ML19274G081
| ML19274G081 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 04/22/1979 |
| From: | Miller A METROPOLITAN EDISON CO. |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7908290503 | |
| Download: ML19274G081 (19) | |
Text
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA t
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION L
In the Matter of:
i 2:
IE TMI INVESTIGATION INTERVIEW 31 of 41 Adam W. Miller Shift Foreman Si Metropolitan Edison Company i
Ei 7l al Trailer #203 9!
NRC Investigation Site TMI Nuclear Power Plant 10; Middletcwn, Pennsylvania 11!
Acril 22, 1979 12{
(Date of Interview) l 13l July 2, 1979 (Date Transcript Typea) 53 15i
-(TapeNumoer(s))
16i 17 13l 19i c0i e
21; NRC PERSONNEL:
'22l Owen C. Shackleton Dorwin R. Hunter l
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25I 2001 315 f
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1l SHACKLETON:
The time is 3:52 p.m.,
the date is Apri1 22, 1979.
This 2
is an interview of Mr. Adam W. Miller.
Mr. Miller is a shift foreman 3
f r Metropolitan Edison Company in Operations at Three Mile Island 4l Nuclear Power Plant.
Prior to going on tape Mr. Miller read a document Sj provided by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission which outlined the 6
purpose and the scope and the authority of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
He was asked three questions at the end of this document 7
in which he responded yes to all three.
At this time I am going to g
repeat them and I would appreciate it M.-
Miller if you would respond g
I so we have it as a matter of record.
Presant for this interview is Mr. Dorwin R. Hunter.
Mr. Hunter, what is your job now, si r?
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HUNTER:
I am a inspector specialist with the IE Group, of the U. S.
14li Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
15-SHACKLETON: And the moderator speaking is Owen C. Shackleton, Investi-gator for Region Five, U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Mr.
Miller, did you fully understand the text of tne NRC Occument that I 2
18l provided to you?
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MILLER:
Yes; I did.
21l 22}
l SHACKLETON:
Do we have your permission to tape this interview?
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MILLER:
Yes.
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SHACKLETON:
And would you like a copy of the tape?
4; MILLER:
Yes.
3 61 SHACKLETON:
I thank you very much.
Mr. Miller, for the record would 7
8l y u please provide us with your date of birth?
9l MILLER:
12/20/50.
101 4
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SHACKLETON:
And your social security number.
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MILLER:
191-42-0954.
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SHACKLETON:
Your place of residence.
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i MILLER:
Annville, Pennsylvania, 136 South King St.
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19i SHACKLETON:
And your home telephone number please.
20:
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MILLER:
Area Code 717-867-5100.
22; 23l 24ll SHACKLET0tj:
Thank you very much.
I'll turn the questioning over to i
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Mr. Hunter.
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HUNTER:
Ok, Adam, would you give us some background and your history 2
on how you got into this business and how long you have been working I
3f f r Met Ed, and progressed up to being a shift foreman today.
4!
5l MILLER:
I'll start back in 1968.
I entered college at Linden Valley 6
College.
I araduated in 1972 with a B.S. in chemistry and in the I 7l had several non-related jobs for the next few months, and in April, 8j 1973 I started working for Met in their their training program for auxiliary operators.
I was an auxiliary operator for approximately a o
year, year and a half, about a year and a half an unit 1. Then I bid 1g into a CR0 job and I got the CR0 job in Unit 2.
That was about the
,2l; middle of 1975, somewhere in that time period, and then last year in August of 1978, I was promoted to shift foreman in Unit 2.
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HUNTER:
OK, We want to talk about your involvement in the even'i of March 28, 1979. I'd like to get from you what time you arrived on site that day.
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MILLER:
Ok, I was ready to leave for work about quarter to six, 19!
twenty of six, around there and I got a phone call saying I should get 20 in as soon as possible, they were having problems there.
Ok I was 21;,
ready to leave so, basically I got there as soon as I could.
I got 22l j
there approximately twenty after six, twenty five after six, around 23l there.
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4 HUNTER:
OK, and when you came on site where did you report?
1.
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1 3l MILLER:
I went directly to the Unit 2 control room.
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HUNTER:
And what assignment did you receive at that time?
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6l MILLER:
Well, at that time the duty crew was still on, so they were 7
'aretty involved in what was going on and I didn't for awhile I didn't really get any direct, directly what happened.
So I was just doing g
whatever I was requested to do for the next couple hours.
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11j HUNTER:
Can you recall what you were assigned to do during that 12!
time?
131 14!
MILLER:
Most of the time for the first, probably for the first tnree, four or five hours I was monitoring the radiation monitors in the control room.
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1Sj HUNTER:
What were the conditions of the Radiation Monitors at the 19l time you started?
That you came on?
20j 21!
MILLER:
When I came on several of the building exhaust monitors were 22 in the alert and alarm status.
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HUNTER:
Did you keep a log of those of your monitoring of the radiation 2{
alarms?
I 3!
MILLER:
Well, around seven o' clock, I believe it was around that 4
cl time, site emergency was declared, and all the people that were gathered m
i SI when it was declared, they were keeping'that information, you know i
7j figuring out what release rates were going where. Ok, and they needed 1
the readings from the monitors that I was looking at.
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I HUNTER:
Ok, did you pick the monitors up somewhere you got there 101 I
around six twenty five, how soon did you pick that assignment up?
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MILLER:
I couldn't tell you exactly.
131 14:
HUNTER:
Was it fairly soon?
16 MILLER:
It was precably within a half-hour after I got there.
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18i HUNTER:
Did you have the assignment before the site emergency and 19' local emergency was declared?
20 21l MILLER:
Yes, the way I recall it.
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23I HUNTER:
How many alarms were on there, any alert or any alarm conditions 24 when you picked it up?
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MILLER:
lj I couldn't, there was a lot of alarms as far as specifically 2f which ones, I couldn't tell you any more of those almost a month ago.
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4l HUNTER:
Do you know what had occurred, is thera an event that occured ci at the time you picked up that position or t at assignment that you m
i 6l could key to so we'll know when you walked o < er to the panel?
7 MILLER:
Nothing specific, just I did notice a lot of the alarms, were gj in their alarm condition so I went back to the panel star ing getting a,
specific readings.
0.K.
11f HUNTER:
Were you calling those out to somebody or actually writing them down?
13i li MILLER:
I remember well, I might have written them down for a short 15!
time and giving the information to the Emergency Coordinator in the Unit 2 Control Room.
17, 18!
HUNTER:
And who would that be?
20 MILLER:
That position shifted a few times.
It was, I don't remember 21 f
exactly, there were about three different people who were that, I know 22l Gary Miller, he's the Station Superintendent.
For awhile he was the 23j Emergency Director, and I think Ji.n Seelinger, he's the Unit 1 Super-24;I l
intendent, he was the Director for awhile.
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HUNTER:
You were supplying the information to these fellows.
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MILLER:
I wasn't supplying directly to them I was supplying to somebody 4{
who was getting it to them.
I noticed people that was being shuffled 5
around a lot.
6i HUNTER:
And you say you stayed on there how long on the panel actually 7
g monitoring those?
9i MILLER:
10 I was probably on the panel for several hours, four, five
-I hours at least.
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HUNTER:
Between like seven o' clock or so I know when the alarm, 131 whenever you went on there, did you or were you aware of what was happening in the plant?
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MILLER:
Well, not specifically, it was in real unusual condition and the people who were on at the time didn't really have a chance to turn 18; it over to ar,ybody so they were on it pretty much and I myself didn' t 191.
really get involved with what was going on.
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HUNTER:
Ok, the radiation monitor panel was located where, on the 22l backboard.
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8 MILLER:
Yeah 1,
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4i MILLER:
Well it's on the back behind the main control console and 5
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that would be panel No. 4.
It's directly behind Panel No. 4 a little i
I bit off to the left.
7, 8!
HUNTER:
Who was the closest person to you in that area, cid you talk l
to anybody while you were back there?
101 11:
MILLER:
Yeah, Fred Schiemann, was within 10 feet of where I was 12!
standing, but he was in front of panel four.
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141 HUNTER:
Who was with him or do you recall?
15j 16i MILLER:
There was some Control Room operators with nim, and the shift 17 supervisor was with him, most of the time, or in the immediate area.
IS; 19' HUNTER:
Did you and Fred talk about the incident at all?
20j 21; MILLER:
I just asked him what different system parameters were at 22 certain times?
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HUNTER:
Did you learn anything from that or did you try to find out 2
what was going on?
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MILLER:
I was trying to find out what was going on, it was hard for 4
5 me to know exactly what was going on.
I didn't really know exactly l
6i what was going on.
I had a pretty good general idea but not exactly 7
the condition of all the systems, a!
HUNTER:
During that time frame you really didn't get involved in the g
event itself except for monitoring and providing information on the 6
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radiation monitors.
Did you have any other assignment at that time?
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l MILLER:
No, I didn't get involved with any operations as far as plant 13l conditions went.
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15; HUNTER:
Any other assignments during that time?
16i 17!
MILLER:
Up until when? Right up until say when, noon?
ISi 191 HUNTER:
During the time you were involved in the radiation monitoring 20:
panels did you stay with those all the time.
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22 MILLER:
I probably had other real minor jobs you know, giving messages 23 to different people or different things like that.
That was the main 5
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I mean function.
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HUNTER:
Was there anyone with you? Or was
't just you only?
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3 MILLER:
There were some people who were working with the ECS Coordinator 4f who also came back to the Radiation Monitor and looked at readings, g'
and looking at trends on Radiation recorders.
6i HUNTER:
7 After you had completed that assignment what was your next l
8l assignment?
9l 1gl MILLER:
Well, let me see, it's hard for me to exactly reconstruct that day, because I was there from about twenty five after six in the I
morning until about twelve o' clock midnight that night.
And its been 12!
i almost a month now, as far as my next specific assignment.
,3 14' HUNTER:
If you can't remember, 16!
i MILLER:
I can't 17l lSi HUNTER:
Just a assignment you had that day.
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MILLER:
0.K., well, later on that day in the early part of the afternoon 21; 22l I got enough of a turnover, that I took the duty shift foreman duty, but by this time things weren't really any more at all like they 23 normally are.
And as far as peforming any of my normal duties, there 24i l
weren't any.
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HUNTER:
Who did you relieve?
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i 3l MILLER:
I relieved Fred Schiman.
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Sj HUNTER:
Then what did you start, what was your function, knowing that i
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it's not normal, what was your function then? What did you do?
7 MILLER:
Basically, I was served as mostly intermediate of messages, O!
somebody would tell me they wanted to get certain information to
,l somebody else or I'd receive phone calls.
As far as actual plant 10!
lli operation I really wasn't involved too much.
The shift supervisor was i
more directly involved with plant operation by this time.
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HUNTER:
Who is your shift superviscr?
15!
MILLER:
My normal shift supervisor is Greg Hitz.
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17l HUNTER:
Who was the shift supervisor at that time?
181 191 MILLER:
Bill Zewe was still shift supervisor.
He was there and Greg 20j i
Hitz were there at the same time.
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22' HUNTER:
OK, t..en as the normal functions of the shift foreman did you 23 maintain, did they maintain you in the Control Room? Were you basically 24i i
in the control room?
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!lj MILLER:
Yes, I was in the control room, all the time I was there.
2.
l 3j HUNTER:
No secondary plant tours or anything? You stayed in the i
Control Room?
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MILLER:
6l No, I didn't have time, it was awfully confusing tnat day.
7 And there were probably fifty to sixty or even more people in the control room and to just maintain communications between the people g
who wanted to communicate was probably the biggest part of my job that g
10 1 11 1
HUNTER:
Can you give us some idea of the when you came in that morning, 12!
how many people were there? Can you recall just a number?
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MILLER:
When I carie in there weren't really that many in the control room yet, maybe fif teen to twenty people and by seven o' clock, when site emergency was declared, it probably doubled or tripled that 17; number.
18; 19i HUNTER:
And where were these people located?
20!
l 21l MILLER:
They were in the control room in the back part of the control 22\\
room, and off to the sides.
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HUNTER:
How was the noise level?
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MILLER:
The noise level was high.
3 41 HUNTER:
It was high, ok.
What about the, what about up near, near 5
the control panels? How many people were there?
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n e area n rm y,
ere is an area marked non essential 8
I personnel stay behind this line.
Now the people who were on the other g
side of that line which normally there is only about three or four.
t 10j There might have been at certain times six, seven, or eight.
11; 12 HUNTER:
Ok, How does your, did you have any problem communicating at 13!
all because of the noise level?
14!
P 15:
MILLER:
Yes, that was a problem. There were that many people in there, just the general background noise was high.
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IS.:
HUNTER:
Ok, 19; 20 t
MILLER:
And another thing I just remembered, for a time in the morning 21; I
I don't remember specifically which time it was but we were required 22 to wear face respirators in the control room, and that didn't help 23 things as far as communications wenc.
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HUNTER:
Ok, how long did you have the respirators on, do you have any idea?
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4j MILLER:
I don't remember exactly, it must have been at least three Sj h urs two to three hours at least.
Gl HUNTER:
And at that titre you were, what were you still communications?
81 MILLER:
At that time I hink I was still back in the radiation monitoring g
10l 11:
HUNTER:
And then you worked from noon till midnight?
12 ',
l 13j MILLER:
I only left at about midnight.
15-HUNTER:
And during that time you were, any other assignments that 10' would put you in, pump of the reactor coolant pumps, makeup system, anything you were directly invcived in that we need to discuss with 18 you.
19' 20l j
MILLER:
Like I said I really wasn't involved with the operations end 21i j
of it at that time because it was better to let the people who were on 22l it to stay there because there wasn't enough time to stop and give a 23 good complete turnover.
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HUNTER:
You went off at midnight and come back the next day, to start 2
again I presume.
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MILLER:
Yes, I came in the next day, about seven-thirty in the morning.
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6j HUNTER:
My part of the program, we're looking at the first like 7
twenty hours, right now.
We'll go the rest of the way later.
There g
is so many things that happened, that we breaking it up.
I want to go g
back now to can I assume that you were on the three to eleven shift, 10 n the day shift the previous day?
i lli MILLER:
No, see I was, that was on Wednesday, and the previous four days I had off, that was my long weekend, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I was off, and the week before that I was down in Lynchburg, so I was away for ten or eleven days. That was my first day back at the plant after being away for about eleven days.
17l HUNTER:
Ok was the plant operating normally when you left?
19j MILLER:
Yes, when I left it was operating normally.
i 21f HUNTER:
Can you remember or recall any unusual conditions or what you 22l l
would consider, I don't mean unusual or abnormal, just maintenance 23j conditions that would exist when you lef;?
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MILLER:
When I left there were several minor problems, I don't remember 2
any particular by outstanding problems when I lef t.
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4 HUNTER:
Do you normally work in the demineralizer system quite a bit Sj r d es that foreman usually handle the secondary demineralizer system?
l Gi MILLER:
Normally he doesn't get real involved with it.
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HUNTER:
They had some trouble with it, that night, gj l
101 MILLER:
Yea
,1 12' H_UNTER:
And previous, have you had any trouble on your shifts?
i 14' MILLER:
Well, we were lucky, as far as the type of trouble they had lo[t that night, we never had that happen on our shift, where there was problems with the water getting into the air, and the valves not 17l l
operating properly?
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HUNTER:
Have you been involved in any unit trips before?
21 MILLER:
Yes.
23 HUNTER:
Number.
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MILLER:
At least two or three.
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i 3j HUNTER:
Can you describe the trips you were involved in?
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MILLER:
Well, the one trip we had resulted in an ES actuation, the RC
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pressure went below 1600 pounds, and we had the ES actuation, and that 7l was the most involved trip I was ever involved in.
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HUNTER:
What caused the trip and ES actuation?
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101 MILLER:
I don't remember exactly.
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SHACKLETON:
Mr. Mille'r, for those pecple who aren't familiar with the 13) terminology in the nuclear industry, can you define the type of trip, I
what that means, those initials?
16:
MILLER:
Ok, well, the trip I was talking about was a reactor trip, 17!
and followino the reactor trip, reactor coolant pressure dropped to 181 below approximately 1600 pounds and when that happens you get engineered 19!
l' safeguards system actuates, to get system pressure back up.
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SHACKLETON:
Dorwin, what I'm after is, thank you very much, that 22 explanation I know it will help, but what those letters mean?
Reactor 23l l
Coolant.
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HUNTER:
1; Ok, what about, you said three trips, can you recall any of 2.
the other two?
3l MILLER:
Ah 5l t
6; HUNTER:
That's ok.
7 MILLER:
g I just can't recall exactly what caused the trips.
9I HUNTER:
When a trip usually occurs where would you be located?
Is 10 your normal station the control room, or would you be elsewhere?
11:.
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I MILLER:
13)
When the trip that occurred that I just mentioned where, we had the engineered Safeguards actuation, I happened to be out in the secondary side of the plant at the time..ind, it's hard to say.
A lot of times the' shift foreman is out in the plant taking tours, and something can happen when he's out.
17!
t 18j HUNTER:
Certainly, as I t'aderstand you did not leave until micnight, the night of the incident, you left at midnight, and did you come back 20l then for your normal seven to three shif t that day?
21!
22 MILLER:
I came in a little late, I got in about seven-thirty.
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If HUNTER:
And, that's all the questions I hava unless there is something i
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you need to add or if you can think of an assignment you had that day 3l that would be important to go through.
We'll review the tape and I'll 4
pick up the points for specific details but we will we may in fact ask 5l to talk with you again, and if we do, then we'll make further arrangements.
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6l MILLER:
Ok.
7 8
gj SHACKLETON:
There are no further comments, we will clare this tape ff, the time is now 4:16 p.m. April 22, 1979.
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