ML19317F229

Forwards Correspondence Between Piedmont Organic Movement & Congressman J Mann Re Problems at Unit

ML19317F229
Person / Time
Site:	Oconee
Issue date:	11/28/1973
From:	Jennifer Davis US ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION (AEC)
To:	Moseley N NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION II)
Shared Package
ML19317F230	List: ML19317F229 ML19317F233
References
NUDOCS 8001080942
Download: ML19317F229 (7)

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1 Docket Nos. 50-269 N. C. Moseley, Director 50-270 ef F.egion II 50-287 Regulatory Operations CORRr.SFONDU;CE FRON CHARLT.5 9. FARROTT, III - PIFDMDNT ORGANIC }MDTNT rnelooed is a copy of a letter dated Novester 12, 1973, with enclosure, from Mr. Charles W. Parrott, III,, President, Piedmont Organic Movement, i

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to Congressman J==*a R. Enna. Also enclosed is a copy of a letter j

8, 1973, from Congressesa Mann to Mr. Parrott.. Copias j

. dated November

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of these documents were sent to Region II by facsimile 'on hvember 26,

- a-6 1973.~ We previously forwarded to you on November 21, 1973, a copy..

of a letter dated October 11,1973; fras; farrott to D. 7. Truth and a partial draf t reply to this letter.ito'gether with, documenth to.be d.

iF transmitted to Mr. Parrott'.

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L__._.: < All. correspond.en.c.e...r_e_l_ati..a_ _t_o t_h_is matt _er._has ~been ~eent to the FDR and the local FDR including Farrott's letter of %_vendsiF12,' 1973,~~~~~'~

to Congressman Mann. Therefore.:ta your documentation, you may-make reference to any of the correspondence.-

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John C. Davis, Deputy Director for Field Operations Direcotrate of Ecrulatory Operations Tnclosures:

Cpy of ltr to Cong. Mann fu C. W. Farrott, dtd 11/12/73 w/enel.

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TIEDMONT ORGANiG LlOVEMENT

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Grect, S. C. 2%51 November 12, 1973

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Honorable James R. Mann d,.

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j Congress of the United States House of Representatives Washington, D. C. 20515 i

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Dear Mr. Hanns l

I have Thank you for your letter dtd. November 8,1973 and the enc os

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.uc is so important that I wanted to get just quickly read the article from I feel this wnolt throughly later.

this letter off to you.

i by a In regard to Dr. Knuth's reply to your inquiry, I was called three States Atomic Ms. Myrna Steel of the Directorate of hegulatory Operations, Unite The first call was to advice me that my request had been

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The second call was to l

ed, and that she would contact me again, concerning this.

Enorgy Commission.

these matters. U n-advise me that the material was being gathered, ard to discuss ly got to talk fortunately, I was on my way out the door when she called, a

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, for a few minutes.

thy, we discussed some of 4

In this third conversation, uhich was rather len6 Items i and 4 o At this time, I i

the problems at Oconee.

was unaware of the other items, or even of all the informaI uas f

1 week from scaeone from the AEC in this rc6 on.

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4 in the list.

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I was also probably would be contacted within awas mentioned, but as I didn't ma 4

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advised that it may take some time to gather the materia.

I A nane f

d about this, While I have not yet received any of the material, I am not concerneA t with me.

And I wrote for I realize this sort of thing takes time.

relieved and encouraged, for Ms. Steel was very f 3

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My concern that prompted ne to-wire the Honorable M 3

t knowledge the fact that no follow-up on Ms. Steel's call camo, and my subseque t that I do not doubt of the other events listed en the enclosed sheets.. Please n 3

in the AEC Ms. Stool's sincority, but the thought has cross:d my mind that oth

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Hopefully, this is not the case.

sey not feel as she does.

o "first of a Since Oconee has boon in operation for less than a year, and is

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i t l reactor..

kind", it should not be considered'more or less than a giant exper 3

t r(s) does not look too

. And if the incidents listed did in fceatation hr.s been on strea s

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It is for these rearons that I feel an inmcdiate and public inves 6

l Oconeo Nuclear Station is in the best public interest.

inspire confidence

'I would liko to mention one other item that does not tend tofthesem g

in the nuclear industry, and were it not for the seriousness o q

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2 provido como comic relief.

Sometino ago, I wrote the Directorate of Licensing, U. S. AEC for a copy of the Lirect orate of Licen ;ing U. S, Atonic _ Energ Cc:eniscion

{ Safety Ev;=.?r.ti on by Uconce Kuelm.r St. tion Units 2 and 3", dochet in the liatter of Dako retter Uc-innyI roccived this just last wook, and have given ic nuch stud nos. 50-?.707S7.

"This corro-I would like to quote from this official decunent, pago 7-7 and 7-8 It uas lation uns the best availabic for pool film boiling from vertical surfaces.

derived from a theoretical model of the stable annular flow regimo as compared to the dispersed flow film bol. ling regine, and therefore it was conservative in thin The correlation underpredicted the available data for pool film boiling The Dittus-Boelter corrolation***

regard.

from vertical surface for a variety of fluids.

was used for thst part of the coro covered by steam."

I was suitably inpressed, until I looked up the*** and discovered the Dittus-Boolter correlation was a study done in England in 1930, titled " Heat Transfer hope parts from a 1930 Automohi,lo Radiators of, the Tube Tvre".

Perhaps we can But they d.ip use the report....

i automobile radiator are not in use at Oconec.

I likon the above to predicting the flight characteristics of a modern military jet aircraft by citing a 1930 report on "The Effects of Thernals on a Filn Cover Model Anrop1; re Relewed at a Height of Fif ty Hotern".

Thanking you for you attention and concern in this matter, I remain, R pectfu ly, I h, cw-c Charles W. Parrott III CWP/hnp President, Piedmont Encs i

Organic Movement Honorablo Ernest F. Hollings cca Dr. Donald F. Knuth t

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SCUE 1RNLQ002YmTmr m

l OCONEE UUCLEAR STATIP"

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SENECA, SOUTH CAROLI.

CONFIPJ1ED:

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two workers at Duke'. Power' Company's Oconec Nuclear Station, On August 22, 1973, Mr. Furman lark and Mr. William Holcombo, were sent to repair a leaky' Radioactive boric acid crystals had formed on the valvo body.

pressuriser of Unit #1.

The workers had placed a wrench on the valvo and were striking the wre A news account of this incident reported that they wore in order to loosen 'tho valve.

In either caso, the boric acid crystals were inhaled trying to tighten tho valvo.

Why they were not wearing protective masks at the time is not kno by the workers.

The workers were checking themselves at a monitoring station, and one m Particles of Iass the probe under his nose, and 6ot a reading on the instrument.

Theso men were sent to Illinois radioactivo boron was found in their nose hairs.

According to the news items, which didn't appear until Oct.

for a whole body count.

17 and 18 in the Greenville Piedmont, pai;o 14, and the Groonvi l codes",

spectivly), they rocoived "6% of the radiation exposure permitted by fedora Whe-Federal " codes" for nuclear workers is 5,000 mrem per year.

or 300 nillirems.

ther or not any radicactive crystals were carried outside the containment s is unknown.

UNCONFIRMED, BUT LIKELY TO BE ON RECORD:

2, During hot functional testing of Oconce Unit #2,-the secondary side As the pressure built up,.a.

coolant system was being pressurized for test purposos; It failed to close.

valve was c,emmanled to close, to limit or shut-off the pressure.

A second valvo, in series with the first for safety purposes was then se As the pressuro in the secondary or steam side of tho steam si6nal.

It also failed.

lly generator built up, a worker, Mr. Terry Campbell of Seneca, S. C, wa Campboll was unsble to close tho valves manually, and in the pr closethevalve(s).

h tank cess of carring out his assignment, the rupture disk, installed in the quenc The rupture disk is designed to rupture when pressures exceed functioned normally.

The quench tank a safe limit, to provent breaching of secondary system components.

i is located in the containment building, as are the valvos Campbell was t

Some Incid:nts at Octnca l'uclear Station - page 2 -

Upon ruptura, liva st:an wa2 rsicas:d in tha containment bt.1 ding, scalding Campbell, He sufferod ist, 2nd and 3rd degroo burns over most of his body.

This happened none-time in August,1973 At last report, in November,1973, Terry Campbell was still in the hospitial.

3, UNCONFIEMED, BUT LIKELY TO BE ON RECORD:

ht out in a routine employoo's meeting (!!cn-The following infornation was brou6 day Morning Hooting) at Oconce. This meeting was held approximately around the 1st Whilo releasi.ng radioactive gas of an unknown nature, a local tes-of October, 1973 perture inversion occured.

This caused the gas to be carried down to the level of the intake of the air conditioner for the control room of Unit #1, and drawn into the build:

The control room employees began to get radioactive readings from their polyester inC.

It was determined that static electricity attracted the pants, arouni the knee area.

radioactive particles to the fabric.

It is not known what isotope was involved, other It is than it had a short half-life, having decayed below detection by the next day.

thought Mr. 0111o Bradham, Instrument Department Head conducted this meeting.

4.

UNCONFIR'iND, BUT LIKELY TO BE ON BECORD:

At another M*onday Morning Meeting, Mr. Ollie Bradham, Department Head advised the employees that Keowee (hydro-electric pumped stowa6e station located on-s$ te) wasbeingruninordertodillutewastewater(rumoredandthoughttoberadioactive).

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generated by Unit #1 that was being.dunped'into the feed-waters of Lake Hartwell.-

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South Carolina.

(Hartwell supplies drinking water for Clemson University, Clemson, S. C., Pendleton, S. C. and Anderson, S. C.

Ihta provided by Duke Power Ccmpany indicates that these users withdraw about 4.8 million gallons of water per day from Iake Hartwell) The reason for this is because the station evaporator (s) have proved iredequate to handle the amounts of waste water generated by Unit #1.

More waste So some of it was dumped water.was being accumulated than could be shi'pped off-site.

into the lake.

Another evaporator is planned for Oconee, to handle the excons waste One source says it is now definitely going to be bu!1t, while an Oconco spoke (

I water.

i man, Mr. George Cago, Assistant Operations En6 ncer told us it is still in the "pl.n-:

1 ning and thinking sta6es".

We have been unablo lo obtain any information as to the l

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S'ong Jncid:;nts ct Ocinco Huelcar StatSen - Incy f-r:dioactivoty, if 4...y, and amounts cf this wants w. sr.

Unc0NvIr.ng, BlTT MAY EE 0:1 BECORD:

5 A radioactivo matorial trans-This happened on a Saturday in early summer,1973:

Oconoo.

port truck, of the tank-trailer type frem Aiken, S. C, was being loaded a The tractor was removed, and the trailer was resting on its front dolly whee 4

As the tank was being filled, the dolly wheels sank into tho an asphalt surface.

What is It is not known if a spill occured, or how much of what if it did.

asphalt.

known is that the trailor had to bo jacked-up to allow the tractor to re-conne And our sources report "a multitulo of officials running around with the trailer.

This took place between the Administrative Building and Unit #1, just a monitors".

short distanco from the equipment hatch.

UNCONFIRMED, AND pROBABLY NDP ON RECORDS

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It was empty.

From 100 A waste transpcrt tank truck backed-up behind Unit #1.

feet away, it set off monitors inside the building, even though the doors It took the workers about 30 to 45 minutes Three different sources confirmed this.

It was finally pinpoint. d to the truck.

e to determine the source of radioactivity.

ABsTnACPS:

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__We have been told that the radioactivety in Unit #1 has gone up, due to a s No further information on this has been obtained to 4

pected dama6ed fuel rod or rods.

However, it is now considered almost normal' for a pressurised-water r date.

And we have been told by one source to operate with one or more damaged fuel rods.

Anotherl that an additional evapora. tor will be built to handle the excess waste water (seeitem4).

Since the fuel '

source informed us this was still in the planning stage densification reports are considered "proprictary", there is little hope th It is " proprietary" in the sense wi11 ever get to roview this important infornation.

l it may contain informatbn that would releaso " trade secrets" of the com Our feelings are that since this information may contein information ved.

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affect the lives and health of a very largo number of American Citizens, it t

them, and to with-hold this information is not only not in the public l

criminsi as well.

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COMMsticc ore Juoicmrty o

COMMiiif C ON clMFitCT Of' COLuf steg

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• f November 8, 1973 i

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III Mr. Charles U. Parrott, l

President, Piedmont Organic Movement 714 South Line Street t

Creer, South Carolina 29651 I

Dear Mr. Parrott,

I have referred your telegrams of 7 November 1973 t

d will for-to the Atomic Energy Commission for comment, an l

ward their reply on receipt.

Donald Knuth of the AEC meanwhile informed m l

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(see enclosed letter) that he has contacted you concer Let me the August 22nd incident at the Oconce Station.

know if I can follow up on this matter for you.

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Also enclosed for your reference is an article 29, 1973 conceraing from ConRressional Quarterly, September

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hich I the hearings on nuclear reactor plant safety w j

I have mentioned in previous correspondence, Thank you for your co tfn~u'ed interest in this n

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,_.3.,_..

l' Sin rely

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t JAME R. MANN t

..l Member of Congress i

JRM/rj Enclosures

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