ML19343D436
| ML19343D436 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 09/03/1980 |
| From: | Mcgovern H METROPOLITAN EDISON CO. |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8105040481 | |
| Download: ML19343D436 (17) | |
Text
{{#Wiki_filter:1 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION (y 2
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In the matter of: Docket No. None k ), 4 METROPOLITAN-EDISON (TMI II) s e 5
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Nl 6 Room D-4 g Howard Johnson Motor Inn 2 7 473 Eisenhower Boulevard g Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 8 8 n d Wednesday, September 3, 1980 d 9 icg 10 Intervieu of Hugh McGovern, began, pursuant to notice, E 5 11 at 9 :00 a.m. <k d 12 PRESENT: Ec f-)x y 13 TERRY H ARPSTER, Office of Inspection and Enforcement (_ Nuclear Regulatory Commission m E 14 wg JOHN W. CRAIG, Offic of Inspection and Enforcement 2 15 Nuclear Regulatory Commission s j 16 NORMAN C. MOSELEY, Office of Inspection and Enforcement M Nuclear Regulatory Commission b' 17 y DAVID 11. GAMBLE, Office of Inspector and Auditor l M 18 Nuclear Regulatory Com;nission = 19 RICilARD K. HOEPLING, Office of the Executive Legal Director k Nuclear Regulatory Commission 20 MICHAEL F. McBRIDE, Esq., JANE PENNY, Esq., and 21 l Attorneys for Hugh McGovern l 22 i i V i i 23 24 i 25 ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC. 1105040 4 7)
2 1 PROCEEDINGS 2 MR. GAMBLE: We will go on the record. 3 This interview is being conducted' as a portion of the () 4 Nuclear Regulatory Commission's investigation of the exchange of e-5 information between the Metropolitan Edison Company and the NRC Mn j 6 on March 28, 1979. -y 7 Mr. McGovern, if you would raise your right-hand, I M j 8 will swear you in. dd 9 Uhereupoin, 3, 10 HUGH A. McGOVERN k 11 was called for interview and, having first been duly sworn, 's
- j 12 was examined and testified as follows:
= ('s d 13 EXAMINATION l (_/ E b 14 -] z g BY MR. HARPSTER: N 15 O Hugh, could you tell us briefly at about what time you ] 16 were in the control room on March 28, 1979? f d 17 A I entered the control room at about 10 minutes until 5 { 18 seven in the morning. I was there basically all day, until A; 19 approximately 6: 30 or 6:45. a 20 0 What were your duties ' on March 28, B79, around the time 21 period 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. ? 22 1 A Around 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., I was basically' supporting -- 23, I was a control room operator at the time, and I was basically i 24 i supporting the men who had the duty carrying out functions in the /~T l 4 \\J i 25 vertical section of the panel. i H ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY. INC. m
3 I If somebody said, "Open the valve to such and such," /m( 2 then I took care of that, and that kind of thing. I acted as an 3 extra set of arms. fs(-) 4 0 Were you on any particular portion of the panel or were 5 y you involved in it? 9 6 A There was not any specific area. It was overall just in 7 that back section panel. By back section, I mean the vertical i s j 8 section behind the horizontal panels. O c; 9 Q Did you briefly recall who was directing you to perform z O g 10 these various evolutions? 3 k II A Specifics, no, I cannot remember which supervisor was a y 12 where, and which one said to do this at this time. There were
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(-} f 13 several in the control room. \\_/ E I4 0 Could you briefly recall for us who was present in the { 15 control room in that time frame, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m./ = n' I6 A I remember Jo hwastyk and Brian Mehler. I cannot e , h I7 remember who else was in there. There were two foremen, Fred u { 18 Sheimann and Carl Guthrie. P "g 19 Q Do you recall who was the emergency director at that e 20 time? 2I A No. I 22 O Could you describe your recollections or actions at the O 23 thae of the pressure spike and subsequent to that time? 24 A Yes, sir. I was at the back left portion of the 25 control room, in ront of the primary support systems. At the ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC.
4 I time of the pressure spike, one of the control room operators b) 2 said that the building spray pumps were running. I walked around 3 ' the front of the console, to the horizontal section, and in fact 4 I saw the pumps running, and I observed the pressure spike on 5 g the recorders, the two recorders on the front. 9 6 I walked back around to the vertical section, and one R b 7 of the supervisors or foremen told the control room operator to M l 8 secure the building spray pumps, and told me to close the DHV-Os, 4 85V-8 c 9 z, which are the suctions off the sodium hydroxide, and the -CCC 1r c b 10 when the pumps were off, which is the discharge valve in the 3_ 11 reactor building. a N 12 0 Could you briefly describe, was there a general know- = () 13 ledge that you had had a pressure spike at that time, and there z 5 14 were a lot of people doing things that were in response to what { 15 had happened? x 16 A There was wwww a general knowledge that it indicated a g i N 17 spike up and down. There was a lot of conjecture as to the 5 M 18 causes. Yes, people were carrying out various actions. Yes, we cs 19 a had a pressure spike. This was not the first time we had a n 20 pressure increase in the reactor building, and we had had one or 21 two building isolations prior to that time. 22 O Were any explanations given concerning the pressure {} 23 spike? 24 A I don't remember anybody conjecturing on the cause. I s-] 25 cannot answer that question as far as to what other people were ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC.
5 I thinking. (~/ t 2 O Did you overhear or become involved in any discussions s-3 about the pressure spike? 4 A No. 5-g BY MR. CRAIG: N h 0 0 When did you feel that the pressure spike was real? R b 7 Uhen did you have knowledge or belief that the pressure spike was E k 0 ~ real? O d 9 A I think that the actual first time that I realized that ,zo h 10 we had had a nydrogen explosion, which I believe is what your =! II question is, was on Friday, in the mid-shift. e N I2 Q Actually, that was not my question, ca 13 (} j When did you believe the containment spray pumps 14 actuated because of an actual pressure increase in the contain-e b 15 ment, regardless of the cause? z y 16 A I knew that we had had a pressure incr-ase, or at least e h I7 that it indicated an increase. In my mind, I ascribed that to an m 18 entirely different circumstance. I felt that we had had an C 19 8 instrument malfunction and some sort of damage in the auxiliary n 20 building that had cause that, because that is where the pressure 21 panels are located. 22 Q Can you tell us at what point in time that opinion 23 l changed, that belief changed? 24 A Friday morning on the mid-shif t. It did not occur to me () s.- 25 up until that time that we had actually had a hydrogen burn in ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC.
6 1 the building. This was brought up by somebody else. (') (/ 2 Q So you are telling us that until you heard the hydrogen 3 explanation, you did not believe that-the pressure had been 28 (s 's_) 4 pounds, or approximately 10 pounds? e 5 A I did not conceive of that being a real possibility. E N ~ h 6 BY MR. HARPSTER: E 7 Q Le me ask you. Youvere a control room operator, is that 6 g 8 correct? d d 9 A Yes. i O g 10 Q How did you account for the spike being an instrument 3 h 11 malfunction, with the diversity and redundancy of instrumentation B y 12 that you haie in the control room? E , {s.- d 13 ' A It is a fact that there are four instruments, and they E 14 are split up in various locations. I did a little rationaliza-2 15 tion in my head, which I thought that maybe we had an electrical N y 16 transient or something along those lines in the auxiliary e p 17 building. I based that on a couple of observations that were made s IS at the time, 5 E 19 I observed the waste transfer pump, the reactor coolant I E 20 pumps, the support oil pumps, and the gamma panel, which is a -- 21 the gamma monitoring panel which is part of supplying the 22 auxiliary building. All these things are powered:off from supplies 23 on the 328 level of the auxiliary building. They all died at the 24 same time as this spike. C'N) b 25 - I made the assumption that we had had an electrical ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC.
7 I failure, or some sort of mishappening in the upper-level of the 2 auxiliary building, that we had gotten a double series there. 3 There are three panels there, building spray panels. We had two ("h 4 (-) of those three that actually actuated the pumps. 5 g O Could you tell me how that would account for the starting a 3 6 e of the containment spray pumps? What are they powered off? G g.lf 2 Af 7 A They are powered off of the eME and GGB, which are on N 5 8 = n the 328 level of the auxiliary building. My ti. inking was that we d 9 }N had an an electrical failure that had gotten the gamma panel, the 10 j support pumps for the ecaction coolant pumps. Some sort of = 5 II electrical failure, or some sort of electrical transient that 's 12 E caused thepressure instruments to spike. 4 (' 13 My kncwledge is a little more intense in that area now, \\~)g h and I realize that it could not happen that way, but at the time x 9 15 g that is what I was thinking. = ~ 16 g Q Uere you aware of anyone, or did you monitor that hI containment building air temperatures subsequent to the spike? = 18 A I did at one or two times during the day. s E, 19 M Simon fols.20 21 22 (~)/ l s-23 l 24 s i
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8 l 1 ..Q Were you aware of anyone or did you' monitor the con-1 1 IIMONS 2 tainment building air temperatures. subsequent to the spike?- ] IcGovern f I/3/80 3 A-I'did it.one or two.' times _.during.the day,L.but Il don't -h '4 remember if.-- at the, time of-the.. spike I.was not back there. You '5 5 have to go around, completely.around to the back to read those. l l A. i -{ .6 Q Since.you reported on site on March 28th', 1979,'have. R .l F; 7 you been influenced to change any of your recollections directly-g. j 8 or indirectly? Oo 9 A Could you explain that question. 'I don't' understand iE -} h 10 what you are getting at. Of course, I have. I.mean, you know, l 3 i h 11 there was so much that happened after March the 28th that is .t ~j 12 occurred and it has to have had some sort of influence, but-I .= 3 13 don't know exactly what you are looking for. j 9 a sr g 14 Q Well, have you changed any of your recollections since j Y l March 28th? i 2 15 i w r x 16 A Other than memory fading, I don't think so. l 3 _j e 1 .. 17 i Q Do you have any knowledge-of pertinent information b Y [ I f 18 withheld from the NRC on March 28, 1979? 5 .i l 2 A No, sir. l 19 3 20 l Q On March 28th did you have a feeling that information-21 should not be volunteered to the NRC? i 22 l A No. h. 23 Q Did you feel t' at ansuering specific qu'estd>ons asked ~ -) 24 by the NRC fulfilled the reporting requirements? i 25 A No, I don't think that that fulfills the requirements ? i I -), ALDERSON REPCRTING COMPANY, INC. l
7 - - -. - - - -. - - - - - - - - ~ ~ I l 9 t I y.' '1 'by any means. But,'on the other hand, the-NRC had people come l !' h 4 - 2 in and talked to people immediately after the accident,.well, l 1 j g, 3 actually about 40' days after the accident. I believe they.took. 4 4 a great deal of information down at that time. We' volunteered l 5 everything that we could possibly,.you know, think~of.to give l 9 i j 6 them at the time. l 7 Q The investigations into the accident on March 28th j = l [ 8 have identified missing segments of data included in our alarm r) q 9 status printouts at various times on March 28th, the utility. i E 10 typer output and the analog trend recorder strip chart. l z r i E 11 y Can you explain or do you have any idea what happened i i is i j g 12 to this deta? R l' g 4 l j 13 A I know at various times the utility typewriter was m I m E 14 so tied up, there vas so much information coming in, that it was 1 g _ 15 backlogging and continuously typing. At_ times.it would' jam l 6 16 1 i and double print and things like that. That might be one possible e 6.: 17 source of, for instance, a lost time that.we didn't see-a time.on l i ? e M 18 there for a period or something like that. It was definitely i: 19 overworked. 20 Q Have you been involved in or overheard any conversations l 1 21 with respect to this data? 22 A No. .23 Q Are you aware of any efforts by MetJEd to locate or l 24 explain the d'isappearance of thi_s data? i 25-A No. t
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i i I i i 10. i ? 3 1 -Q Data reflecting the primary system parameters l printed l h 2 out during the day by..BSW employees - has never been 'found.- Do you-L I 3 .have any idea.what happened to this data? I t 4 A 'I don't know. e 5 Q The sheet on which the core exit thermocouples were i k j ' 6' recorded on the morning.of March 28th. vanished and did not. .i 7 reappear until MayL7th,.1979. Can you explain or 'o you.have any d ,j8 idea what happened to'this data? d ci 9 A No. I had nothing-to do with it. l 35 p i 10 Q Have you overheard any conversations or been involved i E l 11 in any concerning this data? k d 12 A No. i z E I f 13 Q Are you aware of any efforts by Met-Ed cc account for l 14 the disappearance of this data? f a 2 15 A No. l E ) l ~ g' 16 MR. GAMBLE: Mr. McGovern, one thing. You indicated l l 4 ^ l N 17 what you thought the pressure spike was, the signals and things j t w r a: i-k 18 like that. Were there any different explanations you ever heard 'l l = 19 from your supervisor, personnel or others?- Did anybody have any. H 20 different feelings? t 21 .THE WITNESS: No. There were a lot of different groups [ 22 moving from one side of the control room 'to the other side of lh 23 the control room to the shift supervisor's office. I would j t i. 24 presume they were discussing what happened here. There was a lot 25 going on. As I said before, my role was basically supporting the 1 I f-e l ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC. I
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+ 11 3 1 4 j I people that were actually involved in trying to control the plant. ( 2 I didn't have time to sit there and conjecture over different 3 theories of why things occurred. I just made up an idea in my 4 mind about what I thought had occurred. That was the extent of 5 it. I didn't hear any more about it, or, you know, it was just g n i 4 g 6 too much happening. i n 7 MR. GAMBLE: You didn't overhear any of these groups s ,j8 hypothesizing or anything? Q CRO o 9 THE WITNESS: No. As a junior level 499, one that ) y 10 had recently fiaiched training and was licensed I wasn't privy I ${ 11 to all of the conversations. I i B l 12 MR. HARPSTER: Hugh, as we have told you, a part of our = l f13 job is to try and establish the information flow cn that date. i' { 14 Could you tell us, to the best of your recollection, how informa:ic 5 n { 15 into the management people from the operators on the panel in = i l y 16 the control room and how directions got back out? w f I7 THE WITNESS: Through the shift supervisor basically. If E" 18 an operators was having a problem with a particular parameter or P l r I9 s some condition he would call the shift foreman or the shift M 20 supervisor over and explain his problem and the shift supervisor 2I would give him directions to do this, that or the other. They 22 also worked the other way where the shift supervisor'would go back O 23 in the office and then sit there and discuss what they wanted to 24 do, their next steps, and then come back out and give directions O 25 to the control room operators. l l ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC.
i ,i I i 1 1 3 12-f .5 1 BY MR. HARPSTER: t 2-Q Were you aware of efforts during the afternoon to
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dcaw a bu'bble? i i .4 A To draw a. bubble? I don't remember at the time. Now: 5, I don't remember. I know there were a lot of different plans l l 6 that people were talking about doing this, that or the other. I 7 don't specifically remember drawing a bubble or talking about-i g [ '8 drawing a bubble. ] I r) ci -9 MR. HARPSTER: 'I believe that will be it. I i l I c 10 Thank you, Hugh. ~l E l 11 'We will furnish you a copy of the transcript.for your 38 d 12 review. 5c 13 THE WITNESS: Thank you. l 14 (Whereupon, at 9:10-a.m., the interview concluded.) l l -2 15 j l 16 l i g 17 I s.:= l M 18 j 5 i 19 i E i 2o 21 22 j .l 23 I 24 t G. 25 ! l ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC. I
Q NUCLEAR REGULATORY CO.94ISSION This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter ef: Metropolitan Edison, TMI II
- Date cf ?receeding:
September 3, 1980 Decket !!u= b er : None Place of ?roceeding: 11arrisburg, Pa. were held as herein appears, and tha: this is the criginal transcript thereof for the file of the Cc==ission. PATRICIA MINSON Official Reper:er (Typed) h % ', A. nL:n ~ Official Reporter ( 5;,g n a t ur e ) me 9 O ol W O. P003ORimaw
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMIISSION This is 50 certify tha: the attached proceedings before the -() Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter ef: !!etropolitan Edison TfiI II i,
- Date of ?receeding:
September 3, 1980 Docket Number: None l ? lace cf Prcceeding: llarrisburg, Pa. were held as herein appests. and tha: this is the original transcrip-thereof for the file cf the Cec =1ssion. PiARY STMMONS Official Reper:er (Typed) h W _-fN l Official Reporter (Signature) -e e LM a P00R ORG E l
h!G f 1 LEBOEUF, LAME, LEleY & MAcRAE. 1333 New HAMPsMint AVENUc,N.W. W4 HINGTON, D. C. 20036
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TMSMAS E.SURMg - MARVEY A. NAPIER TELEPHOest 3t3 339 3000 WILLIAM A.CARNAMAN. J AME S O'M ALL EY,JR. 4 SRIAN D. O'NEILL *& CASLE ADDRESS JOHN S.CMASg KOSER D, FE L DM AN.g - J. MICHAEL PARISM LESWIN,NEW YORm EU$ENE R. FIDELL *a JOMN C.RICMARDSON & WILLIAM W. ROSENGLATT ggggg 4334,g JACOS FRIEDLANDER JOMN A. RUDY 'AN2REW GANSSERO JAfG. SAFER 47 SEREELEY SOutRE GERARD OIORDANO
- ATRICK J. SCOGNAM BOLIO DONALD J.OREENE LONoON W.,
S.S. E,eOLA,D JAMESA.OREER,a.. = g,M;,=;;,D;&,,, m E 0 E OI A. . m l . =3S OAS. MALCvON O.S INNER U " TELEA SSSSS g g"gy'. S UO D E N CARL D. MOSELMAN g MICMAELIOVENKO EUGENE S. THOMAS.JR.*4 JAMES F JOHNSON,4m LEONARD M. TROSTEN 's RON AL D D. JONES M AR RY M. VOIOT *4 JAMES A. LAPENN M. RICHARD WACMTEL ORANT 5. LEWIS GER AR D P. WATSON RIMSA WOOD LOVEJOY TMOMAS A. IIERN
- RESIDENT PARTNERS WASNINGTON OFFICE RESIDENT PARTNERS LONDON OFFICE December 9, 1980
. ADMITTED TO THE DISTRICT OF COLuMSIA BAR Mr. Norman C. Moseley Director Division of Reactor Operations E Inspection Office of Inspection and Enforcement U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission-Washington, D.C. 20555 Re: NRC Investigation of March 28, 1979 Accident at Three Mile Island - Unit'2 i l
Dear Mr. Moseley:
l In response to your letter of September 15, 1980, the following are transcript corrections to the September j i 3, 1980 testimony of Mr. Hugh A. McGovern. I' PAGE LINE WORD (S) THAT NOW APPEAR CHANGE TO. i V3 16 JoeChwastyk Insert space between " Joe" i li and "Chwastyk" i 6.s e W'/ N t ,3 24 ' E9 'DSB-1S-Change "DSB-IS" to "BSV-1" i- .J
~ ' PAGE LINE WORD (S) THAT NOW APPEAR CHANGE TO { t/4 16 not Delete "not" [ 7-21e and 22e Change "21e" and "22e" to "2-le" and- "2-2e" 10 reaction Change "reac-tion" to " reactor" 11 9 COO Change-" COO" to "CRO" In addition to the statutory witness fee of S30 i per day to which he is entitled,-Mr..McGovern is entitled to $3.20 for a total of 16 miles to-and from the. interview and hereby requests a total of'S32.20 for his appearance. Very truly-yours, 6h' -O b cc: Mr. Hugh A. McGovern' Smith B. Gephart, Esq. l O i l 1O-I 4 +- e + er eyy --t -y vm vmv-- -yw mm-rw y,9e-ms -w g-pgiP '+-goy.etty.-g9.. gr$pt-e'+ yw$--w-g-a-y 2aqa74 m. yy-=mMq gr -ee
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