ML20063M639

Forwards Interview W/& Handwritten Statement of Assistant Business Manager for Boilermaker Union Re Allegations of Faulty Workmanship at Facility.Region 1 Investigation Revealed No Significant Damage to Tubes

ML20063M639
Person / Time
Site:	Shoreham File:Long Island Lighting Company icon.png
Issue date:	07/11/1982
From:	Hall J AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:	Brenner L Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel
Shared Package
ML20063M635	List: ML20063M639
References
NUDOCS 8209150313
Download: ML20063M639 (7)

Text

{{#Wiki_filter:,],1",'M cWn1'C?d. N.cW /FC" F O M Pd T dc W [ 8 [# ON Y 1 i P.O.. Box 51 o AW,wii, Lt., N.Y.11786 o (516) 744-2348 - 1 j h ' July n , 1982 Lawrence Frenner Administrative Judge Atanic Safety Licensing Beard U. S.N.R. C. Washington, D.C. 20555

Dear Judge Brenner,

Please find enclosed one copy each of an interview and a handwritten statemnt from an Assistant Business Manager for the Boilemaker's Union and a verker at the plant. Dese reports were collected as part of a documentary about the Shorehmm Nuclear Power Plant. . After my inte;rview with Wim= Ieneig I wited the defeat in construction te Mr. Charles Gallenia, an NHC Inspectee at the King of Prussia Office, and he began an investigation. In the investigation the NRC found no evidence of excessive scratches and ne significant damage to the tubes. Mr. Ioneig's stateent is se strong and since Mr. un llenia did not have the opportunity to read the transcipt of Mr. Keneig i I thought it appropriate that you hawr an opportunity to read the transcipt. Be ether handwritten report, dick was not reported to Mr. Gallenia, has recently been given to me and may serve in your decision == Hug. Caen17 wur film crew is ,=1=wn4ng te interview many of the principals in the licensing of the Shareham Plant and we would be very interested in *mmng with you about your considerations regarding the licensing of the plant in August er as soon as a decision on the license has been made. Till that time we would be nost interested in keesing abzsamt of the current shedule for the Shoreham Licensing Hearings and any other news associated with the Shereinam Plant. Would it be possible to have our address placed on your mailing list? *

                              . If I can be of any further assistance to you in your efforts to gather ydtinent information regarding the plant's operating safety please de not hesitate to call me at the number above.

l 7ery truly yours,

                                                                                     /ohn L. Hall, Jr.

8209150313 820913 PDR C ADOCV 05000322 PDR _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ _ _ - - - _ _ JR.15 E ?u

l Interview with Uilliam Keneig, Assistant Fusiness Manaser for Boilermsker's Union, eenducted by John L. Iiall, Jr. for dccumentary on the Shoreham Plant i on November 28, 1979. J.H. *inat are the problems associated with the sondenser at the Shoreham Power Plant?

                 '4.K. In my aapacity as the Assistant Business Yanager for the Boilermaker's.

Memebers who were employed at the Shoreham Power Plant souplained that the condenser box tube sheets were not alined properly and the tubes could not be put in a method that the manufacturer had intended it to be done. They brought this to my attention, they brought it to their foreman's attention, and 1:LCO's attention. And the only response they even had was that you were told to do it go ahead and do the work or else go down the road. Since that time they have contacted various publications to tell them what they thought was wrong because of the problems assceinted with using titanium tubes in this condenser box, its a brittle metal and is not intended to be overolled or beaten into place. It was intended to be slid into place by one man. Instead it would take four men with a sledge hamrer to c' rive these things into place. The mis-ebutment of the tube sheets is so bad that +he condenser box was cut apart over three times to a point that the. para-metal wcs eroded and they had to use baeking atrips as filler. J.H. You mean that they aetually drove the titanium rods into place with sledge ha=mers? W.E. Using abdge harmers with a, piece of cribbing inbetween so the end of the tube wouldn't be mushroomed so the expander would fit it. J.H. !s this a standard practiae? W.K. No not at all, it would. never be done. There's no reason for it if you l have proper alinement of the tube sheets. The tubes could be put in by one l' man sliding it into place, But right now in the beginning the tube sheets . were never alined properly. In f act to the point that they had to cut tube sheets, internal tube sheets,. loose and let them float so they could slide those forty foot long tubes into place.

J.H. *inat are the problema associated with titanium?

W.T. Titanium has some very high qualities that are idesl for salt water cooling useage. But the problem with titanium is thet it is a brittle and very non-ductile metal. It enn't be overolled or overexpanded. It must be werked in very close tolerancer and if you exeeed these tolersnees it would result in eraeks that wculd net be visible to the naked eye. You would probably be able to detect thrcugh a radiograph. J.H. Are these the sare retale usad en DC lO's? W.K. Tes, they were belts that w e ured to hold en the engine of the 2.C 10's anc eventually re:ulted in the engine falling of f and I understand that it is i a comon practice that titanium bolts are always x-rayed because the e cracks ! are not visible ta the naked eye. l

Interview with kW'an Koneig (page 2) J.H. Is ~.20 r-raying these titsniu: parts?

         'd.T. As to cu cowled;e NW -m ret intenc to x-ray them. All they it. tend to do is to put a hydro on the condenser box to test its water integrity.

J.H. Was there a hydro test o_~ the condenser this year and were there any problems associated with the test? W.K. I believe there was a hydre test. I belinve it pvred the hyd o test, but cli *he h%re test tells ycu is that it will hcid water. " ' "

• w m:h of the para-cetal is left ses'#d against the tube sheet which is the eritisal question. Did they over:11 the tube treet er did they rear or mar them in any way? Did trey ret up some type of stress in the titanium netels?

J.H. W* a at have been the comolaints of the w9rkers as ociated with the condenser? W.I. Well the nain compIxint is that they'll end up Seari:t- the brunt whe's the failure eventually oscurs, if it ever oecurs. It always cames back to the worker en the job. '#ner-as, I think its not the workers' fault. You've got an excellant bunch of union eraftsmen working out there. The only trouble is the supervision over ther. isn't syvathie or caring e teugh as to what the proble:as are te carrect them before they what could become a possible disaster. J.H. Ic ; ,c think 'T ^U r.. 't.e techn:.eal dep n to construct and coerate the Shoreham Nuelear Peeer Plant? W.K. Personally it would be unfafff5_ me to answer something like that because I don'T have the personal knowledge. I don't think I would be critical of someone else, but what I would critieize them for is not paying more attention to the craftsmen's complaints on the job, verifying it and if its false then they should l explain to him why its fa'Ise or at least examine it throughly, not hiding it * [ in some manual or keeping tue t:lueprints secret. This is what leds the guys to believe sore and more who live on Long Island (to say} "Je.ne, I' : not sure that I want them to. start it up." J.H. Do you think that. the EC inspector on site will help to improve quality assurance at the Shoreham mover Plant? _ W.K. It certainly can't hurt it, but until its broug=v. out and hard hats, union members, realize that some peonle who are making noise about Shoreham are not against nuclear power per se. They're just against shWy construction. And its really a proteetion for their own being, because they have a trade and if they want that trade to continue they have to make sure they're putting out a quality product. "'he only way they can turn out a quality product is by having their contraeters and the utilities enforce strict standards (that) are applied and heeded to en the entire construation progress, not only when it suits LILCO's needs or the contractor's needs. J.H. Do you think the verkers are concerned about the quality of the Shoreham Power Plant because it r ' leet en their (erafts==nship)? 1 l 1

Interview with William Koneig (page 3) W.K. That's right, its seing to be the first thing, just like they're bearing a burnt for the excessive amount of time it took to construct Shoreham in oo-parison to other nuelear power plants aeros the countr . One of the reasons it took the lenght of time it did at Shoreham was not the inability  ! of the mechania and eraftsmen there, but the inability of LIILO to pr perly  ! manay the site ef that type. They ha c never built une before. They have re e throu.h contractors euch as Dravos, Stone and Webster. They have tried different methods. Meantime who bears the brunt of the productivity being down? But again who was the one that oversees the productivity? It's got to go baek to them somewhere along the line. In almost every report I see published they're alway- knocki.g the low productivity of +he union werker which is n:t the issue at all. I believe the men are willing to werk given tnis ts work with, the rizht sonditions to work with, and a ressonable set of standards. J.H. Do you think the skills Of the workers at the Shorehan :lant can n:w be transformed in ta alternative energy like solar or other forms of alter-native energy? W.T. Dat's one of the attributes of most uniens that I knew. They have union eraftsmen, building trades people that have the ability to adapt themselves to most mechar.ieal situanations whether it be solar generator or nuclear generator or a fossil fuel plant, a coal burner what ever you want. These people have beenable to historieally to be abls-to adapt too. When we went fron coal to oil plant we knew how to d it. We knew how to go nuclear. But they still need the expertise (and) guidaase from the engineers and the supervision of the utility if they chose to be the supervision. An maybe , that is one of the problems that they have that LIIf0 might have choosen somebody who was more experienced at supervising the construction of a nuclear power plant and has a proven track record. I think they tried to take on too much of the share on their own being inexperienced in that form of eenstruction. And Ir ve seen this at the Northport fossil fuel plant. The terrible part of this'is that terrible construction like this will pass the hydro and almost 100% sure that the plant will go on line and within nine months or 6 months they wm end up ratcoling that condenser and our l utility rates will go up. Then they are going to say it was the terrible l craftsmen who did the job. And it wasn't that' at' all beeause_the guys can do the job giv=n the right materials and the ri'ght standards they can perform. i J.H. How de the welders feel about going into the plant after its become l radieactive? 1 j W.K. Well, I thin'c the general feeling is that the contraeterm ar e utiliites i tend to ahuse exposure levels that they subject the workers to. Right now the NRC sets a standard that each worker is 211 wed t, 'e exo sed to and the plant under its ocerating license tells the NRC bow moeh they are going to allow workers, outside or inside workars, to be ern: sed to. But because of the poor pre-planning of a job they put =en into hot rad areas where they j su'fer auch greater exposure then what they would h. ave if the job had been i pre-planned, but again the men are expenable. *he thing that really scares me about this is that all these levels of (rsdiati:n) that che NRC says that the men are going to be exposed to are theoretical. Nobcdy can tell 1 l

Interview with *41111an. Koneig (page h)

/- men that you are allowed to get 3CCO =r per year ,f 3CCC r: 's per year and in 10. years what hacpens if we find scrething? Is there a fund being set up'.' It ecul be ancther black lung disease situati,n 1C resrs dw. .he road. And we would like to see more money put into it to give our menhership more assurance that we do have concern f:r your welfare and 77ur health in the next ten (10) years. *tle don't want to see you dying of sm disease

            *atever r.ay be the cause. Or at the lest being assured that ther= is no c' anger there is n+ en ec there.

J. ~. ' o nk - ~n .~r ,- - ch = t11.

            *! t~.. . Fle,sure.

n

                              .                                                                                       s N

e 1 A e

je/c (l<s7?ca.s / 2~ L i / do _[ 1.1 id owmo w es ws > 7 red Avl 1} JG/Jres: /v m i / M ii). es u nij 47N dien

             ' Si9 sed by $4Rlos l [7]                   /s/ ' fc?TTe> fly vA )& c.s in                                                  9
                                                                                           .SAA7wnres,}vojfid din l'At Set (en w ell. Y)fS e ?A/> e s tu e+ e 7Adl y enTon Awny fiom e o n o.s10.,                                  . d. IA 0 O s u p e -- V->s > i ,
              .16ew }.kur rld, (in 4 ewis, fei-- , un n > j Thf sfesm{i}.re. s w ene c- Aid 77) , cur iA en,
                . b s e ic - A s 4 .

i ydr+e Ji e cheek valuea in > in .sx<n e ft,ErAy wAose inTe>nnt posts Ase Ae/d ' i n ,alsa < l wi+4 eommcw sres/ .spinps , +/e oid .ir)y i es w e+e* Sbo7'~ - doii-cled i-ep}ne ed t <, kh yAe sen> <

                 ' fype - 97 Jesijke / Je+ u s-e., si splY waren.

815,pi, >y was mnde of fibie,Gi.' Ass wbiNd wou Id e'r s Ynde' up un de+ pi. es.s u+ e te's rs . l thedi of kV

                  ,                                      .    ~

wn +

-f3ntrwne t-) ro ioo/ 7Je A2 d. in Ashsc.s . ' I Y$i5 fi,hidf blew 1,p'n>Y 4 h>inj m& Msh ff Jn bwei, psreJed, p p(riArd' g'y ,s- essw e,e over the his7 a yms. 1 i//e -{sxi<y p AsoMen ;jfel1 wiM a b nnd- /Ud. I ' ^ l ibw l  ! L d& .i&w.s 4 (sui ry_ q uity e y er.s Y M roJ,ihv,ony/xss i t e du >- ,o,)i,y oposnon. ,y 70 ,0 a r w a r e s r > j a . o%us si, tAs s ,> room.d p> eee pe -hee r-,epsm p( tA ohe a &>nsf +,>>'o.s j u sr our.s:d< ;&-) ,$ird pe jeny n d uti s a%. Aoles th u de .2 fose11,2x WMLs,nrf}6sK /euel To TNe pu fs h of & <- , busidi47 fo }ef t$e co,n7e>- ouY when t-d e . jo,joilj buptuses. 1 pe Toan Shonj ,st.> m. EEi o m 76 u fl w- my );l. cme fut aon2 /r7 i Y b+ thew n,phits e. .. *Z~ w a v i be /med'N171y gi$ed. - l 1 J// row many othe- son.5% ueh on m e >, wAo l wsuid p l.so g a K t h e a ,s i e a < er Avy Jirm-iA y 1 as h i ,i s.s su- anes wne nor med un r, y t f ,0.1-of/> % 'n L . I ou m.Qj feYin Pu?$ wi_Ws 1 jv r MY Atif f int . i l l}}