ML20063E919

Affidavit Re safety-related Const Flaws in Installation of Pipes & Supports.Pipes & Hanger Supports Not Placed as Specified

ML20063E919
Person / Time
Site:	LaSalle
Issue date:	04/22/1982
From:	Greve E AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:
Shared Package
ML20063E917	List: ML20063E914 ML20063E919 ML20063E923 ML20063E924 ML20063N603
References
FOIA-82-248, FOIA-82-A-15 NUDOCS 8207140494
Download: ML20063E919 (6)

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• A A F P' I D A! V I 1 My name is Edwin Greve.

affidavit I am< submitting this freely and voluntarily,;without any threats inducements or promises.of reward ,

, to Mr. Thomas Devine, who has identified himself as the legal dire t Government Accountability Project c or of the Policy Studies. of the Institute for I wish to register my concern over safety-related construction flaws at the LaSalle power plant. c ear nu l I also want to protest construction waste that has raised the cost of thetplanti limits. beyond reasonable '

I have been a pipefitter and' plumber since 1955 I worked as'a pipefitter at LaSalle during M 1981. arch and April crew.

I did inspection and revision work on the h anger In April I tore my rightiarm out of the socket in an injury and have been laid upesince.

i A number of my concerns involve the design of the plant, which was very cluttered -

It was necessary to crawl between.the pipes in order to do my job.

Unfor-tunately, the installation of parts did '

not always match their location on the blueprints. ,

j Sonetimes one part was .

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installed in a location where the. blueprints called for . .

another. On one occasion I warned.a drafting engineer

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not to install a certain pipe because another.pgrt needed to go in that space, lie responded. ."I don' t care about anything I can't see."

Another aspect of design controls involves material

• traceability. Even if a pipe or hanger. support fits in a certain location, you have to insure that .the specific quality pipe or support-called for in the design is ac-tun 11y installed. Unfortunately,,that was not always the case. For instance, the metal inihanger supports is iden '

tified by a color co'de. When construction had the right size supports but not enough of the right color, they just repainted the color on the hanger., I uncovered this prac-tice on about 5% of my inspections. Commonwea th Edison ,

responded that the color's were wrong in the first place.

• I question whether the same metal.was installed as called -

for in the design. ,,

Other times the parts didnit'even fit. Por instance, another warker described to me how on one occasion a pipe jumped out over a foot when it was removed during a re- .

4 vision. It. turned out that construction crews had to use

'I a "portapower" Jack to wedge the pipe in when it was first' '

est installed, because it was too large.. I wonder how many '

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r other pipes of the wrong dimension <are wedged in that taut.

Those pipes will have hot water. running through th'em and

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nove around a lot when the plant is.in operation. '

• 4 In some cases I saw equipment that was damaged during ins'ta11ation. For example, 1 observed damaged gauges and electrical controls with bent arms or broken springs.

When I raised these problems with the foreman he expressed disinterest. -

Although I do not have f:irst-hand knowledge, other er.ployees alerted me to questions [about the quality of the concrete. They described how galoshes and timbers are im-bedded in the concrete, which weakens its strength.

I have been away from LaSalle for a year, so it is possible that repairs have been made.. I doubt, however, that reinspections have been thorough enough. One ex-planation is the nature of the construction and repair crews. All too often management:wouJ' hire Mexican or other foreign' welders off the street bf ebtaining tempo-rary work permits.

These employees Nere not always qual-ified and frequently could not communicate well due to language barriers.

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But.they were very well-paid and were totally,atjhemercyofthecompanytokeeptheirjobs. -

As a result, they could not be counted on for thorough, '

'DI professional work independent of pressures to speed pro-

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Another reason fo'r my doubts is the management atti-

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tude at LaSalle,1 i

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On balance, employee mor~ ale was'very )

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low. Most employees I spoke with hadtbecome apathetic.

They felt that thei* complaints would'not make a difference J

except for themselves - - they raight lose their jobs.

One of the most inmediately distressing problems ig-nored by management involved worker safety. For instance, many of the men do not know how to tie the proper knots for rope pulleys that hold heavy, equipment. Af ter I saw i

whole knots slip and thought ' about. the safety hazard, I i suggested a picture chart that showedihow to tie the knots right. Nothing happened. -

On another occasion the exhaust and ventilation f ans quit during heavy welding. The-room;became hot and hazy. ,

We were getting woozy from the' f umes. created by welding 1

and grinding into n.etal and paint.. I reported the inci-dent,'bu't' welding continued for hours before repairs were made. i O

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i I am not only upset about an unsafe plant and dan -

.i gerous working conditions.

I am.also upset, about .the

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4 gross waste at LaSalle. -

There.is no excuse for some o of l the cost increases that the ratepayers are supposed to

• accept.

The same systems were revised and reinstalled ~

up to five times.

One time while I was at LaSalle mass-ive structural beans had to be. ripped out and replaced, because the originals were insufficient load. for the stress '

I The utility has blamed the Nuclear Regulatory Co m-I nission ("NRC") for all the rework. In my opinion, how-ever, it of ten is th'e utility's cnen . fault.

While I was '

at LaSalle construction crews installed parts in Unit II that everyone knew were wrong.

We. knew, because the NRC already had required revisions-on the same parts n in U it I I can point out to NRC investigators the specific problems identified in this statement, and agree to accom-pany then on any NRC investigation of these chargesI am .

making these allegations because I am a perfectionist , and that is what is needed to properly build a nuclear pl ant.

As seen above..however,. Commonwealth Edison did not follow this approach at LaSalle. ,

~ !. As. a resul.t, when that plant gets a fired up I am taking my family on a long vacation

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I have read the above .1 page statement and it is true,  !

accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and  !

- a . j belief. .- , ,

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n < A4/4 Edwin Grhve j

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN TO

~ BEF RE }lE TifIS 1.2 DAY C" './1 d _ 1982. -

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