ML19318A538

Transcript of Lieutenant Governor Ww Scranton 790328 10:55 Am Press Conference Re Incident at TMI-2

ML19318A538
Person / Time
Site:	Crane
Issue date:	03/28/1979
From:	Critchlow P, Dornsife W, Henderson O, Holst R, Loughlin B, Ross J, Scranton W PENNSYLVANIA, COMMONWEALTH OF, SENATE
To:
References
TASK-TF, TASK-TMR 321-D79, NUDOCS 8006230306
Download: ML19318A538 (15)

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COVERNOR'S PRESS OFFICE FOR Id:EDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Paul Critchlow i.

321.D79 Press Secretary (717) 783-1116 TRANSCRIPTION

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. PRESS CONFERENCE

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LIEUTENANT COVERNOR WILLIAM W. SCitANTON. 3d -

INCIDENT AT THREE-MILE' ISLAND MARCH 28, 1979

/0:55MI

_,T Following is Lt. Covernor Scranton's opening statement:

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THE METROPOLITAN EDISON COMPANY HAS INFORMED US J!

Al1 INCIDENT AT THREE-MILE ISLAND, UNIT #2. EVERYTHliiG IS UilDE'R

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CONTROL. THERE IS AND WAS NO DANGER TO PUBLIC HEALTH AND S THE INCIDENT OCCURRED DUE TO A MALFUNCTIC:1 IN THE TURBINE SY THERE WAS A SliALL, RELEASE OF RADIATION TO THE ENVIRONMENT. - I,.(

ALL SAFETY E9UIPMENT FUNCTIONED PROPERLY.

HETROPOLITAN EDISON HAS BEEN MONITORING THE AIR IN THE VICINITY THE PLANT CONSTANTLY SINCE THE INCIDENT. NO INCREASE IN HOR!ML, RADIATI'04 LEVELS HAS BEEN-DETECTED. A STATE POLICE HELICOPTER'lS ALSO Af THE SCENE TO MONITOR THE AIR.

THE CI'VIL DEFENSE HAS ALERTED ALL COUNTIES IN THE VICINITY ALTHO THERE IS NO NEED FOR EVACUATION. THERE IS ALSO A TEAM FR,0M THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ON THE WAY TO INVESTIGATE.

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I Answering questions with tr.* Covernor Scranton are:

William Dornsife, Nuclear Engineer. Bureau of Radiation Protection. DER Colonel Oran Henderson. Director. Ciyil Defense Senator Jim Ross, member. Emergency Mansgement Council Bob Laughlin. Covernor's Science Advisory Committee, Ray Holst. Energy Liaison Officer i-E (C

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C PART TWO Page 9a HENDER$05 Outside of the danger area, in the schools outside he danger area.

PANYARD:

How likely is an evacuation?

HENDERCON:

ight now, it's almost mero.

SWIFT:

Ho many calls have you gotten from the p lic on this today?,,

HENDERSON:

Very v.

Most of ours have been from e press. As far away' as Cali rnia and New Yo-k, Florida. I talked to Kevin Molloy at :00 this af ternoon and he ad had twelve calls in his offi. from, citizens.

KIRKPATRICK:

How far away fr the plant has creased radiation levels been detected?

CER" SKY:

Our surveys indicate hat we av increased radiation levels right here in the middle of rri urg for a very sh rt period of time. Just slightly, b ey were there.

REPORTER:

Covernor, was there any of an explosion during the LT. COV:

No.

• PANYARD:

Is there any danger f explosion ow?

utting out reports that there REP 0ETER:

Covernor,,

ethal dose of radiat n inside the reactor housing.

was 8 times the If that is tru then I'm asking if you an confirm that number one and number tw, if that was true, was th e anybody in the area of that ousing or inside the housin itself that.

LT. COV:

First of 1, I can't c' ell you if it was tru I assume what they're 1 king about is inside the primary ho sing which i butit to house more than a lethal dose f radioactivity.

But I on't intend to be an apologist for.this a uation. They don' have personnel within that primary area. If hat's what he s referring to it could very well be.

But hter have been n indications from our talks with anybody or from th DER's nitoring that there has been an lethal dose of radia.*on anywhere on site, off site or anywhere in the area and think that's the reason why we fell confident that we're not go g to h have to evacuate.

.-LIVINCdOD:

Have they told you what et level of ra'diation is or was insi that

. primary chamber? During

'e cooling down period?

LT. COV:

No, they have not.

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PART I PACE 2

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i et PANYARD:

When was this statement made up?

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LT. C07:

The state:nent was prepared within the last half hour.

PMYARD:

Do you realize that the entire press corp has been here for an hour

,d LT. COV.

Wa realize that but we also realize it is also important to make-

,I sure we have accurate information and we didn't want to go e

on speculation.

ROSS:

that there vaa no evacuation at this time. Do you.

LT. COV.

We do not anticipate the need for any evacuation at the moment.

It is contained. There is no radiation leaking in the environment and we do not foresee any need for evacuation.

SCOTZIN:

What time did the incident occur!

LT. COV:

The incident occurred, we believe, at about 4 a.m. this morning.

The radiatica was detected, determined a little bit later at what time I',a not sure. There was, perhaps some radiation levels that the nuclear power plant began its shut-down process at that time and it bega,n the alerting system to tell the Civil Defense Council '

that there was a problem. Civil Defense Council im=ediately notified the various counties o

SCOTZIN:

Were any esp oyees exposed to the radiation?

LT. GOV Not that we know of.

SCOT:IN:

Have they been checked?

LT.

0V':

- The employees are being checked. We have not found any health

[ hazard to anybody involvei 'ither,on site or down stream.

TAYLOR:

How many employees were there at the time?

LT. GOV:

I do not know.

AMIC:

What is a small release?

SEXTON:

• LT.*COV:

We have no detection, no way of telling exactly how much radiation vos released because there could not h. ave been any detected in the 1

atmosphere.

SEXTON:

' I Do you know it's small because.

2 DORNSITE:

Macropolitan Edison fmmediately sent people out at the plant

'aoutary and to Goldsboro, because the wind was blowing;toward that direction to take readings. Before we came up here I got word that they detected,a small amount of radioactive iodine in the ground.

SCOTIIN:

What?

DORNSITE:

Radioactive iodine in the ground. But it was at al level that would not cause any inhalation problem with people. It may show up in the milk, vihtin a week or so like during the fallout incident we had a couple years ago. They have been continuously monitoring in both locations and they have determined that the levels are less than one milirem per hour.

s What does that mean?

DORMSITE:

The nornal background radiation in the vicinity of the Three Mile Island plant,is about 100 milirem pqr year.,

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PART I E

PACC 3 milires per hour because that's their minimum detectable attivit (con'tf The levels are probably much, much seslier than one DORNSITE:

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on short samples..which is what this was based on.,

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f' SEXTON Mr. Dornsige, all this.informstion in' terms of the monitorifig o d

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the radiation comes from the compsny DER has a team standing by in case things would have escalated DORNSIFE:

we would have sent people out from DER to take sample. We probably will take confirmatory samples later on to determine what the i'o'd.ine

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,4 levels are.

AMIO:

Are you saying that the only danger to people then is going te be in the milk? g The'z;e T T

The only way it will show up will probably be in the milk.

DORNSITE:

T will be small increases in radioactive iodine in the milk because there is an accumulation fad:or in the milk just like there was during the fallout incident a couple years ago.

SCOTZIN:

You say a couple of weeks and it will show up?

DORNSITE:

It will be about a week and it will show up.

REPORTER:

Isn't that dangerous that some of......

Well we dranir, it during the fallout incident and there was no DORNSITE:

problem.

ROSS:

The statement said there was a malfunction in the turbine system.

E st kind of a malfunction?

DORNSITE:

Because it could have been 4. fault in the electrical system, the turbine tripped. That's the only information we have. It could have.

• the cause is either not known by the company at this time, or we just l

didn't get that information. It was a turbine trip.

LINT::

What actually happened?

Th's plant was operating on 100: power. Some fault in the non-DORNSITE:

safety system, the turbine plant or in the electrical system caused

. the valves going to the turbine to shut. This is a normal anticipated In fact the plant had to go through this kind of. transient during start-up proceduring, start-up prograd. I:zneidately af ter the turbine valves closed there was a build up of pressure and tempertture in the p: mary system. As designed the primarf',

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valves lif ted, releasing radioactivity.to the primary containment, which is also a safeguard system. That's designed to contain that activity with minimal leakage.

You said it released radioactivity to the primary system.

LENTZ:

f DORNSITE:

The primary containment.

f LENT:s What's the primary containment?

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'ihe primary containment is the big building, the big done building DORNSITE:

you see on the site. It contains all the piping and systems that have radioactive material.

LENTZ:

That means it was just inside the building. Anyone in the building e

would have been exposed to that.

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Do nSITE:

There was nobody in the building. They're not allowed in,athe e f-building normally.during operation.

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.Didthatradioactivityinthebuildingseepintotheat$csphere?

i LC;TT.:

Slight quantities did bacause of the design leak rate of the building.

DO CSITE:

The pressure was never very high to cause the driving force behind that leakage. But the company suspects and they haven't'confir.ed this, that there was also because of the high pressure a possibility rd.

of a primary and secondary laaksge also, complicating the initial transient.

r KILEY:

What does that mean?f 4

'It means that normally the prinary water goes into the steam DOM SITE:

generator where it than heats secoadary water which is isolated from this radioactive primary water. Taey suspect there may have been also a leakage from this primary system to the secondary system.

the nr. ment or within the last hour, where are the DER personnel At BRUTTO:

who are charged with the responsibility of monitoring the atsosphefe?

DOCSITE:

They arp standing by in our of fice.

BRUITO:

In your offi,ce? Why aren't they down at the plant?

DOESITE:

Because we, haven't felt that they needed to be.

We relyed on the company's instrumentatier..

BRUTTO:

You haven't felt or Met Ed hasn't, felt?

DORNSITE:

We haven't felt.

What information do you have that makes you not feel that it BRUTTo: '

is necessary?

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DCRNSITE:

I Metropolitan Edison's readings.

BRUTTo:

Yob'redependingonthecompanythen?

4 DORNSITE:

Yes.

Yo 1 actually have the equipment to take readN';s

^JENSEN:

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8 DOR 3 SITE:

We don't have mobile equipment like they.do.

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,TENSEN:

Do you have sophisticated equipment to'coroborate what they.show

, you?

a DORNSITE:

In our laboratory yes. Mobile, we do not. They have mobile equip =ent.

JENSEN:

In other words you can't really test it.

g' DonSITE:

We can't go out in the field immediately and take a s. amble and read ie a't that point. We'd have to go out and take it and go back to our laboratory, it would take time. That's why,we're relying on r. heir mobile equipment.

LENTZ:

Is there plant now shut down?

DO ESITE:

Yes, there plant is shut down.

LEM" How long ago was the plant shut down,?

DOCSITE:

It was shut down' right af ter the incident. The turbine trip cauced the reactor to be shut down'.

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Inaudible.

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It shut down as, a., result of the turbine trip as desQnedt f

DORNSITE:

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How long v,ill it be down?'

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4 At this point they don't know.

DO USITE:

LCITZi Hours, days, weeks?

.k DOCSITE:

It will be days at least.

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DER inf'ormed?

P&TARD:

We were informed thr'ough Civil Defense at 7 a.m. this morning a

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. DOUSITE:

hours after the accident.

P&TARD:

313 DORNSITE:

Alout 3 hours3.472222e-5 days <br />8.333333e-4 hours <br />4.960317e-6 weeks <br />1.1415e-6 months <br /> afterwards yes.

Is that considered communications....

1;0S5:

We don't know what the situation was at the We don't know yet.

DORNSITE:

plant in the interim, when they declared a site emergency, or yes, definitely.

Do you have people at the plant site from DER monito'ri::g SEXTON:

I'm confused.

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g the company's, instrumentation?

DORNSIyE:

No. We don't.

Are you just sking what they tell you...

SEXTON:

i Yes, but the federal government will 'obviously probably come in the NRC will come in and bring their instrumentation. They have DORNSITE:

o ! also have mobile instrumentation in Philadelphit.'

Do you have the legal authority or power to go inside the plant s

SEXTON:

and monitorf No we don't. We do monitor routinely, but it's in the environment.

f We take air samples, river samples, soil samples, that typ,e.of DORNSITE:

thing.

Routinely. To check their data that'they do for their normal monitoring program.

Do you usan there possibly was a radioactive'le'adk KILEY:'.

~1a to the water that is drained into 'the Susquehanna Riv,e,r?

That in turn is also isolated from the cooling tower waterBut s'o

, ' No.

DORNSITE:

by the condenser.

• that path through the.non-condensable gases in the condenser.

e I realize that I's,getting somewhat technichal, but it is pretty i

j hard to explain without setting a little technical.

It could he'e go.ne into the air and the wate'r? '

JENSEN:

At this point.

DORNSITE:

No. It coEld not have gone into the water.

juse the air.

SWIFT:

- How about below the s'ound surface?,

r DCf0; SITE:.

No. No fuel saltage or anything like that.

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e HAMILLt When will the feds be on site?

g sF DOU SITE.

They will probably be there within.a couple of hou'rs. They're' -

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only in Philadelphia. They probably will have a monitoringNan ~

which will check some of the measurements.

RCSS:

When you say federal people, who are they specifically?

..e DCESITE:

NRC. Nuclear Regulatory Cot =nission Region 1 office. That's King,,

of Prussia.

v" LIVINCCOD:

How car. this plant go back on stream? Can it go back just on Me. Id's decision,.put it back or does Met Ed go through.some kind of regulatory step, and d at are those steps?

50= SITE:

Well, there is no clear-cut regulatory steps but the Nuclear Regulatory Office will undoubetedly investigate the incident to the nth degree. They will do a very detailed investigatien of the incident. Be assured that that plant is safe before they allow it to go back into operation again and things have been cleaned up.,

ROSS:

How is this affecting the electrical output for people in the ares?

DC USITE:

I really don't have that information. - Possibly Ray would have.

I would thipk that they have already been picked up on the Pe'nnsylvania HOLST:

Jersey, Maryland bridge and arrangements being made beeveen the

-systems and the other systc=s'in the Commonwealth to pick.up the load that they lost.

DOESITE:

I do kno ht unit 1 is scheduled to come back on line in about a we.st.

After its refueling LCTZ:

• How long has unit. 2 been in operation?

DORNSITE:

. Commercial operation, about December.

is not in operation now?

LENTZ:

DCRNSITE:

It's shut down for refueling. It's been shut down for about the last six weeks.

LENTZ:

Will it open this week?

- DORNSITE:, It is scheduled to.

I don't knos whether.they're on schedufe or net.

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yERRICK:

Rob long has this plant been generating at 100, do.you knowf DO USITE:

No, I don't.

It seems to se it's a-fairly recent developman't. I never thought TERRICK:

they were at 100% before.

j DOESITE:

It's been generating 100% before, but it's been in commercial operation since December. I don't know how long it's'been at 100:

Power but I know it's been producing quite a bit of power since December.

g Do you have any ides wh t caused this to happen?

KILU A

DO CSITE:

I don't know what caused the turbine trip, no.

s KILEY:

.When you say that the valves shut, what were they carrying?

DOESITE:

Steam.

KlLEY:

The valves that would be radioactive?

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.e DCLNSITE:

No. They were not radioactive.

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How did the radioactivity get into the atmosphere?

PAN. YARD:

I'm saying that some radioactivity from the primary system went DORNSITE:

through the reli,ef valves as a result of the turbine trip transient because of the pressure increased in the primary.

,s' Wait a second, let me try to get, you're saying that steam went

j KILEY:

through and a valve shut, why did the valve shut?

The valve shut because of some sort of a fault either in the DORNSITE:

electrical system orche turbine system. which is a non-safety It's a non-radioactive, non-safety system.

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PLEASE PICK UP WITH PART II 0F THE TRANSCRIPT 9

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-la-Fart. 2 have alve shutt the steam builds up behind them and you OK, and when the the temperature increasing...

the radioactivityj.

KIL :

Right, pressure increase in the primary system w tosecor'e'.

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DORNSITE:

turn caused,the release valves in,that system

', O What do the release valves do?

h primary The release valve had radioactive steam which went i KILIT:

containment which is isolated from the environment.

.i DOCSITI:

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How did it escape?

re may have caussi JENSEN:

Well, they suspect there may have been, the high pressuf the steam in fac s

a slight primary to secondary leakage that some oin fact,' radioactive DORNSITE:

before they could isolate the steam generator, was light pressure,. *t.

increase in this primary containment building.

leakage?

Had thera been higher pressure there would have been more MILLER:

Yes.

DORNSITE:

What syst m is there to prevent that?

en if you MILLER:

The design leakage of that building' is like.2 % per day - ev ly, if all had a 50 PSI pressure and if the leakage would give you o ld all of DOCSITE:

At 50 lbs, per cidents the primary coolant, the prima'ry poolant due to a loss of coolant ac b

4 pressure in that building, the dose rate would be may e local 100 nr or something at that local or any populated area in the square inch environment which is about normal background in that area.

e from There is a system in place in that plant that keeps the pressur HILLER:

going higher?

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into play Tes, there are systems that will do that, but th se that DCCSITI:

system to actuate.

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'I guess my question is, how much worse could this have been If there would HILLER:

interim.

It depends on what could have happened in theleak, which like I said, d

k that have been a very large primary to secon ary I want to stress that that is unconfirmed, 'I doit't k DOUSITE:

hat. caused the problenis.,

may have happened.

i

,they have and the systems to determ ne.w al means

• 1t is under control right now, they are cooling down the norm 4

So there is no problem right now.

j thef use to cool down.

How did the company discover the problem, is there some k T

KILEY:

that alerts them?,

ll, the Well, they could tell by their instrumentation that thereg we

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plant is designed to withstand this particularNow, the reason they n DOMSITE:

into the a trip from 100% power.is the fact that'when the release valves rel declare a site primary containrent, by their procedures, they have toW l -r at that point they have eq call the civil defense agencies.

emergency.

I don't know when they declared a site emergency.

They called civil defense and then civil defenpa called DER.

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Are you still' satisfied with the secune of three hours that...

ROSS:

as any

"' At this point I don't know, we will investigate whether there w "8

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is adequate?

ROSS:

Do you personally feel that that m *4 s

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If they knew befoi~e 'that I don't, but at this point I don't know. I don' t know what the situation was at the plant,in the meantime. I T., -

don't know when they declared 'a site emergency or that information.

do.'t know.

f se.

w How long will it take you to do a complete monitoring of the r,adiat, ion? -

1. !IC:

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Well, that is very difficult to say because we don't know how much we are

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going to find yet.

It depends in a great amount how much we will find, how far we will look. If it is just, there was very little wind this morning so that the radioactivity shouldn't have gone very far. >

6' JORNSON:

How far away was it measured?

DORNSITE:

Goldsboro, right across the river from the plant.

It seems to me we went through this a couple of years ago when we had a cloud come over from some kind of a testing explosion...

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MIIC:

DORNSITE:

Right.

That we found particles in Pittsburgh and different parts of the state.

1. !IC:

Is there a chance that this will travel over the entire state? -

DOMSITE:

No, the release was not, it will be confined to, the small release that occurred will be confined to the local vicinity.

Would you advis,e people in that local area not to drink milk?'.

LINTZ:

N DORNSITE:

No, not at this poin,.

You are not te$. ling them to do anything special?

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1. 11C:

DORNSITE:

No, nothing.

MIIC:

Just go on about their business?

. t D0RNSITE:'

Yes. There is no immediate danger or will probably not be any.

BRott !:

kJhodesignedandbuilttheplant?

DORKSITE:

~ Burns and Road designed the plant and the United Engineers constructed it.

by Metropolitan Edison REP (RTER:

It sounds like you rely heavily on the instruments and reports from Met Ed is there any reason why we should doubt the creBibility of that?

DORNSTEE:

No, we do a confirmatory analysis of their routine monitoring *dats. They take detailed samples of everything in the, envir orment of that plant, and be routinely take spot samples, independent spot samples..to confirm

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that their numbers are right and there has never been any reason, any difference that we have seen,...

REPORTER:

I[ this should happen assin, should we expect at least a three hour lag between the time it happens and...

j DORNSITE:

Well, I wouldn't but again I don't know what went on in the meantime.

s ROSS:;

. time alapses during a routine?

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ROSS:

You said routine samplings' are occurring, how frequent are routines?

Any idea?

DORNSITE:

well I don't know what the schedule is, but I believe, I am not

• respo.tsible for that particular area in our depsrtment but I believe we take milk samn.las voekly, DER and the utility takes milk samples even more frequently. I thinte.we take routine samples about weekly and they do it more frequently.

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What did the emerfency officials do when they were notified?

PINTEK:

What is the procedure?

1 the time and f1 cS11ed ge.

Well, I in fact, was the bureau duty of fice r at the plant back immediately to find out what the situatifn was and at.,

DORNSITE:

the time they still were, things were.under control, they knew the'r,e was',

no release but they hadn't really been able to determine what the So I immedistely came into the office whtre our maps situation was.

are in case something, in esse we would have had to do something besides just stay on the horn with them.

.t What I am asking is, what kind of a plan, emergency plans are in. place j r

to take care of people who live in that area, if it had been worse?

PINTEK:

this morning when my watch 'bfficer received the information, HENDERSON, At

. call was to DER, to alert them, now we received a call from his the supervisor on duty at Met Ed with only one statement, "w; have y,

an energency", no details, we son't have technically qualified personnel, to understand what the emergency was, except that it is a bonified We notify first DER, secondly my office notified Dauphin emergency.

County, although Dauphin County under our procedure, is directly notified by Met. Ed., and we verified that they had been notified I arrived in the office at 7:15 this morning, received th,e by Med Ed.

information as I arrived in the office, that we had this emergency.

Within 21 minutes we had notified aboet 8 state agencies chac had some part to play in it and five counties, well we notified three counties first, York, Lancaster, and Dauphin. SuSsequently, notified Lebanon and Cumberland County. Initially, our report was that it was a. serious -

incident, so odr procedures were to prepare for possible evacuation in the Yark County area only. About 15 minstes later, weshad received confirmation information from DER that no, it is being-contained within the plant site and therefore no evacuation will be necessary so we notified the counties accordingly to held down an any further action as far as evaculation is concerned. - At 7:45 this morning, I notified the Covernor and Lt. Governor.

Initially, you thought that it was a serisus situation and I ask you

• FINTEK:

now, does it bother you that it took three hours to tell you what was going on?

It bothers se if there was something serious that trippad this incident.

HENDERSON:

PINTEK:

Well you thought it was something serious.

HENDERSON:

Vell, my call at 7:00, if I had gotten a call at' 4:00 which told me -

hey, our number 2 unit has just automatically sh'ut down -- we don't know what it is, but we are a little worried about it -- this would

,not have helped me a hell of a lot.

They*wouldn't have said that, though they 's' aid it was a serious _ incident.

PA:~fARD:

HENDERSON:

No, not at 4:00 in the morning. not...At 7:00 they were telling.me they had declared an emergency there at three mile island. It bothers me that if they knew that they had an amargency prior to 7:00, that we weren't in turn informed.

Suppose it was more serious than it was, three hours after*it occurred.

PlNTEK:

What could you have done?

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Vell, we would have done our normal procedures, which is evacu' cion -

a HENDERSON:

however, if there had been,a spill into the atmosphere, it could possibly have been much too late.

PlNTEK:

Are you going to pursue this?

HEND 2503.

Absolutely.

4

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.oore-

Part 2

-4a-Let me get in there, if there is a situation where there was a perception LT. COV.:

of an emergency, and the Pennsylvanis Emergency Menagement Agency and F

That y u14 be Council were not notified, we intend to find that out.

extremely disturbing., W will make a thorough investigajionsinto that?*

- I am told appartently that there, was a norms) shutdown of the safety

system, cooling system began around 4:00 I have not had this confirmed of the power plant - there was not apparently at that time an indication that anything had occurred that was out of the ordinary in so far as radiation escaping, but if they did have indication at that time there an indication that there was an emergency and they did not let was Penna. Emergency Hansgement Agency know, it is a very serious situation

/

and we intend to investigate it thoroughly. At this time, we don't have any details insofar as what went on there, we dc,n't have any details

.beyond before we'got the call so it,is pure speculation.

PANTARD:

I would like to ask Col'onel Henderson who told him that it was a serious

^

incident?

, a-F HENDERSON:

My watch officer who is Clarence Deller received the call from the staff supervisor at the plant.

Colonel, the staff supervisor thought it' was a serious incident initially -

PANYARD:

RENDERSON:

At 7:00.

PANYARD:

Three hours af ter the incident -

HINDERSON:

At 7:00, that 14 the notification that we recieved, now what he thought, I don't know, g

D

.9 99s PANYARD:

He apparently tdl'd Mr. Deller it was a serious incident'?

RENDERSON:

Yes.

PANYARD:

This is-the staff supervisor for Het Ed at the plant?

S HENDERSON:'

"We have an emergency" o

He probably would have 'a good indication if it,was se'rious?

PANTARD:

LIVINC000:

He said we have an emerge: icy - did he say it was a serious situation? '

Where did the serious, term serious

• situation come from? from your people or from the plant?

e DEPUTY w.

SECRET 4RY:

DER RENDERSON:

That da my deputy secretary back there who' subsequently talked..to DER.

REPORTER:

The civil defense office notified DEET RENDER 30N:

• ThAt is correct, and thep we maintained constant communications with DER.

j They are our experts in this area.

l f

a e

PANYARD:

You ' told DER and then DER told you it was a serious incidegt.

i e

HENDERSON:

DER talks in.technicas terms then back, to the plant sup'ervisor to get the more specific details while we are going through our alerting procedure, as soon as our alerting procedure is over, DER or sometime in the meantime DER gets back to us and sides us some of the more specifics of what happened.

8 8

PANYARD:

Initially DER was told by the plant it was a seriou's incident?

HENDERSON:

sI don' t know...

LIVINCOOD:

Mr. Dornsife, who from DER, WInp talked to the plant this morning?

~ ~ --

-more-

-5a-

. -Par.t 2 I talked initialli c6 the plant when I got a call from Civil Defense, I DORNSITE:

called them back immediately. At that time they told me that they had sent teams out and they weren't seeing anything, but they hadn't.,

really sampled for very long, so they didn't know what the AFVe17 vere @

they knew they were less than a certain number,.wh.%h was. ve.ry small.-

but But my indi, cation was' so they knew they weren't releasing.r.y of f site.

that they weren't too positive of what the situation in the plant was --

they weren't too sure what was causin3, what caused the problems that may so I im=ediately have occurred, or may not have occurt.ad in the plant, into the office and in the meantime I called into the office telling sant in there to call the plant back and keep an'epen the first one who got line, which is normal procedure. We keep an open line with the plant i

so that they can continaully-update us with what is going on.

I think -

Mr. Ge ruski, the dire-cor of our bureau got in there and called back and he was the one that may have al'arted civil defense I don't know.

c As to the seriousness, we are trying to find out-where that evaluaticn JENSEN:

originated...

3 I don't know, I knew it was, in $y mind I knew it was a problem but I DORNSITE:

didn't think at that time there was anybody offsite being affected by it.

I don't know who made the determination that it was now a serious I

incident.

BRUTTO:

Colonel, one thing on the evacuation...Tou said you were going to make a determigation whether to evacuate. Mr. Dornsife said they have no s

mobila equipment to test for radiation. ' How would you determine who to evacuate? How would you know which areas are contaminated, which areas are safe?

HENDERSON.

We have a ma'p in my office which has "ciie area from one mile, three miles, five miles, out from the island, with a grid. Based on the sf the wind direction at the time, we would make the determination based on the advice from DER as to what segmeht, or what areas would need to be evacuated.

CUTEIUNST:

DER doesn't have the equipment to go on the site?

HENDERSON:

DER has to depend upon the best technical advice it can get which is coming from the plant. That is correct.

REPORTER:

You are relying right now, and apparently DER in only taking samples and taking them back to the planc, and right now even the federal government is on route but not actually there yet. So actually all of the Laformation we have so far is from Het Ed.

HENDERSON:

Correct.

e Hr. Dornsife, how did you then determine, or somebody in DER e

KILEY:

~*

thought it was a serious situation early this mornings When did you fecide and how did you decide that it was?

t a

DCR5 SITE:

We,ll, just from talking to the plant, through further information from the plant. I really don't know where this serious incident, situation came about. I don't know who said it or where it was said' or why it was said, but like I said we were in constant communication with the

~

plant and we coald tell as time went on they realized what* was happening with the instruse'ntation, they could pinpoint where the ' problems were and what had caused the problems. That is when we became, aware that there was really no problem concerniag offsite pecple. We are

-u only concerned about of fsita people. We are not concerned about the plant.

~.

KILEY:

Is this the first time that you had a nublear accident like this or e

a situation like this in Pennsylvania?

1 DORNSITE:

yes, KILEY:

How many plants are therc in Pennsylvania?

' nore-e*

~

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1

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4 I

Part 2

-6a-A i

er..

• DORNSITE:

There are currently four operating, commerical, operating plants.I' am sorry there are five currently five operating two at Peach Bott:m r o

down near the Mary 1 sad border on the Susquehanna, and one un't af" J

,s.v

/

,f

,f, Beaver Valley which is out west,of Pittsburgh.

e it

~

KIRKPATRICK:

Wh'y doesn't DER have its own monitoring equipment would seem that the public has a rignt to expect a government agency to bo on site and monitoring in such a situation.

a 1

DOR::SITt We have been requesting funds to increase our emergency response capability and we have bill before the House I believe that would give us more money "f

• +

to increase our emergency response capability.

KIRKPATRICK:

If you had that money could you hav'e had monitoring equipment out there?

/

DORNSITE:

Yes.

• ,g

?

KIRKPATRICK:

How long has that bill been pending, how long has that request been pending for that kind of money?

DORNSITE:

I would say a few years.

~

a JENSEN:

Mr. Dornsife, were you here several years ago under the other adminis-tration when there was a year-long I think, investigation to determine whether os not the state should establish monitoring equipment at these sites?

D0 INSITE:

I wasn't with the Commonwealth, no I was not, but I am aware...

~ -

JENSEN:

Do you recall at t, hat time, a decision was made on the advice of the technical people, that they should not.....

DORNSITE:

I am not aware of what happened at that time.

JENSENs You weren't with DERT DORNSITE:

No I was not.

LIVINC000:

kou mentioned one unit at Beaver Valley, is that Shipping Port?

DORNSITE:

Well, Shipping Port is not commercial, it is a federally owned plant it is a

, I as talking, Beaver Valley plant unit 1 is the unic I as talking about. I 'didn't include Shipping Port because it is not a commercial plant.

. TENS E:P.,

,Which one is currently shut down?

Beav'r Valley Because of the

- considerations; yes., Beaver Valley.

DOLNSITE:

e e

EIRKPATRICK:

When the valves tripped this morning at the plant and the steem built up what sort of effect did that have on the primary cooling system that cools the reactor?

s

~

DORNS!TE:

Well, like I said the release valves lifted, as designed t,o reduce the pressure.

KIRKPATRICK:

So the primary.cooli5g system continued iy operation, there was no danger...

DORsSITEi The reactor shut down immediately. The control rods went into the core and shut the reactor down.

JENSEN:

Was that done automatically?

~

DORNSITE:

,Tes.

JE::SE:::

In other words, that was a response inaudible it's part

' of the c,ontrol system.

g...

e<

-more-

.b.

• hth:22 Tha control rods go in to shut down?

g DORN5ITE:

Yes, they drop by. gravity are the ones c

Mr. Dorsife, those five units that you talked about, at three mile island, would you say they are in the most, of p11 ghose #

KILEY:

E

nuclear units, in the,most heavily populated ares?

r

• r

,s e

I don't have those figures on the tip'of my tongue. I could look them DCRNStrt:

up in the varfous documents. I would say it is three mile and Beaver Valley, just off the top of my head, are about equally populated in vicinity.

Have the people in Goldsboro been notified Colonel, do they know

/

JENSINs anything official, the residents?

The people in York County, civil de'ense personnel have been notified HENDtK50:3:

as to how further down the system went I am not sure.

i r

KIRKPATRICK:

Colonel, did you'say that when you got the first call this morning,*

f f

the plant supervisor said that they did not have the technical e

that capability to tell how serious it vas?

No, our system and our standing operating procedures which we have with HENDERSON:

this plant and with all other plants, in which we rehearse as far as the communications channels are concerned, each quarter, provides that the shif t supervisor on duty will make the two first calls going outside of the plant, will be one to tha, in this instance, and the second one-to us and the only thing that he tries to give to us at that time because of the speed of getting information out is that during our test runs,ethis is a test, in this run, this is an emergency condition and this is what he gave us - this is an emergency.

• JE% SIN:

Mr. Dornsife, was there ever anything pyroaching, or was there ever any possibility of the China Syndroce?

REPORTIR:

Have you seen the movief DORKSITI:

No, I haven't seen the movie.

There was no possibility of an explosion at that plant, nuclear explosion because of the lov enrichment of the fuel, first of. all, my understanding is that wasn't even in the China Syndrome. The China Syndrome is's terminology for a melt-through, a rea'ctor melt' occurring and the molten fuel going right down to China, which is of course impossible, first of all, but no there was never any relted fuel, there may have been

'some activity release from the fuel facause of the pressure transi nt the plant went through, but there was never any, fuel damage as far that as the uti w y knows right now.

LT. COV.:

Could I interrupt for a second. We are going to have to go ant seet with may I sugges,c thte if there are any questions

.the Governor, that,yeu might have further on this, that you get in touch with Faul

~

Critchlow's office, and we will be issuing regular statements...

-r 9

yANYARD:

Are there any representatives of Het Ed heraf

/

LT. COV.:

There are none here today, no.

g a

Is there any chance that they are in the building or talking to the REPORTERi Covernor at this, point?

y LT., COV.:

Not at the moment, they are down 'tryin'g' to. assess the situation at the plant and there are people from DER that have been in centset with i

them, but we vill talk wit!r them.

RT~AZTt2:

Is the're any chance that we can be briaf6d 'at 'some point today by sees body from NRC?

LT. c07.:

);e could try. Paul Is there a chance that they could be briefed by anybc.dy from the ERC or the team that is coming up?

. CRIT m 0'g I will ch,ack.

LT. COV".

We can check and,tet to you. Thank you.a.

tit 7 s'

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