ML19320D326
| ML19320D326 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 05/22/1979 |
| From: | Gingrich J METROPOLITAN EDISON CO. |
| To: | |
| References | |
| TASK-TF, TASK-TMR NUDOCS 8007210250 | |
| Download: ML19320D326 (15) | |
Text
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0 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 1
In the Matter of:
2 IE TMI INVESTIGATION INTERVIEW 3
of Miss Juanita A. Gingrich Auxiliary Operator C 4
5 6
7 8
Trailer #203 9
NRC Investigation Site TMI Nuclear Power Plant 10 Middletown, Pennsylvania 11 May 22, 1979 12 (Date of Iaterview) 13 July 3, 1979 (Date Transcript Typea) 245 15 (Tape Number (s))
16 17 18 19 20 21-NRC PERSONNEL:
'22-Mr. Dorwin Hunter 23 Mr. Mark E. Resner 24 25 800 7210GTO
RESNER: The following is an interview of Miss Juanita A. Gingrich.
1 2
Miss Gingrich, excuse me Mrs. Gingrich is employed with the Metropolitan 3
Edison Company at the Three Mile Island Facility and her job title is 4
Auxiliary Operator C. Present time is 2:03 p.m. Eastern Daylight time 5
and today's date is May 22, 1979. This interview is being conducted in trailer 203, which is located just outside of the south gate to the 6
Three Mile Island Facility.
Individuals present for NRC representing, 7
excuse me, individuals present representing the NRC are Mr. Dorwin 8
Hunter. Mr. Hunter is an Inspection Specialist temporarily assigned to g
Region III. Monitoring this interview is Mark E. Resner, I am investigator O
with the Office of Inspector and Auditor, U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in HQ.
Prior to taping this interview Mrs. Gingrich was given a two page document which advised her of the purpose, the scope and the authority with which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been given to conduct this investigation, in addition this document apprised Miss Gingrich of the fact that she is entiticd to a representa-tive of her choice to be present during the interview should she desire one and that in no way is she compelled to talk us should she 18 not want to.
The second page of this includes three questions which I 19 will state for the record.
Question 1, do you understand the above?
20 Mrs. Gingrich has checked yes, is that correct Miss Gingrich?
21 22 GINGRICH:
Yes.
23 24 25
2 1
RESNER:
Question 2, do we have your permission to tape the interview?
2 Miss Gingrich has indicated yes, is that correct?
3 GINGRICH:
Yes.
4 5
RESNER:
Question 3, Do you want a copy of the tape? Mrs. Gingrich 6
7 has checked yes, is that correct Miss Gringrich?
8 GINGRICH:
Yes, please.
g 10 o
RESNER1 Okay we'll provide you with a copy of the tape at the end of the interview.
At this time I will ask Miss Gingrich if she will give a brief synopsis of her education and job experience as related to the job that you personally perform, Miss Gingrich?
15 GINGRICH:
I went to Florida State University and graduated there with a BS in Criminology. I came here to Three Mile Island working as a guard and didn't find very much satisfaction in the job, or much of a challenge to it so I chose to try and become an operator. I took the exam and was qualified to take you know, to become an operator and go into the training program. My background itself is not related to much 21 to the Nuclear Industry. I had, you know basic math courses and chemistry 1
22 courses in college but that's about tha limit.
23 24 25 u
3 1
RESNER:
Ok, thank you very much, at this time Mr. Hunter has some 2
questions he would like to ask you.
3 HUNTER:
Juanita, going back to March 28 you were on the 3 to 11 shift 4
on Bill Zewe's shift at that time.
5 6
GINGRICH:
11 to 7 shift.
7 8
HUNTER:
Ah 11 to 7 shift.
g 10 GINGRICH:
Yes sir.
12 HUNTER: What activities were you involved in around 4:00 in the morning when the Unit tripped?
15 GINGRICH: Well, fellows, I had secondary operations that evening, which entails doing miscellaneous jobs or anything that they happen to come up with for you to handle. And that night around, about an hour before, I was adding hydrogen to the generator. They had a leak and so they had asked me to go down there and take care of that. Around 4:00 20 I was on my way up to the Control Room and that's whenever I heard the 21 turbine tripping and then I immediately went into the Control Room to 22 see where they wanted me to go and what they wanted me to do because 23 they always, you know, it's best just to be on hand waiting for them 24 to tell you. And after that, myself and Harold Forrest, they sent us 25 a
4 4
1 down to the feed pumps because they had problem with the turning gear 2
on the feed pumps, so they asked us to check into that and we saw that 3
neither of them were working so we called the Control Room and they 4
tried starting them from up there and they got the "A" to start on the 5
turning gear and the "B" wouldn't start so we had to start jacking it by hand to keep the shaft from warping you have to turn the shaft like 6
a half a turn every two minutes and it's more or less a continuous job 7
and that's where I was for the most of the evening except for one time 8
the other guy was working and I went and was help.ing Terry Dougherty, g
I was helping him out with the hydrogen seal oil. The temperatures 10 were leveling out. We were trying to get the temperatures up. Around a guarter of 7, I heard the atmospheric monitors go off by the vacuum pump, the "C" vacuum pump and that's, that was the first time I had realized that something besides a normal plant trip had occurred. And then right after that the announcements were given and everything.
Also at one time, when I first went down there I checked the vacuum pumps as far as their levels, their temperatures and they seemed normal, that was before I had started that work on the feed pump anu once later on in the, you know, when after I had been doing that 19 awhile I switched off and went over and looked at it.
20 21 HUNTER:
Okay, you indicated for me, Hunter speaking, you indicated 22 that you went to the Control Room and did you stand arounri very long, 23 a-few minutes?
24 25
5 1
GINGRICH:
No, I just got up there and thay were working and they 2
turned around and told us to go down there.
3 HUNTER:
Have you been in the Control Room before during trips, or 4
5 reported to the Control Room during a. trip?
6 GINGRICH:
At other trips one time I was outside, another time I was 7
in the plant and they paged me soon after, but this just happened 8
conveniently that I was close to it so that's why I went up there g
right away.
10 11 HUNTER:
In the other cases when you were outside did you make it back to the Control Room, fairly quickly after the trip.
14 GINGRICH:
Yes, I was heading for that and then they would page me, the one time they had paged me before I had got there and another time I ran into a fellow worker and he told me what to do.
17 18 HUNTER:
When you got to the Control Room this time Juanita, was the activity in the Control Room did it appear any different then it had before?
21 i
22-GINGRICH:
No it seems like well in any trip that we ever had that 23 I've noticed they kind of go into a panic which is normal. I mean not 24 really a panic but you know everybody is busy and it didn't seem any 25
6 1
different at the time and I didn't even notice anything different and 2
I don't think any of the other guys on my shift did eithen until later 3
on in the morning.
4 HUNTER:
Okay Juanita, who asked you to go down to the feed pump?
5 6
GINGRICH:
It was Ed Fredrick.
7 8
HUNTER:
Do you recall where Ed was at that time he had asked you to g
g d wn to the feed pumps?
10 11 GINGRICH:
He was up in the, in the middle, I really don't know exactly he was in the middle of the Control Room doing different things.
3 14 HUNTER:
Juanita was Craig Faust in the Control Room?
16 GINGRICH:
Yes.
17 18 HUNTER:
Fred Scheimann at that time.
19 1
20 GINGRICH:
Yes.
21 22 HUNTER:
Bill Zewe was he there' l
23 24 25
7 1
GINGRICH:
Yes, no I'm sorry Fred Scheimann wasn't in the Control Room at that time.
2 3
HUNTER:
Do you know wher:- he, did you see him somewhere?
4 5
GINGRICH:
Yeah, when I wei.t, I saw him down by the polishers later 6
on. Soon after that, he was on his way upstairs at the time.
7 8
HUNTER:
He was on his way back to the Control Room, okay.
g 10 GINGRICH:
Yeah.
12 HUNTER:
Did it take you very long to get to the Control Room after you heard the turbine trip?
15 GINGRICH:
No cause I was on my way, I was up the stairs, I mean the elevator.
17 18 HUNTER:
2 minutes.
19 20 GINGRICH:
Probably a minute.
21 22 HUNTER:
Okay as far as turning around and going to the feed pumps, 23 was that very quickly. Did Ed Frederick turn around and say go check i
24 the feed pumps?
25 l
l
8 GINGRICH:
Really I'm not positive on that, it was a couple of minutes 1
2 I believe, I'm not really positive.
3 HUNTER:
Juanita you indicated that ah, you made a couple trips to the 4
vacuum pumps, it's not very far from the feed pump to the vacuum 5
pumps?
6 7
GINGRICH:
No it's real close.
8 9
HUNTER:
Didn't jou say you heard a radiation area monitor on the 0
vacuum system discharge alarm?
12 GINGRICH:
It's on the wall right next to the "C" vacuum pu:ap.
14 HUNTER:
So it wasn't difficult to hear that alarm when it went off?
15 16 GINGRICH:
No it was real loud, in fact...
18 HUNTER:
Did you know what it was at that time?
19 20 GINGRICH:
Not at first until I walked up to it, I heard the alarm and 21 I went over t it and I couldn't figure out why it was going off at 22 first you know and then it hit me and that's when I realized there...
23 24 25
9 1
HUNTER:
Did you report that alarm to anyone?
2 3
GINGRICH: Well I was going over to report it whenever they made the 4
announcement about it.
5 HUNTER:
Then when they made the announcement did you end up going 6
7 back to the feed pump and staying at that feed pump?
8 GINGRICH:
Yes.
g 10 HUNTER:
Your next activity after the feed pump, did ycu check the g
vacuum pumps anymore or get involved in trying to maintain vacuum or reestablish vacuum?
3 14 GINGRICH:
I did walk back one other time after that and they appeared okay as far as the temperatures and the levels but I don't recollect exactly how much longer or the exact time span.
18 HUNTER:
Did you have any other activities before you left bes' ides, that day, that you were involved in?
21 l
GINGRICH:
No, I got relieved from the feed pump and was sent up to the Control Room then for relief.
23 l
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10 1
HUNTER:
And you went to the Unit 2 Control Room.
2 GINGRICH:
Yes, first.
3 4
HUNTER:
Where did you go from there?
5 6
GINGRICH:
Then we went over to A0 Central, he told us to go over 7
there and then from there they sent us over to the Unit 1 Control g
Room.
g 10 HUNTER:
And from the Unit 1 Control Room did you have any work there or were you just passing through?
13 GINGRICH:
No they were just trying to decide what we should do and then we left shortly after that.
16 HUNTER:
Where did you go from there, the Unit 1 Control Room, when you left?
19 GINGRICH:
Out through the processing ctnter, over to the 50K Station.
20 21 HUNTER:
500K Station.
22 2'
GINGRICH:
Yeah.
24 25
11 3
HUNTER:
500 thousand volt...
2 3
GINGRICH:
Yeah.
4 HUNTER:
And what did they do there?
5 6
GINGRICH:
7 They checked us with the radiation monitors, when over us and made sure we weren't contaminated or...
8 9
HUN ere y u in a car?
10 11 GINGRICH:
Yes.
13
"'JNTER:
They checked your car also.
15 GINGRICH:
They checked our vehicles also.
17 HUNTER:
And you went home at that time?
19 GINGRICH:
Yes.
20 21 HUNTER:
What time was that approximately, do you recall? Noon, before 22 noon, afternoon?
23 24 25
12 1
GINGRICH:
It was, I believe around 11:30, quarter to 12.
2 3
HUNTER:
What time did you come back to work?
4 GINGRICH:
11:00 the next night.
5 6
HUNTER:
For the 11.to 7?
7 8
GINGRICH:
Yeah, that same evening.
9 10 HUNTER:
Okay were you involved in any, do you recall, just to make g
sure we go through, you were on the feed pumps. Were you involved in g
activities around the condensate pump system at all during the time 13 you were there?
15 GINGRICH:
No, I looked over and saw the leak, the leak coming down from the booster pump there and the other men were over they taking i
17 care of that so I really didn't really get involved at all with that.
l 18 1
19 HUNTER:
Ok, instrument air service air system, that system were you involved with that at all?
21
-22 GINGRICH:
No, none.
23
'24 25
13 1
HUNTER:
Okay the ah, do you cecall who relieved you on the feed pump 2
when you left?
3 4
GINGRICH:
Yeah Dave Smith, that was around 8:00.
5 HUNTER:
Where's the A0 cantral the auxiliary operator central, located?
6 7
GINGRICH:
1.
. the north end of the turbine floor there.
8 9
HUNTER:
Okay is that, I'm try1ng to get myself oriented, on the 10 turbine floor there's an elevator, a candy machine and all on one end.
g 12 GINGRICH:
Yeah.
13 14 HUNTER:
Is that the end of the tunnel?
16 GINGRICH:
Straight ahead and to the left, on the other side of the...
18 HUNTER:
Okay I have no further questions, do you have any comments 19 you'd like to make?
21 GINGRICH:
No I can't really say too much. As a newcomer I can't add too much as far as what else I could of done or what else someone else 23 should of done because I really just don't, I'm not that knowledgable 24 as to what, details of anything.
14 l
1 1
HUNTER:
Okay thank you Juanita, I appreciate your time.
2 3
RESNER:
Thank you very much, the time now is 2:17 p.m. Eastern Daylight 4
time and this concludes the interview.
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