ML20129G446
| ML20129G446 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crystal River  |
| Issue date: | 08/08/1995 |
| From: | NRC OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS (OI) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20129G267 | List: |
| References | |
| FOIA-96-330 NUDOCS 9610030054 | |
| Download: ML20129G446 (28) | |
Text
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SfBetal Transcript of Proceedings
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Interview of James Thomas Atkinson Docket Number: 2-94-036' l
' Location: - Crystal River,, Florida Date: tuesday, August 8,1995 Work Order No.: NRC-298 Pages 1-26 i
NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
> Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
1 2 94-036 Washington, D.C. 20005 E)(HET 1 (202) 234-4433 PAGE I 0F 2.CPAGE(S)
- .Information in this record was dc!eted &
in accordance with the freedom of Information /~
Act, exemptions 70 F0IA- 96-A79 .
9610030054 960918 b AN 96-330 PDR .
. i 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA J
2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + ++++ ,
i I
4 OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS
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5 INTERVIEW j J
6 -------------------------------~~~X )
- I 7 IN THE MATTER OF: .
8 INTERVIEW OF : Docket No. :
1 9 JAMES THOMAS ATKINSON : (2-94-036) , 1 10 : f 11 ----------------------------------x Tuesday, August 8, 1995 12
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13 ,
14 Second Floor Conference Room i 15 Florida Power Corp. Admin Bldg. i 16 Crystal River Plant i
17 6745 N. Tallahassee Road j 18 Crystal River, Florida 19 .
20 The above-entitled interview was conducted at 21 9:10 a.m. ;
l 22 BEFORE: .
.- , J 23 JAMES DOCKERY Senior Investigator ;
24 JAMES VORSE Senior Investigator i
25 CURTIS RAPP Reactor Engineer ,
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1 1 APPEARANCES: j 2 On Behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1
3 JAMES DOCKERY, Senior Investigator -.
4 JAMES VORSE, Senior Investigator 5 Region II NRC Office of Investigations 6 401 Marietta Street 7 Atlanta, Georgia 30323 I
l B
9 CURTIS RAPP ,
J 10 Reactor Engineer - NRC,~ Region II 11 6745 N. Tallahassee Road
. l 12 Crystal River, Florida 32629 13 ,
14 15 On Behalf of the Interviewee 16 BRUCE H. MORRIS, ESQUIRE 17 Finestone & Morris 18 Suite 2540 Tower Place 19 3340 Peachtree Road, N.E.
20 Atlanta, Georgia 30326 21 22 .
.. , j 23 24 1
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I 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 MR. DOCKERY: Just for the record, my name is 3 James D. Dockery, Senior Investigator for the Nuclear ,
4 Regulatory Commission, Office of Investigations in 5 Atlanta, Georgia. The date is August 8th, 1995. The time ;
6 is approximately 9:10 a.m. The location of this interview is the Crystal River Nuclear Plant, Crystal River, 7
l 8 Florida. .The inquiries under consideration here are in l 1
9 relation to Office of Investigations
- Case File Number 10 2-94-036. ll 11 Starting with Mr. Vorse, I'd like to ask each 12 of the participants to identify themselves by spelling 13 their name and describing who they are, for the record.
J 14 Mr. Vorse?
15 HR. VORSE: My name is James Y. Vorse. V as l 16 in Victor R-S-E. I'm a Senior Investigator with the 17 NRC's Office of Investigation, Region II, Atlanta, 18 Georgia.
19 MR. DOCKERY: Mr. Rapp? .
20 MR. RAPP: My name is Curtis W. Rapp. R-A-P-21 P. I'm a Reactor Inspector with Region II, U.S. NRC.
22 MR. DOCKERY: Mr. Morris? ,, ,
23 MR. MORRIS: I'm Bruce H. Morris. I'm 24 attorney for James Atkinson, here at his request.
25 MR. DOCKERY: And, Mr. Atkinson, I'11 l
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1 id;ntify you on the record after I cdminictcr tha onth.
. 2 Would you stand cnd raies your right h nd, 3 please.
4 ,
MR. ATKINSON: Sure. (Complies.)
5 WHEREUPON, 6 JAMES THOMAS ATKINSON, 7 being first duly sworn by the Investigator, was examiited 8 and testified as follows:
9 MR. DOCKERY: Thank you. Please be seated.
10 Mr. Atkinson., would you state your f'll u name 11 for the record and spell'it, please.
12 THE WITNESS: James Thomas Atkinson. l 13 A-T-K-I-N-S-O-N.
14 MR. DOCKERY: And your social security 15 number?
16 THE WITNESS:
17 MR. DOCKERY: And before we went on the 18 record here today, just a few minutes ago Mr. Vorse and I 19 and Mr. Rapp identified ourselves via our credentials, ID 20 cards. So there's no question in your mind who we are or 21 who we represent; is that correct?
22 THE WITNESS: That's corrept.,
23 MR. DOCKERY: Ialsoaskekyo'utoreviewa 24 copy of Section 1001 of Title 18 of the United States 25 Criminal Code, which is -- pertains to the materiality and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSORIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE. N W.
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1 the necurecy of your toctimony hare todty. j l
2 Did you review that?
3 THE WITNESS: Yes, I did. I
'4 MR. DOCKERY: Do you have any questions'about 5 that? That section?
6 THE WITNESS: No , I don't.
7 MR. DOCKERY: Do you understand it '
8 completely?
9 THE WITNESS: Yes, I do.
10 MR. DOCKERY: Okay. With that, I'll ask Mr.
11 Vorse to start the interview.
lJ ,
12 DIRECT EXAMINATION 13 MR. VORSE: Mr. Atkinson, what. type of 14 license do you have? ,
i 15 THE WITNESS: I have a regular operator's 16 license, Reactor Operator's license.
17 MR. VORSE: How long have you had this l 18 license?
l 19 THE WITNESS: To this date, a year and ten 20 months.
21 MR. VORSE: Would you describe your duties.
22 THE WITNESS: My duties ar,e to maintain the l 23 safe operation of the Crystal River Nuclear Plant.
24 MR. VORSE: I need to know your involvement 25 in the makeup tank evolution that was conducted, and we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRAhSCRSERS 1333 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE. N W.
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1 und2rstcnd now on both Septcmber 4th and Scptcmbar 5th,. ;
2 1994, during the midnight shift.
d 3 Would you describe in detail everything that ,
t 4 you'did, as best you can recall, on both those dates.
5 THE WITNESS: As far as the September 4th, if 6 there was an incident then, I can't recall anything ever -
happening or my involvement in it.
7
.4 8 September 5th, I was stationed near the makeup j 1
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i 9 tank vent, which is located in the makeup tank waste gas 10 valve alley. And I was to stand by to vent the makeup 11 tank should it need to be vented.
12 MR. VORSE: Were you involved in any of the
- 13 discussions about whether or not this was -- this could be 14 done, this event could*be done, were you involved in
$ 15 reviewing the procedures and discussions abo'ut how that 16 evolution was going to be conducted?
l 17 THE WITNESS: On September 5th? ;
a 18 MR. VORSE: On September 5th.
! l 19 THE WITNESS: Yes.
l 20 MR VORSE: Could you describe your I
21 involvement in that way?
22 THE WITNESS: We just briefly went over all 23 the procedures and their limits and precautions and what l 24 evolution were exact evolutions were going to take place.
25 And just the basic procedure of what they wanted to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 MHOOE ISLAND AVENUE. N W.
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1 parform.
-2 And the senior reactor operator asked if there 3 were any questions. 'There were no questions that I can .
4 reihember. And we performed the evolution. j l 3 5 MR. VORSE: Did you consider that a routine {.
6 evolution?
i 7 THE WITNESS: No, not a routine. But we'*do 8 fill the makeup tank, we do pressurize the makeup tank.
9 And that in itself is a routine evolution. ,
10 MR. VORSE: Had you ever dressed up in anti-C 11 gear and gone down to vent the tank on any other evolution 12 that you can think of?
l 13 NR. MORRIS: Wait a minute. Let me object 14 just for the moment be'cause that assumes he dressed out 15 and I'm not sure he did. And I don't want anything to be 16 incorrect in his answering a question that I'm not sure 17 there's an evidentiary foundation for.
18 THE WITNESS: I did not dress out. ,
. i I
19 MR. VORSE: Did not dress out.
20 THE WITNESS: No. l 21 MR. VORSE: Okay.
22 THE WITNESS: I also had a, trainee, an Aux 23 Building trainee with me. And he was dressed out. And I 24 was standing by with a radio. And he was in the waste gas 25 valve alley at the valve. ,
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2 THE WITNESS: And I was waiting for direction ;
i 3 from the control room to open the -- have him open the 4 vaive.
5 MR. VORSE: On the -- You say you~were not 6 involved in any way in the September 4th evolution, that i
. \
7 you can recall? .l 8 THE WITNESS: To the best of my recall, no.
9 MR. VORSE: Did anyone, on the 5th of ,
10 September, while this matter was being discussed, the 11 evolution was being discussed, did anyone, I mean one 12 person on the shift, and I understand there were six 13 people involved, did anyone say this is not a good idea?
14 THE WITNESS: No. Not that I can remember.
15 MR. VORSE: So, to the best of your knowledge i 16 no one objected to the conduct of the evolution?
l 17 THE WITNESS: That's correct.
18 MR. VORSE: Did anyone on that shift say 19 there may be some procedural violations involved? .
20 THE WITNESS: No. ,
21 MR. VORSE: Prior t'o the evolution that you 22 were involved in on the 5th of September, , did anyone say l 23(
us need to get advise from another source, such as the 24 shift technical advisor?
25 THE WI,TNESS: Not that I can recall. I don't l
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1 --I don't rcelly know. This -- This was all taken care 2 of or should I say talked amongst that -- their crew 1
4 3 before I even got onto that shift.
l i
4 Now, realize I was pretty new to that shift. '
5 I'd only been on it for, like, three weeks.
6 MR. VORSE: So, by that you mean that the !
7 operators on the midnight shift of September 5th had '-
8 previously discussed these issues? 1 9 THE WITNESS: Amongst themselves and the ,
10 senior reactor operators.
11 MR. VORSE: Do you know when they discussed I
12 those issues? ,
13 THE WITNESS: No. They said they had been 14 talking about it for a'while, that's all. l 15 MR VORSE: Did anyone say that Management l
16 needs to know about this evolution?
17 THE WITNESS: Well, I assumed that Management l 18 did know, but, no , I never heard anybody say that.
19 MR. VORSE: Are you assuming that Management 20 knew that you were going to conduct the evolution on the 21 Sth of September?
22 THE WITNESS: I assumed th,at, yes.
1 23 MR. VORSE: Did -- But no one, to your )
24 knowledge, mentioned anything about notifying Management 25 or discussing -- having discussed this matter with NEAL R. GROSS couar nEnmas ANo vmseneEns :
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2 THE WITNESS: No, I assumed that the senior ,
3 reactor operator had already discussed with Management.
[
If you had been the senior -- if 4 MR. VORSE:
I 5 you had been the shifter, the shift supervisor, do you ,
6 think you would have discussed it with Management before 7 'doing it? ]
8 THE WITNESS: I'm sure I would have.
9 MR. VORSE: Why?
l ,
10 ,THE WITNESS: Becaus that's where I take my 11 direction.
12 .
MR. VORSE: But if it's a routine evolution 13 why would you discuss it with Management?
14 THE WITNESS: -Well, I didn' t say it was a .
15 routine evolution. It was not.
16 MR. VORSE: It was not a routine evolution.
17 THE WITNESS: That's correct.
18 MR. VORSE: Did anyone on the shift say this 19 is a design basis curve? .
20 THE WITNESS: No.
21 MR. VORSE: Did you know that it was a design 22 basis curve? .
23 THE WITNESS: .No, sir, I did not. As a 24 matter of fact, I assumed from the curve that the l
25 engineers gave us that it was an operating curve.
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1 MR. VORSE: If you hed known-it was a danign l 2 basis curve, what would you have done?
3 THE WITNESS: I would have said, let's not do 4 this.
5 MR. VORSE: Do you know what 10 CFR 50.59 is?
6 THE WITNESS: I read it the other day when I 7 got it from the NRC.
8 MR. VORSE: What does it -- That's the first I
9 time you knew about 50.59? ,
10 THE WITNESS: No, no. I'd read it before.
11 MR. VORSE: Can you tell me what 50.59 says?
12 THE WITNESS: It's to do with the safe 13 operation and staying within the boundaries of the license 14 of the plant.
15 MR. VORSE: Was 50.59 ever discussed amongst 16 the reactor operators before the evolution?
17 THE WITNESS: Not to my knowledge.
18 MR. VORSE: After the evolution on the 5th of 19 September of 1994.and after the evalua -- the problem 20 evaluation was written and Management notified you that 21 there might be a problem with a procedural violation or 22 whatever, the evolution itself, did you,and ,
any other 23 member of your team on the midnight shift get together and 24 discuss strategy as far as answering questions with the 25 NRC or Management when they interviewed you regarding the NEAL R. GROSS ODum nEenans AND TanNscneEas 1323 MMODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W. j case tu = 33 WASHINGTON, O C. 20006 (20e tuM33
1 cvolution? ,
i 2 THE WITNESS: No. j l
3 MR. VORSE: Was -- Did you hear anything 4 abotit the data that was gathered on the September 4th 5 evolution about some -- it wasn't quite what they expected 6 as far as the operators were concerned? Had you heard j 7 anything about that?
8 THE WITNESS: At what point in time? .
9 MR. VORSE: Before or after this evolution.
I 10 THE WITNESS: The evolution?
11 ,
MR. VORSE: Yes.
12 THE WITNESS: I heard something to the
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13 effect, after the evolution, that they knew that curve was 14 wrong and they had basically proven that it was.
15 MR. DOCKERY: Mr. Atkinson, when you say i
16 "after the evolution", are you referring to the September 17 5th evolution?
18 THE WITNESS: Yes. September 5th.
19 MR. DOCKERY: Okay.
20 MR. VORSE: Have you ever participated in any 21 other similar evolutions of that type in your --
22 THE WIT 1{ESS: No. ,
23 MR. VORSE: Okay. I'm going to turn you on 24 over to Curt.
l 25 Do you have any questions, Curt?
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1 MR. RAPP: Let ma clcrify whara you wara on l l .
l 2 September 5th. You were assigned into the Auxiliary 3 Building?
4 THE WITNESS: That's correct.
5 MR. RAPP: Okay. And when were you called to 6 the Control Room? ,
! 7 THE WITNESS: The only time I was in the '
l 8 Control Room was at shift turnover, which was at the 9 beginning of the shift. For the rest of the shift I was, 10 in the Auxiliary Building.
t 11 MR. RAPP: So when this briefing took place 12 on the evolution they were about to perform on September l 13 5th you were'in the Auxiliary Building -- '
14 THE WITNESS: No.
l l 15 MR. RAPP: -- you were not present at the f
16 br!7fing?
17 THE WITNESS: That took place immediately 18 after the turnover meeting, which, you know, at the very L 19 beginning of the shift, immediately after the turnover j 20 meeting, before I even took my logs or anything else, we 21 had a briefing. And they said, after you take your logs, 22 then we'll do this.. And I said that's fine with me. , ,
23 MR. RAPP: So you did not question why they l
24 were going to perform this, as you put it, non routine 25 evolution? .
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1 THE WITNESS: Qusstion it c3 far co?
2 MR. RAPP: Why were they going to do this.
3 THE WITNESS: Oh, I knew why. That was 4 exp'lained at the turnover, or the briefing.
I MR. RAPP: Uh-huh. I mean, the purpose. The 5
6 purpose was explained, to gather data?
7 THE WITNESS: Right. The purpose was to 1
8 gather data and do basically a curved verification. l f
9 MR. RAPP: Okay. Did you consider that to be 1
10 a test?
11 THE WITNESS: No, I didn't consider it a j i
12 test.
I 13 MR. RAPP: What constitutes a test, by i 14 Crystal River procedures?
15 THE WITNESS: Well, a test would be something 16 that's come down from Engineering, Plant Management, on 17 down the line, and it's been planned and go through 18 Planning and everything else, to where they perform a l 19 physical test on something. If it's a piece of machinery, i
20 a pump, or something like that.
21 MR. RAPP: How do you define it, define the !
22 word " test", or how.do you define a test? You personally.
l 23 THE WITNESS: A test would be to see about 24 something is operating properly.
25 MR. RAPP: And in your opinion was that what
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I thsy ware doing on Septembsr 5th?
2 THE WITNESS: In my opinion, no. I thought 3 it was more or less a verification of a curve.
4 MR. RAPP: To see if it was performing 5 properly?
6 THE WITNESS: To see if it would perform as the engineers said it would perform.
7 8 MR. RAPP: Okay. Does the scope of your 9 operator's license permit-the conduct of tests without , i 10 Management's knowledge or review?
11 THE WITNESS: I would say no.
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12 MR. RAPP: A little different subject here.
13 As a reactor' operator you have been in the Control Room at 14 the control barrier?
15 THE WITNESS: Yes, I have.
16 MR. RAPP: What is the Crystal River policy 17 on response to annunciators?
18 THE WITNESS: .You announce per the 19 annunciator response procedures.
20 MR. RAPP: And that is?
21 THE WITNESS: Whatever the -- Whatever it >
22 says to do in the AR or the annunciator, response l
23 procedures, that's what you carry out, as far as the 24 directives.
\ 25 MR. RAPP: Okay. If that annunciator is a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRWERS 1323 RH00E ISLAND AVENUE., N.W.
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t 1 result of en evolution you're parforming, what's the 2 policy on that type of an annunciator?
3 THE WITNESS: As long as you know why it's in l
4 and you understand your response, what it should be, then 5 you go by the SRO directives.
6 MR. MORRIS: I'm sorry, say that again. l 7 THE WITNESS: As long as you know why thht l
8 annunciator is in the window, then you follow SRO 9 directives. .
10 MR. RAPP: An SRO directive in this case 11 would have been Mr. Fields?
12 THE WITNESS: Or Mr. Weiss.
13 MR. RAPP: Mr. Weiss <
14 THE WITNES$: That's correct.
15 MR. RAPP: And what was the decision -- I'm 16 sorry, you weren't in the Control Room, so you wouldn't 17 know.
18 THE WITNESS: That's correct.
l 19 MR. RAPP: In this particular instance,-when 20 they received the makeup tank overpressure annunciator, 21 would you have expected them to -- would you have expected 22 the makeup tank to.be vented if it was pn the unacceptable , ,
23 side of the curve? j 24 THE WITNESS: Well --
25 MR. MORRIS: Are you assuming that they l
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2 THE WITNESS: That's --
i 3 MR. RAPP: I'm sorry?
4 MR. MORRIS: His previous answer was if you 5 anticipated, if you knew why the annunciator came on, and 6 you'd follow the SRO. Your next question was, if you had 7 been there and heard it go on, what would you have dohe.
8 Are you asking him where the basis of he's 9 assuming it was going to come on or it was a surprise?
10 Does that make any difference to your 11 question? Because it did to his answer a minute ago.
12 MR. RAPP: I understand what you're saying.
13 If the alarm was anticipated as part of the 14 evolution.
15 THE WITNESS: Okay.
16 MR. RAPP: Your response would have been to 17 continue with the evolution or to address the actions of 18 the AR?
19 THE WITNESS: First, I would have let.the 20 SRO, or the person leading the evolution, or my person in 21 charge, okay, which would have been Dave Fields or Rob 22 Weiss. I would have asked them -- er I.would have let , ,
23 them know that the annunciator was in. And then I would 24 have taken direction from them.
25 MR. VORSE: May I ask a question?
l l
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1 MR. RAPP: Suro, go chard.
2 MR. VORSE: Let's assume that you're in 3 charge. Let's put you in Mr. Fields' or Mr. Weiss' place, ;
I 4 and'you're in charge of that reactor. And that j 5 annunciator alarm went in. And you've already decided 6 that you were going to do an evolution of that type and j 7 plot the data. What would you have done if that 8 annunciator alarm came in.while you, assuming that you 9 were the shifter?
10 THE WITNESS: Now, is this assuming that I 11 know it's a design basis curve or if I think it's a plant 12 operating curve? ,
13 SR. VORSE: You do not -- No. You think it's 14 a plant operating curvs. What would you have done?
15 THE WITNESS: Well, on almost all of our 16 plant operating curves we have X amount of time to get 17 back to the acceptable side of that curve.
18 MR. VORSE: You were on the unacceptable side 19 for approximately 30 minutes. Is that acceptable?
20 THE WITNESS: In most cases it's an hour to 21 get back to the other side.
22 MR. VORSE: Do you know in,the case of this 23 particular situation how much time you would have to get 24 to the acceptable?
25 THE WITNESS: In design basis?
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1 MR. VORSE: Oparation21.
2 THE WITNESS: I'm not exactly sure, no. Not i 3 without consulting the ops.
4 MR. VORSE: Would the ops tell you that?
l 5 THE WITNESS: No. Probably I'd have to look ;
l 6 in the tech specs and go by their -- that direction. ;
7 MR. VORSE: To your knowledge was that e'ver-8 pursued before the evolution? Was that all looked at? ,
9 THE WITNESS: I'm sure it was. I -- I don't I 10 know. I really don't.
11 MR. VORSE: That's all I have.
12 MR. RAPP: Let me go back here and talk about 13 a couple of other things here. ,
14 You mentiohed earlier that this was talked 15 about before you got on shift three weeks earlier.
16 THE WITNESS: Right.
17 MR. RAPP: In response to one of Mr. Vorse's 18 questions.
19 THE WITNESS: Right.
20 MR. RAPP: When you say " talked about", are 21 you saying that the curve was talked about or performing 22 this test, or this. evolution? ,
23 THE WITNESS: The curve and the basic issue 24 in itself was talked about.
l 25 MR. RAPP: Do you know when the people on NEAL R. GROSS count neronisas Ano masensens 1323 nH00E ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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1 chift discussed conducting this test?
2 THE WITNESS: No,-I have no idea when they 3 talked about it.
4 MR. RAPP: So, when they briefed you on -- at l 5 midnight on the 5th, that was the first you had heard l 6 about it?
l 7 THE WITNESS: That's correct.
. 8 MR. DOCKERY: Who briefed you at midnight on
! 9 the 5th? ,
10 THE WITNESS: It was all of the licensed 11 people on shift. Well, actually it was everybody-on i ,
12 shift. And Dave Fields, Rob Weiss, Mark Van Sicklen, and 1 ~
13 Jack Stewart'were kind of spearheading it. And that's l 14 when they asked if there was any open areas that hadn't 15 been covered that we could think of. And that was at'the 16 conclusion. And everybody basically just, no.
17 MR. DOCKERY: I'm sorry; at the conclusion.
18 At the conclusion of the evolution or the briefing?
! 19 THE WITNESS: No -- of the briefing.
20 MR. DOCKERY: Thank you.
21 THE WITNESS: Yes.
22 MR. RAPP: One last question here. You said 23 there was a one-hour response time for annunciators. And l
l 24 that's based on what?
25 THE WITNESS: No, that's -- that is not what f
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i 2 MR. RAPP: That's not --
3 THE WITNESS: That -- What I said was, the 4 response time when you cross an operating curve, in most 5 cases, per tech specs, is an hour to get to the acceptable ,
6 region. Okay? That's per an operating curve,.not what 7 we're talking about here, a design basis curve. You n'6ver 8 violate a design basis ,:urve, and everybody knows that.
- 9 MR. RAPP: Well, I understand, but there was
- 10 no knowledge that this was design basis curve until after 11 the fact.
12 THE WITNESS: That is a fact, sir.
13 MR. RAPP: But, which, tech spec, then, 14 relates to these operatlng curves? ,
15 THE WITNESS: I would have to look it up. I 16 couldn't quote you.
17 MR. RAPP: I believe that's all I have, Jim.
18 MR. DOCKERY: I just would like to ask some j 19 clarifying questions if I might, Mr. Atkinson. l 1
20 THE WITNESS: Uh-huh. !
21 MR. DOCKERY: You've testified here today 22 that you were relatively new to that shift , - - l 23 THE WITNESS: Right.
24 MR. DOCKERY: -- having been there, I believe 25 you said about three weeks.
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1 THE WITNESS: Thr,t's correct.
2 MR. DOCKERY: Do you recall whether or not 3 you were working that shift on September 4th?
4 THE WITNESS: I really don't recall. I was 5 supposed to get that information this morning but I didn't 6 get it, so I could tell you where I was and what my 7 function was, my capacity.
8 MR. DOCKERY: Mr. Morris, could we anticipate 9 that brief, that information? Were you -- Were you 10 familiar with it? .
11 MR. MORRIS: I don't have it. I don't have l
12 it. ,
13 MR. DOCKERY: Okay. <
14 MR. MORRISi I don't have it. When I --
- 15 Well, off the record a second.
16 MR. DOCKERY: Go ahead.
17 (Whereupon, an off-the-record discussion was 18 had, after which the proceedings resumed as follows:)
i 19 MR. DOCKERY: Mr. Atkinson, we've been off 20 the record here for a second, trying to clarify things I
21 with Mr. Morris, your attorney. Let me remind you that
- 22 you continue to be under oath herc and I'd, ask you go ,
1 1 23 acknowledge that.
24 THE WITNESS: I do acknowledge that.
25 , MR. DOCKERY: Okay. We have primarily talked I
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4 I cbout the evolution that occurred on S::ptember the 5th 2 here. There has been -- It has come to light, and we 3 touched on it, that an evolution may have occurred on i 4 Sep'tember 4th of 1994. Your testimony very early here 5 today was that you had no recall of any involvement in 1
- 6 that evolution.
7 THE WITNESS: That is correct.
i 8 MR. DOCKERY: Was there any discussion of 9 that evolution, that you recall, among your colleagues on 10 the 5th?
3 11 ,
THE WITNESS: No.
4 12 MR. DOCKERY: Is today the first you've heard i
l 13 that a Septeinber 4th evolution may have taken place?
14 THE WITNESS: I was told by Mark Van Sicklen 15 a couple of days ago that an evolution had taken place.
16 MR. DOCKERY: Is !.t fair to say that that was 17 the first time September 4th had any significance for you?
18 THE WITNESS: Yes, 19 MR. DOCKERY: With respect to the events of 20 September 5?
21 THE WITNESS: Yes.
22 MR. DOCKERY: Okay. I believe your testimony 23 today has been that you did not dress out in anti-24 contamination gear on September the 5th; is that correct?
I 25 THE WITNESS: That is correct.
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1 MR. DOCKERY: But com2 body did.
-2 THE WITNESS: That.is correct.
3 MR. DOCKERY: Would you. identify that person,- .
4 ple'ase?
5 THE WITNESS: His name is Stan Kaconas.
6 MR. DOCKERY: And what was Mr. Kaconas
7 purpose in dressing out, what were his duties?. -
t 8 THE WITNESS: To open the vent valve whenever l ,
i j' 9 I received word from the Control Room to vent the makeup i
10 tank.
i ,
4
- 11 MR. DOCKERY: And this was a precaution of i .
- - 12 some sort? '
l 13 'THE WITNESS: I don't know the reasons.
14 MR. VORSE: What was the purpose of him being 15 there to vent the tank?
i 16 THE WITNESS: Just -- Well, in case they 17 needed it vented, basically. And in case something l
1;
- j. 18 happened inside containment that required pressure to be 19 vented off the makeup tank.
20 MR. VORSE: What could cause that?
21 THE WITNESS: A LOCA.
22 MR. VORSE: Would you - ,
23 THE WITNESS: Loss of coolant accident.
24 MR. VORSE: I'm sorry. I'm done.
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1 eny discussions with eny of your collecguan wherein a 2 similar evolution of some sort may have occurred in July 3 of 1994?
4 THE WITNESS: No, never.
5 MR. DOCKERY: That has no significance for 6 you as'we speak here today?
7 THE WITNESS: Absolutely none. ,
MR. DOCKERY: Mr. Vorse, anything else? !
8 9 MR VORSE: You just asked the question I was 10 going to ask. So, I really can't think cf anything else j l
11 that I need to ask.
12 Curt, do you have anything? !
i 13 NR. RAPP: No, I'm fine.
14 MR. VORSE:
Mr. Atkinson, is there anything l
15 you want to tell us today that we haven't asked you about 16 that you think needs to be discussed as far as clarifying 17 this whole issue?
18 THE WITNESS: Not at this time.
i i 19 MR. VORSE: And I asked you earlier if,there l 20 were any other similar evolutions conducted that you were 21 aware of that were similar to the 5th of September, and l
22 you said that you were not aware of any., ,
23 THE WITNESS: I wasn't aware of any.
24 MR. VORSE: That's all I have.
25 Mr. Morris?
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O 1 MR. MORRIS: No, sir.
2 MR. DOCKERY: With that, we'11 conclude the
! 3 interview at approximately 9:39 a.m.
(Whereupon, the proceedings were concluded at 4 1
$ 5 9:39 o' clock a.m.) !
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- Gt02) N
o A8 1 CERTIFICATE 2 This is to certify that the attached proceedings 3 before the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 4 the matter of:
5 Name of Proceeding: Interview of James Atkinson, 6 Docket Number (s): 2-94-036 7 Place of Proceeding: Crystal River Nuclear lant 8 Crystal River, Florida l
9 10 were held as herein appears, and that this is the original 11 transcript thereof for the file o'f the United States l 12 Nuclea'r Regulatory Commission taken by me and, thereafter 13 reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the j 14 court reporting company, and that the transcript is a true 15 and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.
- 16 17 18 JA$$ -
&/ l 19 gy S. May 20 Official Reporter !
3 21 Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.
22 23 24 .. ,
25 e
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