ML20079F257

Expresses Concern Re Commission Comments During 831207 Briefing/Possible Vote on TMI Steam Generators.Comments Reveal Culpability of Chairman Palladino & Commissioner Roberts

ML20079F257
Person / Time
Site:	Three Mile Island
Issue date:	01/12/1984
From:	Jun Lee AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:	Asselstine J, Gilinsky V, Palladino N NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
References
ISSUANCES-OLA, NUDOCS 8401180202
Download: ML20079F257 (4)

Text

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< 7 January 12, 1984 'T MF2CT.A.'IUF FCE

Chairman Palladino Commissioner Gilinsky Commissioner Asselstine Commissioner Bernthal Comissioner Roberts q - -r m. ..

FECM Jane Lee '" W ! ' . ~

183 Valley Ed.

Etters, PA 17319

SUBJECT:

BRIEPING/PCSSIBLE VOTE ON TMI STEAM GENERATCES (Wednesday, December 7, 1983 Coments rendered by several NEC Comissioners during the briefing revealthe culpability of Chairman Palladino and Commissioner Roberts. Their own words cast doubt on their ability to follow the law of intent to protect the health and safety of the publim Indeed,even to discern the difference between right and wrong.

Specifically:

Commissioner Roberts:

"How long have we had steam generators, the heat exchangers? Hundreds of years. We are talking about repairing a heat exchanger. To me, there is nothing exotic or unusual. We are not breaking new ground. Of course, you have some attenuate circumstances. You are working in a confined source and it is done in the field but repairing a heat exchanger is not exotic technology." Pg. 58 Commissioner Roberts misses the point by a mile and ignores the releases of radioactivity into the atmosphere thereby threatening the health and safety of residents who reside in close proximity to a nuclear power plant.

'IT.ere is a substantial difference between steam generators / heat exchangers in

a nuclear plant and a non-nuclear facility. We know and the Commissioners

{m should be aware that even though the tubes are repaired they will continue to l g release radioactivity into our environment along with the daily venting of l b krypton from unit 2 and the anticipated releases that will follow with the rug l fa w<

cleanup of unit 2. The entire coolant system of Unit 1 is now radioactive and 1

• han been radicactive fcr cc e time. All this radioactivity is canulative and i I

, it z vill /is having a devastating effect on the health of those who live in the o

vicinity of this site. See enclosure for leak path from S.T.-tubes.

-2 Commissioner Roberts: Pg. 68 "Let's face the realities of life. This is Three y.ile Island for goodness rd.cs. Surely the Staff is going to be overly reactive to anything that has to do with that plant and to critici::e this on the fact that you and your people spent a let of effort on it.

I don't think that in and of itself proves the point".

"Everybody is sensitive to Three P.ile Island, the dama6ed reactor or the undamaged. I don't think there is any weight to the argument that Ch, my goodness, look at this $400,000 that we spent or the two and a half man years. That makes no sense at all. It is an absolute red herring to say that this was a novel way. This was an improvement in a very simple method of joinin6 a tube to a tubesheet".

Cornissioner Roberts' cuggestion that NRC Staff suffers from over reaction due to the embarrassing circumstances at Three lule Island, flies in the" face.of the Staff's continuous supression of hard evidence in order to prevail upon the Cor21ssion to relicense the applicant. Staff is neither sensitive or over reactive when it cones to concealing pertinent evidence from the Commission or concerning itself with the health and safety issues.

Contrary to Commissioner Roberts pronouncements, this procedure is novel in i

the sense that this procedure is a first with nuclear steam generator' tubes The Commissioner uses a play on words to obscure the painful realities. If this is not a novel procedure, why did the Commission waste two and a half man years and$k00,000 to study the situation?

Commissioner Roberts: (In responding to Mr. McCracken on tube repairs)

"You framed it differently. You said the research was to confirm it was ao 6ood as a new one but earlier you said it was better, is that not correct? Pg. 92 McCracken:

In fact, when they completed the research-- ".

i'ould Cor:missioner Roberts and the Staff have us believe that brand new tubes in a brand new steam generator are less viable than repaired tubes? If such in the case, what dces this tell ur about the stability of any neuly installed steam generator tubes?

Chairman Palladino: Pg. 80

" Suppose we were addressing this situation de novo. k'e had complete freedom to do whatever was right. k' hat would you propose we do? Pick it early enough so we can pick our starting point. There have been fcund some corrosion cracks in the steam generater and they need to be repaired. Now what <culd be the right thing to do both from the applicant and the NRC standpoint?

1

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ . _ _ _ _ _ _________..a

Herein lies the crux of the problen with Co=issioners Palladino and Foberts.

Tnese particular Commissicners are filled with suppositions and doubts of what is ri nt6 which leads the Commission nowhere and creates additional confusien.

Not once have I observed concern about the health and safety issues but they ask "What is the right thing to do fer the applicant (licensee) and the NEC standpoint?"

l The realities are that the accident at TMI is not a new situation (de novo),

as Palladino fantasizes, it is five years old. The only obscure issues are the Commission's owrt Staff who seek to conceal evidence. There is sufficient infor-mation already available to convince a blind man that GPU is not fit to operate a nuclear power plant. Yet these Commissioners ask: What is the riE ht thing to do? Or, do we have complete freedom to do whatever is right?

Are these Commissioners sincere in looking at the issues and the violatiors of the licensee to render a verdict that would protect the health and safety of the public? Cr are they merely looking for an escape hatch to avoid the pain-ful realities?

Anyone so anxious to accommodate industry, the nuclear industry in particular, with no questions or concerns about the health and safety of innocent men, women, children and the unborn, should tender their resignation forthwith on the grounds they lack sufficient knowledge on nuclear power plants and the erosion of their creditability and competence undermines their ability to render decisions based on the law. There is really little left to be said when Commissioners require prompting on what is right and how much freedom they have to make a decision.

$$ 1 NdA-( --

, Jane Le JANE LEE iM Vallev Road ETTERS.PA17319 __

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" " SM *M h" says Rgnaid mynes, a recionalad-a

, BUSINESS tpmistrator for the hiEC and the top after the mishap began, the Ginna reactor Federal ofSc:al at the Ginna accident.

I was brought to a " cold shutdown." Five The industry also has far broader prob-workers from the plant had sustained mi- lems. It and the Federal gosernment have l ' nor contamination but there was no evi- not yet agreed on a permanent nuclear-dence of significant radiation beyond the waste-disposal plan, and eighteen states

, plant's boundaries. "This accident didn't have passed laws prohibiting or restricting come within a country mile of Three Mile nuclear disposal. Four others are consider-

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Island," said Frank Orienter, spokesman ing legislative barriers of thel own.

for RG&E. The industry's worst troubles are caused Tube Trouble: The Ginna accident once by the economy. Hich interest rates, soar-again raised the possibility of a nuclear ing construction costs and sluggish growth disaster. The failure of a steam-generatot in demand for electricity have dampened tube-the hkely cause of the accident-is a investors' enthusiasm. In 1980 fourteen problem that has plagued the industry for utilities had bond ratings lo wered, and last years. The huge steam generators contain year at least four suffered a similar fate. .

I thousands of slender,11 shaped nickel-al- "There's been a lot of trouble raising long-l Ao-,' which act as the plant's pnmary term capital due to the low financial health .

1 heat excharicers. But the steam generators, of the industry," says John Kellenyi, utili-designed to last 30 years, have compiled a ties analyst for Drexel Burnham Lambert.

dismal track record--corroding, leakinc One major concern is the cost of buying and rupturindn many plants after on]y.2 electricity from other sources when a nu-fp, ygs' us. Two plants have had to clear plant is shut down. At Ginna, RG&E replace entire steam generators, and others will pay between 5250,000 and $400,000 a are operating at reduced power because so day for replacement power and the plant is many tubes have been plugged to prevent expected to be out of operation for some ruptures. Last week, in fact, operators of time while the steam generator is repaired.

! Three Mise Island disclosed that TMI's Who pays the cost? " Ultimately," says l Unit I reactor-not involved in the,1979 RG&E vice president Davia Laniak, "it accident-has 4.000 faulty tubes, which will be passed on to the consumer."

will take six month's to repatr. Industry MWAM DERBACH with SUSAN AGREST and expcrts warn that the trou.ble will contin- Jons cAREY in Rochester. MARY LORD m wastunron and bureau report =

ue. "There are pgems with th_eseg-

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• was o, ened on the pressuriter of the primary cooling loop. Stenm and wa ter flowed ento the relief i ,

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' tank. reaucing pressure. But the vatve falsed to t \ _, _.

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steam-e process that eventua7/y couso have er-posed the fuelrodau But once the backup valve fc was closed, the safety inject *on system pumped in more water, raising it's pressure and condens-O ing the steam.

b Safety valves on the secondayIcop vented rednoactsve steam mto the outs.de att.

1 4 ruptured p pe In the primary cooftng loop 6 v.nen the vane on t'e p.etsur;zer wss opened.

Isak ed racscacta r w.?ter unto the uncontamina ted ste m and wate.- t:.:m ec mio a re; et tana. <

water m steam generator B. After the tank !!!*ed to capac:ty, contaminated water spilledinto a sump in the containment- ,

2 presaureontheonmarycooringsystemdropped. butiding troor. l NEWSWEEK /FE11kUARY 8,1982 f