ML19242D899
| ML19242D899 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 05/17/1979 |
| From: | Galen Smith NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I) |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7908280791 | |
| Download: ML19242D899 (23) | |
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION I
1!
In the Matter of:
l 2j IE TMI INVESTIGATION INTERVIEW 3l of 44 George H. Smith Chief, FF&MS Branch Si l
Gi 7l 8!
Trailer #203 91 NRC Investigation Site TMI Nuclear Power Plant 10l Middletown, Pennsylvania 11!
i May 17, 1979 1 21 (Date of Interview) 13!
July 9, 1979 14l (Date Transcript Typec) 208 15:
(Tape Numcer(s))
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21 NRC PERSONNEL:
22t i
Al Gibson 23i William H. Foster 24
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FOSTER:
The following interview is being conducted of Mr. George H.
2t Smith.
Mr. Smith is Chief, Fuel Facility and Material Safety Branch, 3l Region I.
Okay, the present time is 12:45 a.m.
Today's date is May 17, 4l 1979.
The place of the interview is Trailer #203 located immediately ci
- I outside the South Gate to the TMI site.
Indiviauals present for the Gj interview are:
Mr. Al Gibson, Chief, Radiation Support Branc.i, Region II.
7 My name is William H. Foster.
I'm a Senior Inspector Auditor with the Office of Inspector and Auditor, NRC and I'll be monitoring the interview.
9f Prior to the interview being recorded, Mr. Smith was provided a document explaining his rights concerning the information to be obtained regarding i
11 the incident at Three Mile Island.
In addition, Mr. Smith is apprised 12l of the purpose of the investigation, the scope and the a thority by i
13l which the Congress authorizes the NRC to conduct the investigation.
On 14 the second of page of the advisement document, Mr. Smith has answered 15; three questions.
The questions and Mr. Smith's answers will now be 16l recorded as part of the interview.
lij 18l F0 STEP Mr. Smith, do you understand the document?
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SMITH:
Yes.
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l 22l FOSTER:
Do we have your permission to tape the interview?
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SMITH:
Yes.
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FOSTER:
Do you want a copy of the tape or transcript?
4l Si SMITH:
Yes.
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FOSTER:
OK.
Mr. Smith at this time will you please provide a brief 8l summary of your academic background, including a history as they relate 9!
to the nuclear field.
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11 SMITH:
I have a degree in graduate work in mathematics from the Uni-12 versity of Montana.
I started in the nuclear industry in 1958 at the 13 National Reactor Testing Station, Idaho Falls, Idaho, where I was 14 employed by Phillips Petroleum Company, as a health physics trainee.
I 15 joined the staff of what is today the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
16 At that time it was the Atomic Energy Commission in May of 1960.
I i
17, have since been with this organization for nineteen years serving first 18!
in the Idaho Ccmpliance Division, later in Region IV, when it was 19!
formed in Denver, Colorado.
In 1973, I was transferred to the Head-20j quarters Staff in Bethesda, Maryland, where crincipally I worked with 1
21i the Deputy Director for Field Operations as a Regional Coordinator and 22!
handled health physics problems till last year of which I formed the 23j 24:
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f 1f Performance Appraisal Branch and at the time of leaving Headquarters f
was Chief of that Branch.
I have been in Region I since October 1, 3 {'
1978.
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I'd like to correct the beginning of j
FOSTER:
Thank you, Mr. Smith.
6j this interview the time at the start of the interview is 12:45 p.m. not a.m.,
and at this point I'll turn the interview over to Mr. Gibson.
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GIBSON:
Thank you, Mr. Foster.
Mr. Smith, to aid the transcription of i
10 this tape in the written form we would appreciate it if each statement 11 that you make you proceed oy giving your name in order to clarify who 12j is making the statement for the girls transcribing.
Also, for the 13, record I would like to clarify that my title is Chief, Radiation Support 14l Section, instead of Branch, in Region II, Atlanta.
15:
16 SMITH:
OK. I make a clarification, this is Smith, also in there I 17 guess I should say I'm a Board Certified Health Physicist.
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GIBSON:
Thank you, George.
Today I would like for you to briefly, in 20j chronological order, explain what your actions were from the time you 21 were initially notified of the event that occurrea at Three Mile Island 22 on March 28 until midnight on March 30 at which time the period of our 1
23l investigation is over?
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lll SMITH:
I arrived at the Region I office at approximately 7:45 a.m. on 2f l
March 28; entered my office at which time Eldon Brunner, who is the 3;
l Chief of the Reactor Operations Branch came inte my of fice and said 4'
that Three Mile Island had been attempting to contact us and we should call them back.
At that time, we called Three Mile Island, opened the Gl line to, I believe, the Unit 2 control room, in my office; received the 7
initial report of what was transpiring; maintained the open line; 8!
immediately contacted cur supervision; informed them of Liat was trans-ol pirirg; and recommened activation as a Region I emergency control 10f center.
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12 GIBSON:
Mr. Smith, do you recall the time that you returned the call 13 to Three Mile Island?
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SMITH:
I was looking at the notes yesterday in my office in Bethesda 16:
and unfortunately it was not marked, but it was approximately 7:50.
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GIBSON:
As I understand it from your account you and Mr. Eldon Brunner 19!
were the first members of the Region I technical staff to be informed 20 of the event.
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22 SMITH:
That is correct.
Well I'm not sure if the duty officer had 23 received a call and saiJ, in,Jrmed them that we would call back.
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GIBSON:
Proceed.
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3 SMITH:
After receiving the call, we established the emergancy control 41 l
center.
We immediately dispatched a team to Three Mile Island consisting 5
of two health physicists, with the senior health physicist in charge, 6
Mr. Neely; and the other health physicist was the assigned health 7
physicist to the site, Mr. Plumlee; and an investigator with health 8
physics background, Dr. Chick Gallina; and an operations person, I 9
can't recall if it was Haverkamp or the tall, slender fellow that's 10 assigned to the site.
I can't recall who it was.
We then started 11!
receiving information over the opcr, line from the site as to what was i
12 happening; what the offsite radiation levels were; what they were 13!
doing.
We also, as I recall, dispatched a second team to the site.
I 14 believe that these were principally investigators.
I could be mistaken i
15:
on that.
Through the day, well at approximately 10:00 o' clock, we 1
started receiving information from those people at the site.
I can 17l recall that Don Neely was on the open line from the Unit 2 control 181 room.
We also opened a line to Unit 1 control room and Dr. Gallina was 19f on the line there.
This as I said was about 10 a.m. that we started 20 getting information.
We, well go back, we have to go back to about 21l 8:00 o' clock again.
The Region I mobile van was at Millstone.
We 2bl contacted the individual in charga, Phil Stohr who is the Environmental l
23 and Emergency Planning Section Chief; instructed him to leave Millstone 2d!
with the van and proceed to Three Mile Island.
We instructed them to 25i f
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11 stop at the Region I office as they went by and pick up supplies and 2f instructions.
It is my recollection that they arrived at Region I l
about 5:30 that evening and were onsite and operational here at Three Mile Island at 9:00 o' clock that evening.
This is all the 28th.
We 5
continued to receive and assess information as it came in from the 6
site.
I can't recall if I went home that night or not.
I recall then the next day we continued to receive information; additional people had 8
been dispatched; four people came in this was on Thursday, two from 9
Region II, two of them were health physicists, Zabadowski and Collins, 10f and two health physicists from Region III, Fisher and well Essig was 11' the fourth.
Tom Essig is nct a health physicist, he's an environmental 12:
specialist.
Generally, there are no milestones that I can think of on 13 the 29th.
On the 30th well, on yes, there were some milestones.
One l
14 of the thirgs I recall on the 29th most vividly was the controversy 15 that arose over dumping water, and the fact that Headquarters ordered 16 that they stop dumping water, and the fact that the 1icenspe couldn't 17l stop dumping water because it was overficwing into the drains and then 38!
into the river.
On the 30th, I recall the fact that through the early 19l morning hours of the 30th, the licensee was burping.
They were having 20!
pressure buildup in one of their gas tanks and this was being burped 2I, about.
I recalled that we asked for details on this and it was reported 2
to us that these discharges were lasting for approximately 15 seconds, 23l 15 to 30 seconds and the exact length of time that the discharges had I
24j taken place were calculated.
I can remember, I can recall no readings 25l (33 k I '"
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j in excess of 70 mR per hour.
I know we had people.
I can recall 2'
instructing Mr. Plumlee to go out around the fence and down especially 3l to the north gate.
We were especially concerned about the north gate.
4 That's where the highest readings were occurring.
I can recall no i
5 readings being reported to us at these offsite locations greater than 6
70 mR per hour.
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8 GIBSON:
Mr. Smith, for the record, you mentioned burping.
Will you 9
explain what you mean by that term?
10' llj SMITH:
The pressure would build up in the system; a relief valve would 12k lift; and gas would be released to a point that the relief valve would 13 reseat itself.
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l 15' GIBSON:
Do you recall this occurring several times on the 20th?
16i 17 SMITH:
Yes, I don't have the notes here but I have notes where it 18j occurred as I recall now over 30 second intervals each burp and I 19!
believe that it occurred for a total of 12 minutes, or was it 6 minutes?
20j 12 times for a total of 6 minutes during the early morning hours of the l
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30th, yes.
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23l GIBSON:
Do you recall if these releases were anticipated by licensee?
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8 If SMITH:
As I understand it, they, the licensee was able to predict when l
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l one of these releases would take place during the latter releases 31 whether the initial releases were predicted or not I don't know.
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GIBSON:
Were these releases from the waste gas decay tanks or from the make-up tank in Unit 2?
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SMITH:
To the best of my recollection from the make-up tank.
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0 GIBSON:
You mentioned 70 mR per hour as being the highest reading you l' jl recall.
Was this an offsite reading?
Do you recall where the reading
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12 was made?
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SMITH:
As best I recall the 70 mR per hour was at the north gate.
15 16i GIBSON:
Was this a measurement made by the NRC or the licensee?
17f 18!
SMITH:
As I recall, it was made by Mr. Plumlee of the NRC.
19j 20I GIBSON:
You mentioned earlier, that on the 29th, Headquarters ordered i
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that they stop dumping water, but they could not.
Could you explain 22, that more specifically to include what water you were speaking of and 23 who in Headquarters placed the order, and to whom the order was given?
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i SMITH:
The wat9r that being dumped was being dumped out of the industrial 2t j
waste storage tanks, and what wa; happening the sumps in the turbine 31 building were full.
The water was overflowing under the turbine building 4l!
floor, out the door, and flowing into the storm drains and into the 5l j
river.
Therefore, in order to release the water under controlled 6l conditions, and we had had many questions from the licensee about what 7
the MPC for noble gases and water were before they started these releases, 8
i anyway, in order for this water not to be released in an uncontrolled oI
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manner, they were making controlled releases from the industrial waste ld storage tank system.
Who made the or issued the order from Headquarters, 11l the order as given was "The I&T orders Three Mile Island to stop dumping 12 liquid."
To the best of my recollection, those are the exact words l$j that came over the open line which was between the Unit 2 control room, 14 Region I and the IRC, the Incident Response Center in Bethesda.
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16 GIBSON:
This was a verbal or Mr?
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18i SMITH:
This was a verbal order, yes?
Smith.
19i 20l GIBSON:
Then am I correct in my understanding that the order was from 2M I&E Headquarters, directly to the site or to Region I where it was l
22l transferred to the site?
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SMITH:
It was from I&T which is not necessarily I&E Headquarters.
The I&T or the Incident Management Team is comprised of heads of all of the
~9, NRC offices, and the person d ~ivering the order was an I&E person.
4l However, as I say I&T is all of the office heads, plus Mr. Gossick.
Si GIBSON:
What is the name of the person delivering the order?
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SMITH:
I believe that it was Morris Howard.
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'Of GIBSON:
Do you know who received the order in the control room?
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l 12l SMITH:
I do not.
I do know that they discontinued dumping water.
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GIBSON:
You mentioned earlier that Headquarters ordered that they 15:
stop, but they were not able to stop because of the sump was overflowing 16i I believe?
17l 18I SMTIH:
That is correct.
However, they discontinued the controlled 19i dumping of water, but there was no way they could stop the uncontrolled 20!
dumping of water.
21 22l GIBSON:
So the effect of the order was that the release continued but i
23, in an uncontrolled manner?
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j SMITH:
In my opinion that is correct, and I so informed Headquarters.
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31 GIB50N:
Mr. Smith, would you continue, as I recall you were discussing 4!
burping of make-up tanks on the 30th Friday?
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6 SMITH:
These periodic releases continued and the licensee as we discussed I
7 was able to predict a release.
At approximately 9:00 or 9:30, I received 8
calls from both Dr. Gallina and Mr. Stohr who were onsite.
I particularly 9f recall both calls.
Mr. Stohr was extremely concerned because he had a 10f Congrecsman standing along side of him and the Congressman wanted to lli know about the evacuation that had been ordered by NRC.
I assured 12 Mr. Stohr that there had been no such evacuation ordered.
I then 131 received, Mr. Gallina came in on the open line from Unit 1 and stated 14) that things were, he was a bit distraught, things were a little ugly in 15 the control room because of the order by NRC to evacuate.
I was at-16:
tempting to assure him that NRC has not issued any such order when I 17 heard in the background behind me the radio stating that Governor Thornburg 18(
at the advice of the NRC, had ordered evacuation of, as I recall, a ten 19j mile area.
We attempted to find out what prompted this evacuation.
We 20{
had no information which would, well upon which I would have ordered 21l such an evacuation.
I still don'+
~uite know what prompted the order.
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GIBSON:
Mr. Smith, I am pcrticularly interested in any activities by b
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NRC people onsite during the period of March 28 through the 30th that 31 affected licensee activities or performence.
In that regard, could you i
4f describe the assigned functions and responsibilities of tha people c:
under your direction offsite during this period of time, and any effect 61 that you believe they may have had on licensee activities?
7 8
SMITH:
During the first, let's say two days, of the incident (thats 9
the 28th, 29th and the early part of the 30th) the people under my 10 direction fell into two general groups.
One group was the onsite ll!
health physicists who were observing what was happening; who were I
12I collecting or taking readings at various places in the immediate plant 13 environs, around the plant; and who were rendering such assistance as 14 was requested.
However, their basic job was one of observing and 15, reporting.
The other group, distinct group that would be there, would 16; be the mobile laboratory.
They were here and performing the function 17 of a laboratory and I have been informed that during the first forty eight i
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hours, they were the only functional analytical facilities at the site.
19I 2
GIBSON:
Do you know if during the first three days, which would be r
21; the, during the period the 28 through the 30th, if results of measure-l 22l ments made by the NRC environmental staf f were provided to the lir.ensee?
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SMITH:
I am sure that the results of all analytical measurements that 2'
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were made in the van were provided to the licensee.
Basically, we were 3f analyzing his samples.
As far as our instrument readings and that that 4l, were being made by people such as Mr. Plumlee, I do not know if he i
provided these results as he made them to the licensee.
I do know that 61 my attitude would be and I'm sure his would be but I'm guessing, that 7l j
if they wanted them they were certainly available to them.
After, well O!
when you speak though of the 28th through the 30th at about 4:00 p.m.
9 on the 30th, our mode ;f operation changed at the site.
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11 GIBSON:
Could you describe more specifically how this mode changed?
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I 13l SMITH:
Basically at about noon en the 30th we were informed, by we, 14 Region I was informed that health physicists from both Regions II and 15:
III (approximately ten from each Region) were being flown into the 16 Three Mile Island area.
The apparent, what was the apparent order of 17!
the evacuation, the situation here had changed dramatically or appeared l
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to have changed dramatically.
We therefore, we, Boyce Grier, the 19l Director of Region I, and myself flew to Three Mile Island in a helicopter.
20f At the same time a number of several members of my staff drove to Three i
21l Mile Island and we set up a working health physics organization at 22 Three Mile 1sland.
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14 li F0STEF.:
We are now going to take a short break and change the tape, j
2l' the time is 1:16 p.m.
31 FOSTER:
We are now going to continue with the interview of Mr. Smith.
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j The time is 1:21 p.m.
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GIBSON:
To summarize, Mr. Smith, you explained that NRC people were, 8
NRC people from the Office of Inspection and Enforcement who were 9
onsite up to approximately 4:00 p.m., on the 30th of March, were primarily 10f involved in gathering information ard providing this information back 11!
to the Region I office.
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SMITH:
That is correct, and also taking readincs as requested.
I 14 would say, best define that as the classical NRC position in an emergency.
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It is the one which has always been described as the manner in which we 16 will operate during an emergency.
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GIBSON:
Again I am especially interested in any activity that might 19!
have affected licensee performance or activities.
So even though this 20!
was their primary assigned role, can you recall any specific examples 21l where people from the Office of Inspection and Enforcement, up to 4:00 22 p.m. on the 30th, took some action which may have affected the licensee l
23l performance?
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l 15 1l SMITH:
Mr. Gibson, I can't.
2 31 GIBSON:
Would you describe specifically the change in your mode that 4l occurred on or about 4:00 p.m. on the 30th?
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Well, at approximately 4:00 p.m., Mr. Grier and myself arrived by helicopter from Region I.
We had been preceded by, as I previously 8
noted, health physicists from other Regions.
At the time after arrival, 9I I can recall one of the first things that happenwd it that we were all l
10' given a briefing by Harold Denton, but we then set up, and I had been 11 drawing up on the way down, an organization chart.
We set up a health 12!
physics organization, consisting of two parts, an environmental analysis i
13 group and an in plant group.
My specific instructions to all of the 14l health physicists assembled was that we were not in the compliance 15-mode.
We were there for one reason, and one reasoa caly.
That was to 16' protect the health and safety of the public and the health and safety i
17i of the workers and that we were to work in that mode until directed i
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otherwise.
We then set up in plant health physics shifts and around 19l the clock environmental monitoring shifts.
We contacted RMC, Radiation 20l Management Corp.
I can't remember if the initial cantact came before i
21l or after our arrival at the site and we established and made arrangements 22f so that the next morning we were able to set up a TLD monitoring system 23 in the area.
Trailers were brought in.
Communications were set up.
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16 l{i It was basically a very hectic night / evening; however, as I say we had f
health physicists at work in plant and we had environmental monitors 3'I out monitoring before midnight of the 30th.
4i 5
GIBSON, Were the NRC environmental monitoring personnel directing any 6
activities of the licensee?
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SMITH:
No.
9l 10 GIBSON:
On the evening of the 30th, from 4:00 p.m. until midnight, 11l were the in plant health physicist NRC personnel directing licensee 12!
activities?
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14 SMITH:
Yes, they were actually acting as health physicists and I'm 15; sure issuing all RWPs or instructing people in proper precautions to be 16!
taken.
I 17l 18i GIBSON:
Would you characterize their work as being more advisory or 19 more in the nature of order and direction?
20i 21)
SMITH:
I am tempted tc say yes.
They were working in both, but as I 22 understanc' it during the first few days, their efforts were more giving 23 order and direction.
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t GIBSON:
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_ Can you recall specific orders or directions that were given 2{
during this period?
3l l24 SMITH:
Actually during the 30th I cannot recall any specific orders or direction.
However, within the several days period of which the 30th 6
would have been the first, I can recall instances, one instance for one of the Region I ard health physicists required that all use of respiratory 8
equipment be stopped because of improper usage.
I can also recall an 9
instance where a Region I healtn physicist monitored a job and directed 10f people as to how long they could work areas because of the very high 11f radiation fields existing.
As far as recalling exactly things that 1
happened on the 30th in plant, it was very hectic and my memory isn't 13 really that gcad.
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I 15r GIBSON:
The two examples you mentioned, one was an order that all 16) respiratory protective equipment in use be, use of this equipment be 17l discontinued, was this, did this occur on the 30th or the 31st to your 18!
recollection.
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SMITH:
Most probable it occurred on the 31st.
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22I GIBSON:
And the ext.mple on monitoring of work in high radiation areas 23 and determining stay times?
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SMITH:
That I can't recall, I know that it occurred as I said sometime 2i I
in the several day period of which the start of it would be the 31st, I 31 sure it occurred after the 31st.
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5l GIBSON:
You arrived onsite approximately 4:00 p.m.
following which you Gj announced that the organizational arrangement that you had determined 7
appropriate.
At what time were health physics people actually sent l
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into the plant to begin work under the new organization arrangement?
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10 SMITH:
I was going t's say that heaith physics people were in the plant 11f at all times on the 30th and NRC '?alth physics people, as best I can 12!
recall and this is recalline through a great, well a lot of haze, we 13!
had our people in plant by :0:00
,;.m.
that night.
We had our organi-14I zation all structure operation that as best as I can recall.
15i 16!
GIBSON:
Would it be reasonable to conclude then that prior to 10:00 17!
p.m. on the 30th, the Office of Inspection and Enforcement people 18; offsite were operating in a data collection and information gathering 19!
mode and the new guidelines which call for directing licensee operations 20!
were not implemented until approximately 10:00 p.m.?
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22 SfITH:
I would say that is probably a proper characterization.
I will 23 edy this I have not discussed that point in great detail with the 24 people that were in the plant.
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GIBSON:
During the period of the 28 through the 30 of March, can you 2t i
describe the interface that you and your staff had with the licensee?
3l That is, did you have a routine interface with some member of the licensee management, was the interface primarily at the working level?
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SMITH:
The interface was, the organization that I set up had two lead 7'
people reporting directly to me.
One of them was the in plant health 8l physicist, Bill Fisher.
I know that he had an interface with TMI 9
health physics management people.
The other individual, Phil Stohr, 10 who had the environmental and the analytical group, I know that he 11' interfaced as far as sample analysis and that went with people from 12 Three Mile Island.
With respect to the offsite analysis I do not know 13 what the interface there was.
I had a rather informal interface with 14j several members of Met Ed Management.
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GIBSON:
You mentioned that the shift leaders or team leaders in your 17 organization were Mr. Bill Fisher and Phil Stohr.
These people recorted i
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directly to you and who did you report to?
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20j SMITH:
I reported directly to Boyce Grier, who is the Director of i
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Region I.
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GIBSON:
And who did he report tM 24!
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SMITH:
Informally, he appeared to report to Mr. Denton; formally, he l
2' reported, I'm sure within our organizatior.al structure, to John Davis, 31 who is the Acting Director, of the Office of Inspection and Enforcement.
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GIBSON:
Do you recall the names of the people initially assigned to I
b Mr. Stobr's team?
l 71 8l SMITH:
Yes, I do.
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10I GIBSON:
Would you give us those names please?
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SMITH:
Certainly.
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14 GIBSON:
And would you spell them?
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SMITH:
Allright, I can give you only last names in the mobile labora-17) tory.
They were:
Costello, Jackson, and Kottan.
All three of the 18!
above are from Region I.
The survey teams, one team consisted of 19!
Grant, Paul, Ashley.
I would like to note here that Mr. Ashley is from 20!
the Office of State Programs at Headquarters.
There are several indi-21l viduals in this organization who are from that office, and who aren't I
22 from the Office of Inspection and Enforcement.
All other people 23 unless noted otherwise are from the Office of Inspection and Enforcement.
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Scrinowski, Montgomery, Woodruf f, Young, O' Neil, Andrews, Perrotti, 25l i
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1.
Dicey, and McGrath.
McGrath is from the Office of State Programs.
2f Those are the names of the persons that were were initially assigned to 3l
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Mr. Stohr under our initial organization.
4j Si GIBSON:
Could you state and spell the names of the people assigned to I
Mr. Fisher please?
7 0
SMITH:
I can.
91 10 SMITH:
Hiat, Tongue, Yuhas, Nimitz, Jackson, Smith, Jenkins, Troup, 11l White, Collins, Zabadowski, Gallina, Kendig, (Mr. Kendig is from the l
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Office of State Programs), Axelson, Neeley, Plumlee, Miller, Serabian.
13 I misspelled Mr. neely's name, it's Neely. In addition, I had a number 3 ^!
of people who were assigned directly to me who performed various functions.
i 15; They are E.;sig, G. Gibscn, Kerr (Mr. Kerr is with the Office of State 16i Programs), McPhaii, Donaldson.
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GIBSON2 Thank you, Mr. Smith.
Now I would like to go back to a point 19!
that you mentioned earlier.
You mentioned that at one point the health 20j physics people under your direction ordered or directed that all respira-21!
tory use of respiratory protective equipment be stopped.
Would you 22I care to describe th&t in a little more detail?
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22 l{i CMITH:
The individual who detected the problem, Mr. Yuhas of my staff, determined that the manner in which they were cleaning the respiratory 31 protective equipment was such and that they were using chemicals to 4\\
clean and such, that use of the equipment would be hazardous to the Si j
individual's health, actually to the point one of the chemicals that was being used was marked that it could be fatal.
The entire procedure 7
that they were using was not what we would consider an acceptable 0
procedure.
Therefore all use of respiratory protective equipment was 1
9 ordered stopped, and was stooped, until they could well get their act 10f in order.
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12 GIBSON:
On several occasions during the period of the 28th through the 13 30th of March, respirators were worn in the Unit 2 and in the Unit 1 14!
control rooms.
There has been some discussion about whether the decision 15i to wear respirators in these areas was appropriate.
Do you recall any 16 involvement of the NRC in the decision on whether to wear respirators 17l in the control room, whether or not respirators should be wora in the 18l cuatrol room.
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$MITH:
I do not recall such a decision, however, I would not unequi-l 21l vocally state that the NRC had no part in such a decision.
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23l GIBSON:
Tnank you, Mr. Smith.
That's all the questions I have today.
24l Mr. Foster, to you have anything to add?
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FOSTER:
I don't.
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l 3l GIBSON:
l Mr. Smith, usually at this time we give the people that we 41 have interviewed an opportunity to state anything that they may care to 5
say for the records regarding this experience, do you have any comments 6i you would like to make at this time?
I 7
8l SMITH:
I have no comments other than for the record that is truly part o
of the record, I would like to comment that the Inspection and Enforcement 10' health physicists are truly an outstanding group of people who did an 11 outstanding job during this event.
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13I GIBSON:
Thank you, Mr. Smith.
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15; FOSTER:
This interview is now concluded, the time is 1:44 p.m.
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191 20!
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