ML19354E870
| ML19354E870 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Nine Mile Point  |
| Issue date: | 10/18/1989 |
| From: | Rosenthal A NRC |
| To: | Carr, Roberts, Rogers NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19354E856 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9002020139 | |
| Download: ML19354E870 (3) | |
Text
_-
,kh OFFICIAL USE ONLY E'$
UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION i
j wasniworow, o. c. rosu t..... p'e t
October 18, 1989 j
MEMORANDUM FOR:
Chairman Carr Commissioner Roberts i
Commissioner Rogers Commissioner Curtiss f i)]
FROM:
(,V lan S. Rosenthal
SUBJECT:
SUPPLEMENT TO INTERIM REPORT OF INVESTIGATION (89-02) i In his October 13, 1989, article in the New York Times addressed to the hearing the previous day conducted by the Kostmayer subcommittee, Matthew Wald revealed that, "in an interview," Mr. Fortuna had stated that "Mr. Comley had provided important safety information and that he [Fortuna) was cultivating the man as a source."
I found this representation most interesting.
For, at b
no time during the extended March 22, 1989, investigative interview of Mr. Fortona was there the slightest suggestion on his part that he -- or,,indeed, anyone else in the agency
-- had received important information from Mr. Comley.
7 To the contrary, toward the conclusion of the interview Ms.
Chidakel (who was participating in the interview along with Ms. Cyr and me) opened up the following line of inquiry:
MS. CHIDAKEL:
I would like to put the question once and for all.
Have you ever obtained any crucial information provided to you by'Comley which pertained to official NRC matters?
Have you ever obtained any-crucial information from Comley about anything within the NRC jurisdiction?
Anything that you would consider-important information?
i THE WITNESS [Fortuna):
Like a violation about a i
plant?
MS. CHIDAKEL:
Anything that is important.
THE WITNESS:
He has given me information but I --
MS. CHIDAKEL:
You what?
I'm sorry,'I couldn't hear you.
9002020139 900129 PDR ADOCK 05000220':'
OFFICIAL USE'ONLY T
PDC 3
2 TEE WITNESS:
I was aware of it.
It's like he was feeding back newspaper articles and things like that.
MS. CHIDAKEL:
Have you ever withheld any information from your supervisors that you think in hindsight should have been provided to them?
THE WITNESS:
Gee I don't.
I'm trying to think of all the times and the contacts and the talking and what have you. _But I'm confident that if there was anything that I thought was important.
MR. GREENSPUN [Mr. Fortuna's attorney):
You mean really material and Comley who then repo. unknown to anybody except Mr.
rted it to you?
THE WITNESS:
Yes.1 Needless to say, had Mr. Fortuna acknowledged receiving significant safety information from Comley that was not already known within the agency, the next question would have sought to determine whether that information was passed on to other NRC officials (and, if so, when and to whom).
The Wald article does not clearly state whether Mr.
Fortuna was asserting that the "in.portant safety information" was p within the agency.govided to him or, rather, to someone else Insoftr as I am aware, however, Mr.
Comley has never supplied anyone within the agency with new information found to be of possible safety significance.
In this connection, in a press release issued on October 12, 1989, on the occasion of the Kostmayer hearing, We The People of the United States, Inc., (the organization founded i
by Mr. Comley and of which he is the-executive director) claimed (at 3) that it was responsible for bringing to the NRC's attention the fact that over half of the nuclear power plants in the United States had coanterfeit substandard materials built in them.
The press release further maintained (at 3-4) that the organization had forced the issuance of Bulletin 88-05 (May 6, 1988) confirming that fact.
In a telephone conversation yesterday, however, E.
1 Transcript'of March 22, 1989, Fortuna interview at 174-75.
2 Mr. Fouchard may possibly be able at some point to obtain clarification from Mr..Wald.
3 William Brach, the Chief of the Vendor Inspection Branch in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, informed me that there was no substance to those claims -- i.e.,
that the agency had learned of the counterfeit parts problem from other sources and had not issued Bulletin 88-05 because of Mr. Conley and his organization.
In the foregoing circumstances; I do not believe that Mr. Fortuna's representation to Mr. Wald (as reported by the latter) counters to any extent the findings and conclusions set forth in my September 21 interim report.
On the one hand, if Mr. Fortuna meant to suggest that he had received safety significant information from Mr. Conley, these questiens remains why did he not'so acknowledge in the March 22 interview and what use was made of that information?
On the other hand, if he was asserting that Mr. Comley had provided such information to some NRC official or employee other than himself, the still unresolved questions becomes what information and to whom was it furnished?
During the course of my investigation, no person (,r. Fortuna included) has averred that Mr. Comley M
has given the Commission worthwhile information and, once again, it appears that the claim to that effect contained in his organization's press release is not accurate.
cc Martin G. Malsch, OIG