ML19248C954
| ML19248C954 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 05/18/1979 |
| From: | Dieckamp H GENERAL PUBLIC UTILITIES CORP. |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19246B589 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7907180030 | |
| Download: ML19248C954 (11) | |
Text
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r TESTIMONY BEFORE THE PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON THE ACCIDENT AT THREE MILE ISLAND 3Y HERMAN DIECKAMP, PRESIDENT GENERAL PUBLIC UTILITIES CORP.
MAY 18, 1979
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9 INTRODUCTION Chairmcn Kemeny, menbers of the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, my name is Herman Dieckamp.
I am president, chief operating officer ra d a director of General Public Utilities.
I am also a director of Metropolitan Edison and the other GPU subsidiaries.
We are pleased to havs tne opportunity to appear before you today and we pledge our full and open support to the very i=portant task that you have undertaken.
My objective today is to provide some management overview to the various subjects on today's agenda.
We are hopeful that the panels of management and operating personnel will be helpful in allowing us to respond effectively to the full range of your ques-tions.
In addition to my participation in today's proceedings, I have submitted the co=pany testimony given before the Hart subcommittee on Nuclear Regulation of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
It is my hope that tha_ testimony can also provide an overview of the accident from the company's point of view.
I would urge that your Commission adopt a broad point of view with respect to the accident at Three Mile Island and that you look beyond the specifics of equipment and human performance into the underlying bases for nuclear plant design, operation, operator training, and regulation.
Wh il e the accident was a traumatic experience to the local populace and continues to have an impact 1
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on ene GPU conpanies and their customers, we must now turn our attention to a full understanding of the accident and ensure that we derive the maximum learning from this experience.
I would like now to introduce my fellow participants on this morning's panel and to proceed with a brief description o_^
the GPU organization and its involvement in nuclear power and the TMI-2 plant.
Mr. Creitz, president of Metropolitan Edison, and Mr. Herbein, v.p.
of generation for Met-Ed, will expand on the organi:ational structure with emphasis on its relationship to TMI plant operations and safety.
Mr.
L.
Tsaggaris, engineering supervisor, Met-Ed, will describe the emergency plan in ptace at the time of tha TMI accident.
GPU ORGANIZA !ON General Public Utilities Corpocation is an electric utility holding cccpany that provides electricity to some 4 aillion people living in about half the land area of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
It serves ovar 1.5 million customers.
'4 i t h a generating capacity of 8281 Mw, more than 31 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity were distributed in 1978.
The GPU System incirdes three operating companies: Jersey Central Power & Light Company, Metropolitan Edison Company, and Pennsylvania Electric Company.
The System has total assets of
$4.6 billion, making it the nation's 14th largest investor-owned electric utility.
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The CPU companiea depend primarily on coal and nuclear energy for the generation of electricity.
The generatica mix in 1978 was 34 per cent nuclear, 57 per cent coal and 9 per cent oil.
The service territories and the characteristics of the indi-vidual operating companies are su=carized on page 16 of the GPU annual report which is attached.
Under the Holding Company Act the member companies of the GPU System are required to be interconnected and to plan on an overall system basis.
The parent company, GPU, owns the common stock of the :hree operating utilities and provides the new equity capital necessary to build the facilities required to serve the increasing needs of the customers.
The GPU suppli d co= mon stock equity, along with bo-2nd preferred stock issued by each operating company, maintain a balanced capital structure as net investment increases.
Each of the operating companies has responsibility for the full reage of operations necessary to serve the customers.
The operatang company president, supported by a complement of officers, manages an integrated operation that includes generation, trans-mission and distribution, customer service, and administrative functions.
Each operating company maintains separate property, expense, and revenue accounting and is subject to rate regulation by its cognizant state utility commission.
The overall GPU structure includes the GPU Service Cor-poration, which has the lead responsibility for system planning, finance, and rate case matters.
It also provides services to the operating companies in areas where such services are more cos:,
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effective on a centralized basis.
These services include genera-tion engineering and construction management, information services, and generation and traassission dispatch.
In addition the Service Corporation provides a =echanist for system-wide sharing of experi-ence, for providing analytical and technical expertise, and for formulating system-wide policies.
The Service Corporation is r2sponsible to a board of directors comprised of the three operating company presidents and the three sanior officers of GPU.
The overall organisation structure of the GPU System is depicted on Figure 1 GPU NUCLEAR 3ACKGROUND The background of the GPU companies in nuclear power spa =4 a period of 18 years from Saxton thru Three Mile Island-2.
ihis experience in terms of the specific plants is enumerated below:
SAXTON NUCLEAR STATION, SAXTON, PA.
The Saxton Station was a 5 MWe experi= ental nuclear reactor of the Presauri:ed Water type.
It was the fifth U.S.
nuclear reactor to operate on a utility system and conducted a series of experiments that provided trairing and experience to utility personnel across the country.
The station was owned and operated by the Saxton Nuclear Experi= ental Corporation (SNEC), formed by the General Public Utilities subsidiary co=panies April 13, 1962 -- Criticality achieved May 1972 -- Retired frou service
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0YSTER CREER NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION, LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J.
Oyster Creek is a 6 5 0 M'Je Boiling Water Reactor.
It has been called the first truly commercial nuclear plant to be operated on a utility system.
Owaer and operater is Jersey Central Power and Light Company.
December 14, 1964 -- Construction permit granted April 1969 -- Provisional operating license granted May 3,
1969 Criticality achieved December 23, 1969 Commercial operation 34,485,220 Net Mvhr generated December 1969 - April 1979 Cumulative capacity factor 69.5 THREE MILE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION UNIT 1,
MIDDLETOWN, PA.
TMI, Unit 1 is an 819 MWe Pressurized Water Reactor.
This plant is owned jointly by the GPU operating companies (50 per cent by Metropolitan Edison Company, 25 per cent by Jersey Central Power and Light Co.,
and 25 per cent by Pennsylvania Electric Co.).
The plant is operated by Metropolitan Edison Co.
August 1,
1967 -- Began construction May, 1968 Provisional construction permit granted April 19, 1974 -- Operating license granted June 5, 1974 Criticality a:hiaved September 1974 -- Commercial operation 24,353,005 megawatt hours generated to date Cumulative capacity factor 76.7
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THREE MILE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENE.1ATING STATION UNIT 2,
hTDDLETOWN, PA.
TMI, Unit 2 is a 906 MWe Pressurized Water Reactor.
This plant is jointly owned by the GPU operating companies (50 per cent by Metropolitan Edison Company, 25 per cent by Jersey Central Power and Light Co.,
and 25 per cent by Pennsylvania Electric Co.).
The plant is operated by Metropolitan Edison Co.
November 4,
1969 -- Construction permit granted February 8, 1978 -- Operating license granted March 28, 1978 -- Criticality achieved December 30, 1978 Commercial operation 1,336,840 megawat: hours generated to date Cumulative capacity factor 69.0 FORKED RIVER NUCLEAR GENERATION STATION Forked River is to be an 1120 MWe Pressurized Water Reactor.
The owner and operator is Jersey Central Pouer and Light Co.
July, 1973 -- Construction permit granted Undte construction (delayed)
Operation -- Late 1980's PERSJNNEL RESOURCES GPU's peraonnel resources associated with its nuclear activities are made up of the permanently assigned staff at the ope ating
- plants, i.e.: 277 at Oyster Creek and 534 at Three Mile Island, plus a major portion of the generation division staffs of Jersey Central (72), Met-Ed (34), and GPU Service Corporation (251).
A reasonable estimate of the fraction of these generation division ?O UUU UVU
s sff personnel assigned to nuclear work would be about two thirds.
Th4s the GPU personnel resources directly applied to nuclear work is about 1100 people.
s NUCLEAR PLANT CONSTRUCTION The GPU Service Corporation is involved in nuclesr plant con-struction in twc principal 2ays:
1)
Ingineering, procurement, and construction =anagement of new nuclear generating plants 2)
Services in support of operating nuclear plants Historically, the =anagement of the engineering, procurement, and construction of nev nuclear generating plants was undertaken on a centralized basis beginning in about 1967 with the formation of what was then called the Nuclear Activities Group in order to be able to provide long term continuity to the effort, to be better able to provide the requisite range of skills, and to avoid the need to reproduce such skills in each of the operating companies.
This responsibility is carried forward today by the Generation Division of the GPU Service Corpora" ion under R.
C.
Arnold, vice president.
The Ooerating c o mp any, in the case of TMI-l and 2,
Metropolitan Edilon, is the licensee and remains in the direct line of responsi-bility to the NRC for all licensing matters.
The management of all technical work during the engineering, procurement, and construction
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phase is in.effect delegated to the Service Corporation.
The Service Corporation v.p generation assisted by a staff of program s
nanagers and engineering support personnel manages the major
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contractors responsible for the overall project.
In the case of TMI-2, the major contractor, were:
a)
Engineering Burns & Roe b)
Nuclear Steam Supply Systes Babcock & Wilcox c)
Construction - United Engineers and Constructors The GPU Service Corpora '. o n acting for the plant owners and the operator performs the functions of: integrating the overall technical effort; providing technical direction in areas of owner preference; monitoring of progress; review and acceptance of the work product of the contractors; resolution of problems; establish-
=ent of budgets and schedules, and thereby generally managing the total effort.
The plant operator (in the case of TMI-2, Met-Ed) participates in design reviews, but places its major effort on preparation for plant operations with prime emphacis on staffing, operator training anc procedure preparation.
During the plant start-up phase, the Service Corporation Start-up and Test personnel plan and supervise a start-up te. program which has been designed to test che operability of all plant systems in both normal and off nor=al conditions.
The manual skills required are supplied largely by the plant operator.
During the Start-up and Test Program individual plant systems are tested, reviewed for quality control document 2-tion, and upon completion of test turned over to the plant staff for operation.
Upon receipt of an operating permit (February 3,
1973 for TMI-2) the Start-up Program proceeds with fuel loadiug, followed by a
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secuence of planned steps toward full power operation, including a number of tests designed to check system response to aff norma!.
or transient conditions.
Toward the end of the Start-up and Test Program the v.p.
generation of the Service Corporation convenes a Commercial Re-view Board comprised of senior personnel from the GPU operating company management, the Service Corporation =anage=ent, and the management of other GPU owning co=panies to review the results and the completeness of the test program prior to the plant being placed in co=mercial service.
In the case of TMI-2, this review was completed on December 29, 1973 and the plant entered commercial service on December 30, 1978.
NUCLEAR PLANT MANAGEMEFf R'. VIEW In order to maintain top management awareness of nuclear operations within GPU, a Nuclear Plant Management Review policy was established in May 1975.
It has been the objective of this policy to visit each plant annually with the following objectives:
a)
Increase mvareness of operational and safety problems b)
Increase cross company communications of nuclear matters c)
Provide awareness of key nuclear personnel and related problems The participants it the Management Review include the presi-dents and generation vice presidents of GPU and each of the plant's owning companies.
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The agenda for each review was set forth to include a) organi-
=ation and manpower, b) operational history and status, c) reported incidents, d) NRC inspectidas, e) plant tour, f) personnel exposure history, had g) plant staff comments on problems and recom=endations.
- 7. n 'rder to maintain continuing awareness each plant staff has routinely distributed to the Management Review participants copies of key l'.tters on NRC inspections, and other significant events.
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