ML19242D896
| ML19242D896 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 05/16/1979 |
| From: | Pyke T METROPOLITAN EDISON CO. |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7908280783 | |
| Download: ML19242D896 (43) | |
Text
.I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA i
f NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
)
i In the Matter of:
2I IE TMI INVESTIGATION INTERVIEW p
3!
of Thomas E. Pyke Rad Chem Tech, Jr.
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Trailer #203 9l NRC Investigation Site i
TMI Nuclear Power Plant 10}
Middletown, Pennsylvania 11l i
Mav 16,1979 12!
(Date of Interview) i 13i July _7, 1974 (Date Transcript Typed) 14!
203 and 204 15l (Tape Numcer(s))
16i 17f 18I i
19l 20 1
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NRC CERSONNEL:
22!
Gregory P. Yuhas Bob Marsh
- 231, Tracy Binico l
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BINION:
The following interview is conducted with Mr.. Thomas E. Pyke.
Mr.
2!
Pyke is a Rad. Chem Tech Junior at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power i
3f Facility.
The present time is 10:15 p.m. (eastern daylight time).
Today 4f is May 16, 1979.
The place of the interview is Trailer #203, located t
immediately outside the south gate to the Three Mile Island Site.
Individuals 5l Gj present for the interview will be:
interviewer Gregory P. Yuhas, Mr. Yuhas 7
is a Radiation Specialist, Region I; also present will be Mr. Bob Marsh, NRC Investigator, Region III.
I will be monitoring the interview with a 8
tape recorder.
My name is Tracy Binion, I'm with the Office of Inspector g
and Auditor, my position is Inspector Auditor, US Nuclear Regulatory Commis-10 sion.
Prior to the interview being recorded, Mr. Pyke was provided a copy of 3 document explaining his rights concerning information to be obtained l
regarding the incident at Three Mile Island.
In addition, Mr. Pyke was 13l apprised at the purpose of the investigation. its scope, and the authority by which Congress authorizes the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct 15:
an investigation.
On the second page of the advisement document Mr. Pyke has answered three questions.
The questions and Mr. Pyka's replies will 17l i
now be recorded as part of the interview.
Mr. Pyke, do you understand the 18t document?
19i i
20l l
PYKE:
Yes, I do.
21; i
22l l'
BINION:
Thank you.
Do we have your permission to tape the interview?
23l 24j 25l 1
2 1!
PYKE:
Yes.
2; 3f BINION:
Tnank you.
Would you like a copy of the tape or transcript?
4l Sj PYKE:
Yes.
i 6!
7{
BINION:
OK.
In addition, we have a fourth question regarding an issue that was covered in the text of the document.
And that is, do you, would g
you like a company representative preseat at this interview?
g 10' PYKE:
No.
11:.
12l BINION:
Thank you.
Mr. Pyke, will you please give a brief description of f
your employment in the nuclear industry and any education or trdining that 14 you feel is pertinen-15 16; PYKE:
I began my career with Metropolitian Edison, September 22, 1969, in 17!
i the capacity of a Utility B worker in the Western Division; worked my ranks 18j l
through the various levels of the Line Department to a Classification of 19t Second Class Second Year Lineman; 1974, I was offered a opportunity to come 20!
to Three Mile Island versus a layoff; I took the opportunity to come to Three Mile Island as a Utility B worker.
After working here three years I 2.2l l
did not exercise my right to bid any jobs for the fact that I wanted to go 23!
back to the Western Division pending...the layoff status warranted such 241 action.
After three years of this I decided it would be better if I stayed 25!
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1, at Three Mile Island for my own personal cenefit.
I bid a job into opera-tions.
I started training in the Aux. C program after approximately nine 2
1 3{
(9) weeks I dropped out for personal reasons.
Several months thereafter, l
4 approximately six (6) months, another job came up as a Rad. Tech Chem
~j Junior.
I took the job and at that point I was interviewed for that job, c;
i 6
took an exam and with my past history and educational background I qualified i
for that job.
At that point Metropolitian Edison went out and hired an 7
utside contractor to train a group of people and that contractor was Rad 8
Services.
They trained us in the different capacities of HP work and gl calibration of instruments.
After completion of that course and passing 10 the final exam, they considered us off probation and as Rad Chem Techs.
Several months thereafter they also sent the same group in different..
breakdown.
They took four people at a time and sent us out to Alliance, t
Ohio, to Babcock & Wilcox Analytical Chemistry School.
That was a two week 14) course.
We completed that, returned to Three Mile Island and continued to 15!
work in the capac1ty of our classification.
And presently, I am now a Rad Chem Tech Junior.
17!,
18I BINION:
Thank you, at this point the interview will be turned over to 19l Mr. Yuhas.
20j 21I
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YUHAS:
Thank you Yuhas:
Are you a high school graduate?
221 I.
23 PYKE:
Yes.
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4 lj YUHAS:
Did you take your preparatory course in high school?
i 2'
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3; PYKE:
Yes.
I 4!
5' YUHAS:
Can you explain the amount of chemistry or physics that you took in 6i high school?
7, PfKE:
g I took general chemistry in high school, inorganic chemistry in g
college.
(
10j 11j YUHAS:
How much college experience did you have?
I 12l PYKE:
One year of college.
13 I
14)
YUHAS:
You apparently became a Rad Tech somewhere in the latter part of 151 1977?
16 17i PYKE:
Approximately, yes.
18!
19i YUHAS:
The school provided by Rad Services were taught by Ralph Jacobs.
I 21!
PYKE:
True.
22ll 23 YUHAS:
Was that a six week course?
24!
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1l PYKE:
Six or eight weeks.
I can't be sure exactly what it was.
It was i
gj six or eight, I don't know.
I 3l YUHAS:
Did this course consist of not only lectures but films?
Si I
6l PYKE:
I don't recall any films.
It was strictly a lecture course, along with practical application in the calibration _r instruments.
8 YUHAS:
g' What we are going to do now is, Mr. Pyke, I'm going to ask you to g through the sequence of involvement with the incident that occurred at Ol' 11j TMI-2 on March 28. What I'm specifically interested finding out is how you I
were informed of the incident, when you came to work the first day; what 12l 13[
your job assignments were; points of interest that stand out in your mind for the period from the first day till Friday the 30th.
In other words we 14:
are talking about a three day period.
After you go through that, then I'll 15-come back and ask some specific questions to try to bring up some little more detail out of what you tell us.
At the conclusion of that, I'll i
discuss the general health physics program at TMI with you and give you the 18!
opportunity to bring forth any comments, criticisms, or compliments you 191 might have about that program.
So why don' t you go ahead and begin with 20l the incident on the 28th.
21i 22 PYKE:
On the 28th, I was off schedule.
My second off schedule day.
The j
23 f
first I knew of the accident was that noon on the 28th by local media.
At 24!
that point I didn't respond to telephone calls because I, as far as myself 25i i
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6
{lj calling in, I just figured thct possibly it was a normal trip with some 2
abnormalites to it.
I didn't really feel it was probably anything to get 1
3l excited about and I said well, I told my wife, I said well if its anything 4li serious, they will call me.
They never called me and I just didn't feel 5l that it had the clout that it did.
On Thursday I was scheduled to come in 3-11.
6 Upon arriving to the pte, I was told that I couldn't enter the 7
north gate, I was to proceed to the 500 Sub.
I did that and at that point I discovered that it was a serious matter and at that particular time the 8
HP control point was at the 500 Sub.
That particular day I started at the control point monitoring personnel and equipment entil approximately 8:00 10 o' clock or 2000 or 2100 hours0.0243 days <br />0.583 hours <br />0.00347 weeks <br />7.9905e-4 months <br /> that evening.
Pat Donnachie and myself were I
dispatched to Unit I to take a pre-drawn letdown sample of Unit 2 whereby 12; I
we were to take this sample and dilute it to a fraction of something less 131 than 1 mR.
I myself diluted that sample.
Prior to diluting it, I took a 14i dose rate reading on it.
It was 10 R at I cc.
I extracted that liquid from a gas, 60 gas vial using a syringe.
I diluted that sample 100 million to 1 to get it less than 1 mR.
After doing so, we left the lab.
We found ourselves to be, I found myself to be contaminated on the left wrist.
At 18j that point then I discovered that this liquid wasn't of the normal nature 2 P. i that letdown was prior to the accident.
We had handled letdowns hundreds 20i of times and at that point I discovered that this stuff was a lot hotter 21l l
than I had ever experienced before.
I worked around the clock.
I worked 22l l
till 11:00 straicht through till Thursday morning.
At that point I went 23l l
home, came back in again Thursday afternoon, and I was put on an onsite 24l monitcring team.
I stayed onsite to the best of my recollection all night 25i
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and went home.
On Friday, I came in and my assignment at that point varied.
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It was at one point I was onsite team and another point I was offsite team l
31 and it was sort of an atmosphere of confusion as far as where they wanted 4
this particular team that night and I wound up, I stayed offsite the entire 5l night coming home approximately 9:00 o' clock on Friday.
I 6i i
7j YUHAS:
Thank you.
Let me clarify some dates to start off with.
You said 8
that you were off on Wadt:esday? That would have been the 28th?
10f i
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i YUHAS:
OK, so you did not come in Wednesdav?
l 13l PYKE:
I did not come in Wednesday.
14 '
l 15i YUHAS:
You came in Thursday?
17!
PYKE:
Thursday afternoon at..
19' YUHAS:
At 3:00?
20; 21i PYKE:
Three o' lock in the afternoon.
22l 23l YUHAS:
Until the 11:00 shift?
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PYKE:
Yes.
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YUHAS:
And actually you worked over?...
3 41 PYKE:
I workeo double.
5 Gi YUHAS:
Till Friday. morning?
7 8
PYKE:
Right.
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YUHAS:
OK,
., when you said.
11!
12!
PYKE:
Oh, okay.
13l 14!
YUHAS:
So when you said you, so that really it should have been Friday morning.
17i I
PYKE:
OK.
18l 191 YUHAS:
OK, then you returned Friday afternoon.
20j 21; PYKE:
Right.
23f YUHAS:
Okay, and you worked over till Saturday morning.
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PYKE:
Right.
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YUHAS:
3 And then that was really Saturday you were talking about the confu-4 sion on what team to be assigned to?
5 PYKE:
Right, it began on Friday night and ended up Saturday niorning.
6l 7
YUHAS:
OK. Allright, fine. Can you describe the conditions at the north 8
gate when you arrived Wednesday at 3:00, excuse me Thursday at 3:00?
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10l I
PYKE:
The conditions of the north gate were cluttered with media, reporters 11!
and security personnel, other than that there wasn't very many.4cple, and 12; State police.
131 14!
YUHAS:
15;
-- Who directed you to go to the 500 KV?
16; l
PYKE:
Security personnel.
17l 18i YUHAS:
Who was on duty at the 500 KV substation when you arrived?
19I 20f PYKE:
Bob McCann, H. P. wise.
21l 22l YUHAS:
Mr. McCann is a foreman?
23 24l 25!
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PYKE:
Yes, te is.
2l YUHAS:
Did Mr. McCann assign you to stay there at the 500 KV and monitor 3j 4j personnel?
5!
i 6l PYKE:
Yes.
l 7'
YUHAS:
Which other Rad Chem Techs were at the 500 KV at the time?
8 I
9f PYKE:
Pat Donnachie, our entire shift was there.
Pat Donnachie, I'm not 10 sure if Vince Heilman was there or not, and uh Walt Deimler was there and 11; i
there was an off going shift.
i 12!
131 MARSH:
Can you spell those last two names of the last two individuals?
14!
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PYKE:
Donnachie, no.
16?
l 171 MARSH:
Not Donnachie but yot' mentioned a second man who you thought may be 18l there?
19!
20l PYKE:
Vince Heilman.
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Heilman?
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PYKE:
Yes.
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MARSH:
Ok, and what was the other name?
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PYKE:
Walt Deimler.
5l 6i MARSH:
Deimler.
7 8!
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,YUHAS:
I'll spell those names, for the record Mr. Donnachie is spelled 0 0 9!
10f N N A C H I E, Mr. Deimler is spelled D E I M L E R, and Mr. Heilman is spelled H E I L M A N.
11; The afternoon of Thursday, the 29th, in surveying personnel and vehicles did you find any of them to be contaminated?
12t 3
13 2
PYKE:
No.
14!
15:
s YUHAS:
OK.
16!
17{i MARSH:
When we get into surveying here, can you tell me about instru-18j w
mentation? Was instrumentation available fc your survey instruments at 198 the 500 KV station?
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PYKE:
Yes, it was.
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MARSH:
What about availability, were there adequate instruments available 24l for you?
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12 li PYKE:
At that point yes.
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YUHAS:
That evening did you survey either Houser or Velez?
4 l
t PYKE:
No.
S 6!
YUHAS:
So they had nct arrived at the 500 KV before you were asked to come offsite and split the sample?
g 9I PYKE:
That's more than I can tell you.
They did not pass by me.
10:
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YUHAS:
Were you aware who had collected the reactor coolant letdown sample that evening?
14!
PYKE:
Vaguely.
16!
l YUHAS:
Were you aware that there had been a large exposure involved in that?
18j 19t PYKE:
I was not aware of that.
20' 21:
I YUHAS:
Who directed you and Mr. Donnachie to proceed to the Unit 1 area to 22!
split the sample?
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!lj PYKE:
I don't remember.
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MARSH:
At that 500 KV site, do you recall who was in charge?
Do you 4
recall who was the senior man was there upon your arrival?
5!
PYKE:
Well we moved from the 500 sub after dark.
NSS was, it was either 6
NSS or Rad Services were taking care of most of it.
They had moved a lot 7
of the Med Ed personnel up to the observation center, from there they were g
dispatching them to jobs.
I did coordinate though with Lyn Landry in 91 i
Unit I control room.
At that point, he instructed me on what he wanted in 1g relation to the sample.
He wanted 5 composite samples of the letdown, of 11!
the diluted letdoivn.
12!
131 YUHAS:
Landry indicated that he wanted 5 split samples.
14!
T 15:
PYKE:
Yes.
16i 17l t
YUHAS:
When you and Donnachie went to the north gate did you already have 18!
your TLD badges?
20l PYKE:
Yes.
21f 22!
YUHAS:
OK, did you go to the north gate by bus?
23 24I 25!
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14 PYKE:
I don't remember.
lj 2!
3l YUHAS:
Did you take a bus from the north gate into the process center?
i 4j Sj PYKE:
I think we did take a bus to the north gate but at that point we Gj swapped vehicles.
There was a party coming out and I believe at that point i
7 we took our vehicle and proceeded with that.
8 YUHAS:
g Did the security personnel search any oackages you ma; have had or frisk you or anything like that, ll!
PYKE:
No.
12 131
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YUHAS:
When you got to the process center was there any one manning the process center?
15i i
16:
I PYKE:
Yes.
And if I am not mistaken, it was Rad Services, but I really 17!
can't be sure.
It was such a point of confusion ano that place looked so 18!
much different.
The whole Unit 1 looked a lot different.
It looked like a 19i cyclone went through the place.
It was a little bit scary when you walked 20t in there.
There was just debris laying all over the halls and so forth.
I wasn't scared but it was a little erie feeling to pass through that kind 22; of, because there wasn't people milling about except in the Unit 1 control I
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room.
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!lj MARSH:
Tom, I noticed on that one you're giving a little bit more broad answer.
Don't feel confined to the question, if you have recollection of 2
i 3l details, feel free to put them out.
I 4!
Sf YUHAS:
As you came through the process center was there anyone there either Secuiity g' lards or other that was performing the normal security 6
functions?
7 81 gl PYKE:
I believe there was.
Now this is, you know going back seven weeks l
or eight weeks or whatever its been. In my mind all that I can remember is 10f that there was maybe a half do::en people at that point and there were 11l security personnel there and there were HPs there controlling that point and be were wearing masks to enter at that point.
I had a lot of other i
things on my mind, I really didn't scope out the whole thing.
I wasn't 14!
taking notes at this point in time.
15.
16; YUHAS:
So then ycu went to the Unit 1 control room?
17lf 18:
PYKE:
We proceeded to Unit I control rocm; talked to Lyn Landry; he gave 19;;
us our instructions and we went down to perform the job.
At that time, 20; Pat Donnachie and myself entered the lab, suited up and went in, which 21!
seemed like a simple job to perform and it didn't turn out quite that easy 22!
I because I didn't think it was going to take that kind of dilution factor to 23l l
get the sample down to less than what I marked.
I thought the first shot 24
maybe i overdid it.
I diluted the first time 1 cc to a 1,000.
My final 25!
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dilution was 1 cc to 1,000.
I took that, 1 cc of that to another 1,000 and 8
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l to 100, gave it a 10 dilution.
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YUHAS:
Let's go back up a little bit.
Do you recall specifically what 5
Landry told you?
6!
PYKE:
7 He told us where the vial would be found, and he told us essentially shat h'e wanted in relation to mR readings and how many samples he wanted.
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e e yuwa e
m sample read?
10 I
11; PYKE:
I think that we were under the impression it was supposed to have I
read 3 R.
Pat did the dose rate on it and he told me then at that point it 13i was 10 R.
It didn't sink into me at the time, I mean a 10 R, 1 cc 10 R.
I 141 Just went ahead and because of handling letdowns at the fr:
that we m "'
15!
did, it just didn't sink in at the time you know, that 1 cc was 10 R.
l Basically maybe 500 cc under normal conditions would be approximately 17l i
500 mR depending how long it sat.
So at that time it was really probably 18i my fault as far as, I got an 880 beta dose on that night and I guess..well 19!
if I would have had it to do all over again I would have suited up differently.
21!
22l Yes, let's back up again to what instructions Landry gave you.
Did YUHAS:
Landry tell you what the dose rate was going to be?
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PYKE:
I believe he told Pat.
In my mind I remember there was a 3 R reading, 2
and at that point we were a little astonished to find it to be 10 R but we 3f were not wasting anytime; we jumped in; we did the job.
4l YUHAS:
Did Landry ask you if you and Donnachie were volunteers to do the 5
6 job?
i 7'
PYKE:
Not to my recollection.
g 9i YUHAS:
Were you volunteers?
Of l
11:
l PYKE:
I wasn't volunteering, I was told.
12l 131 YUHAS:
But you don't recall who you were told by?
r 15, PYKE:
No I don't, that came out of the observation center, and at that point there was so many people in the observation center, somebody told us, 17!
maybe Pat..maybe the direction was given to Pat and Pat got ahold of me and said this is what we are going to do.
I really don't remember.
l 20!
21;l
_ Can you give me an approximation of the amount of time, including YUHAS:
j that time that Mr. Landry spent, till the time that you actually got dressed.
22; i
was available for you to plan the task?
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r 18 PYKE:
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From the time I talked to Landry to the time we actually got in the 2{
lab, it was maybe 15 minutes.
I 31 i
YUHAS:
4 Did you and Mr. Donnachie discuss precautions and procedures in 5l that 15 minute period to how you were going to do it?
l 6l PYKE:
We talked over what each individual was going to do.
I told him I Would do the dilution factor, and he agreed.
He went in and he did the dose rate.
I prepared the glassware, and so forth and prior to that..yes, g
- 5 10 11!
i YUHAS:
Did you fellows fill an RWP for the test?
12!
131 PYKE:
No.
14!
15!
YUHAS:
Can you describe the protective clothing you and Mr. Donnachie l
wore?
17!
l 18!
PYKE:
I wore a pair of paper coveralls, black boots, triple gloves, a 19; hood, and a respirator, and darned it with the appropriate tape.
20!
21i YUHAS:
Did Donnachie dress the same way?
22 23l 1
PYKE:
Yes.
24!
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YUHAS:
Can you describe the type of dosimetry that you wore?
i 2;
PYKE:
I wore a nigh range, low range dosimeter and a TLD.
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gj YUHAS:
Can you describe the ranges of the dosimeters?
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PYKE:
7 The high range was I to 5 R and low range was 0 to 200 mR.
8 YUHAS:
Did you have a shielded syringe available to you?
g 10 PYKE:
I didn't use a shielded syringe and I don't know that we have such a piece of equipment.
I 13l l
YUHAS:
What did you use to aliquot the sample for dilution...to pipette 14' it?
15:
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PYKE:
I didn't pipette it.
I used a graduated syringe.
18!
YUHAS:
This would be a standard syringe then?
19i 20[
i PYKE:
Ok, initially I used a syringe to take it from the 6 cc vial.
Once 21l I got my first dilution, then I pipetted it with disposal pipettes, because 22, i
they are the plastic type.
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YUHAS:
This would be using a suction bowl?
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3j PYKE:
Yes.
I 4l 5
YUHAS:
Where was the actual operation done, what room, what bench?
6i PYKE:
It was done in the Unit 1 primary analysis room or primary lab.
Now 7
8 that's not the sc.pling room, that's the primary lab, and it was performed g
when I used the syringe to remove it from the gas vial.
I did that under the hood.
10j When I made my liquid dilutions after the first 1,000, I did it n the south lab bench.
11 I
12!
I YUHAS:
The 6 ml container containing the 1 ml reactor coolant letdown 131 I
sample was initially stored in the hood?
14i t
15r PYKE:
No, it was initially stored on the south bench behind lead bricks.
l 17l l
YUHAS:
How did you get it from the south bench to the hood?
181 19l PYKE:
I picked it up with my hands and moved it.
i 21l YUHAS:
Which hand did you use?
22 23 24l PYKE:
I can't tell you, probably my left because I had the syringe in my l
right hand.
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21 YUHAS:
Did Donnachie take a dose rate on it before you picked it up?
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2 PYKE:
Yes.
3 4
YUHAS What instrument was he using?
3 6
PYKE:
Teletechor.
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U!l YUHAS:
At what distance did he take the 10 R per hour reading?
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10 PYKE:
Contact reading.
12
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YUHAS:
Ok.
So did he tell you they were at 10 R per hour?
14 PYKE:
Yes he did.
15 16 YUHAS:
So you picked it up with your lef t hand with two fingers, around the neck, around the body of the vial?
18f e
19; PYKE:
Around the top of the vial, so that would be it had a septum on it.
20l 21l About how long did it take you to pick it up and carry it to the YUHAS:
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hood?
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1 PYKE:
Two seconds, i
2!
3 MARSH:
What's the distance from the location over to the hood?
4i PYKE:
Twelve-foot.
5 6!
MARSH:
7 You're talking two or three steps then to pick it? One motion to 1
8l m ve across.
Another question, at this time was the hood operational? Was gj the venting system working on the hood or had the ventilatica system been u
wn verall?
10 11 PYKE:
I don't remember.
13 j
MARSH:
Did you take any actions to turn the vent on with the hood or would it normally..
15, 16)
PYKE:
We don't have control of that.
The operations has control of that.
17{
18!
YUHAS:
At this point you were wearing full face mask.
'9i 20!
PYKE:
Yes.
21l 6
22l YUHAS:
Were they cartridge type respirators?
23 24i 1
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23 PYKE:
No, particulate cartridge.
1l I
2:
1 3l YUHAS:
Sole particulate, n) iodine?
i 4l PYKE:
No iodine.
5 6i YUHAS:
7 Now when you carried it over to the hood it was sealed, is that Correct?
g 9
es.
10, 11 YUHAS:
A rubber stopper over the top or something like that?
13 PYKE:
Yes.
15!
l YUMAS:
Now did you hold on to the bottle when you injected the hyperdermic 161 needle?
17 18{
PYKE:
I had to, yes.
20 YUHAS:
And about how loag did you hold it before you finally released the original bottle?
22 23 PYKE:
A couple of seconds.
24 I
25i
/o4
-', r1 1 Uv.
Uvi I
C4
(
i 24 1
YUHAS:
Five seconds?
l 2'
l 3j PYKE:
Five seconds approximately.
i 4f YUHAS:
5 So now you have released it with you left hand you have the hyper-6 dermic needle with the reactor coolant in the right hand?
7 PYKE:
Right.
8l 9f YUHAS:
About how far is the coolant from the right hand while its in the 10l syringe?
Is ;t between the fingers or below the fingers.
11; 12!
PYKE:
Below the fingers, it would be maybe approximately 3 or 4 inches.
14!
YUHAS:
And about what volume was in the syringe?
,5 1
16!
PYKE:
In the syringe...I cc.
18!
YUHAS:
So essentially the entire contents of the bottle?
19i 20t l
PYKE:
Was roughly just slightly over 1 cc.
21:
22 YUHAS:
The logical thing would be then you walked somewhere with this 23l syringe.
Where did you walk to with it?
24 25j i
/Qi
'G UU OvL l
L
25 ll PYKE:
I walked no where with it.
I put it..I extracted the syringe into a i
2j v lumetric,1,000 volumetric flask, and at that point I turned and disposed i
3 f the syringe in the trash can.
4!
YUHAS:
g The trash can being outside the building?
6i 7{
PYKE:
The trash can, yes, was outside the hood.
8 f, INION:
Excuse me, this is Tracy Binion, we are going to break at this i
9{
time to change the tape.
The time is 10:42 p.m.
10 I
i ll!
BINION:
This is Tracy Binion.
We are continuing with the interview of 12!
Mr. Thomas Pyke, the time is 10: 47 p.m.
131 14!
YUHAS:
At this point you've just discarded the syringe tip in the garbage 15, can or the radwaste can outside the hood.
This was after depositing the 1 milliliter into a 1 liter volumetric inside the hood, is that correct.
18!
PYKE:
That's correct.
19' 20!
YUHAS:
Ok. At this point, did Mr. Donnachie take a dose rate on the 1 21i liter volumetric?
22l 23l l
PYKE:
I removed that volumetric, proceeded to the HP lab to take the dose 24l rate due the background because I didn't anticipate that I'd have to cut it 25!
r, a nn' bO, dVJ
?
i I
l
[
26 1;
any further than 1,000 to 1.
I took it over and I sat it on the counter 2
right inside the door on the right and took a dose rac,. vn it and I don't i
3 remember what it was, but it was still rather high.
I returned back to the i
4 lab but we were not worried about crapping up the floor, we were just Sj w rried about getting it done in the least amount of time because the lab was the same..wasn't the same.
The lab was in shambles as far as clothing 6
and apparatus and so forth laying around so we weren't really worried about the crapping up the floor.
I immediately returned to the lab, told Pat g
that I had to take another dilution on it We discussed the dilution, he gj sa g a e
n n
.e-
,000.
At that point I diluted another 1,000.
I 10 removed 1 ml by disposable pipette, injected that into another liter, returned back to the HP lab and took another dose rate.
It was still i
12l I
outside the criteria that was dictated by Landry.
Pat and I talked it over 131.j again, at that point what dulution factor did we want to go.
We were getting within the ball park and we decided that we would try 100 to 1 and 10; it worked, and it was just slightly less than 1 mR at that point.
We took five composite samples and we placed them into the safe which was is_ated in the count rocm which housed our jelly equipment and we left the area.
I 18i 19!
MARSH:
When you added your sample to that volumetric flask, is that a 20 glass stopper flask, in the volumetric?
21:
i 22l PYKE:
Yes it is.
23l 24l 25l j
5 0 a,-
Uv-6
i i
27 i
!lj MARSH:
How are you ensuring a mix?
Are you agitating that flask in any 1
manner?
Oc you have a mechanical stirer in it?
2 31 PYKE:
yl We just apply the glass stopper and agitate it manually.
5l 6l MARSH:
Invert it.
1 7
PYKE:
Yes.
By shaking, manual shake.
g 9!
YUHAS:
Did you wear extremity monitoring on your hands when you did this g
job?
12l l
PYKE:
No, we didn't.
Once again our hindsight, if our hindsight was as 13!
good as our foresight you kncw we would have done that, but this is one of 14!
the little qualms that I have.
I think that we should have done that and I 15 think we should have been instructed to do that and we weren't and it was 16!
an oversight on our part that we didn'. do it.
I don't want to point the 17!
I finger at anybody, I think that we are as responsible for that as anybody.
lSt We should have been instructed to do so, and even if we weren't instructed 19' to do so, I think we should have enough experience to do that, but we 20t didn't.
I think it was because we were trying to expedite the whole thing 21!
as rapidly as possible and it was an oversight.
I 23!
j YUHAS:
Recognizing that oversight, has anyone calculated the potential 24i' extremity dose to your hands as a result of this evolution?
25r I1
(> B A.
Uu i
I i
(
28 lj PYKE:
Outside of Form 5 I don't think so.
On the Form 5, it came out on gj the TLD that I got a 880 beta dose.
1 3l l
YUHAS:
But that would not be an extremity.
4j l
5' PYKE:
That would not be an extremity, no.
Gi i
7l YUHAS:
g Ok, what was the gamma dose as measured by your pocket dosimeters for this evolution?
4 ol 10i 11 If I remember correctly I think that we got, I got 450 mR.
PYKE:
I 12!
YUHAS:
An I would imagine Mr. Donnachie received substantially less?
3 i
14!
PYKE:
I think he did.
15:
16; YUHAS:
O k.
17!
18i MARSH:
Where were you reading.,where were you wearing your dosimeter or dosimeters?
20l 21!
PYKE:
It was pin v.d on my left breast.
22l l
23!,
MARSH:
Botn high 1 low range?
24j 25; f
g
l i
{
29
\\
- j PYKE
Yes all three and the TLD.
2f I
I YUHAS:
3 How id the TLD gamma reading compare with the pocket dosimeter 4;
gamma reading?
?
Gl i
6j PYKE:
I celieve to the best of my recollection it was pretty close, withir.
50 mR, I believe it was.
It was a little hard to read that because my low 7
range was off scale and the high range you know that you ha.e to ha/e a 8
calibrator on.
g 10 l
i YUHAS:
When you were carrying these samples, about what distance was the ll!
sample frcm your body, cr particularly from your TLD badge when you were i
holding it? Was it at arn's length? Was it at half arm's length?
13!
14!
PYKE:
I would say half arm's length.
15!
16!
l YUHAS:
Would it be fair to estimate about 18 inches?
17!
18!
PYKE:
That sounds fair enoug1.
19' 20!
MARSH:
Tom, what's you height?
How tall are you?
i 22l j
PYKE:
5'6" 23l 24l 2sl t
roa onI (36 9 UsI
i t
l 30 1
MARSH:
Thank you.
2:
3j YUHAS:
So at this point you are not aware that the Health Physics Depart-4 ment in the form of either Mr. Dubeil or any of his representati as have Sj c lculated the extremity dose to your fingers and added this information i
6l into your Form 5.
i 7!
l 8l PYKE:
Not to.ny knowledge.
No, I'm not aware of that.
l 9j YUHAS:
Let's pick it up when you exited the lab.
Could you describe the 10 procedures that you went through for removing the mask, etc.?
12!
PYKE:
Well, if I remember correctly I probably removed my hood first, then 13{
145 I stripped of f two surgeon gloves, that put me down to my taped element.
15 l.
At that point I removed the tape.
I untaped my gloves.
I stripped off the coveralls down to my bcats and the givves were the last to leave.
At that point then, I removed my respirator.
The respirator was the last to be galled off.
18; 19l YUHAS:
Did anyone.
20l' 21!
PYKE:
And that was removed outside the old controlled area.
We wore the 22!
respirators as soon as we entered the area.
23l 24 25l t
l ro DO, O Q,it dv-I
l l
31 i
lj YUHAS:
During the course of your manipulation with the sample did anyone 2
collect an air sample of your breathing zone air?
31 PYKE:
No.
4 Si l
YUHAS:
Did you wear a lapel air samples?
Gi l
7l 8l1 PYKE:
No.
9i i
YUHAS:
Is the lapel air sample available to you?
10 11!
PYKE:
No.
12!
13l YUHAS:
When you removed the mask and began to survey yourself, can you describe where the contamination was and what extent it was?
15:
16-I PYKE:
I had contamination on my left wrist and the cuff of my shirt, and 17!
I somehow I got it on my pants, on the lower leg of..the left lower leg of 181 the pair of Wranglers.
194 20' YUHAS:
What instrument were you using to survey yourself?
l 21; 22!
l PYKE:
RM-14.
23!
241 25i f c,
.4 onj UV.
UU/
l l
{
32 YUHAS:
What did it read?
l{
2:
PYKE:
The wrist, or the clothing.
3 4l gj YUHAS:
All the creas that became contaminated?
9 I
6i PYKE:
The wrist was approximately 14,000.
Then, I returned to decon 7
8{
myself and I got it down.
I think it was, if I remember correctly, I got it down to about 8,000 at that..
g I
10!
[
MARSH:
Excuse me, we're talking counts per minute on this instrument?
11!
l 12l l
PYKE:
Counts per minute.
At that point I couldn't get it any lower.
I 13!
had scrubbed my arm there and also scrubbed it over at the 500 sub until I 14!
couldn't take it anymore and approximately after seven or eight days I 15, cleared.
But each day, in twelve hours, it had dropped approximately half I
until I went off shift.
It had dropped down about half.
17!
i 18j YUHAS:
This contaminatien when you triec to remove it what technique did 19 t.
you use?
20 i
21l PYKE:
I used tape.
At first I went through the normal scrubbing procedure 22; with soap and water, and then we tried little tricks of using tape to 23i extract it and went back to scrubbing, and after failing on those parts I 24l wrapped the wrist in plastic and sealed it all hoping to sweat it out.
I 25!
l
(>. 0,1 n<o uiJ v
f
i
(
33 1{
left that on for the entire shift until the following day.
Then I scrubbed 2{
again prior to going home and I returned the next day, well that afternoon 3
f the following day, and it had dropped off approximately half.
4 MARSH:
5 You initially said we tried tricks was someone assisting you in this decontamination effort?
Gi 7
PYKE:
Well I was essentially deconing myself until I went to the 500 sub and then at that point NSS people also assisted me and who they were T g
don't remember but they too were trying to decon the wrist.
lli l
YUHAS:
Did anyone document the levels of contamination, either yourself or 12t I
individuals at the 500 KV?
131 i
14!
PYKE:
No, because of the fact that, you just don't have the availability under those conditions for all the paperwork and so forth and then it was just, there was so much other things going on I just figured it wasn't 17!
really important.
I had been contaminated before and it came clean.
It 18i wasn't some new parameter for myself, 19!
20[
YUHAS:
Haa you ever been contaminated before where it took you that long 21!
to get it of f?
2$l c
PYKE:
One time.
24l 25l 3 3 ii f) a
[
34 YUHAS:
Did anyone gamma ID the contamination on your arm?
1!
2!
PYKE:
No.
4i Y'JHAS:
5 Did you have the capability of a whole body counter that you could
}
6l have gone over and had them assess the number of microcuries per unit area 7
in contamination on your arm?
I 8l PYKE:
Possibly, but I didn't.
i 9l t
10l YUHAS:
Did you inform your supervisor or Senior Tech that your arm was contaminated and you were having difficulity removing it.
13!
PYKE:
Pat Donnachie was aware of that and also the foreman, and I can't 141 remember who that was.
15:
16:
YUHAS:
The Health Physics foreman?
17!
I 18i
, Yes, they were.
I coula find out wno it was, but at this point I 19l just can't remembe who it was.
2Ci i
21j YUHAS:
Do you consider the amount of contamination present on your arm for 22l I
the duration it was there to be a significant skin dose to your arm?
23l l
241 25i 4
l
\\
~
() U 'i L
35 I
1l PYKE:
Yes.
I 2:
3l YUHAS:
How would you go about estimating the amount of rad deposited by 4f that contaminatiorii 5
PYKE:
Gi Well, you could take it on a,..I'm not sure.
7 gf YUHAS:
Jo you know if anyone has lculated this dose to the skin of the g
arm as a result of the contamination being there for eight days?
10 PYKE:
Not to my knowledge.
I 12l MARSH:
You indicated the bottom of your Wranglers also was contaminated?
14!
i PYKE:
Yes.
15) 16 MARSH:
Did you pick up any on the skin of your leg?
17; 18!
PYKE:
No, no I didn't.
19!
20' l
YUHAS:
Was Mr. Donnachie contaminated in anyway?
21:
i 22; i
PYKE:
He was clothing vise.
I don't think he was contaminated to the 23j skin.
24!
l 25!
a n
O
[i
\\,
rO I
l I
f 36 l
1 YUHAS:
Did you receive a whole body count in the ensuing days?
l 2V 3f PYKE:
Yes.
i 4!
gj UHAS:
What did that whole body count show?
On what date was it performed?
l 6i PYKE:
7 I don't remember what day it was and I asked the man that who per-g formed it and he said it didn't show any significant ceaks.
9 10j YUHAS:
Was this an RMC count?
11l i
i PYKE:
No.
12l 13 BINION:
Would you explain RMC?
15; YUHAS:
RMC is Radiation Management Corporation, Denver, supplied to the licensee under contract as is Helvison.
That's another vendor who provides 17l the same services for the contract.
18!
19I MARSH:
One point before we get too far away.
Initially you made a comment 0l i
that addressing hindsight that you would have dressed differer tly and 21:
l prepared differently had you known the significance in the strength of this 22' sample. What way, what changes would you have made looking back now had you 23 l
realized what you were getting into?
24i 25!
}f 4 0;A i
i
{
37 PYKE:
11 Oh, I probably would have dressed up in at least two, two sets of 2
PCs and a wet suit, but our normal dress, we thought we were handling it i
3i properly.
Our normal dress to handle letdown consisted of nothing more 4
than a lab coat, and a pair of gioves, cotton gloves and surgeon gloves
,y.
under normal conditions, so it was a completely new ball game for us.
i 6l
,l MARSH:
Thank you.
'l i
8j i
YUHAS:
The evening of the 29th when you went home with your arm wrapped in g
i plastic.
10l 11l PYKE:
12:
No, I removed the plastic at the 500 sub, the plastic was not contam-i.
I inated.
Nothing had leached out on the plastic, and I continued once more 13!
I to scrub my wrist and I proceeded home.
14!
e 15' YUHAS:
What was your wrist reading when you went home?
17!
PYKE:
I don't quite remember exactly what it was.
IS!
19' YUHAS:
Round numoers?
20; 21l PYKE:
8,000.
22i i
i 23; l
YUHAS:
Did you tell your family that your wrist was contaminated when you 24j went home?
25j Uuf 0\\
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38
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ilj PYKE:
No.
i 2l 3{
YUHAS:
Did you tell them anytime during the eight day period that it was 4ll still contaminated?
Si PYKE:
I may have mentioned it.
6 7l gj YusAS:
oid that generate any concern among your family?
9j i
PYKE:
My wife is always concerned.
101 i
11f i
12l YUHAS:
I assumed that you explained to her the significance of the contam-ination, the fact that it was not removable?
i 131 14' PYKE:
I explained it to her, and I also explained to her that I was confi-dent that it would be..it would either be removed or it would decay off.
If it would not do either, then I would take measures to get to the bottom of it and find cut what particular isotope it was and so forth.
I was 18i.
going on past experience that I nad been contaminated before at different 19l points and I'd always, it had always decayed off before, it just wasn't, it 20:
didn't seem that big a problem to me.
i 21l l
22' I
YUHAS:
The remainder of the evening thr.t pretty much tool care of the 23!
first day for you I assume.
24i i
25!
(;;) A O$
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11
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j 39 PYKE:
Yes.
1.
2!
i 3j YUHAS:
On Friday, Friday night till Saturday morning, this is the night i
4j that there was some confusion and you were shifted about from offsite to g!
onsite teams.
-t I
6i I
PYKE:
That's right.
7 8
YUHAS:
Were there any partic.ular readings that stood out in your mind that g.
- "" "9 10' 11:
PYKE:
No, in fact I was im..ressed that we wern't getting readings even I
onsite.
Now we could track the wind drift when we were monitoring onsite 131 but offsite I didn't, the only time we got any significant reading at all was during a period, I don't remember what the evolut4,n was but we antici-15.
pated a release.
I was downwind of that release and at that point I was east of Foulmouth the only time that it, I really, stood out in my mind was 17!
I 18f when the helicopter was overhead and he had a 300 mR reading approximately 700 feet and I was right underneath him when he gave that reading and I had 19!
6 mR on the ground, 6 mR beta.
20!
t 21j YUHAS:
So you probably had like.6 or less than 1 gamma..
22l l
23l l
PYKE:
I had approximately 1 mR of beta gamma.
24i 25!
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40 1
1!
YUHAS:
You've a..swered most of the specific questions that I'm concerned 2j about and now I'm interested in hearing if you have any general comments i
3 about the Health Physics Program here at Three Mile Island.
t 4!
PYKE:
5 Well, my estimation of the Health Physics Program a'. Three Mile i
6l Island should have been, there's been a continual deterrent in the operation i
7 ever since the corporate ran into financial difficulty back in 74, right after going commercial. "I came to Three Mile Island one month aft going 8
i g:
commercial and at that point I felt..I worked for Mechanical Maintenance in the Utility Department and they had what I felt was a pretty decent 10 Health Physics Program as far as what I knew of what HP was all about. From i
that point on over the years, it just seemed to me li!;e the people were becoming complacent with evolutions that at one point they always had 131 treated them very seriously and after a period of time they decided rather 14!
15.'
than to clean up spills they would just rope them off.
They used to call out people to get them in, get it cleaned up, and they lived with the fact, lo.'
ch, we'll wai+ for the next shift or the daylight people to ccme in and take care and we'll rope them them off.
That was allright, I guess, but 18i from that point then it just kept building to the point where we as HP had 19i no control as far as assuring any clout in relation to the violations and I 20!
got concerned at different points and confronted my foreman.
I didn't get 21; 22;;
an adequate satisfaction from them, so I proceeded then to my supervisors l
and they assured me that they felt they did have an adequate program and 23l essentially the program was good.
But, whenever we had what I felt were 24l serious parameters that should be corrected so that we wouldn' t have this 25!
n,ot
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deterrent factor, they were not corrected and even after assuming the 2
paperw rk and so forth and trying to make some sort of a stand on it, where 3
we w uld assur..e some kind of policing action against basically various I
departments, mainly the operations deparrent, to correct these people, it was ignored.
6j 7;
A couple weeks before the incident...no, it wasn't a couple weeks before the incident, it was just prior to the, you know when refueling we had an g
incident in the spent fuel pool, you know one where a shift supervisor, 9!
i engineer, and various other people entered that crea under the pretenses of 10i an RWP that they were going to operate the fuel handling bridge and on that i
11:
l RWP they had clothing req irements of the lab coat, cotton gloves, and 12l boots, which seemed adequate, if all they were going to do was walk across the floor, climb on to the transfer bridge and operate and pust; buttons.
Just before going off a shift, the engineer approached the HP office to ccme in to frisk and set the frisker off before he ever got to it.
I asked 16i him at that point where he had been.
He said "the spent fuel pool."
I 17!
said, "what were you doing" and being a white hat, I said, "apparently you 181 had your fingers somewhere they weren' t suppose to be," because they are not supposed to be handling tools or equipment or so forth.
He gave a 2
smart answe' and at that point, I said, "what RWP are you working under?"
21!
He told me waat it was and Mike Genoski pulled the RWP and it had on there 22l j
they were going to operate the bridge.
Well I couldn't conceive how this 23!
man could be this crapped up, contaminated by operating the bridge.
So I 241 said, "wr'l apparently you've been, how did you get crapped up or contam-25!
Q.0, Oi
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42 ilj inated to this point?"
He said, "it was easy."
I said, "that's not what I 2
asked you.
I asked you hos did you do this?"
He said, "we lowered the 31 camera into the pool."
I said, "well your RWo didn't have anything on it 4f in relation to lowering the camera into the pool and common sense would 5l tell you you wouldn't put the camera into the pool with a pair of cotton i
6j gl ves on, then string the cables back out through your cotton gloves."
p Well I was going off shift, so I turned it over to Mike Genoski and he i
g wrote up the paperwork and so forth, an HP violation paperwork on that individual and the other individuals.
g 10j lll A few days later, some of that same group were contaminated again from the i
same area.
To my recollection it happened three times.
So I got a little I
concerned about it because apparently there wasn't any action taken from 13!
our supervisors to correct this problem, so I went to Fred Hoovy and I started to complain to him.
He was at that time the Unit 2 foreman and he agreed with me that we weren't getting the kind of satisfaction that we should be getting and I, at that point, said well I think we should take I
some sort of action against these people, not to fire them or not to do 18i anything drastic like that but just to educate them that we do have power 19' Pcre to stop these stupid acts because these people were not people that 20:
l 5ouldn't know what they were doing.
They were people that would know what 21i hey were doing, but that didn' t apparently care.
I said if we can't do
to fly. "
G fOl
, v
l 43 1{
At that point, Dick Dubiel walked into the office and I approached Dick 2
about it and I told him what I felt should be done in relation to this 3
matter and he as much as told me that the politics that revolve between the 4
HP operations and upper level management would not permit us to stop that 5
j b for two days to slap these people's fingers so to speak.
After Dick t
g left, I talked to Fred again and he at that point told me about the only satisfaction that I'm gonna get is if I approach the NRC.
Then we got in 7
8i outage and so forth and I just never did, but I was definitely thinking about making a report about this because we as Techs were definitely becoming g
more and more concerned about the lackadaisical attitudes of not so much of the working man as much as the management element in relation to HP protec-11;.
i tion.
12l 13 14l YUHAS:
Specifically, give es some names of who was involved in that?
)
15 PYKE:
Davy Janes was the foreman.
I can't think of what the engineer's name is.
It just slips my mind at this time.
17i i
18(
YUHAS:
Ok, Janes being Jains or Jamnes?
19t 20!
i PYKE:
I'm not sure how he spells his name.
21!
22 MARSH:
I have a roster, I'll take a look.
l 241 25!
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}lj YUHAS:
As a result of these, this apparent lack of support from the super-2 visor of Radiation Protection Chemistry, is it infrequent for Rad Chem 3{
Techs to write up health physics violations because there's no action done 4f U"
it?
5' PYKE:
6 Well we never wrote up every little violation that was performed.
7{
We didn't think that was we always thought that a verbal reprimand or a verbal correction was enough.
The only time we got excited was wh2n it 8
looked like they were defying us, then we would definitely w. ite them up.
g I
We did look for direction from our supervisors to enforce this anc we did
,0l 11;!
not have it.
We didn't get it.
12!
I MARSH: I look at a station roster and I do see listed a D. C. Janes, listed 13!
as a Shift Foreman Nuclear.
Does that appear to be the individual you were making reference to.
16:
PYKE:
Yes.
17l 18i YUHAS:
Based on your experience and your rapport with other personnel 19' within Unit 2 within the plant, does this same somewhat flagrant disregard for procedures exist in other than the Health Physics area?
21!
22!
PYKE:
I don't know if I can answer that, I think the QC Program has fallen 23!
off quite a bit from the beginning.
In the beginning, they had real strin-2 41 l
gent rules as far as QC was concerned because I worked with Mechanic 11 25!
l
f l
f 45 J
Maintenance at that time and I can recollect that I, at that point I thought 2,
it was a little awesome you know that QC was looking over your shoulder i
3j everytime you packed a vial or so forth on the RC side and then over the i
4j years it just seemed like QC was taking somewhat of a lesser role into Sj that.
Now whether that was ii.itially generated to start a plant off to see that you get in line, I don't know.
I don't know what the criteria for 6
that was, but it didn't have the QC support I know for outages after the 7
first one like they did in the, well the first one was the most stringent, g
and then after that..I was a little disenchanted with the Commission.
In g
10l!
1976 was our first refueling cutage.
We went commercial in 74 and we had a full load and we went longer than a year.
In Spring of 76, we had our first shutdown.
At that point I figured that I would see NRC people crawling 12' i
all over the reactor building monitoring the removal of the head, the 13!
extraction of the fuel and the transfer of that fuel.
We didn't see this.
14i It sort of bothered me because '!RC people at that time were making appear-ances at the Island but they were more involved into checking paperwork and 16; things of that nature than they were the actual operation of the reactor 17j
~
i building itself, and whether that was their function I didn't know, but I 18(
really.
19!
20:
BINION:
Excuse me Mr. Pyke, I'm sorry to interrupt but we are jnna have 21; to change the tape, the time is 11:17 pm.
22 23 BINION:
This is Tracy Binion and we're continuing with the interview of 24 Mr. Pyke, and the time is 11:18 p.m.
25; 6gi UvJ l
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46 i
lj PYKE:
We had a serious problem in 1976 which looked serious.
We had a 2
specimen tube problem in 76.
They tried to pull the chains specimen and it I
3 wound up we pulled the whole shroud out and the outage, our first outage 4j went thirteen weeks so we all got a real belly full of overtime and outage.
5 After that there was another incident that or another problem that developed that, in my own mind, I watched carefully.
We had a leak in DHV-1 and the 6
7 company sold NRC the idea that they wanted to f'arminite the valve, they brought an expert in that manufactured the valve and he told us that if the g
valve would possibly blow that the valve stem might make it all the way to g
I the top of the reactor dome.
It bothered me because this valve was coming 10!
off, right off the core.
There was no isolation valves for this.
DHV-1 is 11!
I the first valve coming off the leg, and all I could think right there x
12 is the potential of our first l0CA of a serious type.
I can't tell you, I 13i i
can only go on what rumor was that the company got permission from the 14:
Commission to operate one year with this ferminited valve, which did hold and did stop the leak.
One year came and one year prssed and apparently 16i they got permission to run without replacing this valve.
To this date, that valve is not replaced and its still ferminited, but still holding.
18 191 YUHAS:
Could you descr be verbally the DVH-l?
Is this a decay heat valve?
4 20i 21 PYKE:
Yes, its a decay heat valve 1 and its electrically operated valve.
22!
I 23l t
YUHAS:
Th's is on Unit l?
24!
2 Y
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47 li PYKE:
This is on Unit 1.
I 2
1 3j YUHAS:
Do you know what loop?
4l I
PYKE:
I can't tell you what loop it is.
5 6i 7l YUHAS:
And to the best of your knowledge the valve is still ferminited and has not been replaced since 1976?
g 9i I
PYKE:
Right, because there was such a lead time on that valve that they 10l were going, the rumor had that they would have to... if they were going to 12{
replace that valve in the near future from that point they were going to have to go to another Nucitar Fiant under construction and borrow that valve and then put a lead time on it to put it, ba. in the plant under construction.
That bothered me, you know from a layman's standpoint you 15-know, that they would gamble at that point.
In my estimation that's ganbling you know on a ferminited valve which is nothing more than basic like a Bar's LEAK or something.
Its a material that they used, I was told, its a 18l material that was developed from a substance they used when they did a lot of riveting on ships years ago and sort of a byproduct of that.
They use 20; 21l it to inject in the valves under pressure and so forth and I just felt a little concerned about it.
Whether or not the NRC felt concerned about it, 22 I don't know.
23 24l 25j
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48 1
YUHAS:
When was the last time you saw an NRC inspector dressed down in the
\\
2!
controlled area makir.g an inspection?
l 3!
PYKE:
Just a couple of weeks ago in Unit 2.
4 Si I
6l YUHAS:
That would be prior to the incident?
7!
[
PYKE:
No, that would have been after the incident.
i 9!
Yl'HAS:
Let me rephase that.
On a routine inspection when was the last g
time you saw an inspector dressed out either tr7_ining the reactor building during your last Unit 1 outage or inspecting controlled areas?
l 131 PYKE:
I've never seen, I've never seen an NRC man in the reactor building.
1M I've never seen and NRC man dress,d down in PCs in the aux building.
I
'.5 ;?
have seen them in the aux building in the various levels outside of cubicals.
16; i
I'm sure they have but to my experience, no, I have not.
17l 18!
YUHAS:
Is there any pre sure from the company for workers not to bring concerns forward to the NRC representatives when their onsite?
20!
l 21:
i PYKE:
No, the company has never made thaf 22!
23l l
MARSH:
If you had wanted to contact us, how would you have gone about 24i doing it?
25!
(8A n-Utu 4
i I
l 49 i
flj PYKE:
10 CFR 19 says that we have that right, I would have went to that 2
Reg and followed that.
31 MARSH:
You would have known then how to get a phone number or address?
4 i
51 PYKE:
6 Either that or I would have called King of Prussia myself and directly called them and talked to them.
It has been done in the past, people in 7
ur department have contacted the NRC before, you know if I would have 8l I
needed any track record of that, I would have went to those people to find g
out.
g 11l YUHAS:
Getting back to health physics how much traini 2nd what sort of 12l 13l training have you been providad in the health physics area in the last two i
I years?
14!
15; PYKE:
That's a real sore subject because the company has provided us with 16!
a six week rotating shift whereby we rotate three shifts across daylight, 171 second trick, and third trick.
After which, then at that time we go on to 18k what they call the relief week where we relieve anybody that is off on 19!
vacation, sick leave or whatever.
If no one is off, we essentially work a 20:
daylight shift from Nonday through Friday.
We are off Saturday and Sunday.
21t The following week of, that is another daylight week, Monday through Friday, 5
22!
j which is titled training week.
We have received very little training.
The 23j only real trainir.g that amountec to anything was the training I received 24 frcm Ralph Jacobs and B&W and questions that I asked and learned from 25r l
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50 i
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inhouse procedures and just cornering a foreman and educating myself so to i
2 speak.
l 3l YUHAS:
Did you receive twenty-four hours of health physics training prior 4j Sj to the startup of Unit 2 in December of 197??
6l I
PYKE:
No, to my knowledge.
7 8!
YUHAS:
Have you received any formal classroom training on operations of g
TLD reader?
10' 11!
I i
PYKE:
No, I haven't.
12l t
13}
YUHAS:
Do you operate the TLD reader?
14!
15!
PYKE:
Yes, I do.
I 17!
YUHAS:
How did you figure out how to operate the TLD reader?
18!
19f PYKE:
I went along with the Senior Tech several times, I never operated 20l 21;l that TLD reader until I felt confident to do so and there were times when I was asked to go operate it.
I was told, I told the foreman that I wasn't, j
that I didn't feel I was qualified to run it without his supervision and he 23i did core along with me and we went over it and he stayed with me until he 24; l
was confident that I knew how to dc it.
25!
I n'
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1 j
51 l
1!
YUHAS:
Have you ever been tested in the operation?
l 2!
i PYKE:
No.
3 4!
5!
YUHAS:
Have you ever been asked to read blind TLDs?
In other words, TLDs 6
that have been exposed to scme known value, and then you're asked to read 7
them and they compare your results to the known exposure to see if you are perating the machine properly?
8 9l PYKE:
Yes, I have.
j ll; l
YUHAS:
Okay, how often is that done?
12',
i 131 PYKE:
That's done..
Prior to the accident it was done every month.
15:
YUHAS:
Okay, who spiked the badges?
17!
PYKE:
We expose some and Harshawk exposed some, we swapped them.
181 191 YUHAS:
Do you know what levels you exposed yours to?
20!
21 l
PYKE:
100 mR.
22' 23\\
YUHAS:
You know what the level Harshawk exposed theirs to?
24!
25i n
i
/03
'u u n
00 i
f 1
52 r
I lf PYKE:
Supposedly 100 mR.
I'm pretty sure it was 100 mR.
I 2'
31 YUHAS:
Could you give us a few words as to the availability of appropriate i
4 health physics instrumentation?
I'm thinking primarily of portable dose 5l rate instruments.
Are there enough instruments available during this i
6j present crisis? Were there during the first couple of days?
l 7
PYKE:
g Yes, during the first couple of days there were.
I was not here the first day.
I'm sure there wasn't at that point.
When I arrived or-ite I g
10f was amazed to see the number of instruments that were here.
They scrambled those instruments from, a lot of them came from Peach Bottom.
Peach Bottom I
apparently had a problem a year ago or something and they really bolstered their instrument departaent, or their instrumentation for that particular 14[1 department and consequently it paid off be_ause they had the available instruments M lend us.
But that is always a problem.
Right now we have Rad Services onsite that are taking care of what they can as far as repair and its nct like I would like to see it but we're functioning.
171 18!
YUHAS:
Prior to the incident were there enough dose rate instruments available to conduct routine operations?
20!
21l PYKE:
Routine operations, yes.
Only because we were borrowing from Unit 2 22!
l and Unit 1.
We were swapping them back and forth.
Originally it wasn't 231 set up that way, it was supposed to be that Unit 2 instruments were going 24j l
to be Unit 2's anc Unit l's would be isolated to Unit 1.
Well, we found 25}
684 0:0
I
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53 1!
ut we couldn't live with that, because the lag time to have them repaired.
2 These instruments for some reason or other they are very finicky.
Teletec-3l tors, in my estimation, I like a teletector but then again I feel that I know how to take care of a teletector and I respect it.
I know that if I 5l take care of it its gonna take care of me and I don't feel that I would break a teletector.
I think I could keep a teletector from one calibration 6
7 to the next without breaking it unless you know for some reason it did, but I feel that giving these instruments out on RWPs to everybody, they are g
just not holding up because these people are not respecting them.
They g
throw them around, they drop them, or whatever they do, they are falling f
10 apart for us and I can't really pinpoint any particular model, it just seems that the instrumerts, the life of a good instrument isn't much more 12l than a couple of months.
131 141 r
YUHAS:
Have you been trained on your Technical Specifications for high 15; radiation area control entry?
17!
PYKE:
Control entry, yes.
19l YUHAS:
Are all individuals rec" ired to have the continuously indicating 20i dose rate instrument when they enu
21; 22l l
PYKE:
Yes.
23l i
24j 25l 1
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54 i
l 1!
YUHAS:
How are you informed of changes in procedures or license condi-2 tions?
i i
3l i
PYKE:
Well changes and procedures are made and they are filed in the 4
5l cabinet and if you go to that procedure you might find a TCM attached to it l
6i whereby it may get completely rewritten at a later date.
That's a turnover item or an item that has sort of been a little lax also.
7 8
YUHAS:
How are you informed of changes in regulations like 10 CFR Part 19 g
r 0 W 20?
10 11!
PYKE:
Word of mouth, i
131 l
YUHAS:
There's been no formal classroom or bulletin issued informing you 14; of the change of the regulations?
16:
PYKE:
No.
17j i
18l YUHAS:
Do you calibrate teletectors?
19i 20t PYKE:
Yes.
21!
22l l
VUHA5:
Can you describe the type of detector used and its limitations in 23l l
the teletector?
24l 25i f
n 7 m b t! b i
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f 55 i
1l PYKE:
It'll go to 1,000 R, that's it high range capacity and go down to 2l
.l.
l 31 4
YUHAS:
What type of detector does you use?
1 5l 1
6l PYKE:
It has a little peanut detector in it and... on the high range, and 7j the low range has a little GM tube.
l 8l YUHAS:
g Cculd you describe the high range tube in a little more detail, I'm 10j n t quite sure I know what a peanut detector is.
?
11!
PYKE:
That's what we call it, a peanut detector.
It's a little black detector that is essentirv about the size of a half, well it's about the p
size of a pea that's right on the very end of it.
It has a little pot on it and for high range, we have to tweak that in to calibrate it.
16 YUHAS:
What type of detector is that?
j 17i 18!
PYKE:
Its a GM.
191 20:
YUHAS:
Okay.
Do you know what Xenon-l'3 decays by?
21!
22l i
PYKE:
I'm m sure.
I could decay it.
23!
l 24j 25!
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56 1l YUHAS:
What the specific question I'm asking you, do you know if it decays 2
by alpha, beta, or gamma?
31 PYKE:
It decays by beta and gamma.
4; 5l l
YUHAS:
Okay.
Do you know the energy of the gamma?
6i 7l PYKE:
No.
g SI 0l YUHAS:
The energy of the gamma is 31 KEV.
Now, the teletector is the most I
gl commonly used instrument during this incident, is that right?
t 12!
I PYKE:
Yes.
13l l
14!
YUHAS:
Okay, the majority of the dose rate in the auxiliary building was due to Xenon-133, in the first several weeks of this incident.
Do you know 16;:
how the teletector responds, whether it under responds or over responds to Xenon-133?
18!
19l PYKE:
I can't tell you that.
20!
21(
YUHAS:
Have you ever been trained in the limitations associated with 22' different types of detectors?
23 24 25:
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57 1!
PYKE:
Basically, Ralph Jacobs went over it with us, but that was awhile l
back.
2 '.
l 3l i
4j YUHAS:
Several years ago?
l 5!
PYKE:
Yes.
6 1
7l YUHAS:
8f Can you describe what breathing zone air sample mer - to you?
9l 1gl PYKE:
Breathing zone air sample..., that would be air taken from a zone where a person is mostly likely to be breathing that zone..., of air.
-t M'
13{;
When an individual comes to your organization for an kWP that YUHAS:
involves let's say opening up a waste concentrate pump..., down in the cubical, a man goes down there, you dress him appropriately, he opens up this pump and begins to work on it.
Do you collect a breathing zone air sample for him to perform the test?
17J 18!
PYKE:
Yes we would, as soon as he opens up, we would be there taking an air sample.
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YUHAS:
A,bo ut.., do you run a radiation survey for virtually every mainten-22l l
ance job?
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PYKE:
Virtually every maintenance job?
That's too broad.
No, we den't.
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Okay.
Could you describe, let's say we have a guy that's gonna go 31 4j down and in the cubical and remove a valve, would you run a specific survey 5
f r that cubical for that job removal or would go off the routine survey?
61 PYKE:
7 We would go off a routine survey.
We would give that man instruc-i 8i ti ns that he is to take a dose rate instrument with him and he would take his own contact reading and if there is any problem in relation in that reading versus the RWP, he would at that point give us a page and we would 10 make any corrections to the RWP or corrections to his protective equipment 111 that may have to be done.
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YUHAS:
Do you have any other comments that you want to bring forward at 1+,,
this time?
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PYKE:
I don't think so.
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VUHAS:
I have one additional question.
That question is, is there any 19:
reason that your feel an individual may have either precipitated or aggra-vated the incidents that occurred on March 28 at TMI Unit 2?
21:
22 PYKE:
No, I can't conceive that, but I guess it could be possible.
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The question was do you for any reason to believe that any individual did this?
2 31 PYKE:
No, no.
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6l YUHAS:
I would like to conclude ttis interview and thank you very much for 7
coming out here in the middle of the night and working a long shift and g
ng u some Mme and some can M comments.
6 9!
PYKE:
Okay, thank you.
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MARSH:
Same thing, we appreciate your time recognizing that you've worked 13{
a full shift and still find time to come in.
We appreciate it.
i 14I PYKE:
Okay.
Thank you.
16!
BINION:
Okay, now thank you, Mr. Pyke, the time is 11:36 p.m.
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