ML19308B939
| ML19308B939 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 03/30/1979 |
| From: | METROPOLITAN EDISON CO. |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19308B923 | List: |
| References | |
| TASK-TF, TASK-TMR NUDOCS 8001170646 | |
| Download: ML19308B939 (3) | |
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TMI STAFF IhfERVIEW Juanita Gingrich 0500 Hrs. March 30, 1979 Conducted By:
R. Long and D. Reppert LONG:
This is Bob Long, Don Reppert and I are interviewing Juanita Gingrich.
It's about 0508 hrs, on the 30th of March, 1979. We'll ask Juanita to identify herself and state her position.
GINGRICH:
My name's Juanita Gingrich and I'm an auxiliary operator in Unit 2.
LONG:
And, Juanita, you were on shif t at the time of the... ?
GINGRICH:
Yes.
LONG:
Could you just describe for us roughly what you were doing, say, beginning an hour before the event end kind of go into where you were?
GINGRICH: About an hour before, they had me down adding hydrogen to the generator. As I guess you already know, it had been leaking and we had to fill it at least once a shift; so I was down there doing that. After I did that I went up and I was going to the control room around 5 minutes of 4, I guess.
Then I heard the turbine trip.
I went in the control room and just stood around and waited to see what they needed people to do and they sent me down to the feedpumps. They had been having trouble with the turning gears.
So they sent me down; I was suppose to check the turning gears and see if they took over when they tripped off the line.
I went down and the "A" feed-pump and the "B" feedpu=p were down, the turning gear didn't seem to be working, so I called the control room and they they told me they were going to try to start them from up there to see if they could get the turning gear to take over. The "A" started turning gear and the "B" didn't.
So they had me manually turning the turning gear - which is like I had to keep turning it continuously -
that's where I was most of the time.
I had t' turn it every two minutes a half a turn; in between I got a chance to go up and check the vacuum pumps.
I looked them over and checkeM their te=peratures and their oil and water levels and everything and they seemed to be going steady and nothing irregular on those.
I guess it was around 10 of 7, I heard an alarm going off.
It was the at=o-spheric monitors that sit up by the vacuum pu=ps. I went over and saw they we re ON.
Then, right after that they gave the announcement about radiation.
I was just there
'til I think about 8 o' clock turning the "B" pu=p, and that was about it.
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LONG:
Ok, you had one very specfic job?
GINGRiCH: Yeah.
LONG:
And stayed with it?
GINGRICH: I had to keep doing that to keep the shaft from warping.
LONG:
And then what happened when the site evacuation was given.
What did you do then?
GINGRICH: Well, I just stayed there cause I had thought I should, and then one of the other guys came by and told me just to keep doing that.
So I stayed down there, turning it till I got relieved, about 8 o' clock. Oh wait, that's right, one other guy came over and he was turning it for a while and then I went over to the seal oil coolers and the temperatures were real low on that.
So I just throttled down on the discharges of the coolers and I got temperatures to go up.
They were down in the 70's and they should be in the 100's and I got the tempera-tures to go up to about 98 the last time I got a chance to look at it.
Then I went back over to the feedpump, the rest of the time.
LONG:
Did you go home then when you vent off shift?
GINGRICH: Yeah.
LONG:
Shortly after 8?
GINGRICH: Yeah about 8 o' clock they came and relieved us and they sent us all over to the control room and then to Af) central. Then they sent us up to Unit 1 control room, and then they let us leave. That was I guess around 10 o' clock.
LONG:
How about last night, were you on shift again last night?
GINGRICH: Yeah, I was on shift again last night but they had me out, I wasn't inside the plant last night, I was like a chauffer and gopher.
But I was taking things back and forth from the observation center here to the PC and taking people back and forth and so I didn't really get involved here.
LONG:
Ok.
REPFIRT:
When they got the alarm, in the...?
GINGRICH: Well, the monitor's right in front of the C Vacuus pu=p.
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g REPPERT:
That didn't require an evacuation of the turbine b1dg.
i GINGRICH:
Yeah.
Shortly after that they gave the evacuation and l
you know I was getting ready to call the control room about it when they gave the evacuation.
REPPERT:
I see.
GINGRICH: And, then after that they told me I should stay down there.
LONG:
Have you been on shift when there had been a turbine /
reactor trip before?
GINGRICH: Yeah. We had lots of experience over there in Unit 2.
LONG:
At what point did you begin to feel as though this was not typical?
GINGRICH: Well, it wasn't until I heard that alarm going off over there that I reali::ed something else was going wrong, because I didn't have any other indications.
LONG:
Who gave you your instructions, to stay?
GINGRICH: Let's see, they announced about evacuating and I stayed there a few minutes longer, then they called me over
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the page; but I couldn't go to the page so one of the operators that was doing other things around there, Donny Miller, came by and said that I should just stay down there and keep doing that.
LONG:
Who sent you to that particular task.
GINGRICH:
Oh, originally?
LONG:
Yeah, originally.
GINGRICH:
I think it was Ed Frederick.
Yeah, I believe so.
LONG:
And then that was just one that had to be taken care of?
g GINGRICH: Yeah, that was one that you always have to do everytime j
the turbine trips, cause they never got it fixed yet.
LONG:
Ok, Don, do you have any other... ?
REPPERI:
No.
END OF IhTERVIEW
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION E
WASHINGTON, D. C. 20555 e c e
$9*****
,o May 14,1979 4
MEMORANDUM FOR E. Kevin Cornell, Deputy Executive Director for Operations FROM Roger J. Mattson, Director Division of Systems Safety 1
SUBJECT METROPOLITAN EDIS0N TRANSCRIPTS OF-INTERVIEWS WITH TMI-2 OPERATORS Attached for your information and use is a copy of _ a letter received by Mr. Case on May 8, 1979 from Mr. Trowbridge.
It is my understand-ing that the transcripts provided by Mr. Trowbridge are. being consi-dered in the IE investigation of'the accident.
I also understand that copies of the transcripts were supplied by Mr. Trowbridge to the ACRS and to the President's Commission on TMI-2. Mr. Case and I believe the material-should be placed in the NRC public document room; IE has no objection. We will leave the propriety of that action for your consideration in;1ight of the planned public release of IE's preliminary findings later this week.
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Roger %. Matt J
n, Director Division of Systems Safety
Enclosure:
As stated cc w/ enc 1:
H. Denton E. Case J. Davis V. Stello
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L E h m a.T May 7, 1979-Mr. Edson G.
Case Deputy Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C.
20555
Dear Ed:
I am enclosing transcripts of interviews conducted by Metropolitan Edison with the TMI-2 operators on duty at the time of initiation of the TMI-2 accident.
The interviews were con-ducted on March 30, 1979, two days after the accident.
The transcripts were prepared from tapes of the interviews and have been reviewed by tne interviewees.
The interviewees were first given the opportunity to review the initial transcripts e
of the tapes and to #ill in garbled portions of the tapes and to clean up some of the lai.gnge employed.
They were then offered a final opportunity to review the product.
It is my understanding that this review process did not involve substantive changes in the taped remarks.
Copies of the original tapes have been supplied to the NRC investigative team.
Sincerel Geor e F.
Trowbridge Enclosures P
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