ML20023B364

Requests Immediate Halt to All Work Re Restart.Tmi Mgt Charged W/Blatant Disregard for Legally Required Procedures & Vindictiveness Against Employees Concerned About Safety. Unit 1 Restart Must Be Disallowed

ML20023B364
Person / Time
Site:	Crane
Issue date:	03/23/1983
From:	King R THREE MILE ISLAND PUBLIC INTEREST RESOURCE CENTER
To:	Palladino N NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
References
NUDOCS 8304250264
Download: ML20023B364 (10)

Text

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Three Mile Island

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Public Interest Resource Center 717 233 4241 Harrisburg, Pa.17103 e

1037 ' Maday Street e

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. Jiarch 23, 1983 E

e Nunzio Palladino, Chairman 83 E 22 Jn us Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C.

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Dear Chairman Palladino:

I write on behalf of the Three Mile Island Public Interest Resource Center in Harrisburg, and its seven f

constituent groups representing people in South Central Pennsylvania who are concerned about health and safety hazards represented by the cleanup of Three Mile Island Unit 2 and GPU's publicly stated plans to restart Unit 1 in mid-July.

l We are deeply disturbed by allegations made by Richard D. Parks, sersior startup engineer at Three Mile Island, Unit 2, eqtiipment has been modified and snap judge-which claim that "

ments made without proper engineering analysis, quality assurance have intentionally been skipped and totally circumvented, steps rules and documents have been changed after the fact to justify Quality Assurance violations, and those who have defended the normal system of nuclear industry checks and balances have faced pressure, intimidation and retaliation which stripped them of the authority to function as viable members of the g

management team."

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This utility, GPU Nuclear Corporation, has a quality i

The law requires them to follow the assurance program.

in 1979, and they reduced TMI Unit 2 procedures.

They didn't to a pile of radioactive rubble and brought Central Pennsylvania to the brink of disaster.

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Y Q30@b Nuclear Power, Mereh 28 Comittion, Newb, An4 Nuclear Group Repeseentu.g Yoek. Centrol Pennsylvenne Union Caslition, Envic-rtal Coalition on*** Aaminet Nu a-sa===

four years' later, we learn that the TMI management,

Now, a joint Bechtel and GPU Nuclear Corporation team, is still They ta,Re reprisals not following legally required procedures.

against their employees, instead of listening to their concerns about safety, for the sole purpose of staying on schedule.

The lessons learned at Three Mile Island convince us that this management, General Public Utilities Nuclear Corporation, cannot be trusted with safe cleanup of Unit 2, or safe restart In the face of crucially and operation of Unit 1 at TMI.

serious allegations made about management integrity, we call I

all work at for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to halt TMI Units 1 and 2 immediately, save for maintenance necessary for safety.

Most sincerely, f

Randy King, President TMI Public Interest Resource Center e

Three Mile Island Public Interest Resource Center e

717 233-4241 Harnsburg, Pa.17103 1037 MaClay Street e

NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release MARCH 24, 1983 CONTACT:

Kay Pickering TMIA office (717) 233-7897 Home phone louise Bradford (717) 232-3070 TMI PIRC CALIS FOR HALT TO OPERATIONS AT TMI The Three Mile Island Public Interest Resource Center (TMI PIRC) today asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to halt all work at Three Mile Island Units 1 and 2, except for necessary maintenance, and called for a Congressional Invest-igation of allegations of quality assurance violations in the TMI Unit 2 cleanup.

Citing allegations made yesterday by Richard D. Parks, a Senior S. tart-Up Engineer at TMI Unit 2, TMI PIRC also called for formation of a high-level independent commission to inspect and monitor future cleanup activities at TMI.

In a letter to U.S. Representative Morris Udall, Randy King, PIRC President, linked Park's allegations with conditions at the plant before the 1979 accident.

"The accident at TMI Unit 2, " King noted, "was, to a large extent, the result of gross incompetence in the operation of the nuclear reactor and occurred when personnel were operating outside the constraints of GPU's own procedures."

Expressing concern for the safety implication-s of the charges, King wrote, "it is imperative to understand that any one of the several possible accident events during cleanup operations would potentially result in a Class 9 accident."

30 See Letters Attached: NRC, Rep. Udall, Gov. Thornburgh.

I Anti Nucteer Grous fleptementh.g York. Centrol Pennsylvanie Union Coalition. Environmentel Coalition on' huclear Power, March 28 Comitt Township TMl Steering Committee. People Against Nucieer Energy. Suecehenna Valley Alliance. Three M64 Isaacd Alert

Throo Mila Icland Public Interest Resource Center e

717 233-4241 Harnsburg, Pa.17103 1037 Maclay Street

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e March 23, 1983 The Honorable Richard Thornburgh Governor Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Harrisburg, Pa., 17120 Dear Governor Thornburgh I write to you' on behalf of the Three Mile Island Public Interest Resource Center and its seven constituent groups representing people in South Central Pennsylvania who are concerned about the health and safety hazards involved with the cleanup of Unit 2 at Three Mile Island and the prematiure restart of Unit 1.

We are deeply disturbed by allegations made by Richard Parks,a senior startup engineer for the Bechtel Corporation D.

at Three Mile Island Unit 2, in a 56 page affidavit.'

Mr. Parks charges that the management of TMI Unit 2 has sacrificed its own system of safety-related checks and balances for TMI clean-up activities in order to meet unrealistic time schedules.

We are enclosing a copy of Mr. Parks affidavit and the News Release from the Government Accountability Project so you can read the allegations in full.

The law GPU Nuclear has a Quality Assurance Program.

requires them to follow the procedures.

They didn't in 1979, and they reduced TMI Unit 2 to a pile of radioactive rubble and brought Central Pennsylvania to the brink of disaster.

four years later, we learn that the TMI management,

Nov, is still not joint Bechtel and GPU Nuclear Corporation team, a

following legally requirked procedures.

They t'ake reprisals against their employees, instead of listening to their concerns about safety, for the sole purpose of staying on schedule.

a.m o, no nei.,, v centres pena ve i. uni.a c iai.a. sa w ameni e co.Htion on Nucl t Pous.r, Mer.fi 28 C iltio T

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p In the face of crucially' serious allegations made s

about management integrity, we have writen to Chairman Nunzio Palladino of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission calling for the Commission to halt all work at TMI Units 1 and 2 immediately'save for mainte nance work necessary for safety.

We have called upon the Honorable Morris Udall, Chairman of the. House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs to hold hearings and conduct a formal investigation into GPU's management of the TMI Unit 2 cleanup and the NRC's oversight of cleanup activities.

We call upon you as Governor of the State of Pennsylvania to lend every assistance to any investigation, either govern-mental or independent, into these crucial safety issues.

We, further, invite you to join us in insisting that an independent panel b~e established that will possess as its sole consideration the health and safety'of area residents.

This panel should monitor every aspect of cleanup operations in detail and insure that every proper safeguard is meticulously observed.

Sincerely yours,

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Randy King, President TMI Public Interest Resource Center

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Three Mile Idand Public Interest Resource Center e

717 233-4241 Harnsburg, Pa.17103 1

1037 Maday Street e

March 24, 1983 l

The Honorable Morris K. Udall, Chairman l

Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs U.S. House of Representatives f

Washington, D.C.

20515 Representative Udall, I write on behalf of the Three Mile Island Public Interest Resource Center in Harrisburg, and its seven constituent groups representing people in South Central Pennsylvania who are concerned about health and safety problems presented by Three Mile Island.

Allegations by Richard Parks, a senior start up engineer at TMI unit II as aired by the Government Accountability Project of the Institute for Policy Studies come as one more indictment in a long record of mismanagement and incompetence i

by General Public Utilities (GPU). Four years after the Unit II accident we no longer have any shred of confidence in the ability of GPU management or in the integrity of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) as an oversight body entrusted l

with the public welfare. Your committee has investigated many aspects of the TMI accident and its consequences and are uniquely qualified to conduct hearings into difficult technical issues. Therefore, we request that the Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment hold hearings and conduct a formal invest-igation into GPU's management of the TMI-II cleanup and the NRC's oversight of cleanup activities.

We make this request for the following reasons:

The accident at TMI pnit-II was,,to a large extent, the result of gross incompetence in the operation of the reactor and occured when personnel were operating (1)

Anti-Nusseer Geone b_r::..e York. Control Pennsylvenie Union Coalition. Enwronmental Coalition on Nuclear Power, Tm-N TM8 Steerine Com% p. cole Aee net Nucieer Enerw, Su=d_; ; Valley Allianee. Three Mile leder si Alert

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outside the constrainto of GPU's own proccdurco.

Substantive allegations arose during Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Hearings that it is not uncommon for TMI personnel to circumvent operational guidelines and that such conduct during the accident was in no way an isolated instance.

A compelling body of evidence exists indicating widespread cheating on operators qualifying examina-tions beyond the one case that was proven during the hearing process.

The integrity of management is cast into extreme doubt in regard to theirs

1) condoning and encouraging grave procedural improprieties in the cleanup activities at Unit-II as attested by Mr. Parks' affidavit, and GPU management's disregard for the consequences to publie safety,

2) dissemination of information to the proper Pennsylvania emergency authorities, and therefore to the public, during the course of the accident, and'

3) probable complicity in the fraudulent exam-ination of at least one operator.

Since these are long and ongoing problems that have bSNEEeidconsiderablehdBkicifyandare,'afterfouryears, uncorrected, and since the NRC has held GPU under intense scrutiny throughout this period of time, including the estab-lishment of a special NRC office.and on-site personnel, we must conclude that the NRC is fully aware of these circum-stances and is very unlikely to intervene on behalf of the public interest. Mr Parks cites several specific events that substantiate this conclusion.

Additionally, we request your aid in the establishment of an independent panel to inspect and monitor cleanup activities at Unit-II. We think this panel should be of the l

stature of the Kemeny Commission but should be appointed with the approval of TMIPIRC, the coalition of area citizens groups concerned about TMI hazards.

It is imperative to understand that any of several possible accident events during cleanup operations would l

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potenticily rc; ult in a c1cco 9 cccident. Tha manngement problems' t ? GPU extend also to the restart of Unit-I.' When combined with serio'us questions about the condition of essent-ial elements of that reactor, the incompetence of GPU manage-ment subjects the people of this area to a double jeopardy that threatens their homes and families. Therefore, we urge your assistance in the invoking of a complete moratorium over activities in either Units-I or II until these critical questions can be resolved.

Respectfully, andy King, Pres.

Three Mile Island Public Information Resource Center 6

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h;g NewsRelease PRESS CONFERENCE:

Wednesday, March 23, 1983 d hte h E D M eS at 2:15 p.m.

1901 Q Street, N.W.

1901 Que Street. N.W.

Washington. D.C. 20009 Tel: 202 234 9382 FOR RELEASE:

6:00 PM R MORE INFORMATION

.iTACT:

Billie Garde (202)234-9382 Tom Devine (202)667-7904.

March 22, ;

'l THREE-MILE ISLAND ENGINEER FILES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR GAP ANNOUNCES TMI-II INVESTIGATION COMPLAINT, Mr. Richard Parks, a senior startup engineer for the Bechtel Corporation at the Three Mile Island (TMI) Unit II, today charged his management -- a team -- with reprisals and joint Bechtel and General Public Utilities (GPU)

I harassment after he and others revealed massive quality assurance violations r

l and significant safety concerns during the last two months about TMI cleanup i

Through his counsel, the Government Accountability m2d recovery operations.

Parks filed a Department of Labor complaint charging that l

Project (GAP),

intimidation and actions to strip him of significant f

management harassment; f

duties on-site are illegal under the Atomic Energy Act. As a result of Mr.

allegations, GAP has begun a preliminary investigation into the Parks' TMI cleanup.

Parks, an engineer with over a dozen years of military and commercial nuclear power experience, detailed his charges in a 56 page affidavit.

His primary concerns center around use of the " polar crane" which will lif t and remove the reactor vessel head and other heavy equipment to allow cicanup of the Unit II reactor.

His charges include --

• safety-related modifications to equipment and components without full prior engineering and approval;

• quality assurance violations through issuance of test and administrative procedures without prior review and approval;

• plans to use the polar crane without conducting all necessary safety tests and conclusions;

• appointment to a key oversight role of the individual reported on-site as the " mystery man" who shut of f the safety injection pumps responsible for much of the damage at the original accident;

• lack of an' integrated schedn.lo b3 tween polar crcn3 cnd othar reactor. vessel heqidlift activities;

• severe harassment and retaliation against those who internally challenged these violations, including investigation and dis-missal for utterly pretextual, previously-undefined offenses; and

• NRC collusion with the misconduct.

Parks charged that these practices were intentional and compromise the internal system of checks and balances.

The abuses resulted from a manage-ment attempt to conduct additional radiation monitoring without falling bdhind schedule after it was discovered in January that radiation levels undsr the reactor vessel are 30 times higher than previously estimated.

In a letter today to NRC Chairman Nunzio Palladino, GAP Legal I

Director Thomas Devine stat'ad-We are alarmed that Mr. Parks' experience mirrors that of so many other nuclear workers who have contacted us.

He reports that your

Instead, agency has failed to aggressively pursue his concerns.

NRC representatives violated his confidentiality, flatly refused to investigate his charges of reprisals, and rejected his allegaticns on flatly inaccurate grounds contradicted both by NBC notes and cor-porate QA records issued at the same time. Perhaps most disturbing, l

he reported a practice at TMI for NRC representatives to provide the I

licensee with advance drafts of Coamaission documents, and vice versa.

After a consensus was reached, the " official" version would 1e released.

The continuing allegations of NRC-utility collusion are shattering public confidence in the Commission.

Mr. Parks, and GAP, want to cooperate with the NBC. As a result, we are submitting his affidavit for your review. Unfortunately, to date Commission representatives have not responded to Mr. Parks in good faith.

As a result, we have advised Mr. Parks not to communicate further with the NRC until we can negotiate with the Connaission to ensure that objective, independent l

technical and investigative staff will be assigned to his case.

Mr. Parks' affidavit also has been forwarded to Congressman Udall's House Interior Subcormittee on Energy and the Environment.

Like many whistleblowers, Parks first attempted to work within the system -- both the corporate and NRC versions.

In a prepared statement, he explained why he is going public" and legally defending his rights--

...I am disillusioned that GPU and Bechtel management are taking such a sloppy approach toward restoring TMI Unit II.

In light of the damage already done at TMI, there is no excuse to gamble on public health and safety, in order to meet cost and production schedules, I an equally disillusioned that the NRC has knowingly.provided At the i

informal guidance and formal approval for this misconduct.

same time, the NRC has failed to work in good faith with employees like myself who seek to uphold the law. If the NRC and the nuclear industry are this careless at TMI, how much can we trust the programs at other plants? - --.

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