*!
YUHAS:
Some of the records we looked at we noted that they are indi-O cated as on the job training.
There is some segregation in the training 7
records.
8 9
DAVIS:
Well or, the job training, if they take you aside while you are 10 on the job and show you how to do a specific job I would consider that 11, as training.
I 12l t
13 YUHAS:
Do you read TLDs?
I 14!
15 DAVIS:
No I don't.
I started on them once and we got pulled off vf it 16l to do another job.
r 17!
l 18i YUHAS:
Have you received any training of how to read TLDs.
19l 20l DAVIS:
I have a little bit, yes.
21; l'
22!
YUHA5: Was that classroom training or was that on the job training.
23 i
24l DAVIS:
That was mainly on the job.
I would say a half hour to an hour 25l I had to read five or six TLD sand that was with Joe Deman.
I went over i
n ' (\\
,p; ev v
i
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51 I
1' with him and I told him right out I don't know how to use the thing so 2
he went over briefly with me how to use it, how to put them in, count the TLDs.
The results?
I am still not sure how to read them.
4l 5
YUHAS:
Right now they assi'gned you to...would they assign you to go 6
over and read TLDs as a routine job right now.
71 8,
DAVIS:
I don't believe they would, no.
91 10 RESNER:
At this time, let's break to change the tape.
It is now 9:03 11 Eastern Daylight Time.
9:03 a.m.
12, 13 RESNER:
This is a continuation of the interview of Mr. Thomas E. Davis, i
14i J r.
The time now is 0905 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
15:
16l YUHAS:
Mr. Davis could you just briefly describe how the training week 17 is utilized.
i 18l 19l DAVIS:
Okay, prior to the accident, the training weekshift which was 20j mainly four people, depending on how many people were on that shift.
l 21j They were utilized in Unit 2 either in Health Physics or Chemistry 22!
whichever was needed at that time.
Normally we hava a four man shift, 23j two people on that shift is assigned to Chemistry and two is assigned to i
24l HP and this is how we split up in Unit 2 also, the same way.
25i o r i 3
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I 52 1:
j YUHAS:
During that training week though did you perform routine duties 2'
{
or were you, say put under the wing of the foreman over there and he instructed you to the differences between Unit 1 and Unit 2 or to operating 4!
specialized equipment.
5 6
DAVIS:
Not really.
We were mainly on the job, you know, routine duties.
7 They did once in a while if a problem arose like changing filters and 8
learning about the monitoro in Unit 2, the air monitors, the ones we 9
sampled, okay, I got the foreman a couple of titres, went out and had him 10' show me different things about them, you know, how to do them correctly 11 because at one point we were not even sampling 227 correctly.
The 12 results we were getting from the samples were completely wrong.
13 i
14 YUHAS:
Could you describe how you are trained in either new procedures 15!
or changes to procedures.
16l l
17' DAVIS:
As far as I am concerned there is.ione.
I haven' t seen any new 18l procedures come out unless I look for them myself or I happei, to see 19i them setting around on the desk or something or hear another tech talk 201 about them.
Now if it pertained...the only ones that I know of for sure 21 that we do find out about are changes in the procedures for releases of 22 air or liquid.
Now these mainly they come through as a TCN which is a 23)i temporary change in the procedure.
These we had quite frequently for i
24 awhile on our releases.
25
,r.
0( O )
cv' l
U-f 1
6
53 I
It j
YUHAS:
How are you instructed in the revisions to 10 CFR Part 19 or 10 2
CFR Part 20.
l 4
DAVIS:
None.
5 6l YUHAS:
Do you mind if I ask you a few questions just to get an idea of 7
possibly some weak points in terms of how effective your own training of 8
yourself has been and see what I would consider to be need to know 9
information for junior tech.
10' 11l DAVIS:
Go ahead and ask.
12 13 YUHAS:
You indicated you frequently used to teletectors, is that correct.
14!
l 15!
DAVIS:
Yes.
16!
17, YUHAS:
What type of detector does the teletector have.
i 18I 19i DAVIS:
That's the GM tube detector.
20!
21;l YUHAS:
How would the GM tube respond to 10 kev gamma rays.
22 23 DAVIS:
That I am not sure.
The other energy levels I am not really 24l that sure of with the response to the detectors.
I know your ion chamber 25) is much better for higher level energies.
This I just fount out.
i
, n G
n t
i
54 11 r
YUHAS:
You indicated you just found that out.
I 2,
3 DAVIS:
Yes.
4l i
5 YUHAS:
When.
6 7
0 AVIS:
I would say within the last three or four days.
8 t
9 YUHAS:
Did vau find it out because people were telling you and asking 10' that sort of question.
11' 12-DAVIS:
No.
I found out because I had heard, well actually one of the 13 contractor HP people, NSS perso.., came over to the Unit 1 lab where I 14 was at and asked for a R02 that went to the SR range instead of the R02A 15:
which was the 50R range and I had acked him why.
He told me they were 161 instructed by the NRC to take all low level cose rates with an R02 or a 17 PIC-6A because of the ion chamber.
From that I started digging into him 18!
and trying to find out why, and, you know if that's wiiat was wanted 191 fine, but I was curious in my own mind why they wanted to use those two 20j instruments mainly because the low levels on them... I don't think the 21[
_ instrument itself has the ranges and expanded eraugh to really, you 22 know, if you want good low level, you know, readings or anything you're i
23l just in a ballpark using less than one or something of this nature or I
24l your GM tube, your E-520, your teletector you have ranges where you can 25i pinpoint, you know, areas in that range, less than one or less than
,1.
~
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cv" 7(re l
[
55 l
1!
l I asked an NRC gentleman about it and it was explained to me why this 2!
came out.
Now I have still to see anything in writing.
3 4
YUHAS:
I suggest you just for instance look at the technical manual for 5
a teletector it'll show you that the energy response of the GM tube for j
61 that particular GM tube in the low energy range, say for like Xenon 133 is poor which means that about 40 percent low, between 25 and 40 percent 0
low true dose.
Let me ask you another question.
When does an individual 9
require to wear extremity monitoring say for your hands.
10 11 DAVIS:
Okay, right now well I shouldn' t say now.
Up until the accident 12!
when we started drawing the very high level samples from Unit 2, they 13 weren' t really required that much.
We didn't use them that much except 14l for the diverse going into the Unit I spent fuel pool to make repairs, 15j then we used the extremity badges on his hands, chest, head, ankles and 16!
so on.
We use them now a lot for the purpose, you know, for the people i
17 when they are drawing the samples mainly because they are getting their 18{
hands or maybe even their head exposed to higher levels than what their 19f whole body would receive.
20f 21l YUHAS:
Is the head considered an extremity.
22, t
23 DAVIS:
Not really.
I consider th t.
I know we put on... I don't know 24 if this is right or not... but on the RWPs that we are using for Unit 1 25!
Aux Building, I think last week it was, when they were underneath the
,c5 mo, c v
,s:./
e h
56 l
1 sample lines, you know two sample lines, they had some seniors reporting 2.
i on the RWP to put their TLDs at the upper most part of their body which 3l j
is to me is put on your head or on your hard hat.
4!
5 YUHAS:
Just one last question.
What does breathing zone air sample 9
61 mean to you.
7 8
DAVIS:
I'm really not sure.
9f I
10' YUHAS:
Okay.
11' 12 i DAVIS:
I can take a guess at it and probably come up close but.
13 14 YUHAS:
Let's go on any other comments you migt.. have, aside from the 15 training.
16l I
17 CAVIS:
Okay.
I know that our RWPs... we have up until the accident 18!
now this is everything ic before this happened.
Okay we had standing 191 RWPs in most cubicles in the Aux Building, the Auxiliary Building, Unit l
20j l and Unit 2 both.
Okay these standing RWPs would run for one week or 21{
from survey date to survey date which generally was one week.
If an 22ll axception came up we would, you know, survey it sooner than that.
Okay 23l on these RWPs very few people ever signed in or signed out on these RWPs i
2 including HP and chemistry people as well as operations.
25l
u
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Lu
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k
57
[
I 1!
YUHAS:
Is there a procedure for documenting noncompliances with health 2
physics procedures.
3 41 DAVIS:
I am not sure I understand that question.
5!
l 6l YUHAS:
In other words, do~you have within the scope of your procedures 7
a mechanism that where if you see someone not following an RWP procedure 8
or something like that, that you are suppose to write them up.
9 10' DAVIS:
We have an HP violation, yes.
11 1'
YUHAS:
Is this the sort of thing that would be documented on an HP 13 violation sheet.
14 l
15 DAVIS:
Yes it could.
16!
I 17 YUHAS:
Are the HP violation procedure, is it followed, is it used.
18!
19!
DAVIS:
No, not really.
206 I
21)
YUHAS:
Could you describe why it is not used?
22 l
23 DAVIS:
I think mainly because you don'. want to write up your buddies, 24 truthfully.
Now like with these standing RWPs, as far as I can't see 25f everybody, but generally most people that I have seen in these areas I)
(-) [ )
i 6
1
l 58 1ll they followed what the RWP required as far as clothing and so on and 21 meters, you know, taking a radiation meter with you, they followed that 3
but they never signed in with doses.
Now we initiated this I would say 4
about two or three weeks before Unit 2 had the accident in the Unit 2.
5 We pushed for this, you know, as a change, we wanted this, to start 6
. using these and we had it pretty much in effect and then all hell broke I
loose and you know everybody signs in on CWP wherever they go, practi-8 cally, so you don't have to,... even right now we have, do have a 9
problem with them now. Mostly with right now with contractors.
They 10 might sign in, they won't sign out or they forget about it, you know 11 stuff of this nature.
12l 13 YUHAS:
Are there any serious violations in health physics procedures 14 that you are aware of that have not been documented by this HP violation 1Ni procedure.
16l i
17l DAVIS:
I know that they have..., I can't prove it that's the thing, i
Idl heresay, okay?
I know for a fact that supervisors, operation super-191 visors and foremen, they go into areas that are RWP required without 20!
RWPs.
These are not the standing 3 eas, these are other areas and a 21I couple times they have mentioned they were in these areas.
Okay our RC 22 evaps and the miscellaneous waste evaps, they have all dumped the bottoms 23 en these.
All it takes is opening a valve on the feed bonnet, draining 24f it onto the floor or if they have a piece of tubing long enough that 2$
drai m straight into the drain, this is done without our knowledge.
The q b) f f) fd p;,a
i 1
.{
59 1l one time... I can almost document the one time it was done, it was 2!
j after the accident had occurred because they had... a survey had been 3
taken in the RC evap in Unit 1, smear and gamma aurvey on one day. A 4
couple of days later they went in and took another survey and the smear i
5' survey itself was the levels on the contamination were considerably 61 higher and at that point in-time the only place it could have came from 7
was dumping bottoms from that evaporator.
And I did find out that the 8
evaporator bottoms were dumped and they took a hose with reclaimed water 9!
and rinsed the floor down into the drain.
10' 11 YUHAS:
Do you know who did this.
12 i
13!
DAVIS:
I don't know the operators who did it, no.
l 14!
i 15; RESNER:
Do you remember the time or date.
16!
17 DAVIS:
No, not really.
I know it was a few days after the accident.
181 19l YUHAa:
Are there additional comments you would like to make on the RWP I
20 and the supervisors not following health physics procedures.
21l l
22 DAVIS:
It's not only the supervisors, its the HP themselves.
We don't 231 follow to the letter. It's kind of a lacidaisical run department really.
24l l
As far as contamination very few people would.. they follow dressing 25j and undressing codes, taking meters and so on.
We have very little
()n x
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l
60 I
11 l
problem with that but you would find a lot of people in the entering areas not telling you they are going in.
This is mainly with operations.
3' There was basically I think it was in operations run plant, both plants, 4j you know, tried to run it which they did.
i S
6 YUHAS:
Do you have a pretty good rapport with both the auxiliary operators 7
and control room operators.
8 f
9l DAVIS:
Pretty much so yes.
10' 11 YUHAS:
Is their department substantially different than yours in that 12l they carefully follow all the procedures.
I 13l 14I DAVIS:
I'm not really sure about that one.
All I know is what I've 15' seen.
16!
17{
YUHAS:
What do you see.
18; 19!
DAVIS:
Well a lot of it goes-in our own
.. in the HP department
. in 20!
our procedures.
And like, you know, go into areas like dumping bottoms 21!
or they'll go do a valve lineup, something in this nature.
They won't i
22!
even follow our RWPs.
I 23l 2dj YUHAS:
What about valve lineups.
Do they follow their own procedures i
25j when they are doing valve lineups.
MC i
i 61
{,
I I
DAVIS:
They follow those procedures, yes.
A lot of times we don't even 2
know that they are doing it unless we see them.
But the operations 3
procedures themselves I don't know that much about them anymore and from 41 l
what I have seen in Unit 1 anyway they do pretty good with them.
S' Gi YUHAS:
Do you have any other comment?
7 8
DAVIS:
Not really.
9 10 YUHAS:
Why did you drop out of the orarator training program.
11l t
12l DAVIS:
Well when I was in the training pragram itself I had to have an i
13 operation.
I missed three weeks from training itself and when I came 14 back I had to pick up the work that I had missed, not the work but the 15l schooling that I had missed, plus keep up with what they were doing at 16!
the time and it took eight weeks before I finally bombed out or flunked 17 out so to speak I can't sit and miss that much time and come back in and 18{
pick up where, right where they are at, at that time.
When you start 19!
talking reactor theory, something in this nature, I have to be there.
I 20f asked my own questions, they may not be important to somebody else but 21 to me it helps me understand and they..
the company themselves...
I 22l have no complaint with them because they gave me all the help I could i
23 possibly, you know, receive and there was no hard tselings anywiere 24{
around.
l 25j
~
t
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62 l
11 YUHAS:
At this time I would like to ask you a question that is somewhat i
2 l
sensitive.
Is there any reason that you might feel individual either 3
deliberately precipitated the incident or aggregrated its effects that 4f j
occurred on the 28th of March this year.
5 DAVIS:
I don't really know.
As far as aggrevating I don't think,.. I 7
don't,... I have a feeling about Unit 2.
8 9
RESNER:
What is that feeling.
10' 11!
DAVIS:
Well, it is a kind of a jinx.
We have had more trouble in that 12 unit than I ever remember with Unit 1, in down time, the whole works.
1 13 They would, operations they put a sodium thiosulfate into the system, a 14 sodium hydroxide whatever, sodium anyway, in the reactor system, this 15:
was injected a couple of times.
On their ECS proceduras, they blew the Id:
safeties and different things of this nature.
I just felt a little 17 uneasy about Unit 2 as far as the operations was concerned.
18j 19!
YUHAS:
But you really don't have anything to substantiate your position 20 that an individual was doing or causing these things to happen.
21!
22l DAVIS:
No, nothing specific coming out on that.
23!
i 24 YUHAS:
Okay, this is approaching the end of the tape, I want to thank 2s!
you for coming here Mr. Davis.
We certainly appreciate your candid f
ono
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RESNER:
This concludes the interview with Mr. Davis and the time now is 61 9:26 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
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