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UNITED ST ATES
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101 MARIETTA STREET,N.W.
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ATLANTA, GEORGI A 30323 g
6 mx MEMORANDUM FOR: Oscar DeMiranda, Senior Allegation Coordinator, Enforcement i
and Investigation Coordination Staff THRU:
Alan R. Herdt, Chief, Reactor Projects Branch 3, Division of f Reactor Project (DRP)
FROM:
Pierce H. Skinner, Chief, Reactor Projects Section 3B, DRP
SUBJECT:
ALLEGATION RII-91-A-0216, ALLEGED INACCURATE STATEMENTS MADE BY LICENSEE MANAGE. MENT DURING DOL HEARING This specific allegation related to an alleged occurrence which occurred during the DOL hearing testimony associated with a case presently ongoing between Georgia Power Company (GPC) and former GPC employees.
The allegation was received in early November 1991'.
An Allegation Review Panel was scheduled to review this item along with several others on November 13, 1991.
A meeting was conducted on November 13, 1991.
Participants in that meeting were:
E. Merschoff, J. Johnson, W. Cline, J. Potter, E. Testa, A. Herdt, E. Williamson and O. DeMiranda.
Based on a review of the meeting agenda and meeting sumary for other allegations scheduled for that meeting the subject allegation was discussed at that time. No specific meeting minutes were issued addressing the action to be taken for this item.
Notes taken by Al Herdt indicate that the item was to be transmitted to O! to be included in an ongoing 1
investigation.
Since the minutes could not be found, another review of this item has been conducted by myself. Based on this additional review, I recommend that' this 1
allegation be transmitted to 01 for inclusion in the ongoing review of similar concerns expressed in Allegation RII-90-A-0092.
There does not appear to be 1
any new information that would not previously be addressed in the actions being taken for Allegation RII-90-A-0092.
Based upon performing the recommended action, this item should 'be l
closed with a note that states that this item will be addressed as part of Allegation RII-90-A-0092.
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OFFICIALTRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS fk }
,s-Agerry:
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Title:
Interview of Robert Earl Neal Docket No.
IDCA110t*
Waynesboro, GA orm May 7, 1992 PEES. 1 - 40 l
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1612 KSt. N.W. Suite 300 Mahington,D.C 20006 (202) 295-3950 1 j 46((bHM W M}//'
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Page 1 BEFORE THE U.
S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION In the Matter of:
)
)
INVESTIGATIVE INTERVIEW OF
)
.)
ROBERT EARL NEAL
)
Conference Room Administration Bui'lding Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Waynesboro, Georgia Thursday, May 7, 1992 The above-entitled matter convened for INVESTIGATIVE INTERVIEW, pursuant to notice at 11:09 a.m.
APPEARANCES:
On behalf of the U.S.
Nuclear Reaulatory Commissions LARRY R. ROBINSON, Investigator U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Investigations Suite 2900, 101 Marietta Tower Atlanta, Georgia 30303 i
-and-BRIAN R. BONSER, Senior Resident Inspector U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Waynesboro, Georgia 1
On behalf of the Witness:
i JOHN LAMBERSKI, Attorney Troutman, Sanders, Lockerman & Ashmore 1400 Candler Building 127 Peachtree Street Atlanta, Georgia 3
Page 2 1
PROCEEDINGS 2'
MR. ROBINSON:
For the record, this is an interview 3'
of -- is it Robert Neal?
4 MR. NEAL:
Robert Neal, yes, sir.
5 MR. ROBINSON:
Employee of Georgia Power Company at 6
the vogtle Electric Generating Plant.
7 It's Thursday, May 7, 1992, it's 11:09 a.m.
8 Present at the interview are Mr. Neal, Mr. Brian 9
Bonser, the Senior Resident Inspector of NRC at Plant Vogtle,
'10 Investigator Larry L. Robinson of the Office of 11 Investigations of NRC, Region II, and Mr. John Lamberski of 12 the firm of Troutman, Sanders, Lockerman & Ashmore, who to my 13 understanding represents both you as an individual, Mr. Neal, 14 today and Georgia Power Company, as a corporation.
15 MR. NEAL:
Yes, sir.
16 MR. ROBINSON:
Do you have any problems, Mr. Neal, 17
.with Mr. Lamberski's representation of both you and the 18 company?
19 MR. NEAL:
No, sir, I do not.
20 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
21 Mr. Lamberski, why don't you briefly state the 22 nature of your representation here today.
-23 MR. LAMBERSKI:
I think you correctly stated it.
I 24' I'm here representing both Georgia Power Company as a
' 25..
corporation and Mr. Neal personally.
Page 3 1
MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
Mr. Neal, do you have any
{
2 objections to being sworn to your testimony?
3 MR. NEAL:
No, sir, I do not.
4.
MR. ROBINSON:
Will you please stand and raise your 5
right hand?
6 Whereupon, t
7 ROBERT EARL NEAL 8
appeared as a witness herein, and having been first duly 9
sworn, was examined and testified as follows:
10 EXAMINATION 11 BY MR. ROBINSON:
12 Q
Please state your full name for the record.
13 A
Robert Earl Neal.
14 Q
And what is your current job title here at Plant j
15
-Vogtle?
16 A
I'm an Instruments and Controls Foreman.
17 Q
And what was your job on January 28, 1992?
i i
18 A
Instruments and Controls Foreman.
19 0
How long have you been an employee of Georgia 20 Power?
21 A
Seventeen years.
22 Q
How.long have you been here at the Vogtle site?
23 A
-Since.'83.
24 Q
Has it all been pretty much in the IEC area?
1
-25 A-Yes, sir.
J
i l
4 Page 4 1
Q What I would like for you -- what we are going to
~
2 talk about today, Mr. Neal, is an event that occurred back on 3
January 28 of 1992, when two instrument and control 4
technicians, J.D. Davis and I guess it's Murcel Wilkins?
5 A
Marcel Wilkins.
6 Q
Marcel Wilkins -- were conducting a surveillance 7
procedure involving -- what was the system, Brian?
8 MR. BONSER:
It's my understanding it was an ACOT 9
procedure on --
j 10 MR.' LAMBERSKI That's A-C-O-T, all caps.
11 MR. ROBINSON:
Which stands for?
12 MR. BONSER:
Analog channel operational test.
13 MR. ROBINSON:
- Okay, 14 MR. BONSER:
And it was on this loop.
15 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay, for the record, "this loop" is 16 loop number IT-431, the title of the test is the Delta T, 17 TAVG Loop 3 Protection Channel Number 3.
18 BY MR. ROBINSON:
19 Q
What TAVG stand for, Mr. --
20 A
T average.
21 Q
T average, I see.
22 Are you familiar with the circumstances of what I'm 23 talking about here?
24 A
Yes, sir, I am.
25 Q
In your own words, would you please tell me if you
Page 5 1
became involved in this analog channel operational test in j
2 any way?
3 A
Yes, sir, I was notified by Mr.. Davis that we had a 4
bistable that was out of tolerance, was not within our 5-expected limit, high or low.
I went out and examined this, j
6 examined his setup, verified that the value he had on the 7
sheet was coming out of the rack, notified him to write a DC 8
card, notified Mr. Marcel to get a QC inspector, and when 4
9 everybody was together have them go in and make adjustments 10 to bring our bistable back into tolerance by procedure.
j '
11 Q
Okay.
Are the technicians required to call you in 12
-when they find an out-of-tolerance situation?
13
.A Yes, sir, they are by procedure.
It's in our 14 procedure that if they find an out-of-tolerance, they have to 15 notify me before they can touch it.
j 16
-Q I see.
Is there a specific procedure that your 17 technicians are supposed to follow to do this calibration or 18 reset?
19 A
By the procedure they were doing, when it comes to 20 the part that we have an out-of-tolerance and we have to make 21 adjustments, procedure notifies them to get the 23300 22 procedure, field calibration procedure, to work along with 23 them.to make their adjustments to get the bistable back in.
24 Q
So they should have known -- did they know what 25~
procedure they needed to use at that time?
N
~
i Page 6 1
A To my best recollection, yes, sir.
2 Q
Had they been trained in the use of that procedure?
3 A
Yes, sir.
l 4
Q Did you tell them to use that procedure?
5 A
No, sir, I did not tell them to use that procedure.
]
6 Q
Okay.
Did you assume that they knew to use that I
7 calibration procedure?
l 8
A Yes, sir.
i 9
Q Okay.
When they -- did they call you on the phone i
l 10 and notify you of the out-of-tolerance situation?
11 A
Yes, sir, I was in the sop at the time and they l
12
~ were in the control room.
f 13 Q
Who was it -- which of the two was it that called 14 you?
j 15 A
I believe it was J.D. Davis that called.
16 Q
Okay, and what did he tell you?
i 17 A
He said we've got a value that is out on a bistable a
18 and it's going to have to be adjusted.
I said all right, 19 I'll be out there in a second.
1 20 Q
And do any of these documents that you see before i
21 you here reflect the values that they found as far as an out-4 22 of-tolerance situation?
2
-23 A
Yes, sir.
This data sheet here --
24 Q
All right, let the record reflect that he's talking 25 about the Analog Channel Test Data Sheet for loop number IT-4 S
w w
4 Page 7 1
431 that we described earlier.
Okay, go ahead.
2 A
All right, this value here in the as-found section 3
is the value that they had obtained.
4 Q
Let the record reflect that he is pointing to the 5
.value 4.130 that is on the 10th line down, headed 1TL/431H 6
extinguished in the as-found column.
Sorry we've got to do 7
that.
8 A
That's all right.
One thing I would like to back 9
up and correct.
You asked.me a question about did I tell 10 them to use the procedure.
Were you inquiring about the j
11 23300 procedure or this procedure?
12 Q
I was inquiring about the full calibration
- 13 procedure required to --
14 A
I instructed them to make adjustments by procedure, 15 which by this procedure it instructs them to get the 23300.
~
16 Q
Okay.
17 A
And you have a copy of that.
18 Q
Okay, when you say "this procedure" you were 19.
pointing to a test data sheet --
20 A
I am talking about procedure 24812-1.
21 Q
Right.
I'll now show you pages I guess 65 and 66 22 of procedure 24812-1.
Is that the procedure you're referring 23 to?
24 A
Yes, sir, that is the procedure I'm referring to.
25 Q
Okay.
All right, go ahead with your explanation.
~
l Page 8 1
The 4.130 figure.was the as-found figure?
2 A
Yes, sir.
3 Q
And it was out of tolerance?
e 4
A It was out of tolerance.
We have a high/ low limit 5
on the ACOT data sheet here that you can see that the 6
expected value is 3.994, low limit of 3.894, high limit of 7
4.094.
8 Q
I see.
9 A
Therefore the 4.130 as found value is outside of
(
10 the expected and high/ low limits, it is unacceptable.
Y' 11 Q
All right.
Did you stay there and see what they y \\g flb 12 did to correct this situation?
13 A
No, sir, I ot.
14 Q
How long approximately would you say you were with 15 them and verified that you had an out-of-tolerance situation?
16 A
I was with them a good 20 minu,tes waiting on QC to 17 arrive and making sure that everybody was notified, the SS as i
18 well as the OSOS.
And once QC arrived -- there's limited 19 space where this work is to be done, I excused myself to 20 allow the gentlemen and the QC to do their job.
I went 21 around front and talked with the SS and the OSOS in the 22 horseshoe.
23 Q
Do you remember who the QC gentleman was?
24 A
Mr. Roy Whitaker.
25 Q
So to your knowledge, Mr. Whitaker observed the --
c
~,.
M 4
i Page 9 l
1 whatever your I&C technicians did to correct the out-of-2 tolerance situation?
3 A
Yes, sir.
4 Q
Is that a requirement for him to stay there and
~ bserve that?
5 o
6 A
His requirement is to assure that the as-left data 7
is within tolerance.
8 Q
I see.
9 A
And everything is right there where they're making 3
10 the adjustments and the meters that he needs to look at.
i 11 MR. LAMBERSKI:
You might want to explain what as-12-left data means.
13 BY MR. ROBINSON:
1 14 Q
As-left data is evidently once you make your 15 adjustments, you take another reading, is that correct?
16 A
Yes, sir.
The final reading that you walk away and 17 leave it in the cabinet for these bistables.
18 Q
Does the I&C tech take that reading or does the QC 19 guy take that reading?
20 A
The IEC takes the reading, the QC also verifies.
21 He's looking at the same meter that the IEC tech is looking 22 at.
23 Q
Okay.
And I guess since it's a hold point, the QC 24 guy should probably stay there and observe the procedure or -
25
- excuse me -- could the QC guy leave and then come back and j
'l Page 10 1
just get an as-left reading and still be doing his job?
2 A
No, sir.
3 Q
He couldn't.
Okay.
So the as-left reading was 4
3.990, which was apparently within tolerance.
5 A
Yes, sir.
6 Q
What else happened within that day or the next day 7
regarding this particular resetting of the calibrv: ion, to 8
your knowledge?
9 A
To my knowledge, I was questioned the next evening 10 upon arrival as to what did' Marcel and J.D. do and I told 11 them the same thing that I told you and showed them data 12 sheet for the supposed correction.
13 Q
Okay.
Let the record reflect that we're now 14 talking about a document entitled Data Sheet 37, Procedure 15 Number 24812-1, apparently dated 1/28/92, reviewed by R.E.
16 Neal,, performed by -- can you identify that?
17 A
Marcel Wilkins.
9 18 Q
-- Marcel Wilkins and approved by --
19 A
Mark Seymour.
20 Q
-- Mark Seymour.
What -- who is Mark Seymour?
I 21 A
Mark Seymour is a supervisor in IEC Department.
22 Q
And what connection does this Data Sheet 37 have 1
23 with the Analog Channel Operational Test Data Sheet that we j
]
24 described earlier?
j 25 A
The bistable that was adjusted to get the as-left l
1
Page 11 1
value of -- 3.990 it is?
2 Q
Right, 3.990.
3 A
This Data Sheet 37 is where they should have went 4
to make that adjustment to bring this value down so that the 5'
end result here is what we were after.
'6 Q
I'm a little confused, are you saying that the as-
)
i 7
found and the as-left numbers on the Data Sheet 37 should 8
have corresponded with the as-found and as-left numbers on --
3 9
A No, sir.
i 10-Q Okay, explain that.
11 A
No, sir, I'm not.
The as-found, as-left data on.
l 12 Data Sheet 37 is on-a 0 to 10 system.
13 Q
Okay.
14 A
That system is converted for the ACOT to a 1 to 5 15 system.
16 MR. BONSER:
Those are volts DC, right?
17 THE WITNESS:
Volts, DC.
18 BY MR. ROBINSON:
19 Q
Okay.
So is it just a straight 2-to-1 ratio?
20 A
Fairly close to it, but there's nothing just 21 straight.
22 Q
Is there a calculation that is required to compare 23 Data' Sheet Number'37 or are the figures that are handwritten 24 in there actually measured figures?
i 25 A
They are measured figures.
Page 12 1
Q Are they measured at the same points?
2 A
No, these are measured on the NAL-2 card that is in 3
this slot in the rack.
4 Q
Okay.
i 5
A These points are measured at a different location 6
that is set up in the front part of the procedure.
4 7
Q All right.
8 A
These are end-result cards of going through'the 9
loop at various points to get -- it's like a train, you've 10 got the engine and caboose and you've got different cars in 11 between, and this is one of the cars in between the engine
- l 12 and caboose, this is the final figures you would get off the i
}
13 caboose.
14 Q
Okay, when you're talking about the final figures 15 coming off the caboo'se, let the record reflect that he's 16 talking about an Analog Channel Operational Test Data Sheet 17 1.
And the document we identified as Data Sheet 37, is that i
18 the engine?
19 A
That'd be the cars in the middle.
20 Q
And the correlation should be -- between these two 21 should be basically 2-to-1, not necessarily exactly?
22 A
Right.
If you'll notice that 7.13 is virtually 23 three-quarters of a 10 volt scale, 3.9 is three-quarters of a 24 1-to-5 scale.
25 MR. BONSER: What I wanted to ask was, this is the
Page 13 1
sheet where they should have made the adjustments?
2 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
3 MR. BONSER:
In that part of the procedure.
Which 4
procedure is this from?
5 THE WITNESS:
This is from the Delta T, your delta 6
T loop is 158 pages, calibration as well as just the ACOT.
7 The ACOT portion only covers a small section in the front.
8 When you do your 18-month calibration, you have a long-drawed 9
out process. All that's also covered under the same 10 procedure.
But if you have to make individual card 11 adjustments, we're required to go to that to tell us which l
12 points to adjust, and that being the 23300 procedure.
13 MR. BONSER:
Okay, so when you do that procedure, 14 you use this sheet here?
15 THE WITNESS:
I will use this sheet, yes, sir.
16 MR. ROBINSON:
"This sheet" being Data Sheet 377 17 THE WITNESS:
37.
18 MR. BONSER:
So they used Data Sheet 37 to make the 19 adjustments?
20 THE WITNESS:
That is the sheet they should have 21 used.
l 22 MR. BONSER:
Should have used, okay.
23 BY MR. ROBINSON:
24 Q
And what in fact happened, to your knowledge?
25 A
From what I have been told, they did not go to this 4
Page 14 1
section of the procedure, did not use the 23300 procedure.
2 They made adjustments on the bistable at the front part of 3-the loop here that we're reading, or the end part of the 4
loop, excuse me.
5 Q
And so are you saying that to your knowledge that 6
the. filled in numbers on Data Sheet-37 are not taken from 7
readings, that they're just --
8 A
That is what I'm being told.
9 Q
-- put in there.
Okay.
Approximately what time of 10 day on January 28 would you have signed this Data-Sheet 37 as 11 a reviewer?
12 A
Somewhere between the time of 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 13 a.m.
14 Q
Would that have been kind of at the time you would i
15 be going off shift?
16 A'
That was at the end of my shift, yes, sir.
17 Q
And is your signing of these sheets a routine part i
18 of your end-shift administrative requirement?
19.
A Yes, sir, it is.
20 Q
Okay.
21 A
I have to review the data that has been placed on 22 them and ensure that it is within the high/ low limits and 23 expected value and approve it or send it back to the field.
24 Q
Okay.
Are all of the handwritten figures on this 25 particular sheet done without readings, to your suspicion or
l l
I' j-Page 15 1
knowledge, or just some of them?
2 A
(No response.)
t 3
Q' Do you understand the question?
4 A
No, sir, explain that a little more.
5 Q
I have eight handwritten numbers on this data i
6 sheet.
Of those eight numbers, to your knowledge, how many 7
of them were written without taking actual readings?
8 A
Okay. To my knowledge now, all eight numbers were -
9 10 Q
I see.
11 A
-- wrote in.
3 12 Q
In the process of reviewing this Data Sheet 37, do 13 you compare it to the -- did you compare it to the Analog 14 Channel Operational Test Data Sheet?
15 A
Yes, sir, I do.
You'll notice that on line 3 and 4 i
16 of Data Sheet 37, there has been a different value between 17 the as-found and as-left.
It is a difference between 7.262 4
9 18 and 7.132 for output 2 and 7.143 to 7.013.
That value is a 19 small adjustment down, which I took it as being what brought 20 the value down into the expected value off the ACOT data
. 21 sheet from 4.130 to 3.930.
22 Q
I.see.
So in your review and comparison of the two
. 23 sheets,'everything appeared as it should be.
24 A
Yes, sir.
25 Q
Okay, were you aware at the time --
Page 16 1
A No, sir.
2 Q
I'll finish my question -- were you aware at the 3
time that these figures had not come from readings and had 4
just been placed in there?
5 A
No, sir, I was not.
6 0
Okay.
To your knowledge, how was it discovered 7
that these readings were not bona fide readings?
And I'm 8
referring to the readings on Data Sheet 37.
9 A
To my knowledge, the day shift, either the 28th or 10 the 29th, went out and made the actual field' check and 11 adjusted -- made the proper adjuptments per a work order, and 12 I do not remember the number right off the top of my head.
13 But we have a copy of it.
And that's when I was notified 14 that these numbers were not true numbers and that was my 15 first recollection of those numbers not being valid numbers.
16 Q
Why would the day shift have gone out and redone 17 the procedure?
o 18 A
The alarms -- a alarm started coming in on the 19 delta T loop that this bistable triggers.
20 Q
Okay.
21 A
That alarm started coming in and out during day 22 shift operation on the day shift of the 28th.
They went out 23 with a recorder, plugged into different points, checked 24 different values and then started -- that started suspicion 25 of~something not being right.
r
Page 17 1
Q Okay.
2 A
And that started the investigation into looking 3
into different things and they was reviewing packages because 4
they knew I had just -- my technicians had just performed 5
this loop and this was the loop that was giving us problems.
6 They immediately pulled up the old data and started comparing 7.
to what was now in the field.
8 Q
When you say they were doing an investigation, do 9
you know who-was doing that investigation?
10 A
The -- Scott Hammond is the supervisor that was in 11 charge and the actual foreman and technicians, I'm not real 12 sure.
I believe if you contact them, they could let you know 13 more on that.
14 Q
Okay.
15 MR. BONSER:
Do you know anything about one 16 procedure having not been revised correctly?
It was --
17
~ something had come up about there had been a recent revision 18 of the procedure and one of the sheets had been revised and 19 one of the data sheets had not been revised.
Could you 4
i 20 explain that?
Because I think that was probably the reason 21 behind a. lot of this happening.
22 THE WITNESS:
My knowledge is procedure 24812 had 23-just recently been revised with new values in our expected, 24-high/ low limit for several of the bistables, due to the new 25-fuel that we're now using.
This particular bistable values'
2 Page 18 1
were missed in the review and readying --
2 MR. BONSER:
That's the ACOT procedure?
3 THE WITNESS:
That's the ACOT procedure, a portion 4
that they had failed to catch the wrong values in.
In the 5
calibration part of it, there was the correct values and
)
6 that's what got the whole thing.
The calibration part was 7
correct, but that was not the section at the time we were 8
using.
We were using the ACOT portion.
If the correct 9
values were there, we would have -- there would have been no 10 problem because they would have been right into the values 11 that we needed. Do you follow what I'm saying?
This should 12 have been this value or fairly close to it with the high/ low 13 limit.
And that now has been corrected.
14 BY-MR. ROBINSON:
15 Q
With respect to the Analog Channel Operational Test l
16 Data Sheet, do you have any reason to believe that the as-17 left figure was not a correct figure?
18 A
No, sir.
That is what got us -- the alarms ccming 19-in is the value was lowered to this, which brought it closer 20 to the alarm point and the new fuel made us now peak up and 21 go into this portion because it was lower than what was 22 originally there.
23 Q
So you're saying that the high 1Leit in the new 24 situation should have been or was in fact lower than 3.990?
25 A
I'm confused about what you're asking now.
i I
a Page 19 1
0 You're saying that the 3.990 figure on your ACOT 2
Test Data Sheet --
3 A
Yes, sir.
4 Q
-- in the as-left column, that value was too close 5
to the point that would be causing alarms to go off, is that 6
correct?
7 A
Yes, sir.
8 Q
So it needed to be set lower?
9 A
No, higher.
10 Q
Needed to be set higher, I see.
11 A
It needed to be set where it was found.
12 Q
I see.
13 A
If we had the proper values here and here, we would 14 have never made an adjustment here, everything would have 15 been fine, there would have been no problem.
16 Q
I see.
17 A
And we' lowered the value, brought it closer to the 18 actual trip setting, based on these values.
19 Q
Oh, okay. So the printed high limits and low limits 20 on your data sheet were not what they should have been at 21 that time he was doing that.
22 A
Yes, sir, that is correct.
23 Q
So that ended up causing him to make an adjustment 24 that he really shouldn't have made.
25.
A-Should never have touched.
I
l Page 20 1
MR. BONSER:
So what you're saying is the as-found 2
reading.was the right reading in fact.
3 THE WITNESS:
Was a true, valid, good reading.
4 MR. BONSER:
And if they had gone to Data Sheet 37 5
and actually done these adjustments according to this 6
procedure, they would have ended up again with the 4.130.
7 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir, that they would have.
8 BY MR. ROBINSON:
9 Q
It's my understanding, and maybe you're going to 10 have to correct me if I'm wrong, if they would have conducted 11 a test and obtained the 4.130 reading and they would have 12 recognized that 4.130 was within tolerance -- okay?
13 A
Yes, sir.
14 Q
-- they wouldn't have done any adjustment.
15 A
No adjustments would have been made.
16 Q
Okay, so moving over here to Data Sheet 37 --
17 A
Would have never been done.
j 18 Q
That one wouldn't even have been done.
19 A
Would never have been done.
20 Q
So the only reason you do Data Sheet 37 is when you 21 need to make adjustments.
j 22 A
Yes, sir.
j 23 Q
Oh, okay, I see.
We've probably talked in general 24 about a lot of the questions -- I'm going to ask you a list 25 of very specific questions that the NRC Enforcement people
- - ~
4 i
Page 21 1
want answered.
We may have talked in general about these 2
questions and it may be a repetition in some cases, but I'm 3
just going to read the questions to you verbatim.
If you
~
4 understand it, just give me an answer to the question.
If 5
you've already answered it, just go ahead and answer it 6
again.
i 7
A Okay.
8 Q
What information was given to you by the 9
responsible I&C technicians during the conduct of the 10 surveillance on the RPS instrumentation on January 28, 1992?
11 MR. LAMBERSKI:
Do you understand the question, 1
12 Bob?
13 THE WITNESS:
I didn't understand that at all.
14 BY MR. ROBINSON:
15 Q
Okay, when they called you -- when they first l
16 notified you that there was an out-of-tolerance.
From that 17 point to the and of your shift, what communications did you 18 have with~those individuals -- what did they tell you?
19 A
As I stated earlier, they contacted me, I went to 20 the control room, observed the reading, checked out the setup and then initiated a DC card, which the SS determined was not
' 21 f
22 necessary, I had them call QC and instructed them to go in
. 23 and make the appropriate adjustments as necessary.
24
-Q Okay, that's what you told them to do.
I'm kind of 25 interested in what they told you, any communication they gave
Page 22 1
to you.
Was there any indication to you that -- to the 2
effect that, "to do a recalibration on this thing is going to 3
take too long, can we just reset these things per the ACOT 4
procedure" -
was there any conversation like that?
5 A
Yes, sir, and my statement was get everybody that's 6
got to.get together and let's do what we've got to do.
<(
7 Q
Okay.
So they suggested resetting the points using 8
an ACOT procedure as opposed to the full calibration 9
procedure I guess in 233007 10 A
They asked did we want to make the adjustments by 11 this.
I EAid we_make the adjustments by the way procedure X
12 tells us.
13 Q
Okay.
14 A
That includes this procedure as well as the 23300.
15 Q
Okay, so it is permissible for them to make some 16 adjustments per the ACOT procedure?
17 A
Per ACOT, wherein they take values only, there is 18 no adjustments in ACOT.
19 Q
Right, okay.
20 A
I mean we make adjustments with our test equipment 21 to obtain values, but we do not tweak anything in the rack.
22 Q
Yeah, the ACOT procedure is a test procedure.
If 23 things are found out of tolerance, you go to the 23300 24_
procedure'to make the calibrations.
'25 A
Yes, sir.
+
i Page 23 1
Q Okay.
2 MR. LAMBERSKI Point of clarification.
3 MR. ROBINSON:
Sure.
4 MR. LAMBERSKI:
The ACOT procedure does direct the 5
technician to go to 23300 to do the calibration, so 6
indirectly maybe it does instruct them to do the calibration.
7 BY MR. ROBINSON:
8 Q
I see.
But no place does it allow them to use the 9
test configuration setup to do the calibration as such, 10 right?
11 A
I would have to go through the procedure and read 12 it again and compare.
I can't answer that one right off the 13 top of my head.
14 Q
Okay.
15 MR. BONSER:
But ACOTs are not used to make 16-adjustments.
17 THE WITNESS:
No, sir.
1 18 MR. BONSER:
You have to go to a different 19 procedure to make the adjustments.
20 THE. WITNESS:
Procedure tells you right here that 21 if you as-found values under ACOT are not acceptable, to go
-22 to the appropriate 23300 and section of the card.
23 MR.-BONSER:
And that is done throughout IEC, is my 24 understanding, you do not make adjustments in ACOTs, you go 25 to a cal procedure --
Page 24 1
THE WITNESS:
You go to the cal portion of the
)
2 procedure along with your field cal for the cards.
j 3
BY MR. ROBINSON:
1 4
Q Is it your understanding today, that they did not j
5 go to that procedure?
6 A
Yes, sir, to my understanding today i
7 Q
How do you know that?
8-A Both gentlemen have confessed to this and both 9
gentlemen have been disciplined and I have been notified 10 about this myself.
11 Q
Did they confess to you?
12 A
They have confessed to me, yes, sir, after the J
13 fact, but not until I had returned off of a seven-day off 14 stretch.
All this happened right prior to our seven-day uff
)
15 stretch and I found out all the real details after I returned 16 off of the seven-day off stretch.
17 MR. LAMBERSKI:
So your understanding is that you 18 weren't the first one that they told.
19 THE WITNESS:
No, I'm not.
20 BY MR. ROBINSON:
i 21
.Q Do you think it might have been Mr. Hammond?
22 A
- I believe Mr. Hammond was the very first one.
I 23.
Q Okay.-
24-A That had questioned and they had told.
]
25 Q
All right.
Again,.we've gone over this basically, i
l
4 4
j Page 25 L
1 but I'm going to repeat this question again.
It's my
]_
2 understanding that on the day.in question, you got a call
)
3 from -- you think it was Mr. Davis --
4 A
Yes, sir.
i 5'
Q He said he found the loop out of tolerance or words 1
L 6
to that effect.
You went'to the site, there was some type of j
i 7
indication, and you tell me whether it was Mr. Davis or Mr.
j i
'8 Wilkins that, at least to my understanding, that they reset i
i
)
9' these points without going through the full calibration 10.
procedure.
Was there some kind of suggestion to do that?
11 A
Not to my knowledge, no, sir.
j 12 Q
Okay, so you just verified that it was out of 13 tolerance and told them to get the QC guy and take the ij-14 appropriate procedural' actions necessary to get the thing i
l 15 calibrated.
f 16 A
Yes, sir.
s
. 17 Q
Did they have any comments to those instructions?
18 A
They just say you know it'll take time, I said well 19 it'll.take time.
20 Q
Okay.
Who was it that said that, both of them or l
21 just one of'them?
22 A
I don't ra===her exactly which one said it.
I i
23 remember the statement was made.
24
.Q' About how long a~ time does it tak3 to do that 25-calibration?
j c
n m
,s
.r
4 Page 26 1
A The full delta T calibration or just this bistable 2
card that we're talking about?
3 Q
Just the calibration that they were going to be 4
required to do per procedure.
5 A
It would take approximately an hour.
6 Q
Okay.
Was there, to your knowledge, any particular 7
urgency to get that condition corrected on anybody's part?
8 A
.The urgency only was that we were getting close to 9
and of shift and trying~to get all racks cleared up for 10 operations and get out.
They don't like to do turnovers with 11 loops in partial trip setups and while we're in this, we're 12 in a partial trip.
13 Q
How close were you to the end of your shift?
14 A
Within I believe -- I'm not sure, I'd have to get 15 the data sheet to find out the time, but I believe all this 16 was happening between 4:30 and 6:00, which our shift ends at 17 7:00.
Operation shifts ends at 5:30 -- well they start their i
18 turnover at 5:30.
19 Q
Okay.
To your knowledge, other than the fact that 20 it was close to the end of the shift, was there any other 21 sense of urgency to get this condition corrected?
22 A
No, sir.
23 Q
Okay.
W s there any other conversation between you 24 and Davis and Wilkins at that time, before you left to let 25
.them do the procedure?
Page 27 1
A Just general talk, nothing in particular that I 2
have any recollection of.
3 Q
Nothing that you can recall pertaining to what they 4
were going to do to correct that situation?
5 A
As far as specific instructions as to exactly what 6
to do,-no, sir, I did not make any.
7 Q
No, I kind of meant any conversation from them as 8
to what they were going to do.
9 A
Other than making adjustments what I assumed was by 10 procedure, I didn't catch onto anything other than that.
11 Q
Okay.
When you left, you didn't have the feeling 12 that they were going to shortcut the calibration procedure in 13 any way?
14 A
No, sir, I did not.
15 Q
Okay.
Next question -- did you review the 16 procedure that had been accomplished, in detail, and direct 17 the actions of the Isc technicians to correct the identified 18 deficiency?
Do you understand that?
19 MR. LAMBERSKI:
What procedure are we talking 20' about?
21 MR. ROBINSON:
I guess the procedure that had in 22 fact been used by the IEC techs to recalibrate the equipment.
23 MR. LAMBERSKI:
What correction are we talking 24 about?
Because as Brian has mentioned earlier, that 25 procedure was revised improperly at the time the ACOT was
1 1
Page 28 l
1 performed and then it was later corrected.
So are we talking j
2 about that correction?
3 MR. ROBINSON:
Well to my understanding it's the l
4
-values, the high and low values, that on the data sheet were the things that were incorrect.
5' F
6 BY MR. ROBINSON:
7 Q
Was the procedure itself to do the calibration of l
8 that particular piece of equipment changed in any way?
I 9
A As far as the normal steps to obtain those values, l
10 no.
I' 11 MR. BONSER:
I think what is being asked here is 12 not did Mr. Neal review the words in the procedure, because 13.
the words on what to do I think were the same as they had j
14 always been.
l 15 THE WITNESS:
They.lways had been.
16 MR. BONSER:
I think what we're referring to here 17 is did you review in detail all these numbers on all these 18 data sheets and in what depth did you review them.
19:
MR. LAMBERSKI:
Okay, let's take them one step at a l
20 time.
That's the first question.
21 MR. BONSER:
I think that's what's really being 22-asked, because the words -- you already know what the words 23 say and they know what the words say and they've been the
. 24
-same for awhile.
, 25' THE WITNESS:
For quite awhile.
i.
Page 29 1
MR. BONSER:
Yeah.
2 THE WITNESS:
The procedure had been rev'd shortly.
3 We looked at the values that were here.
Without scaling 4
sheets and sitting down and doing scalings, we have no way of 5
knowing that these numbers are not the expected numbers that-4 6
we need to find in the field.
7 MR. ROBINSON:
Let the record reflect he's talking 8
about the numbers that actually are typed on the ACOT Test 9
Data Sheet as being the expected and low and high limit 10 numbers.
11 THE WITNESS:
Like I said, without scaling sheets, 12 I have no way of knowing that this is not the correct v41ue.
13 All I have is that this is the correct rev of this procedure.
14 MR. ROBINSON:
Let the record reflect he's showing 15 Revision 16 -- pointing to Revision 16.
16 MR. BONSER:
Now giu do verify that you have the 17 right revision of the procedure before you go out to the job.
18 THE WITNESS:
Before you go out to the job, yeah.
19 That's the only thing that I have -- I have to ensure that I 20 have the right rev of the procedure before I go to the field 21 and I have to assume my values are correct.
22 BY MR. ROBINSON:
23 Q
So are you saying that you did in fact closely 24
< examine the as-expected and high and low figures and compare 25 them to the entered figures on the data sheets?
Page 30 1-A Yes, sir, I did.
2 Q
And also Data Sheet 377 3
A Yes, sir.
4 Q
Okay.
Correct me -- as far as directing the 5
actions of the IEC technicians, it's my understanding that 6
you told them to do what is needed to do by procedure to 7
correct the situation.
8 A
Yes, sir.
9 Q
And then you left the area, the QC guy had come and 10 you left the area and went back to your office, is that 11 correct?
12 A
No, sir.
13 Q
Where did you go?
14 A
I went around to the front of the control room.
15 Q
Okay.
16 A
And was in the h,orseshoe area with the SS and OSOS.
17 Q
Okay.
Have you ever had any similar activities 18 from -- experienced any similar activities from Davis and i
19 Wilkins with respect to not following procedures and entering 20 false data on data sheets?
21 A
No, sir.
22 Q
Did you notify operations personnel that the 23 equipment did not meet the procedure requirements and would i
24 be aligned in accordance with the prescribed procedure?
25 A
Yes, sir.
4
. =.
l l ~
l Page 31 1
Q What action did you take when you became. aware or z
were notified that the IEC technicians had not performed the 3
procedure as required?
4 A
When I --
5 Q
When you became aware.
6 A
When I became aware the discipline action was 7
already instated on the technicians themselves.
8 Q
It had already happened.
You were off for a week 9
'and --
10 A
It had already happened.
When I returned and was 11 fully informed of what was going on, the disciplinary action 12 was already being taken.
13 MR. LAMBERSKIs Well let's back up and make sure 14 this is clear.
When did you notify operations?
15 THE WITNESS:
When J.D. took the DC card around to 16 the front to get them to assign a number and they said it was 17 not a deficiency, that our procedures allowed us to make the 18 correction, they were aware that we had an out-of-tolerance 19 bistable.
20 MR. LAMBERSKI:
Okay, the question was just with 21 respect to the out-of-tolerance condition?
22 MR.. ROBINSON:
Well that was a different question I 23 guess in a'different' context.
24 MR. LAMBERSKI Could you please re-ask that 25 question?
I'm afraid it might have been misunderstood.
f-u.
l l
e Page 32 l
1 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
2 BY MR. ROBINSON:
i 3
Q Did you notify the operations personnel that the 4
equipment did not meet the procedure requirements and would 5
be aligned in accordance with the prescribed procedure?
6 A
The answer to that is still "yes, sir", the DC card 7
was generated, we had QC coming and we made adjustments.
8 MR. LAMBERSKI And your understanding of what that 9
means -- and correct me if I'm wrong. -- is that you're to 10 notify operation's when the as-found condition of the bistable 11 in question is out of tolerance with the values on the data 12 sheet.
13 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
14 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
15 BY MR. ROBINSON:
16 Q
Did you in fact tell the operations people that 17 your. technicians are going to align this piece of equipment 18 in accordance with procedure or did you just tell them that 19 it's going to be corrected?
20 A
I really didn't tell them either.
They told me 21 that the DC card was not necessary, that the procedure 22 allowed for the correction and that we had everything under 23 control.
I said that's what I come around to make sure you 24 understood.
25 Q
Okay.
And now the next question that -- I guess
4 Page 33 1
this'is at a different point in time and we've already gone 2
over it, but we'll go over it again.
When you found out that 3
the IEC technicians had not performed the-procedure that you l
4 had expected them to perform, what did you do?
And I believe 5
you earlier said that disciplinary action had already been 6
taken on these two I&C technicians and you had been returning 7
from like a week off or --
8 A
Seven-day off stretch.
9 Q
-- seven-day off stretch.
Did you take any action 10 in addition to the disciplinary action that had been taken?
l 11 Did you talk to them or lecture them or school them or i
12 anything?
13 A
No, sir, I did not.
Once the disciplinary action 14 is taken, and it was implemented from Mr. Shipman and all 15 here, there was no action that I could take, or no action 16
.necessary for me to take.
I discussed my dissatisfaction l
17 with them, but that was all.
1 18 Q
Okay.
19 A
I had no legal -- or no action that I personally 20 could be taking against them.
21 Q
What was their reaction to that when you discussed 22 your dissatisfaction with them?
23 A
They were very upset with theirselves, they still 24 are. They were'very apologetic and --
25 Q
Okay.
So they didn't think that they had done i
Page 34 1
okay, they knew that they had done something wrong.
2 A
They definitely knew that this was not what should
.3 have been done.
4 Q
I believe you said earlier that you did not 5
physically observe the actions that they took to recalibrate 6.
the equipment, is.that correct?
7 A
That is correct, I did not observe those actions.
l 8
Q So the only review that really you did of this 9
procedure was your review of the data sheets, is that 10 correct?
11 A
Yes, sir, the loop being reinstated, I have to do 12 the independent on that, and that is also on the last two 13 sheets of this package.
14 Q
You had to do the independent on that?
15 A
Yes, sir, as far as verifying.the bistables were 16 flipped back'in and the system was put back to normal.
17 Q
So you physically went out and verified that.
18 A
That's the reason I stayed in the control room 19 around the front of the horseshoe.
3
- 20 Q
Okay.
21 A
I have to be separated by time and distance.
22 Q
All right.
When you say you have to be separated 23 by time and distance --
24 A
For an independent verification.
25 MR. BONSER:
Weren't you surprised that they got 4
n
Page 35 l
1 done so fast?
2 THE WITNESS:
Not really, not with the small amount 3
that had to be adjusted.
I mean it's just a matter of a
4 tweaking a screw.
5 MR. BONSER:
Because you had said earlier that it 6
would take about an hour to do it.
I don't know how long you 7
were in the control room --
8 THE WITNESS:
I don't have a recollection of 9
exactly how long I was around front waiting on them to 10 finish.
You know, I was called, we went out, I went around 11 front, they called me back sometime later and we closed out 12 the package.
Exact times that this took this and this took 13 that, I don't have.
14 BY MR. ROBINSON:
15 Q
We're not asking for exact times.
About how long 16 was 1t, half an hour, 45 minutes, 15 minutes, an hour and a 17 half?
18 A
It wasn't an hour and a half, it was a good 35-45 19 minutes.
20 Q
Is there any way that you can tell whether or not 21 MR. Wilkins and Mr. Davis have done this type of thing 22 before?
23 A
No, sir, nothing other than, you know --
24 Q
Well go ahead, what were you going to say?
25 A
Just knowing the men and the way they've already
l l
i I
I Page 36 I
worked. This was a total shock.
4 2
Q These are good men?
3 A
Very good men.
4 Q
Have always done things according to procedure?
i 5
A Yes, sir.
l 6
Q Have you ever had situations where you were close 7
to the end of the shift before and they had to do something i
8 that took them past shift?
9 A
Yes, sir, we've worked over.
10 Q
If the alarms had not started coming in as a result 11 of.the 3.990 being too close to the limit, this probably l'!
wouldn't have been discovered, would it?
i-i 13 A
Until -- well not for awhile.
The ACOT is 14 performed I believe once a month, but unless someone actually 15 recognized that we had wrong numbers, it could have been 16 there for awhile.
17 Q
So if -- I mean, once these values are set, are 18 recalibrated, in your experience, how much would they change 19 between ACOTs?
20 A
They would drift maybe a few millivolts at the 21' most, you know.
The way these left the 3.990 it could be 22 3.89 -- excuse me, 3.989 or 3.991, you know, minute drift at 23 the most.
24 Q
So as long'as the same data sheets with the 25 expected values,'if.they would have been used the next month,
=
I l
Page 37
[
1 the same -- there wouldn't apparently have been anything 2.
wrong with those readings.
3 A
There would have been no problem the next month 4
with the 3.990 reading that would have been taken.
5 Q
All right.
You wouldn't have expected your review 6
of these document to have in itself identified that problem, 7
would you?
8 A
Not that I can see, we had a minute change between 9
the as-found/as-left on the' Data Sheet 37 which should have 10 correlated with the change on the as-found/as-left on the 11 ACOT Data Sheet.
12-Q And in your review, it did correlate, is that 13 correct?
14 A
It appeared to be exactly what we needed.
15-Q Do you actually remember comparing those two?
16 A
Yes, sir.
i 17 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
I don't have any other 18 questions.
Brian, do you have any other questions that you 19 want to ask?
20 MR. BONSER:
No.
21 MR. ROBINSON:
Is there any other comments, Mr.
22 Neal, that you'd like to make to clarify or add anything to
~ 23 this situation,-to' wrap.it up, any final comments?
24 THE WITNESS:
Not at this time.
25 MR. ROBINSON:
And if you want to, feel free to --
w--
><-w
I Page 38
.1 we can take a break if you want to discuss with Mr. Lamberski 2-and come back -- would you like to do that?
3 THE WITNESS:
If you don't mind.
4 MR. ROBINSON:
It's now 12:08 and we'll take a five 5
minute break.
6-(A short recess was taken.)
'7 MR. ROBINSON:
It's now 12:20 p.m. and we're back 8
on the record.
9 I'll repeat my question.
Mr. Neal, are there any 10 final comments that you'd like to make to' clarify or sum up 11 your testimony here today?
12 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
I believe I made the 13 statement that I had learned after the seven-day off stretch 14 about the total incident.
I learned during the seven-day off 15 stretch but I was not back on site and did not see Mr. Davis
- 16 or anyone else until after the seven-day off stretch.
I got 17' all the details after I retu;med, but I was made aware that 18
~ here was a problem during my seven-day off stretch.
t 19 BY MR. ROBINSON:
20 Q
And it was after you returned that you kind of 21 expressed your displeasure to the -- or disappointment to the 22 23 A
Disappointment, yes, sir.
Also, after I had 24 returned, their discipline had also been instated, as far as 25 their DML.
O l
4 Page 39 1
Q DML meaning?
2 A
Decision-making leave.
3 Q-I.see, okay.
Is that decision-making leave with 4
pay?
5 A
I believe so, yes, sir -- in fact I know so, yes, j
6 sir.
7 Q
Any other comments?
8 A
I had no reason up to this point to have ever 9
suspected J.D. or Mr. Wilkins to have done something like
)
10 this.
My instructions to them I thought was clear and I had J
\\
11
.no reason to suspect this until, you know, the discovery of 12 it.
'13 Q
Okay, how long have they been working for you?
14 A
They started working for me right after Christmas, 15 I believe, right at the first of January.
We had a crew 16 shuffle and they were brought in -- I believe that was the 17 time frame that it was.
18 Q
The first of January of this year?
i 19 A
Yes, the first of January of this year.
20 Q
So they had just been working for you for about a 21 month when this happened.
22 A-Yes.
I 23 Q
Had you had any experience with their work before 4
24 or known them?
1 25; A
I had worked them on different occasions just here 1
Nr
i s
1 Page 40 1
and there with substituting for a foreman on vacation or 2
something on this order.
And just general knowledge of them i
3 in the shop and around, and had never heard of any problem or l
4 seen anything that would have made me question their work.
S Q
Okay. Do you have any idea how long they've been 4
6
.out here on site, working out here on site?
I can ask them 7
that.
i 8
A I don't have that knowledge right off the top of my 9
head.
10
'Q Okay, but they were just under your direct 11 consistent supervision for about a month?
12 A
About a month when this happened, yes, sir.
13 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay, I have no further questions.
s 14 You gave your testimony voluntarily and freely here today, i
15 didn't you, Mr. Neal?
16 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
17 MR. ROBINSON:
And no pressure or coercion was put 18 on you to testify?
i 19 THE WITNESS:
No, sir.
20 MR. ROBINSON:
Unless anyone has any other 21 questions, it's now 12:23 and the interview is completed.
22 Thank you very much for your cooperation.
23 THE WITNESS:
Thank you.
24 (Whereupon, the interview was concluded at 12:23 L25 p.m.)
)
)
Page 41 CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter oft Names Interview of Robert Earn Neal Docket Number Place:
Vogtle Nuclear Generating Plant, Waynesboro, GA Date:
May 7, 1992
. were held as herein appears, and that this is the original l
transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken stenographically by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under my i
direction, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.
hsh:= Y W
WILLIAM L. WARREN i Official Reporter Ann Riley & Associates i
d I
g.
)
OFFICIALTRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS 9\\^
s-AgeDCy:
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Title:
Interview of Roy Whitaker Docket No.
l tOCATION:
Waynesboro, GA dam May 7, 1992 PAGE 1 - 34 ANN RILEY& ASiiOCIATES,12D.
s 1612 K St. N.W. Suite 300 b
Whington,D.C. 20006 (202) 293-395o u
Ok b
.,.h@
Page 1 BEFORE THE i
U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION In the Matter of:
)
)
i INVESTIGATIVE INTERVIEW OF
)
)
ROY WHITAKER
)
Conference Room Administration Building Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Waynesboro. Georgia Thursday, May 7, 1992 The above-entitled matter convened for INVESTIGATIVE INTERVIEW, pursuant to notice at 5:13 p.m.
APPEARANCES:
On behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Reaulatory Commission:
LARRY R. ROBINSON, Investigator l
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Investigations suite 2900, 101 Marietta Tower Atlanta, Georgia 30303 i
-and-BRIAN BONSER, Senior Resident Inspector U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission vogtle Electric Generating Plant Waynesboro, Georgia On behalf of the Witness:
JOHN LAMBERSKI, Attorney Troutman, Sanders, Lockerman & Ashmore 1400 Candler Building 127 Peachtree Street Atlanta, Georgia l
l
't
i Page 2
^
1 PROCEEDINGS 2
MR. ROBINSON:
For the record, this is an interview 3
of Mr. Roy Whitaker, an employee of Georgia Power Company at 4
the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant.
The subject of the 5
interview pertains to Mr. Whitaker's involvement in a January i
j 6
28, 1992 analog channel' operational test procedure and 7
subsequent recalibration of a histable unit.
8 The date is Thursday, May 7, 1992.
The place of I
9 the. interview is on site at the Vogtle Electric Generating 10 Plant.
Present at the interview are, of course, Mr.
11 Whitaker, Mr. Brian Bonser, the Senior Resident Inspector of 12 the NRC at Vogtle; Office of Investigations Investigator 13 Larry L. Robinson, NRC and Mr. Whitaker's representative, Mr.
)
14 John Lamborski of the Troutman, Sanders, Lockerman and j
15 Ashmore firm.
16 Mr. Lamberski, would you please just briefly state 17 the nature of your representation here today.
18 MR. LAMBERSKI:
I'm here to represent both Georgia 19 Power Company as a corporation and Mr. Whitaker personally.
20 MR. ROBINSON:
All right.
21 Mr. Whitaker, are you satisfied with Mr.
22 Lamberski's representation of you personally?
23 MR. WHITAKER:
Yes, I am.
24 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
Do you have any objections to 25 being sworn to your testimony here today?
4
i*
l Page 3 1
1 MR. WHITAKER:
No, I don't.
2 MR. ROBINSON:
Would you please stand and raise 3
your right hand.
4 Whereupon, 1
5 ROY STANLEY WHITAKER 6
appeared as a witness herein, and having been first duly 7
sworn, was examined and testified as follows:
8 EXAMINATION 9
BY MR. RODINSON:
10 Q
For the record, Mr. Whitaker, would you please t
l 11 state your full name and your current position here at Plant 12 Vogtle?
13 A
My name is Roy Stanley Whitaker and I'm a senior 14 quality control specialist at Plant Vogtle.
l 15 Q
And how long have you been in that capacity?
16 A
Since about March of '86.
17 Q
And how long have you been an employee of the 18 Georgia Power Company?
19 A
Since February of '81.
l 20 Q
And where were you prior to -- when did you come to 21 Plant Vogtle?
22 A
In February of '91.
23 Q
Oh.
s 24' A
I started there.
I mean '81.
.25 Q
'81?
J r
l Page 4
]
1-A 1981.
l 2
Q That's when you started here?
3 A
Yes.
i 4 -
Q All right.
So your whole experience with Georgia 5
Power has been here at Vogtle?
6 A
Yes, it has.
7 Q
Has it all been in the QC area?
Just kind of 8
briefly summarize your different job descriptions.
9 A-Well the first -- I believe it was three years and 10 nine months -- was constructicn QC in the electrical 11 discipline.
Then I transferred to the maintenance department 12 for operations for about a year and a half.
The rest has 13 been Nucops QC.
14 Q
Okay.
On January 28th of this year, early in the 15 morning on the night shift, did you have an occasion to be 16 called-to the control room to observe a hold point in 17 connection with an instrumentation calibration?
I i
18 A
I was notified on that morning when they said they 19 had some as-found data that was out.
l 20 Q
Who was "they"?
1 21 A
J. D. Davis and Marcel Wilkins.
22 Q
Who notified you?
23-A I can't remember exactly who notified me.
24 Q
Was it -- did they just call you in your office 25-or...
w.
e re-
.i.
y
Page 5 1
A Yes, they did.
2 Q
Okay.
And told you that they had some as-found 3
data that was out of calibration?
4 A-It was out.of tolerance.
5 Q
Out of tolerance?
6 A
Right.-
7 Q
And what did you do?
8 A
I told them I would be in the control room and 9
they're allowed to make the adjustments before I get there 10 and go down there to check the as-left readings, make sure 11 they are within.
12 Q
I see.
And how soon after the phone call did you 13 go to the control room?
14 A
Five or ten minutes.
Ever how long it takes to get 15 my stuff together and get down there.
16 Q
Had you done verifications as these as-left or as-17 found readings before?
4 18 A
The as-left I had.
19 Q
You haven't done any verifications of any as-found 20 readings?
21 A
There have been very few.
4 22 Q
Okay.
Is you area of expertise in QC in the 23 electrical area?
24 A
Yes, it is.
25 Q
Okay.
So when you got to the control room, who all
1 I
Page 6 1
was in the immediate vicinity of where you had to verify the 2
as-left reading?
3 A
J. D. Davis and I believe Marcel Wilkins was there, 4
too.
5 Q
Okay.
Was Bob Neal there?
6 A
No, he wasn't.
7 Q
What did you do when you got there?
8 A
They had the test equipment set up to read the ACOT 9
readings and they ran the calibration -- or the voltage up to 10 get the readings for the ACOT and the as-left readings were 11 found to be within what the data sheet showed.
12 Q
Okay.
I'm going to show you a data sheet entitled 13 Analog Channel Operational Test Data Sheet One.
It doesn't 14 have a specific date on it.
It just shows -- it's identified 15 as being associated with VEGP Procedure Number 24812-1, 16 Revision 16, page 92 of 158.
I'll show this data sheet to
-17 you and ask if you can identify it or if you've ever seen it i
1 18 before.
19 A
As far as I know, this is a copy of the one they 2
20 had down here and these ere the readings that they had that i
21 were out.
22 Q
Okay.
Show me exactly to the best of your 23 recollection which of the readings were out.
24 A
well these were outside the tolerances they have 25 here.
1
-r a
Page 7 1
Q Okay, let the record reflect that he -- that the 2
witness pointed to a handwritten reading of 4.130 on line 10 3
of the data sheet which indicates 1TL431H extinguished.
In 4
the as-found column, the reading was written in as 4.130.
In 5
the as-left column, the reading is 3.990.
Is that the 6
reading that we're talking about?
7 A
This is the reading here that I verified in the as-8
- left section.
9 Q
The 3.990 reading?
10 A
The 3.990, and that puts it within tolerance, or 11 within the-high load limits here.
12 Q
Okay.
Did you physically look at some device that 13 read 3.990 and you saw it?
14 A
Yes, I did.
It's a digital multimeter or Fluke.
15 Q
Okay.
Who displayed that to you, Davis or Wilkins 16 or who?
17 A
I don't remember who it was.
J i
e 18 Q
Okay.
Was that all you were required to do at this 19 particular point?
20 A
Well they have another reading here.
The one right
- 21 below it I verified too.
22 Q
Okay.
You verified the 3.889 reading below it
- 23 becauso evidently the as-found reading of 4.028 was also out 24 of tolerance when the 3.889 came within tolerance?
25 A
Yes.
4
t 1
i Page 8
~
1 Q
All right.
So you verified those two readings and 2
what else happened?
3 A
That's all the involvement I had; make sure that
)
4 these readings came within the limits.
And as far as this 5
data sheet shows, they were acceptable readings and ACOT was 6
supposed to perform with them.
It was designed to.
7 Q
Did you observe how those readings were brought q$
8 within calibration level?
4 9
A No.
We're not required to do that.
j 10 Q
All you're required to do is just to verify that 11 the as-left reading is within tolerance?
12 A
Right.
We're to verify that they did make those 4
13 onlibrations and after the calibrations they are this.
But 14 we don't have to physically watch the calibrations.
15 Q
So how can you verify the calibrations if you don't l
16 physically watch the calibrations?
17 A
The as-left readings would show that they are --
9 18 the calibrations have been made and they are correct.
19 Q
Okay.
Can you tell whether the calibrations have 20 been done according to procedure by looking at the as-left a
i 21-readings?
22 A
No, but if they followed the procedure, they should 4
- 23
. fall within that.
' 24
.Q Would it be possible to calibrate them so that they 25 would fall within the tolerances without doing the 4
l i
i s
Page 9 t
1 procedures?
{
2' A
I suppose there is.
I don't know the systems that 3_
good.
1 4
4
'Q Okay.
I'm going to show you a document entitled 5
Check List Step Verification.
It's further identified as 6
being associated with VEGP Procedure Number 24812-1, Revision 7
16, page 154 of 158 and ask you if you've ever seen that 8
document bafore.
i 9
A Yes, I have.
3
\\
j '
10 Q
That document shows initials of -- I guess it's i
11 RSW?
12 A
Yes, it is.
l 13 Q
And a date of 1-28-92 and the notation IR number 14 3438.
Is that your handwriting and your initials?
l 15 A
Yes, it is.
16 Q
What does IR number 3438 mean?
17 A
That's an inspection report for the IR and that's 18 the sequential number we have on the inspection reports,
)
19 3438.
1 20 Q
And does that inspection report merely reflect that 21 you verified an as-left reading in this particular case?
22 A.
It verifies -- or it signifies that I verified the 23 ACOT as-left readings were good.
24 Q
Okay.
Why did you place your initials in the 25'
.particular position on that sheet that you did?
I will state
Page 10 1
for the record that there is a column of paragraph numbers, 2
starting with 4.3.31.5 and ending with 4.3.46.26 and Mr.
3 Whitaker's initials appear between the typewritten paragraph 4
numbers-4.3.38.18 and 4.3.38.20.
Again, I'll ask you, why 5
did you place your initials in that particular position?
6 A
That's supposedly where they found the readings --
7 the as-found readings out and that's at the time they 8
notified me.
i 9
Q So that is -- those paragraph numbers represent to 2
10 you a.poin?. in the procedure where they found the readings 11 out of calibration?
4 i
12 A
These are where they called us because the readings 13 were out.
14 Q
What -- do these numbers that I have just been 15 quoting, do they correlate to paragraph numbers on steps in 16 the procedure?
17 A
Yes, they do.
i 18 Q
And did I understand you correctly that the reason 19 your initial is where it is is that it was at particular step 20 in the procedure that the out of tolerance readings were 21 noticed?
22 A
Well it's the step before that and then they 23 notified us that they were out.
24 Q
Okay.
25 MR. LAMBERSKI Larry, let me ask you to show Roy i
i l
1 Page 11 l
1 the procedure because I think he has made a mistake in his 2
statement --
3 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
4 MR. LAMBERSKI
-- without realizing it.
4 5
BY MR. ROBINSON:
j 6
Q This is a little bit of a blurred copy of the 4
4 7
procedure but there is paragraph 4.3.38.18 on page 65 of 158 1
8 of procedure number 24812-1.
9 A
Okay, when they find the readings out, they make 1
j 10 all these adjustments first and then they call us with the i
11 as-left readings.
l 12 Q
I see.
- Okay, i
13 A
All of the adjustments are made before we get there 14-to verify that.
15 Q
And you didn't witness any of the adjustments?
16 A
No, I didn't.
4 17 Q
How long would you say your there in the control 18 room?
2 19 A
Fifteen minutes.
20 Q
Did you know on your own where they were in the 21 procedure?
22 A
I knew they had found the -- that the ACOT readings 23 were out and they were hooked up for the ACOT.
24 Q
So you knew at which point on this check list step 25' verification where to put your initials without anyone i -
Page 12 1
telling you?
2 A
Yes.
That's the card that was out of calibration 3
which this signifies.
4 Q
Okay.
So.neither Wilkins nor Davis had to tell you 5
where to put your initials on that sheet?
6 A
They might have flipped to the page and showed me.
7 I had to verify that it is the right step.
8 Q
Okay.
All right.
And that's all that your 9
initials mean, that you have just verified that the as-left 10 reading is within tolerance -- the readings?
11 A
Right.
12 Q
Okay.
At any point in time when you were in the 13 control room, did you see Bob Neal?
14 A
Not that I remember.
15 Q
How far away from where Wilkins and Davis was is 16 the OSOS and shift supervisor area?
17 A
Well you have to go around the corner in an aisle i
18 between sets of cabinets.
19 Q
Could you see that area from where you were?
20 A
If you stood out on the end of the cabinets you 21 could.
22 Q
Okay.
You didn't have any conversation with Bob 23 Neal while you were in the control room at that point?
24 A
I don't remember that he was out there.
25 Q
Okay.
Did you -- what was the nature of your
l l
)
Page 13 1
conversation with Wilkins and Davis?
2 A
I don't recall.
I just go out to do the inspection 3
.and, you know, they're talking about, you know, it's hooked 4
up and it's ready to run the as-lefts.
5 Q
Was there any indication of any dissatisfaction or 6
disagreement between the two of them on anything when you got 7
there?
8 A
Not that I could tell.
9 Q
Okay.
Do any of your QC responsibilities require 10 you to observe the full performance of a surveillance?
11 A
No, it doesn't.
12 Q
Do any of your QC responsibilities require you to 13 observe the full performance of a calibration?
14 A
No, they don't.
15 Q
And again, you physically observed the as-left 16 numbers that were on the test sheet one that you signed off l
17 on, is that correct -- on some type of an electrical 9
18 measuring device?
19 A
Yes.
20 Q
Okay.
21 Go ahead, Brian.
'22 MR. BONSER:
What I was going to ask you; there 23 were other steps in this same procedure in section 4.3 --
Excuse me.
Let the record reflect i
25 that Mr. Bonser is now referring back to the check list step l:
l
4 Page 14 1
verification document.
l 2
MR. BONSER:
Yeah.
There are other steps on the
)
3 sheet here and then the 4.3.38 section also has the QC 4
notified on here.
Did you think you should have been signing i
i 5
off any of these other steps if you started into this 6
procedure here?
)
7 THE WITNESS:
They contact me where they find 8
that -- you know, it out.
Until they contact me for these 9
other points, I don't sign this.
10 MR. BONSER:
Well they are all part of the same l
11 procedure.
If they did this one, they would have done the 12 other ones too.
They are all the same adjustment.
That's 13 what I'm asking here.
14 MR. LAMBERSKI I don't think it's Roy's ih 15 responsibility to understand this procedure.
He's required
)
16 to respond when he's notified.
So I don't think he can 17 explain to you why those are not signed off.
All he knows
)
o 18 is, he was notified here and that's what he signed off, that 19 he was notified.
20 MR. BONSER:
Okay.
I guess all I was asking was, i
21 if they had already started in this section 4.3.38, it didn't 22 occur to you then that they wouldn't complete that section 23 and ask you to sign off the rest of the steps in that 24 section?
25 THE WITNESS:
Well that's up to them to notify me 1
l Page 15 3
)
1 first.
I mean, I can't sign it until they notify me.
- See, 2
they come in here and put NA.
I can't be notified -- I mean, I
i 3
I can't sign the step-off if they don't notify me for it.
{
4-BY MR. ROBINSON -
]
5 Q
That's their handwriting, the NA and the line down i
6 through there, that's their handwriting?
7 A
Yes.
i 8
Q That's not your handwriting?
{
9 A
No.
10 Q
Okay.
I noticed that in the procedure itself that i
l 11 the 4.3.38.18 is just called a QC hold point.
j 12_
MR. BONSER:
But it says "obtain QC authorization
~13 to proceed before continuing with the procedure."
I was just l
14 asking wouldn't you have thought to yourself, well they're i
15 going to continue with the procedure and there's more QC hold 1
16 points in the procedure, so I should be signing these off?
1 17 THE WITNESS:
Like I said, until they call me, I 18 can't sign them.
They have to notify me before I can sign 19 those steps and that's all those, you know, steps signify --
20 that they did notify me.
l 21 BY MR. ROBINSON:
22 Q
Your answer is that you don't feel that it was your 23 responsibility to authorize them to continue with their 24 procedure.
It was only your responsibility to observe the 25 as-left drawing, is that correct?
Page 16 1
A They notify me -- when they notify me, I have to i
2
.give them. authorization to go to_that next step.
i 3
Q Oh, you do?
l 4
A That's all it does.
Or to perform, you know, the t-5 as-left part.
6 Q
Are you saying that once they reach a point where 7
they had reca.librated and they had obtained an as-left 8
reading, they call you to get you to verify that reading?
j 9
Are you saying that they would have to call you again to get i
?
4 10 you to authorize them to continue going through the 11 procedure?
12 A
They are supposed to.
j 13'
~ Q Oh, I see.
Wouldn't it be logical for you to give 14 them that authorization at the same time once you verify the 15 as-left readings or would you think that there are some other I
16 as-left readings that you may have to verify?
17 A
Well I don't know all the procedures that good, you 18 know, to give them authorization to keep going all the way 19 through.
That's why they had the hold points in it at the 20 points they are.
21 Q
I guess I don't understand.
If they -- and this 22 may be a totally irrelevant point, but I think it seems 23 important to Brian here.
If they call you to verify an as-24 left reading and you do that and then you go back to your 25 office and they. call you and say we need your authorization
l.-
i t
i Page 17 1
to continue with our procedure, is that part of your 2
responsibility to give that authorization?
7J 3
A I'm supposed to go there and sign the wpofe point 4
off.
5 Q
But you've already done that, right, when you l
6 signed the -- I mean, doesn't this -- doesn't this indicate 7
that you've signed the point off?
8 A
For that part there 9
MR. BONSER:
Well you see that step 18 is not to 10 sign off verification numbers, as-left numbers.
That's just 11 to verify for them to continue with the procedure.
That's 12 all that signifies, just for them to continue the procedure.
13 Then the next step after that is to verify the as-left 14 readings.
That's what I was confused on.
You were verifying 15 as-left readings in a step where it was having them continue 16 with the procedure.
That's what I was confused on.
17 THE WITNESS:
Right here, I verified the as-left 18 for the ACOT part which signifies the whole card operated 19 properly, or supposedly, which that was wrong.
20 BY MR. ROBINSON:
21 Q
You say that the ACOT operated properly?
Was that l
22 your terminology?
23 A
Yes, it was.
24 Q
You thought it was and you said which was wrong?
25 A
Right, because they wrote a temporary change to the
Page 18 1
procedure after these readings to change them to make it I i
2 guess right now.
3 Q
Okay.
t 4_
A And that's what happened during the day while I was 5
off.
3 6
Q Okay.
7 MR. LAMBERSKI:
Let's make clear -- and I may not 8
have heard the whole question -- that Roy is not saying that 4
j 9
at the time he verified the as-left readings he knew there l
10 was something wrong with them at that time.
It wasn't until 11.
after the investigation into this particular completed 4
i 12 procedure had been performed that it came to light that there i
13 was a problem --
14 MR. ROBINSON:
I understand that.
15 MR. LAMBERSKI:
-- that he learned that.
16 THE WITNESS:
Our job is to verify these as-lefts 17 do fall within the high load limits and that's all I had to l
18 go on.
19 MR. ROBINSON:
Yeah, all you're doing is comparing 20 what you saw on the device to the printed number on the form.
21 THE WITNESS:
Right.
22
-BY MR. ROBINSON:
23 Q
And that was really your total involvement with 24 this situation?
25 A
Yes, it was.
That's all we're required to do.
Page 19 1
Q Okay.
And none of your responsibility -- this is a 2
repeat question I guess.
None of your responsibilities as a 3
QC inspector are to observe a partial procedure and make sure 4
that procedure was done the way it's supposed to be done?
5 A
It's just -- for this instance, it's just to verify 6
the as-left readings.
7 Q
Yeah, but I'm not talking about that instance.
I'm 8
9 A
Well what --
10 Q
-- talking about at any point in time, as a QC 11 inspector, are you required to go out and observe a procedure 12 that may be a number of steps and then sign off as verifying 13 that that procedure was performed correctly?
14 MR. IAMBERSKI That those steps that he observed 15 were performed correctly?
16 Mk. ROBINSON:
Yeah.
17 THE WITNESS:
I don't know exactly what you mean.
r 18 BY MR. ROBINSON:
19 Q
Have you ever done that?
20 A
What are you talking about?
21 Q
Let's say -- let's take for example a calibration 22 procedure.
23.
A All right.
24 Q
I know that you've already told me that you've 25 never gone and observed a calibration procedure.
But let's
l 4
Page 20 l
1 take some other unidentified procedure that has a number of 2
steps that need to be performed.
3 A
Before the QC-hold point?
4 Q
We're not even going to -- yeah, let's say before 5
the QC hold point.
6 A
No, we don't have to watch them.
7 Q
Okay.
You have never done that as part of your 8
job, to observe that the steps of a procedure up to a hold 9
point were performed properly?
10 A
I can't say I've never done that.
We're not 11 required to do that.
12 Q
Why would you have done it?
13 A
We just got -- they would call us before they would 14 get to a hold point and we got there before they actually got 15 to it.
16
.Q Oh.
So it was just a matter of timing?
17 A
Yes.
I 18 Q
They weren't calling you to observe that?
19 A
No, they weren't.
20 Q
You just get to a hold point and observe the 21 conditions at that hold point?
22 A
Yes.
23
~ Q Okay.
You were aware when they first called you 24 and told you that they had had an out-of-tolerance reading, 25 that they were going to have to do something to get that
Page 21 1
reading back into tolerance, weren't you?
2 A
Well they're supposed to make those adjustments --
3 or they can make those adjustments before we get there and 4
then they call us.
And since they called -- I mean, I knew 5
something -- you know, they were out at one time or another.
6 Q
And you knew that they were probably doing 7
something to get it back in before your observation of the 8
hold point?
9 A
Or should have already done it, yes.
10 Q
Okay.
11 Do you have any questions, Brian?
12 MR. BONSER:
No.
13 MR. ROBINSON:
I don't think I have any more 14 questions.
Do you have any other final comments that you 15 want to make regarding the nature or the scope of this l
16 interview that you think might clarify anything with respect 17 to this particular situation, the January 28th calibration?
o 18 THE WITNESS:
Could I take a break?
19 MR. ROBINSON:
Sure.
It's now 5:44.
Let's take a 20 five minute break and you can discuss it with your attorney.
21 (A short recess was taken.)
22 MR. ROBINSON:
It is now 5:51 and we're back on the 23 record.
24 BY MR. ROBINSON:
25 Q
Mr. Whitaker, before I ask you the question I asked 6
i
i' 1.
Page 22 J
^
1
.you before we left about any final comments, I've got one or 2'
- a. series of final questions.
I'll show you this document 1
3
.that's entitled Analog Channel Operational Test Data Sheet 4.
One again and ask you, are you fairly certain it was a test 5
data. sheet number one and those_ numbers that we quoted that 6-you verified when you went there?
7 A.
Yes, I did verify those.
8 Q
Okay.
I'm now going to show you a document
)
l j
9.
' entitled Data Sheet 37, which is further identified as being J
i 10 associated with VEGP Procedure 24812-1, Revision 16, page i
11 number 138 of 158 and ask you if you've ever seen that 12 document?
i 13 A
Not really.
I mean, I saw it when somebody showed
.14 it to me probably several weeks later.
15 Q
Okay.
You didn't see it at the time you were 16 called to verify the as-left reading, is that correct?
17 A
No, I didn't.
4 18 Q
Okay.
If you will notice -- and I don't know
'19 whether you noticed this at the time you signed off on this 20 checklist that the steps in the procedure coming down to your 21-QC hold point that you signed off, which is paragraph 4
22 4.3.38.18, all refer to readings on data sheet 37.
Yet, you 23 don't recall -- all you did was look at a meter and compare
. 24 Lth'at to the readings on data sheet one, right?
25 A
.That's right.
That's -- what they had hooked up l
-~
l Page 23 1
was for the ACOT.
2 Q
And that's what they should -- and yet, at this 3
point in the procedure in the area of paragraph 4.3.3818, 4
we're in kind of a calibration portion of the procedure.
5 MR. LAMBERSKI Be careful, Larry.
6 MR. ROBINSON:
Go ahead.
j i
7 MR. LAMBERSKI:
18 is after the calibration.
8 MR. ROBINSON:
That's correct, but the data that is j
9 generated by this calibration is put on test sheet 37 rather
]
10 than test sheet one.
11 THE WITNESS:
Out of the 4.3.38 section.
12 MR. ROBINSON:
Right.
13 THE WITNESS:
Right.
14 BY MR. ROBINSON:
15 Q
So why did you initial this hold point off without 16.
seeing a completed test sheet 377 17 A
Because the card calibration that they perform r
18 changes these readings here and this is the loop that they 19 operate by and these are the bistables.
I verified these l
20 readings here to verify that the card was calibrated.
21 Q
Okay.
So --
22 MR. LAMBERSKI:
I think what Roy's saying is, he's 23 not required to, Larry.
24 MR. ROBINSON:
I'm just --
j-25 MR. LAMBERSKI:
Don't let me put words in your
c..
i Page 24 l
1 mouth, Roy.
Is that correct?
2 THE WITNESS:
We're required to verify that the 3
card was calibrated and these readings here signify that the 4'
card was calibrated.
i 5
BY MR. ROBINSON:
]
6 Q
So even though the steps in the procedure 7
immediately proceeding your hold point that you signed off 8
talked about readings that would have been entered on test 9
sheet 37.
Did that enter your mind at all?
3 10-A Like I said, this is a point where they notify us 11.
that they have some readings out.
12 Q
That's correct.
13 A
They performed the calibration and then they 14 notified us.
And when I got down there, the ACOT was hooked 15 up.
And if you verify the ACOT, and if it was right on here,
- 16 the card should have been calibrated right.
17 Q
Okay.
I i
18 Brian, help me with this.
19 If you've in this -- in the 4.3.38 section of the 20 procedure, are you in the ACOT?
21 A
In that section, no, you're not.
l 22 Q
So test sheet data one is from the ACOT section, 23 right?
24 A
Yes, it is.
25 Q
Data sheet number 37 is from this -- we'll call it-1
i Page 25 1
for lack of a better word calibration section of the.
2 procedure, is that correct?
4 3
A For that card, yes.
4 Q
Okay.
I mean, do you -- seeing what you see now, 5
do y.Su feel that you probably should have looked at a test i
6-sheet 37?
1 7
A Knowing everything that I know now about what went i
8 on?
- 9 Q
Yes.
10 A
Yes, but I didn't know all of that then.
11 Q
Okay.
Did you think that the IEC technicians maybe
]
12 have pulled a little wool over your eyes by showing you this i-13 data and having you sign off for this QC hold point?
i l
14 A
It -- well like I said, I go by this for the ACOT, 15 and if these readings were right, I assumed everything else 16 was right.
There was a discrepancy in the procedure.
That's 17 why the readings weren't right.
S 18 Q
It makes me wonder why they wouldn't -- is there a 19 hold point at the end of the ACOT?
20 A
I'd have to look at that procedure.
I don't know.
21 MR. BONSER:
I don't think there is.
We would have 22 to go through the procedure.
I'm not knowledgeable enough i
23 with the procedure.
' 24-MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
25 NR. BONSER. In this section of the procedure, t
4 Page 26 1
4.3.38, there are as-left verifications.
That's what I asked 2
you about earlier because you verified as-lefts in an ACOT 3
section when you should have verified -- it appears to me 4
that you should have. verified the as-lefts in this 4.3.38 5
section.
I'm trying to understand why you became. confused.
6 It appears that you were verifying ACOT numbers when you 7
should have been verifying numbers in this section, the 8
4.3.38 section of the procedure.
9 THE WITNESS:
The verification we make is supposed 10 to verify the calibration when it's performed and it was 11 good.
12 MR. BONSER:
That would have been on data sheet 37.
13 THE WITNESS:
Well these readings here on data 14 sheet one would signify that the calibration was done and it 15 was.right.
16 MR. BONSER:
Well they're not the same readings.
17 THE WITNESS:
I know, but this -- the calibrations j
18 they make to get these readings directly affects these 19 readings here and it would have come out with these readings 20 if the procedure was right at the time.
21 BY MR. ROBINSON:
22 Q
That was one of my questions.
Was the fact that 23 you weren't looking at a test sheet 37 in your mind when you 24 were doing this hold point verification?
l 25 A
They weren't hooked up when I got there to take the i
i
y I
Page 27 2'
1 readings for data sheet 37.
They had it set back up to do 2
the ACOT.
l 1
2 3
Q Right.
And I guess obviously -- so'the question --
4 the answer -- you're saying your answer to the reason why you 5
signed off in the 4.3.38 section, rather than in the ACOT
)
6 section, is that in your mind the calibration had been done.
7-So it didn't make any difference as long as you verified an 8
in-tolerance as-left reading in the ACOT section, there would 7
9 have been an in-tolerance as-left reading in the 37 section?
10 A
Yes.
j 11 Q
Did that thought go through your mind at that time?
j 12 A
Which thought's that?
l
'13 Q
The thought that if the as-left reading in the ACOT 14 section was within tolerance, then if they would have 4
15 produced a data sheet 37, that as-left reading would have I
16 been in tolerance.
Did that go through your mind at the 17 time?
I 18 A
It should have been in tolerance if they performed j
19 that section.
20 Q-I don't know whether you understand my question or 21 not.
Did you think when you were signing this off that you j
4 22' should have looked at a test sheet 37?
23.
A Not if I can verify it here on the ACOT.
I 24 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay, I don't have any other
-25 questions.
Do you have_any final comments that you want to i
-,We
1 Page 28 1
make to clarify,the situation?
2 MR. LAMBERSKI:
Do you remember now what we talked 3
about, Roy?
4 THE WITNESS:
I think so.
5 MR. LAMBERSKI Okay, go ahead.
6 THE WITNESS:
The whole point of sign off there is 7
to signify that -- or that's where they called me and said 8
they had a place where QC needed to be notified to go down 9
and watch the as-left readings.
When I got there, I verified 10 that the card did perform its function by the ACOT here.
j 11 That's what I'm required to do, to verify the procedure 12 readings here are correct.
13 MR. LAMBERSKI Let the record reflect he's 14 pointing to data sheet one, page 92 of the relative 15 procedure.
16 MR. ROBINSON:
All right.
17 THE WITNESS:
If I had of known that they didn't i
18 get acceptable readings for this data sheet here and they 19 didn't follow the procedure, my job is to stop them and 20 correct the problem.
I had no idea that they went way out of 21 bounds or whatever they done.
22 BY MR. ROBINSON:
23 Q
When Davis or Wilkins kind of showed you where in 24 the procedure you were to sign off, did it ring a bell to you 25 at all that you were out of the ACOT portion of the
Page 29 1
procedure?
2 A
Yes, that'c where they -- like I said, only where, 3
they notify me is when they come to a point that they had to 4
calibrate a card.
5 Q-So you -- you knew that the sign off portion like 6
paragraph 4.3.38 section was out of the ACOT procedure when 7
you signed it off?
8 A
It's all in the same procedure.
The --
9 Q
Well we're going to call test sheet one the ACOT 10 procedure and we're going to call the area of paragraph 11 4.3.38 the calibration procedure -- section of the procedure.
12 Is there no distinction in actuality in your mind between 13 those two sections?
14 A
I know the purpose of our job is to go down and 15 verify that the calibration was performed and the readings 16 they get are right.
And like I said, this is directly tied l
17 to this one here, the calibration.
If these readings would o
18 have been -- were right by the TCP they done, the temporary 19 change procedure, they would never have got these readings to 20 start off with.
21 MR. ROBINSON:
John, can you explain to him what i
I 22 I'm trying to ask him?
Do you understand what I'm trying to 23 ask him?
24 MR. LAMBERSKI:
I'm not sure I do, Larry.
25 MR. ROBINSON:
Do you see a distinction in the
l l
Page 30 11 portions, the sections of'the procedure between when you're i
2 in an ACOT,'when you're doing a test, and when you're 3
calibrating the equipment?
4 MR. LAMBERSKI:
I think I understand that, Larry, 5
and the way you explained it, I don't think is the case.
i 6
Maybe Brian can help me, too.
7 MR. BONSER:
Well if you get into this section of 8
the procedure, you verify your as-left in this section of the I
9 procedure.
You don't verify them in a different section of 10 the procedure in the ACOT section.
That's the point I think
)
11 we're trying to make here.
You don't go to another section -
j lL2
- back to another section of the procedure to verify your 13 ACOT reading.
You stay in the same section of the procedure 14
.to verify those readings.
So he authorized them -- this hold 15 point here to proceed and the next step over here is to 16 verify your as-left readings on data sheet 37.
Well for some i
17 reason, they jumped back over to this data sheet one and j
18
.that's what we're having a hard time understanding, how to 19 resolve the balance between verifying readings on a data 20 sheet one when you should have been on a data sheet 37.
And 21 he signed off and it's above and below and there are points 22 here also that should have been signed off by the QC, even 23 though I know -- I realize it was marked NA.
But it should 24 have not been' marked NA if you were going to complete that 25 section of the procedure.. If you started in the procedure, P
i b-. -
-+P
Page 31 1
either you complete it or you have to back out of it and sign 2
off that you backed out of it and I have no indication that 3
they ever backed out of it here.
So one would have to assume 4
that you were going to complete the procedure rather than 5
just sign off one step of the procedure, because there are 6
two more QC sign offs in here to verify the as-lefts.
That's 7
the point of confusion.
8 MR. LAMBERSKI:
Number one, as I understand it, 9
this is not a checklist for QC sign offs.
It's signed off by 10 the technicians.
Number two, as I understand it, the only i
11 thing Roy has done here was to confirm that he had been 12
-notified at this point where there is a QC hold point, 18, QC 13 hold point.
I recognize that 20 says QC notified as well, 14 but I don't see any QC hold point here in the procedures.
So 15 I don't understand this sheet, except for that one point, 16 step 18.
17 BY MR. ROBINSON:
o 18 Q
But all my question is, is there a distinction in 19 your mind between what they're doing to arrive at the data on 20 test sheet one and what they're doing to arrive at the data 21 on test sheet 37, or is there a distinction?
22 A
Let me see if I've got this straight.
l 23 Q
.Go ahead.
24 A
If we can verify the readings here -- they made 25 adjustments here and we can verify them here and they are
1 i
1 1.
Page 32 t
1 directly-tied together, then I can verify this for the as-1.
~
2 left readings to confirm that this was correct over here.
3 Q
Did that thought process enter your mind when you 4
signed your initials then?
5 A
To verify that the card was good based on the ACOT?
6 Q
No.
That if you had seen the test sheet 37, it 7
would have correlated to the test sheet one.
Did the thought 8-of a test sheet 37 even enter your mind when you signed off 9
here?
10 A
No, it didn't.
Like I said, they didn't have it 11 hooked up to perform this part.
They had it hooked up to 12 perform the ACOT when I got there and they said this card was a
i 13 out.
I mean, we have to take their word on what was out l
14 because they could do several things and not get notified.
15 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
I don't think we're going to l
16
'get anywhere.
Any other comments?
l' 17 MR. LAMBERSKI:
Yeah.
I want to remind him of what 18 we talked about so long ago.
19 MR. ROBINSON:
Let the record reflect that Mr.
20 Bonser is leaving the interview.
21 THE WITNESS:
I would like to say that I fulfilled 12 2 my. responsibility as a QC inspector to make sure that card 23 was calibrated based on the data we had at the time in the 24-
' approved procedure.
25 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
1
l
\\
Page 33 1
THE WITNESS:
And that I gave them authorization to 2-go ahead with the procedure, which I have to or they can't.
3 MR. ROBINSONr Okay.
4 THE WITNES.St. Like I said, if I had of known that 5
they didn't perform 37, I'm supposed -- or data sheet 37, I'm
)
6 supposed to stop them and, you know, make sure they follow 7
the procedure to get the acceptable readings.
Like I said, 8
they had acceptable readings here and I had no reason to 9
doubt it.
10 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
Had you ever been called for 11 a hold point at that point in that procedure before?
You 12 don't know or...
13~
THE WITNESS:
I don't know.
14 MR. ROBINSON:
How many times a day do you called l
15 out for hold points?
- 16 THE WITNESS:
I average four times or five times a 17 day.
o 18 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
19 THE WITNESS:
I mean, if you'll look, there is I
20 probably a thousand procedures.
It's hard to say which ones 21 I've gone out on.
22 MR. ROBINSON:
All right.
I don't have any 23.
additional questions.
You've provided your testimony here 24
- voluntarily today, didn't you?
25 THE WITNESS:
Yes, I did.
i r
Page 34 1
'MR. ROBINSON:
There was no pressure or coercion 2
put on you to testify here today?
3 THE WITNESS:
No, there wasn't.
4 MR. ROBINSON:
I thank you for your cooperation.
l 5
It's now.6:09'and this interview is terminated.
Thank you, 6
Mr. Whitaker.
7 (Whereupon, the interview was concluded at 6:09 8
p.m.)
9
'10 11 4
12 i~
13 4
14 15
-16 17 18 19 4
20 21 4
22 23 24 25
PacJang16 35 CERTIFICATE This is'to certify that the attached proceedings before the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of:
4 Name:
Interview of Roy Whitaker i
Docket Numbers j
l Place:
Vogtle Nuclear Generating Plant, Waynesboro, GA i
Date:
May 7, 1992 were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken stenographically by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under my direction, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.
hh:=s hw WILLIAM L. WARREN Official Reporter Ann Riley & Associates
OFFICIALTRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
\\:,y Agency:
- 17. $. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Title:
interview or a; n. navi, Docket No.
tocA11ot*
Waynesbore, GA DATm May 7, 1992 paca 1 - % Q '/
/
4 E
ANN RIIE& ASSOCIATES, LTD.
1612 K m.N.W.Suke 300
'f
" l 'nd--t D.C 20006 t
(20 0 295-3950
[
A
Page 1 BEFORE THE U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION In the Matter of:
)
)
INVESTIGATIVE INTERVIEW OF
)
)
JOHN D. DAVIS
}
Conference Room Administration Building Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Waynesboro. Georgia Thursday, May 7, 1992 The above-entitled matter convened for INVESTIGATIVE' INTERVIEW, pursuant to notice at 1:35 p.m.
APPEARANCES:
On behalf of the U.S.
Nuclear Reaulatory Commissions LARRY R. ROBINSON, Investigator U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Investigations suite 2900, 101 Marietta Tower Atlanta, Georgia 30303 i
-and-BRIAN BONSER, Senior Resident Inspector
~U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Waynesboro, Georgia On behalf of the Witness:
N. STATEN BITTING, JR., Attorney Fulcher, Hagler, Reed, Hanks & Harper 520 Greene Street Augusta, Georgia J
+
Page 2 1
PROCEEDINGS 2
MR. ROBINSON:
For the record, this is an interview 3
of Mr. John Davis, employee of Georgia Power at the Vogtle 4
Electric Generating Plant.
It is Thursday, May 7, 1992, this 5
interview is being conducted in the Plant ManaSer's 6
Conference Room at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plaitt, 7
Waynesboro, Georgia.
8
.The subject of the interview pertains to the
'9 production of-Instrumentation and Control Test Data Sheets 10 and the following of procedures in recalibrating certain 11 electrical instrumentation equipment.
1 l
12 Present at the interview are Mr. Davis; Mr. Brian 13 Bonser, the Resident Inspector, NRC, at the Vogtle Electric 14 Generating Plant; Larry L. Robinson, Investigator, NRC Office 15 of Investigation; Mr. Davis' attorney, Mr. N. Staten Bitting, 16 Jr., of the firm of Fulcher, Hagler & Reed, 520 Greene 17 Street, Augusta, Georgia.
And also present is Mr. Davis' 18 wife, Mrs. Davis.
19 Mr. Davis, do you have any objection.to being sworn 20 to your testimony here today?
21-MR. DAVIS:
No, sir.
i
' 22 MR. ROBINSON:
Would you please stand and raise 23 Lyour right hand?
24
'Whereupon, 25 JOHN D. DAVIS 4
-~w m
Page 3 1
appeared as a witness herein, and having been first duly j
2 sworn, was examined and testified as follows:
3 EXAMINATION 4
BY MR. ROBINSON:
5 Q
Would you please state your full name for the 6
record, Mr. Davis?
7 A
John Daniel Davis.
8 Q
And what is your current job title?
9 A
Senior Instrumentation and Controls Technician.
10 Q
And what was your job on January 28, 1992?
11 A
The same.
12 Q
And how long have you been an employee of Georgia l
13 Power Company?
14 A
Nine years and eight months, nine months.
15 Q
And how much of that time has been spent here at 16 the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant?
17 A
The first year in Division of Construction and the 18 last five plus years in Division of Operations, Nuclear IEC.
19 Q
So all of it has been on the Vogtle site?
20 A
No, sir, I had three and a half years at Plant 21 Wilson, a combustion turbine site next door.
22 Q
I see, I see -- okay.
As I stated, the subject of 23 the interview concerns the preparation of some testing data 24 sheets regarding the delta T T-average loop of the three 25 protection channel, according to Vogtle Electric Generating O
Page 4 1
Procedure -- Plant Procedure 24812-1.
2 It's my understanding that you and another I&C 3
technician by the name of Wilkins were conducting a 4
surveillance on this equipment on January 28, is that 5
correct?
6 A
Yes, sir.
7
.Q Could you, in your own words, explain to me what 8
took place from the point in time you first started doing 9
that surveillance?
10 A
Yes, sir.
During the Unit 1 outage, there had been 11 some -- two additional RTDs placed into the delta T TAVG 12 loop, RTD bypass.
13 Q
RTD meaning?
14 A
Resistance temperature devices, which provide 15 inputs for the hot leg and cold leg.
16 Q
Okay.
17 A
Temperatures.
We had set -- we were given the 18 surveillances for Unit 1 and Unit 2. These can't start until 19 the due date which is after 12 o' clock on a -- you know, we 20 were working nights at that time.
21 Q
Okay.
22 A
The test setup involved four RTD simulators, seven 23 digital fluke meters, a number of 0 to 10 volt voltage 24 sources and ramp step generators.
It's a very elaborate test 25 procedure.
Page 5 1
Q All right.
2 A
It requires a cart.
We took the cart into place, 3
we went through procedure of our normal test setup --
4 Q
Where -- just exactly where in the plant were you
.5 conducting this surveillance?
6 A
In Protection Set -- I believe it was -- in 7
Protection. Set 3, which is in the main control room. The 8
control room area is rather narrow in the protection sets and
'9 control sets and other process cabinets.
The cart is rather 10 wide, we had all our test equipment on the cart.
I was 11 standing directly in front of the racks as we were setting 12 up.
I had the rack.
The test equipment was here on the 13 cart, Marcel was on the other side of the card with the 14 procedure and the data sheets.
He was reading, I was 15 plugging.
16 Q
When you say plugging, you were taking readings --
17 A
No, sir, the initial setup is -- the initial test 18 procedure is quite elaborate where you set up your 19 installment RTD in this card location, install another.RTD 20 into this card location, install another RTD into this one.
21 And provide a voltage source into this card, put a meter to 22 this card -- it's very systematic and orderly.
23-But once we got everything in, you set your 24 voltages up and we started our procedure.
Everything went 25 well, the initial readings came in, the dynamic -- or the
=
w
)
Page 6 1.
ramp step generator where we put a ramping increase in and
., g.
2 check the time for a bistable to come, all that was going 3
well.
4 Then we came to a bistable, the 431H if my memory 5
serves me correctly --
.6 Q.
Will these documents help you at all?
7 A
Yes, sir.
8 MR. ROBINSON:
Let the record reflect that the 9
witness is reviewing Revision'16 of Analog Channel 10
' Operational Test Data Sheet 1, pertaining to procedure number 11 24812-1.
12 THE WITNESS:
I will probably be referring to this
]
13 as an ACOT.
14 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
~
15 THE WITNESS:
That's typically what we call it, 16 it's an analog channel test.
17 Yes, sir, it was a 431H, if this is our document.
18 BY MR.-ROBINSON:
19 0
Is that your handwriting, are those numbers your
- 20 handwriting?
' 21 A
No, sir.
22' Q-It is Wilkins' handwriting?
23 A.
Yes, sir.
We got to that point, I'm on the rack, 24 he's on the other side.
Okay, I'm varying a voltage, 25 watching a bistable, which is a light emitting diode that's 4
-e e
n.,
Page 7 1
extinguished or on.
2 Q
Okay.
3 A
Okay, I've got my mark such and such a voltage and 4
then I go pick it up on the other side, mark and get my
.5 voltage.
That's out, that's out of cal.
6 Q
Out of calibration.
7 A
Out of calibration, it's outside the acceptable 8
limits.
9 Q
Now are we talking about this --
10 A
On illuminate and extinguish.
11 Q
Are we talking about this voltage 4.1307 12 A
Yes, sir, as measured on a digital volt meter.
13 Q
Okay.
So what did you do next?
14 A
My first impulse was -- there was a lot of other 15 test equipment -- you know, I told you we had a lot in there.
16 There was another spurious alarm coming in on another cabinet 17 which involved a lot of other test leads and records hooked 18 up, you know, multi-channel recorders hooked up.
My first 19 thought was tweak, but I didn't.
I said no, that's wrong.
20 Q
What do you mean by tweak?
21 A
Adjust it in.
It was close.
i 22 Q
Adjust the --
23 A
Adjust the bistable.
24 Q
Okay.
25 A
But I did not do that.
I said no, that's wrong,
~
i Page 8 i
1 we're not going to do that.
We called our foreman, Bob Neal.
2 Q
Bob Neal, okay.
l 3
A Bob --
1 l
4 Q
What did yor,tell him?
5 A
I said we've got a bistable out on the ACOT, what 6
do you want me to do. He said well -- I don't know whether 7
his term was well let's make it right or we've got to fix it
)
8 or what -- get QC.
Then I called Quality Control Section, p.
9' Roy Whitaker.
Told Roy that we had a bistable out.
10 Q
Is this -- you're talking to Roy on the telephone 11 or did he come over?
12 A
Yes, sir.
I said we're on hang-on or something --
13 I don't know exactly what I said but I informed him we had a l
14 bistable out on a delta T loop, we needed him for as-left i
l'J values.
1 16' I don't remember whether Bob got there first or 17 whether Roy got there first, but both were there at the rack, 18 and I showed them with the voltsge source going up where we 19 were, ar.d the values here that we're out.
And then we 20 adjusted the bistable to the value right here.
21 At that time --
22 Q
Wait a minute -- while Bob and Roy were there, you Yk 23 adjusted the bistable tot he 3.9907 24 A
Yes, sir,-that expected value, yes, sir.
25 Q
Okay.
Page 9
]
1 A
At.this point, I thought I was doing the right 2
thing, this was out on my data sheet.
And we'd called QC, 3
we'd gotten in touch with Bob.
We made it right -- in my 4
mind, we made it right.
5 Q
Okay.
6 A
And then I think Bob left -- he would have to come la 7
back in order togan independent verification on the 8
completion after we restored the loop to service to make sure 9
that the bistables were all proper and all channel status 10 lights were extinguished.
So he couldn't be there with us 11 while we were restoring the loop.
f-
)
12 Q
Was Roy with you?
)
l 13 A
Roy -- this is -- Roy witnessed the as-left to the 14 ACOT data sheet, and he said okay, where do I sign, what did l l
15 I---j n = t witness?
And then it hit me about that time, you 16
.know, when he had to sign a step in the data sheet, that he 17 witnessed as-left value taken under this step of the 18 procedure.
19 Q
Okay.
20-A That's what his signature means?
21 A
That's-what his initials means, that he witnessed l
22
'that.
23 Q
Just looked at and verified the as-left values?
l 24 A
He verified the as-left value per.that step.
25' Q
And Bob saw that, essentially saw the adjustment to
-e-+='*
M w
l.
Page 10 1
the 3.990 before he left?
i 2
A Yes, sir.
3 Q
All right.
1 4
A To the best of my recollection, sir, yes.
5 Q
Okay.
And --
6 A
At this time, you know, Roy signed that -- and 7
something triggered and that's when I realized that we had j
8 not done that step, we had not done that step.
We did it to 9
the ACOT value and did not do it to that value, to that part 10 of the procedure.
i 11 Q
So was it just a matter of obtaining a value as 1
12 opposed to how you obtained that value?
In other words, i
13 isn't there a given procedure that requires you to go through 14 X number of calibration steps, regardless of what value 15 you're setting it to?
Does that question make any sense to 16 you?
17 A
I don't think it does, sir.
9 18 MR. ROBINSON:
Go ahead.
19 MR. BONSER:
When you find an incorrect as-found 20 value, isn't there some other procedure that you should go 21 to?
You should come out of this ACOT procedure and to 22 another procedure?
23 THE WITNESS:
In the procedure, you notify your 24 foreman.
25 MR. BONSER:
Okay.
w-
4 Page 11 1
THE WITNESS:
Now there is a specific procedure for 2
the calibration of the NAL card, alarm card is what that 3
means, NAL card.
4 BY MR. ROBINSON:
5 Q
Is this the procedure?
I'm going to show you 6
procedure number 23300-C.
7 A
Could I take a look at the actual delta T 8
procedure, please, sir?.
9 (A document was proffered to the witness.)
10 MR. ROBINSON:
That's just an excerpt from that 11 procedure.
12 THE WITNESS:
Okay.
13 (The witness reviews the document.)
14 THE WITNESS:
I'm trying to find -- okay, this is 15 the QC hold point.
If we had -- this is actually in the 16 procedure.
I would need to go with my procedure to an 17 earlier step.
I 18 MR. ROBINSON:
And just for purposes of clarifying J
l 19 it on the record, when you're pointing to something, try to j
20 identify it by saying what page and what procedure.
21 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
22 (The witness reviews a document.)
23 THE WITNESS:
This is the statement that I was 24 referring to earlier, sir.
"If during performance of this 25 procedure, any of the following occur, immediately notify IEC i
l
Page 12 1
foreman."
2 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
3.
THE WITNESS:
"Any personnel error, procedural 4
inadequacy or malfunction is identified which could prevent 5
fulfillment of acceptance criteria and any test exceed 6
specified limits."
That's why we called Bob at that time.
7 BT MR. ROBINSON:
8 Q
Okay, and after that, after Bob came, how are you 9
supposed to fix the problem?
10 A
We were supposed to have gone to the individual 11 card calib, ration procedure.
12 Q
Did you know that at the time?
13 A
I should have but it didn't register.
14 Q
Had you adjusted bistables using the ACOT procedure 15 before?
16 A
No, sir, because 95 percent of the procedures that 17 we run, it's the same test setup for,the card calibration or 18
-- for the ACOT and for the card calibration.
19 Q~
Okay.
20 A
And this one is so elaborate that it goes through a 21 different system.
22 (The witness reviews a document.)
23 THE WITNESS:
Right here, sir.
This is the section 24' for the individual card calibration procedure.
25 MR. ROBINSON:
Let the record reflect that the i
+
i se--
+m-a
~, -
- - =
. -.. -.. - ~...
Page 13 1
section he is referring to is on Procedure Number 24812-1, 2
Rev Number 16, page 64, paragraph -- which paragraph were you 3
pointing out to me?
4 THE WITNESS:
This section right here.
5 MR. ROBINSON:
4.3.38.1.
l 6
THE WITNESS:
Signal comparator NAL card 7
calibration, 1 TB-431G/H.. The G/H means there's two bistable d
8 channels on that card.
4 9
MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
]
10 BY MR. ROBINSON:
11 Q
When Bob Neal came to where you were, did he give 12 you any instructions as to how to correct the out-of-l 13 calibration problem?
14 A
Not that I recall, no, sir.
15 Q
Was there any conversation about it being close to 16 and of shift and the full calibration procedure is going to 17 take a long time?
e 18 A
No, sir.
19 Q
There was no conversation like that that you 20 recall?
21 A
Not that I recall.
There may have been, but I 22 don't recall it, no, sir.
23 Q
Do you remember saying anything like that?
3 24 A
No, sir.
25-Q Were you familiar with -- I guess I may have asked
=.. -..
I i
Page 14 1
this question before -- were you familiar with the procedure, i
2 the full calibration procedure that you needed to use to 3
correct that out-of-calibration situation?
4 A
I think I should have known that, but it didn't
]
5 register at that time, no, sir.
6 Q
In your experience as an IEC technician, had you 7
over performed that full calibration procedure before?
8 A
Yes, sir, many times on the loop before it was l
9 modified with the additional cards.
That's the first time I i
10 had done a cal or a surveillance with the additional RTDs.
11-Q I see. Go ahead.
12 A
You were mentioning the card cal procedure, the 13 field calibration procedure for NAL cards.
This is this area 4
14 right here and what it basically tells you is adjust the
[
15 calibration wheel to obtain values listed, but the delta T 16 procedure is cpe'ific in the NAL card calibration.
This is a c
17-general that is used in other procedures that are not i
18 specific, like control channels and this type of thing.
If i
4 19 you have a card out, like multiply / divide card or a lead / lag 4
i 20 card in a control channel, you would -- it would be 21 instructions in the procedure to proceed to the field 22 calibration procedure 23300 for the applicable card.
23' Q
I see.
24 MR. BITTING:
Would you identify the page that you 25 just referred to?
-4 rw
--w--
n v
m w
---w-,
Page 15 1
MR. ROBINSON:
Let the record reflect that the 2
witness was referring to Procedure 23300-C, Rev 5, page 3
number 6 of 47.
I assume paragraph 4.4 Signal Comparative --
i 4
THE WITNESS:
There are three different NAL cards l
5 and all three of them are listed, the type of card.
But 6
that's a generic -- that's a field cal procedure where j
7 specific calibration instructions are not provided.
i 8
MR. BONSER:
So this is the procedure you should 9
have gone to?
10 THE WITNESS:
No, sir, I should have gone right 11 there.
12 BY MR. ROBINSON:
13 Q
You're saying that you should have gone to the i
14 Signal Comparator NAL 2 Card Calibration, I guess that's ITB-15 431G/H?
1 16 A
ITB.
17 Q
ITB.
o 18 MR. BONSER:- So you did not need to go into this 19 procedure,,the 233007 20 THE WITNESS:
No, sir.
21 MR. BONSER:
Okay.
22 THE WITNESS:
Because see everything -- I'm not 23 sure how technical, but I know you understand this.
This is 24 where you actually put these values -- you'd have to flip 25 relay cards and actually put the test -- the rack into a
e I
Page 16 1
system to take this test.
And it tells you adjust to this 2
voltage, adjust to this voltage, adjust to this voltage.
3 It's very specific in protection sets.
Most procedures in j
l 4
the protection sets are very specific.
l 5
BY MR. ROBINSON:
6 Q
And did you or did you not do that?
7 A
No, sir, we did not.
8 Q
And why not?
1 9
A Because when it was initially -- it didn't
]
10 register.
I thought I was doing the right thing when I found 1
l 11 the ACOT value wrong.
I just didn't think.
12 Q
Okay.
j j
13 A
I didn't think of it until a time just -- around 14 the time when QC had signed the data sheet that he witnessed l
15 that step, that's when it hit me.
16
-Q And he just witnessed the as-left value.
i 17 A
He witneJsed the as-left value to the value on the i
18 ACOT data shest.
19 Q
And he was not signing that he witnessed you 20 perform any specific procedure, was he?
Or was he?
21 A
He was signing that he was notified on this step,
'22 to observe as-found data in that section of the data sheet.
23 Q
I'm going to-show'you a single page document, it's 24 headed VEGP 24812-1, Rev 16, page 138 of 158.
And I'll ask 25 you if you recognize that sheet.
9
i i
J Page 17 1
A That appears to be the sheet that was completed, 2
that was filled out on the night of the 28th -- the morning 4
3 of the 28th.
4 Q
And who filled it out?
i 5
A Marcel.
6 Q
And were readings taken to produce this filling out i
7 of the sheet?
8 A
No, sir.
9 Q
How did Marcel arrive at these numbers?
)
1 10 MR. BITTING:
If you know.
i 11 A
I don't know.
12 Q
You don't know.
Were you aware that Marcel was 13 doing this?
j
\\
2 14 A
After the fact, yes, sir.
)
i 15 Q
How long after the fact?
16 A
Initially when we both realised a mistake had been 17 made, and we did, a comment was made that -- you know, he 18 signed this data sheet that he's doing this, we've got to 19 come up with that.
My suggestion at that time was let's fill 20 out in the comment section of the ACOT data sheet that that 21 value was adjusted to the ACOT va'uo during the ACOT 22 procedure.
^
23' Q
And what did he say to that?
24 A
But QC signed this.
25 Q
Yeah.
4
l Page 18 1
A Well strike it out, have QC -- you know, we can't 2
come up.with another udta sheet, that's not right.
3 Q
This is a conversation between you and Marcel?
4 A
Between Marcel and myself, as best I remember it.
5 Q
Anybody else around?
6 A
Not to my knowledge, no, sir.
7 Q
Okay, go ahead.
j j
8 A
I made the suggest that let's do this.
QC had i
l s
9 gone, QC had gone home, they were on a different schedule 10 than we were, he was no longer there.
I was told to go 11 back -- Marcel was told to clean the paperwork up, which is a J
12 normal situation.
After an ACOT, you have to go back and --
i 13 Q
Who told Marcel to clean the paperwork?
14 A
It may have been Bob, it may have been just us 15 conversing about it, but I was instructed to go to Unit 2 and 16 perform the same ACOT on Unit 2.
17 Q
By Bob, you were instructed by Bob?
18 A
Yes, sir.
We had another ACOT -- we had two ACOTs 19 to do that night, one on Unit 1 and one on Unit 2.
The one 20 on Unit 2, I went to proceed to do it and at one time when I 21 was doing that, Marcel came by and said QC's not here, we've 22 got to come up with the data sheet.
We can put in the block 23 we made a mistake.
24 Q
Marcel is telling you this?
{
- 25 A
Yes, sir.
I said we made a mistake. M g> b f3g, f, ps' [/fV w
t
.s
Page 19 1
Q Oh, okay.
2 A
We made a mistake, let's write down what we did it 3-to, let's just ' fess up.
But at that time, we were fully 4
thinking that we had made everything right.
That was our 5
mindset at that time.
6 Q
The hardware, the electrical equipment.
7 A
Yes, sir, we had made this right.
This was out, 8
they had been having trouble with this loop spiking and, you 9
know, spurious alarms coming in.
We've had people in there f
10 with recorders, it's very possible -- it's real easy to brush i
11 a bistable and that was in my mind, but I knew we had made a 12 mistake.
13 Q
So did Marcel finally prevail over your idea of 14 striking out the QC signature and making the comment?
i 15 A
I never suggested to get QC to strike -- you would 16 have to get the QC inspector there.
17
.Q Yeah.
18 A
To strike it out himself.
19 Q
Right, okay.
20 A
In my action of not saying anything, 2 knew -- I
-21 knew what was going on.
22 Q
Okay.
23 A
I knew what was going on.
24 Q
And what you knew was going on was that Marcel was
)
2" filling out this Data Sheet 37 with figures that would l
G Page 20 1
probably correspond to the figures that you actually obtained 2
on your,ACOT.
3 A
Yes, sir.
4 Q
There continued to be some spurious alarms with 5
that bistable after you reset, didn't there?
6 A
Yes, sir.
That's what got the people's attention 7
who went out the next day, the day shift.
8 Q
Okay.
That is essentially how the problem got 9
traced down.
10 A
Yes, sir, exactly.
It was a turbine run back 11 signal, it was a two out of four coincidence and one of the 12 two was flashing in.
13 O
So it's your testimony here today that due to the 14 fact that you stood by and didn't stop Marcel from doing 15 this, it happened.
This was not a mutually agreed thing 16 between you and Marcel?
17 A
I'm not sure exactly what you're asking.
18 Q
Did -- in the end when this sheet eventually got 19 prepared and turned in --
20 MR. BITTING:
You're referring to Data Sheet 37?
21 MR. ROBINSON:
Yes, Data Shest 37, Rev 16.
22 BY MR. ROBINSON:
23
'O When that sheet got prepared and turned in, are you
~
24 saying that you did not agree with the way that was handled?
25 A
I did not agree with it, but I did not challenge
i, f
Page 21 1
it.
t 2
Q You allowed it to happen.
l 3
A Yes, sir.
i 4
Q Is Marcel senior to you?
5 A
No, sir.
6 Q
Do you have any responsibility for oversight over 7
Marcel or are you essentially equals in your job?
i 8
A We're equals.
9 Q
We may have already gone over a number of these l
10 items, but I have a list of specific questions that the 11 Enforcement people of NRC have requested me to ask you.
i 12 A
Yes, sir.
13 Q
The first question we've pretty much covered. dave 14 you described everything that you are aware of regarding that i
l 15 particular incident now?
Is there anything that has happened 16 regarding any other data sheets that I don't have here or 17 other procedures that may or may not have been followed?
l 18 A
No, sir, there's nothing else other than the fact 19' that the data on the ACOT was. wrong, the procedure.
The root
<20 cause was --
21 Q
The comparative -- the data that is supposed to 22 be --
j 23 A
The data on the ACOT was what was incorrect, yes, 24 sir.
25-Q Okay.
And therefore, when you got a reading that
l
.4 Page 22 i
1 was higher than that value, 2
A My --
3 Q
--you thought it was out of calibretyon.
. MR. BITTING:
Let him finish the question before 5
you start to answer it.
THE WITNESS:
I'm sorry.
6
'7 BY MR. ROBINSON:
8 Q
You thought it was out of calibration.
9 A
Yes, sir.
j 10 Q
And when you thought it was out of calibration, you 11 called your supervisor, Bob Neal.
12 A
Yes, sir.
13 Q
Or your foreman -- is he your foreman?
j 14 A
Yes, sir, my foreman.
15 Q
He told you to call QC or did you call QC on your 16 own?
17 A
Said we've got to get QC down here, I don't know I
18 whether he made the statement or I did, said we'.ve got to get 19 QC for as-left.
20
-Q So Bob Neal and Whitaker both come.
21 A-Yes, sir.
22 Q
To the best of your recollection, in their presence 23' you make the adjustment, you do the tweak -- well describe
)
i 24 that to me.
25 A
NAL cards ~have a wheel.
It's not done with a I
1
Page 23 1
tweaking screwdriver, it's actually done with a wheel, it's a 2
little rheostat, it's an adjustment on the card edge.
3 Q
All right.
And you made that adjustment, to the 4
best of your recollection, inthepresenceofbothWhitakerg/
5 and Neal.
6
.A Yes, sir.
7 Q
And in fact, the way I understand what you said, 8
you took an as-left reading and determined that the 3.990 9
reading was your as-left reading after you turned the wheel, 10 is that correct?
1 11 A
Yes, sir, you make the adjustment and then you go 12 down, take the bistable out and bring it in.
And if it's not 13 right, you move it again.
14 Q
Okay.
15 A
That's what we did in the presence of Bob and Rov.
16
- Q And then, because for Bob to do an independent 17 verification of your as-left reading, he walked away.
Do you 18 know where he went -- or go ahead, you seem concerned.
19 A
I don't know whether he left at that time or not, 20 but at some point after this had happened he left.
Because 21 he knew he had to come back when we restored the loop, to do 22 an independent, and he could not be present while we restored f
23 it, to do an independent verification of restoration.
24 Q
How~1ong was it before he came back?
About.
25 A
How many more bistables did we have?
Do you have i
j
.a O
Page 24 1
the last sheet of this?
2 Q
.No.
3 A
There's'some other values that you get on the back.
4-Q Is that going to give you an idea of the elapsed 5
time?
6
.A The time, yes, sir.
7 Q
Are you sure he didn't come back until after you 8
finished them all?
Did you call him back or did he come back 9
on his own?
10 A
I don't recall, sir.
11 Q
Well just to the best of your recollection.
I mean 12
-was it two minutes, two hours, 20 minutes?
13 A
It would have been no longer than half an hour.
14 Q
And then he looked at the as-left reading again --
15 no?
What did he do when he came back and verified?
E 16 A
The loop was -- all the test equipment was removed.
b 17 Q
Okay.
18 A
And he was verifying that the bistables and the i
19 relay card switches were in the desired. position for a loop 20 restored to service.
21 Q
And how did he do that?
Is that just a physical
. 22 observation?
23 A
Yes, sir.
- 24 Q
So-he uses no test equipment and takes no reading
- 25 at that time.
9 I
Page 25 1
A No, sir.
2 MR. BONSER:
But there is a sheet in your procedure 3
that he would have to sign off on, right?
4 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
5 MR. BONSER:
That it was restored back to service.
6 THE WITNESS:
Restoration verification, right here.
7 MR. ROBINSON:
I see.
8 THE WITNESS:
He would have to come out and 9
physically look and make sure that all of these switches are 10 in the desired position listed, and sign.
He would have to 11 see that all the channel status lights affected are 12 extinguished and would have to sign; all the relay card 13 switches; all the bistable switches.
14 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
15 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
16 BY MR. ROBINSON:
17 Q
But these initials of Whitaker on page 154 of 18 procedure 24812-1, Rev 16, just mean that he observed an as-19 left value --
20 A
The signature indicates that he observed an as-left 21 value on that step.
~
22 Q
Okay.
23-A And we did not do that step, sir, we did it at the 24
' ACXXr value.
25 Q
And'I-think -- did I understand you to kind of
Page 26 1
indicate that.Whitaker almost had to ask you.what he was 2
signing.for?
3 A
Yes, sir.
4
-Q Are you aware of Whitaker's expertise in QC of 5
electrical I&C type?
6 A
Yes, sir.. He's normally very thorough.
.7 Q
He is?
8 A
-Yes, sir.
9 Q
Was there any conversation between either you and 10 Whitaker or the other IEC tech and Whitaker regarding his 11 initials on this procedure?
12 A
There was probably, but I don't recall.
There had 13 to have been, sir, but I don't recall the exact nuts and
'14 bolts of the conversation.
I remember -- what did we do, we 15 adjusted NAL card'such and such, that type of thing.
And he 16 was trying to find the area in the procedure to initial and 17 to reference for his inspection report.
18 Q
Do you think Whitaker knew that he was signing for 19 the accomplishment of a procedure that had not been 20 accomplished?
21 A
I think he was signing -- this is speculation on my-22 part.
? 23-Q
- Sure,'I'll be talking to Mr. Whitaker.
24 A
He was signing _that he saw this value here in a 25 bistable triggering of those two values.
That's what he was
Page 27 I
signing.
I think in his own mind that's what -- we showed 2
him this data sheet, this is what we are doing, Roy.
3 Q
So do you feel that you could have arrived at that 4-as-left value in almost any method you would have chosen, and 5
as long as you would have arrived at that value, he would 6
have signed off as observing it?
7 A
-Could you repeat that, please, sir?
8 Q
I guess what I'm saying is -- and it goes back to 9
my earlier question.
These initials do not mean that he is 10 verifying that you used a certain procedure to arrive at that 11 as-left value, is that correct?
These initials do not mean 12 that he is signing that you used a certain procedure to 13 arrive at that as-left value.
They just mean that he has 14 physically observed that as-left value.
15 A
Yes, possibly.
But I can't tell what Roy was -- I 16 can't get in'his mind, sir.
i 17 Q
All right, I'll ask him.
18.
Okay, I'm now going to read you a question from
-19 Enforcement verbatim.
I think we've probably discussed this 20 but I want you to answer it again.
"What caused you to not 21.
follow the procedure as written?
22 MR. BITTING:
Is that specific enough for you to
' 2 3_
answer,'Mr. Davis, follow the procedure?
24 THE-WITNESS:
I think I can answer it.
Would you 25 give'it to me again, please, sir?
[.
Page 28 1
MR. RODINSON:
Feel free to help me out here, 2
Brian.
3 MR. BONSER:
You were in the ACOT section?
4 THE WITNESS:
We were in the ACOT section.
5 MR. BONSER:
Is that Section 38 of this procedure?
6 THE WITNESS:
No, sir.
7 MR. BONSER:
Where is that?
That thing is so 8
thick.
9' THE WITNESS:
It's awfully bulky.
Manual channel 10' calibration, ACOT.
11 MR. BONSER:
What section of the section is that 12 you were in there?
13 THE WITNESS:
We were in the ACOT section.
14 MR. BONSER:
Okay.
15 THE WITNESS:
What I just referenced to is -- the 16 steps in the front of the procedure guides you to what steps 17 will be performed during -- whether it's unscheduled i
18 maintenance, whether it is a channel calibration, whether 19 it's an ACOT, whether it's done with ASTEC, which we no 20 longer use --
21 MR. BONSER:
Right.
22 THE WITNESS:
-- but all of these are -- gives you 23 specific steps which to perform.
The step -- this is a bad 24 copy of.this procedure.
25 BY MR. ROBINSON:
b Page 29 l
1 Q
I believe the page that you referred to me before j
2 was page 64.
3 A
No, sir.
I'm going to the ACOT section of the 4
procedure now, sir.
5 Okay, you do the last ramp steps -- I'm trying to l
6 find the exact section in the procedure where we were doing -
7_
- it's the last section of the ACOT.
"If as-found readings 8
are not within limits specified on analog operational tests i
9 data sheet, one or more accurate reading are desired.
10 Proceed as directed below."
11 Q
What page of that procedure are you on?
12 A
That is on 22.
13 Q
'Okay.
I 14 A
At the time -- I'm going back to the original i
15 portion of the procedure where it says "if any value is not i
16-within~1imits, notify your IEC foreman."
17 Q
Okay.
18 A
He was notified.
As I have gone back and gone over 19 the procedure, what.actually should have taken place at that 20 time, was that we continue right on through with the ACOT, 21-getting as-found values until we get-to this step right here.
22L
'Q Which step are you referring to right there?
'23 Identify it.
'24L A
43279.
25 Q
And what does that step say?
4 s
Page 30 1-A "As-found readings are not within limits specified 2
'on' analog channel operational test data sheet, or more 3
accurate readings are desired, proceed as. directed below.
If 4-tech spec. allowable limits have been exceeded, notify OSOS 5
and IEC foreman to determine if TA equation in tech spec 6
reactor trip system has been satisfied.
Then proceed as 7
directed."
8 Q
So you never really got to that step of the 9
procedure, did you?
10 A
No, sir.
11 Q
You got to the step where it was to call your IEC 12 foreman or supervisor --
i 13 A
In the earlier step of the procedure over here, j
14 sir.
15 Q
-- and you called hLa and you made the adjustments j
3 l-16 at that point.
You didn't continue with the other bi-17 stables?
18 A
That's true.
19 "If calibration limits had been exceeded, a more 20 reading -- proceed to appropriate subsection."
The i
j.
21 appropriate subsection would have been --
22 MR. BONSER:
This 4338?
23-THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
s 24 BY MR. ROBINSON:
25 Q
I'm going to read you a question and see if it 4
j 1
1
1 i
i Page 31 1
makes any sense to you.
How did you convince the QC 2
inspector involved to sign the procedure without review of 3
the completed document?
Brian, can you -- the completed 4
document would be --
5 MR. BONSER:
It would be this (indicating 6
document.)
Well really, it would be both of these data 7
sheets.
Data sheet 37 and data sheet 1.
Isn't that correct?
8 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
9 BY MR. ROBINSON:
10 Q
The QC -- you're thinking that the QC inspector 11, would have had to have reviewed both of those documents 12 before he signed here?
Would that have been necessary?
13 A
No, sir.
I don't think so.
14 Q
Okay.
15 A
The step in the procedure that calls him to come 16 out is after adjustments have been mad'e to the card.
It's 17 for as-left values.
That's what he's -- thet's what he looks a
18 for.
And as far as convincing hLa, we showed him this was 19 the value that was on the ACOT that was required and we 20 adjusted it to that value.
21 MR. BONSER:
When you were doing that adjustment 22 though, you were in a different section of the procedures?
23 THE WITNESS:
We were in the ACOT.
We were not in 24 the card calibration procedure.
- 25 MR. BONSER:
Right.
And this data sheet one is n
1 4
Page 32 I
from the ACOT procedure?
2 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
It's from the ACOT.
It's 3
all one. procedure.
It's from the ACOT section -- ACOT data 4
sheet from the procedure.
j 5
MR. BONSER:
What I don't understand then is you 6
were showing hbn a data sheet from the ACOT section and he 4
7 was signing --
8 BY MR. ROBINSON:
9 Q
He was signing that step 4.3.38.18 was completed, z
10 isn't that --
11 A
That's what the signature would indicate, yes, sir..
4 12 Q
And you hadn't even reached that point in the I
13 procedure yet.
14 A
No, sir, i
15 Q
Did you see him sign this?
11 6 A
I don't recall.
17 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay, I'm sorry, I sort of i
18 interrupted your train of questions.
19 MR. BONSER:
No, that.was -- well let me just get 4
20 back to one thing that I just didn't understand.
If you're 21 in Section 4.3.38 of this procedure, wouldn't you be using 22 this data sheet, Data Sheet 37?
23 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
24 MR. BONSER:
Rather than Data Sheet 1, which is out 25 of.the ACOT section of the procedure?
J i
Page 33
)
1.
THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir, we would.
2 MR. BONSER:
Okay, so if the QC inspector is going 3
to verify a number, I'm not sure what number he would be 4
verifying, but if he would be verifying a number, wouldn't he 5
be verifying a number from this data sheet or a set point 6
that you have set in in this section of the procedure, in the 7
4.3.38 section of the procedure?
8 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir, that's what he should have.
9 MR. BONSER:
Okay, this --
10 BY MR. ROBINSON:
11 Q
This document -- when I say this document, the Data 12 Sheet 37 that we have here today was not even filled out at 13 the time the QC inspector signed off on this procedure sheet i
14 here, is that correct?
15 h
To the best of my recollection, yes, sir.
16
'Q Okay.
I'm going to ask this question, see if you 17 understand it. Was the signature on the procedure, meaning 18 the QC's signature, adequate to assure that the process was 19 properly reviewed by QC7 20 MR. BITTING:
I don't understand that question.
21 A
No, sir, I don't understand that at all.
g 22 BY MR. ROBINSON:
?
23 Q
.Okay, here's.what I think that question means.
And 24 you've already told me what you think this signature means.
25 A
That was speculation.
a
Page 34 1
Q Yeah, and what you think it means is that he just i
2 observed'the as-left value, right?
3 A
(Nodding head affirmatively.)
4 Q
So the answer to the question "does this signature 5
assure that the process was properly reviewed by QC", the i
6 answer to that question would be no.
That signature is not i
7 assuring that that QC individual is saying that a given 8
process was used, is that correct?
9 A
Yes, sir.
10 Q
Okay.
Did the communications between you and your 11 supervisor reflect the appropriate corrective actions you
-12 should have taken to correct the out-of-cal situation?
The 13 conversation between you and Neal.
14 A
No, sir, they did not.
15 Q
Okay.
What did that conversation reflect?
16 A
(No response.)
17 Q
Did your supervisor ever tell you what procedure 18 you needed to use to correct that out--of-cal 3bration 19 situation?
20 A
No, sir, not really.
I notified him this was out.
21 Q
I understand that.
22
.\\
And the proper course of action would have been to 23 proceri right through with the ACOT to the end of the ACOT.
24 Q
But you know that after the fact.
25 A
I know that after the fact, sir, yes.
i
Page 35 1
Q You're saying chat you didn't know that at the 2
time.
3 A
I was going through the procedure and I had read 4
the section " notify your foreman if anything" --
5 Q
And you stopped there.
6 A
Yes, sir, I stopped and' called him.
7 Q
He came and talked to you. Did he give you any
)
8 instructions on how to correct that calibration?
9 A
Other than let's make it right, or whatever that 10 term was that he used, no, sir.
11 Q
Now you've already testified that while he was i
12 still there and while the QC guy was still there, you made ](
13 the correction.
14 A
Yes, sir.
15 Q
Did anybody tell you to do that that way or did you R16 just decide to do it that way on your own?
17 A
At that point, I thought I was doing it the right 18 way -- I honestly thought it was right.
19 Q
So the answer to the question is that you decided 20 to do on your own?
21 A
Yes, sir.
22 Q
Did Bob Neal criticize that action in any way?
23-A No, sir.
24 Q
Was that fine with him?
-25 A
Yes, sir.
r i
Page 36 l
1 Q
Okay.
Are other procedures that you perform during 2
the course of your :uties susceptible to being violated in 3
the same manner in'which this one was violated?
4 A
'I'm not sure by what you mean susceptible.
If 5
someone intentionally wants to violate a procedure, any 6
procedure can be violated.
7 Q
Without really being discovered unless something i
8 out.of the ordinary happens.
well if 'ou're talking about an unintentional 9
A y
10 violation --
11 Q
No, I'm talking about intentional.
12 A
I'm not sure that I understand what you're asking.
13
'Q From my perspective there are two problems here.
14
'The first problem is that for whatever reason you did not use 15 the proper calibration procedure to calibrate that bistable, j
16 A
Yes, sir.
17 Q
The other problem is the fabrication of a data 18 sheet so that it would appear that another point in the 1
19 electrical train would correspond to the readings that were 20 obtained at this point in the electrical train.
21 A
Yes, sir.
)
22 Q
Can that. kind of thing happen if someone wants to 23 do.it intentionally in other procedures that you perform?
24 A
Not nearly --
1:
25 Q
As easily?
\\
l 4
Page 37
-1 A
There are other procedures where you have multiple 2
inputs.-
3 Q
Okay.
4 A
Therefore, those would be more likely for this type 5
of situation.
But I'm still not sure I follow the --
6 Q
Would it be relatively easy to intentionally 7
falsify and put contrived figures in data sheets during the 8
conduct of other IEC procedures that you're doing?
Say there 9
was another situation that was out of calibration and it was 10 going to take a long time to do the proper calibration 11 procedure.
Rather than doing that, would it be easy to fix 12 it and then falsify a data sheet like in this situation?
13 A
I'm sure there would be other situations where it 14 would be possible, but --
15 Q
Okay.
16 MR. BITTING:
You can finish if you had more to add 17 to that.
18 MR. BONSER:
I think what we're asking is really 19 when doing an ACOT if you find something outside of the i
20 limits here, is it easy just to go ahead and fix it without 21 going to the right procedure, like was done in this case.
I 22 don't-think we're asking have.you done it before.
I think 23-we're asking just from your general knowledge as an IEC 24 technician, wouldn't it be pretty easy to just go ahead and l
25 fix something without following the right procedures.
4 4
--e-
~
I l
s 1
Page 38 l'
THE WITNESS:
It's possible.
Yes, sir.
i 2
MR. BONSER:
Is that --
l 3-MR. ROBINSON:
Well my interpretation is that i
4 Enforcement is also looking for other type procedures other
'S than just ACOT procedures.
1 6
BY MR. ROBINSON:
7 Q
What percentage of your work is doing ACOT 8
surveillances?
i 9
A Sir, --
i 10 Q
Ninety percent?
i 11 A
No.
i 12 Q
' Ten percent?
13 A-Twenty percent, maybe, 15.
Nights we do a lot more 14 surveillances than we do on days.
We do corrective 15 maintenance on valves, we do level control, heater secondary 16 plant work, we do loop tune, we do troubleshooting, do 17 protective relaying, we do a gamut of things.
18 Q
Okay, so in those other things that you do, are you 19 taking electrical readings?
20 A
Yes, sir.
21 Q
And are there tolerances in those electrical 22 readings?
23 A
Absolutely.
24-Q And if one of your readings is out of tolerance in 25
- one of these other situations, would it be just as easy to
)
4 l
t Page 39 I
falsify a data sheet in that situation as it was in this 2
situation?
i 3
MR. BITTING:
And you're not suggesting that he 4
falsified --
5 MR. ROBINSON - No, no, I am not.
I'm speaking in 6
general terms, generic terms.
I
.7 MR. BITTING:
All right.
8 THE WITNESS:
You're asking for speculation, but
.9 yes, it would be possible.
10 BY MR. ROBINSON:
}
11 Q
Okay, you're exactly right, I'm asking for your 12 opinion or speculation on it.
If someone intentionally j
i 13 wanted to do it, to cover up a mistake or to -- for whatever i
~
14 reason, to keep from having to do a procedure that's going to 15 take an excessive amount of time, you know.
Have you ever been involved in a situation like 16 i
17
_this before in your career here at Vogtle?
o
{
18 A
For falsification?
No, sir.
I was involved in a 19 procedural non-compliance in November.
{
20 Q.
Mistaken?
Intentionally?
Did you do it 21 intentionally?
22 A
No, sir.
i.
23 Q
Was it a mistake?
24.
A' It was a watt-hour meter on a diesel generator 25 emergency buss that was holding up the refueling outage, 4
m 4-r
J.
l Page 40 1
coming out of the refueling outage.
This thing had to be 2
done in the phantom load box, a non-measuring and test 3
equipment device used for controlling current and phase angle j
4 on a watt-hour meter had been investment recoveried by some 5
of our shop supervision.
We had nothing to do the procedure, 6
to calibrate this.
And I was asked if I could find a phantom 7
-- a dummy load box.
I called Northlag in Augusta, Meter 8
Lab, and they had one.
I was told by supervision, come in an 9
hour later tomorrow, go over to Northleg and pick up our 10 dummy load so we can get this watt-hour meter done and get i
11 out of this outage.
The dummy load box was different from 12 the one that we had and the procedure was specific about 13 switch settings and this type affair.
And I did not know it 14 until the QC inspector came down and said there's no l
15 equivalency, no load box or equivalent statement in that i
2 16 procedure.
And I was DC'd for procedural non-compliance, 17 although I was working at the direction of --
18 Q
Yeah, who told you to go get the box?
19 A
James Sutphin said c'me in an hour late tomorrow.
o 20 At the time I thought the box was the same thing that we 21 have, but it was a different box.
22 Q
Did he think it was the same thing?
He probably 23 thought it was the same thing because you told him.
24 A
He probably thought it was, yes, sir.
But it 25 performed the very same function but you didn't have to set 4
Page 41 1
the switches.
That procedures has since been changed to 2
include a no-equivalency statement and allow other load boxes 3
to be used.
4-Q My question is more in the lines of have you ever 1
5 allowed a situation like the entry of these numbers to happen l
6 before.
I 7
A No, sir.
8 Q
Did both of you decide on what you were going to do 9
here or 'id one of you initiate the actions and it was just 10 carried on by the other?
11 A
I don't actually recall how it got started.
I know 12 it got to a point and I said this is wrong and we need --
13 let's just write in the comment section what we did.
14 Q
Okay.
I think you've already answered this one, i
15 even though I guess you stopped at a point in the procedure i
16 where you probably shouldn't have stopped after you notified 17 the supervisor.
i 18 A
Yes,' sir.
19 Q
Were the actions required by the procedure clear 20 and precise?
In other words, is the procedure 21 understandable?
Is that procedure confusing to you or is it 22 clear to you?
23 A
The general statement in the front about notify 1
24 your IEC supervision if something happens, in a certain 25 respect contradicts to following the procedure down the line.
i
4 Page 42 1
I knew the statement was there and I called Bob and told him.
2 I should have just kept right on with the procedure until I 3
got to the end of it.
Now that may have been a 4
misinformation on my part, maybe trying to read too much into 5
it, but it's --
6 Q
You kind of thought you had to stop when you found 7
one out of cal, right?
8 A
Yes, sir.
9 Q
Okay.
Is there anything regarding that particular 10 situation, finding the bistable out of cal and the way you 11 handled it -- is there anything that you would like to add 12 that we haven't talked about that might clarify or contribute 13 to this?
14 A
No, sir, the statement that the values on it were 15 wrong.-
I think they determined that was the root cause of 16 the situation, was a faulty procedure.
17 MR. ROBINSON:
Brian, do you have any additional 18 questions?
19 MR. BONSER:
No, I don't think so.
20 MR. ROBINSON:
Would you like to take a moment with j
21 Mr. Bitting and just have a little conversation off the 22 record and decide if you want to make any final statement for 23 the record?
24 MR. BITTING:
Why don't we go off the record.
25 MR. ROBINSON:
We'll just -- it's now 2:46, we'll 4
6
Page 43 1
take a five minute break and you and your client decide.
2 (A short recess was taken.)
3 MR. ROBINSON:
It's 3:48 and we're back on the 4
record.
5.
I'll repeat my question to you.
Is there any
-6
. additional comments that you'd like to make to clarify or 7
just summarize our discussion here today?
8 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
As a result of this 9
unfortunate incident -- and it is very unfortunate for me --
10 I think the shop in which I work and the plant in which'I 11 work as a whole are paying much more attention to detail, 12 procedurally.
I know I personally am and this doesn't --
13 this will never happen again, but I can see where in the past j'
14 a procedure was confusing, well it means this, that is no 15 longer tolerated.
Now if it means this, it says this.
Like i
16 on a trip actuating device operational test data sheet that I l
17 did shortly after this.
I had asked two or three years ago 1
18 to include more precise test equipment, a digital fluke 19 versus the multi-amp analog gauge which'is plus or minus one 20 percent.
And they included the fluke in the procedure but 21' they didn't tell you where to hook it up.
Now the procedure
.2 says exactly where you use this precision instrument and no 2
j 23 longer just throws it in the body and say use it if you want.
24-And other procedures.
Other people run into 25 procedures -- yesterday, I TCP'd a procedure myself because 4
rr -
w
Page 44 1
it was wrong.
2 MR. ROBINSON:
Meaning temporary change procedure?
3 THE WITNESS:
Temporary change in procedure.
4 MR. ROBINSON:
Okay.
5 THE WITNESS:
And if anything good has come from 6
this situation, I can see that plant-wide.
7 MR. ROBINSON:
Well that's good.
It's good that 8
you appreciate that.
9 I appreciate -- anything else that you want to add?
10 THE WITNESS:
I can just -- I'd just like to say 11 that this will not happen again.
12 MR. ROBINSON:
I appreciate that.
13 You came here freely and voluntarily today, there g
14 wasn't any pressure or coercion put on you to come here.
15 THE WITNESS:
Not in the least, not in the least.
j 16 MR. ROBINSON:
I thank you for your time and your 17 cooperation and this interview is now completed, it's 2:51.
I 18 (Whereupon, the interview was concluded at 2:51 19 p.m.)
20 21 22 23 24 4
-25
o Page 45 CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of:
Names Interview of J.D. Davis Docket Number Place:
Vogtle Nuclear Generating Plant, Waynesboro, GA Date:
May 7, 1992 were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for tihe file of the United States Nuclear j
Regulatory Commission taken atenographically by me and, i
thereafter reduced to typewriting by.me or under my direction, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.
fiL -~w WILLIAM L. WARREN Official Reporter o Ann Riley & Associates 1 i
) OFFICIALTRANSCRIFT OF PROCEEDINGS i i + N ' 60f i l MCf1Cy: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission l l Tide: Irnterview of Marcer.c7.wniisc i Docket No. 10CA110N: Waynesboro, GA j DA11b May 7, 1992 p3cm 1 - 39 i d e A e 1 i L/ umnasraasocarss,uu. 5 1612 KSr. N.W,Suke 300 / I Mahlrgeon,D.C 20006 (202) 295-3950 km +r0717f yJ,,.
a 1 4 Page 1 BEFORE THE U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION i In the Matter of: ) j ) INVESTIGATIVE INTERVIEW OF ) ) i MARCEL CHRISTOF WILKINS ) Conference Room Administration Building i Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Waynesboro. Georgia Thursday, May 7, 1992 j The above-entitled matter convened for INVESTIGATIVE INTERVIEW, pursuant to notice at 3:59 p.m. e i APPEARANCES: On behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Reaulatory Commission LARRY R. ROBINSON, Investigator U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Investigations Suite 2900, 101 Marietta Tower Atlanta, Georgia 30303 i -and-BRIAN BONSER, Senior Resident Inspector U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Waynesboro, Georgia On behalf of the Witness: MARCEL C. WILKINS, Pro Se i L s 4 ',,j* e k
i. Page 2 j 1 PROCEEDINGS i 2 MR. ROBINSON: Okay, for the record, this is an 3 . interview of Mr. Marcel Wilkins, employee of Georgia Power t i 4 Company at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, Waynesboro, 4 j
- 5 Georgia.
It is Thursday, May 7, 1992, the time is 3:59 p.m. l 6 This interview is being conducted on site at the j-7 Vogtle Electric Generating Plant. The nature of the 1 -8 interview pertains to apparent falsification of data sheets f 9 involved with a surveillance conducted by Mr. Wilkins and I 1 10 guess Mr. Davis. 11 Mr. Wilkins, do you have any objections to being 12 sworn to your testimony here today? 13 MR. WILKINS: No, sir. 14 MR. ROBINSON: Will you please stand and raise your ~ ight hand? 15 r ,p 16 Whereupon, 1 i. 17 MARCEL CHRISTOF WILKINS 18 appeared as a witness herein, and having been first duly 19 sworn, was examined and testified as followss 20 EXAMINATION 21 BY MR. ROBINSON: 22 Q Would you please -- ~ 4 23 MR. ROBINSON: Oh, also for the record, also 24' present at this interview are 's. Brian Bonser, the Senior 25. Resident Inspector of_the NRC here at the vogtle plant, and 't 9 9 L
Ll-Page 3 1 my name is Larry Robinson and I'm with.be Office of 2-Investigations of tho NRC out of Region II. And as you can 3 see, this interview is being transcribed by a court reporter. 4 BY MR. itOBINSON: i 5 Q Would you please state your full name and spell it 6 for the record? 7 A Marcel Christof Wilkins, M-a-r-c-e-1 Christof, 4 8 C-h-r-i-s-t-o-f Wilkins, W-i-1-k-i-n-s. 9 Q And what'is your current job title here at Vogtle? 10 A I'm an instrumentation technician. 11 Q And how long have you held that position? 1 12 A For approximately six years. 13 Q And how long have you been an employee of Georgia 14 Power Company? 15 A Six years. 16 Q Has all of your employment been here at the Vogtle 17 Electric Generating Station? 18 A In IEC, yes, sir. 19 Q On January 28 of this year, 1992, were you and Mr. 20 Davis engaged in conducting a surveillance in accordance with 21 Vogtle Procedure 24812-17 22 A Yes, sir. 23' Q And'if you would please, in your own words, just 24 describe to me what happened during your conduct of that 25 procedure?
P l1. i Page 4 1-A Just in a roundabout way or -- 2 Q No,: just kind of specifically, chronologically { 3 start from.when you started executing the. procedure and what 4 happened. j 5 A Okay. J.D. was in the racks. 6 Q J.D. meaning Davis? i 7 A Right. And I'was transcribing information and 8 reading the procedure. It's a complicated procedure and it 9 has a' lot of test equipment. So what I was doing was reading j 10 and J.D. was doing. And we were going along just fine -- ] 11 J.D. was calling out the values to me and I was writing them i 12 down. When we got across that one bistable that was out, I 13 said wait a minute,'you know, this one is out. J.D. says 14 well let me do it again. We do it again, it was out. 15 At that point, J.D. just wanted to tweak it in and 16 I said n,o. And J.D. -- I told J.D. we need to go to the j i 17 calibration portion of the procedure,and we went to the 18 calibration portion ~of the procedure and what the calibration 19 has you do is it has us put in different values in our decade 20 boxes. 21 Q Okay. 22. A. And I started listing those values and J.D. -- I 23 don't know, he didn't like that idea and he said.let me see 24 the procedure. I gave him the procedure and he looked at the 25 data' sheet, the specific' data sheet because I told him that 1 ) ] i i
j.__.._ 4 Page 5 i I the-values were different for the decade boxes. He looked at 2' the cal. data sheet -- this one here -- 3 Q For the record, I'll show you a sheet entitled l 4 Analog channel Operational Test Data Sheet 1. It is headed 4 5 VEGP 24812-1, Revision 16, page 92 of 158. It's titled Delta i 6 .T TAVG Loop 3 Protection Channel III, Sheet 1 of 3. And ask 7 you if you recognize that sheet. i 8 A Yes, sir. i 9 Q Are the handwritten numbers on that sheet in your 10 handwriting? 11 A Yes, sir. 12 Q All right. I will show you a handwritten reading j 13 that is 10 lines down from the top indexed as 1TL/431H l 14 extinguished and over in the as-found column it shows a 15 handwritten reading of 4.130. Is that the out-of-calibration
- [
16 reading that we're talking about here? 17 A Yes, it is. 18-Q Okay. Go ahead, you were saying that J.D. was f 19 balking at going through the steps that you were planning on l 20 going through and he wanted to see the procedure. Go ahead l 21 and~go from there. 22 A He took the procedure and looked at the right-hand i ~ -:23 margin and said look, Marcel, it's not Tech Spec related. And 24 he said we can just tweak this in, and I'm going no, we 3 25 can't. n
I l L Page 6 1 Q What did you think had to be done? 2 A The calibration procedure. 1 3 Q And is the calibration procedure itself contained 4 in 24812 or is it a separate procedure? 5 A It'll be in this one here -- it'll be here but then 6 it's also -- I'm not exactly sure. Can I look? I think 7 there's a field cal procedure also, 23300-C. 8 Q All right, go ahead. Which procedure did you think j 9 you needed to be going to,'the 233007 10 A First of all, this one, we needed to go to the 11 right section in the procedure we currently had at that time. 12 Q Okay. For the record, I'm now referring to Vogtle 13 Procedure 24812-1, Rev 16, page 22 of 138. I am referring to 14 paragraph number 4.3.2.79 which states, and I quote, "If as-15 found readings are not within limits specified on Analog 16-Channel Operational Test Data Sheet 1, or more accurate 17 readings are desired, proceed as directed below." 18 Subparagraph (a) "If technical specification 19 allowable limits have been exceeded, notify OSOS and I&C 20 foreman to determine if TA equation in technical 21 specifications reactor trip system has been satisfied. Then 22 proceed as directed." 23 Subparagraph (b) "If calibration limits have been 24 exceeded," which was your situation, correct? l 25 A correct.
Page 7 1 Q "or more accurate values are desired, proceed to 2 appropriate subsection." Now I notice in this procedure, it 3 doesn't tell you what the appropriate subsection is. How do 4 you know what appropriate subsection to go to? 5 A Well you go and look at your -- well this is how I c 6 do it -- you go back here -- here it is -- we go to this. 7 Q Let the record reflect that the witness went to 8 page 87 of procedure 24812-1, which shows a diagram entitled 9 Figure 1. 10 A And then what you do is you look at your number 11 here. 12 Q And that is the number on test data sheet 1. 13 A Right. 14 Q And you would want to know what card it was. 15 Q Okay. 16 A Because -- you'd want to know what NAL card it was. 17 So then you'd go to that number and you'd look around, what 18 was that 431H -- 431H. If this was clearer, you could see 19 the NTC -- it's NAL becasse you'd know it's bistable. 20 Q Yes, let the record reflect that the copy of the 21 procedure that we have is a little blurry. But that's the 22 page that you would find the appropriate subsection or the 23 card in which to go to? 24 A Well you'd want to find out what card it was. 25 Q All right.
Page 8 1 A Because when you're looking at the rack, you're not 2 looking.at the card that you need to adjust when you're doing 3 this procedure. So you'd go to this and it'd give you a card 4 location number. Okay? Or you could do this, you could go 5 and say okay that's 431H -- you'd probably do this first and ) 6 then you'd go over to your data sheets and thumb through 7 them. This is the hard way. You could just look at the TL 8 and -- here comes an NAL -- I don't know what that number 4 i 9 is -- is that TL or TB7 10 (The witness reviews a document.) 11 Q Looks like TB. 12 A Lead / lag. 13 Q So what you're doing is you are thumbing through j 14 various data sheets that are appendixes to that procedure and 15 looking for the appropriate data sheet for the card in 16 question? 4 17 A Right. What I would do first is go to the back of 18 that schematic and I would look, if it was clear and I wasn't 19 so nervous.-- I'd sit there and I'd look at my cross 20 reference, this number -- that number there. 21 Q Okay. 22 MR. BONSER: The ILT 431H? 23 MR. ROBINSON: Yeah, ILT 431H. 24 THE WITNESS: Right. That's the -- represents a 25 bistable number and you'd go and look at that on the back
Page 9 1 here and -- 2 BY MR. ROBINSON: 3 Q I'm going to show you a Data Sheet 37 which refers 4 to a 1TB 431G or H. 5 A Uh-huh. 6. Q Would that have been the appropriate data sheet in 7-this case? 8 A Yes, uh-huh. 9 Q It would'have. This data sheet that I'm showing 10 you'now.was the appropriate data sheet for the card in 11 question? 13 A Yes. 13 Q .Okay -- all right. 14 MR. BONSER: What did you do to determine at the 15 time then that that was the appropriate data sheet? 16 THE WITNESS: Well that's what I was -- what you do 17 is that these numbers, they don't change. Let me do it for 18 you, let me just take a little bit of time here.- 39 MR. ROBINSON: Okay, sure. -20 THE WITNESS: I hate to be telling you guys 21 something th, isn't true or that you don't think I can do. 22 See, this is what was happening, I was going 23 through this and that may have -- 24 'BY.MR.. ROBINSON: 25 Q You think J.D. was becoming impatient? Did you
c. . 4 Page 10 1 . perceive that? 2 A I perceived that he1 wanted to get the job done. 3 I wish I could read this. 4 Q-Do you independently recollect it could have been a two-card? 5 6 A Excuse me, sir? 7-Q Does the phrase two-card mean anything to you? 8 A No, sir. 9 Q It doesn't. I'm now referring to page 64 of that 10 procedure. Do you think that this -- and I'm po'inting to ) 11 paragraph 4.3.38. 12 A Uh-huh. 13 Q Which says signal comparator NAL two-card 14 calibration, ITB 431G/H, location cabinet QP -- what is that 15 S-37 i 16 A Yeah, it was QPS-3. l. 17 Q Would that have been the appropriate location in i 18 the procedure to go to at that point? 19 A Yes, uh-huh. 20 Q It would have? I don't want to put words in your 21 mouth. 22 A 'Oh, okay, well let me think about this. ^ 23 Q _ Yeah, I don't want to put words in your mouth, i '24 (Brief pause.) l 125 Q That particular portion of the procedure matches n
1 Page 11 j ~ j 1 Data Sheet 37, but I want you to be sure in your mind if 2 you're on page 22 of the procedure and you get something that's out of cal -- l 4-A Right. i 5 Q -- and it says to go to the appropriate 6 subsection -- 7 A Yes, sir. l ) 8 Q -- I want you, you know, to be sure in your mind '9 that subsection 4.3.38 is in fact the appropriate section. i j 10 A Okay, well let me spend some time reading this. J j 11-I'll have to look at this, this diagram is kind of fuzzy. j 12 (Brief pause.) 13 MR. BONSER: I'll see if I can find another one. i 14 MR. ROBINSON: Yes, if you would, Brian, go see if { 15 you can find a clearer set of that entire procedure 24812-1, 1[ 16 it appears to be 158-page procedure. And the page, the i 17 clearer page that you might want to look for specifically is i 18 page 88. 19 THE WITNESS: And 87. j' 20 MR. ROBINSON: And 87. 21 (Mr. : Bonser departs the room. ) 22 BY MR. ROBINSON: -23 Q. . While we're looking for a clearer diagram, let me - 24. ask you this. On the Data Sheet 37 that I have described j -25 before -- T e ~ w =
Page 12 1 A Yes, sir. 2 Q -- are the numerical entries on this copy of that i 3 data sheet your entries? 4 A Yes, sir. 5 Q And the signature under " Performed by" in the lower 6 right-hand portion of that data sheet, is that your 7 signature? 8 A Yes, sir. 9 Q Dated 1/28/92, is that correct? l 10 A Yes, sir. I 11 Q Okay. Does this data sheet pertain to the system 12 that J.D. wanted to tweak? 13 A Yes, sir. 14 Q Okay. Tell me about the numbers that you entered 15 in this data sheet. Did those numbers come from readings 1 16 that J.D. made? 17 A No, sir, those numbers were fabricated by me. 18 Q Why? 19 A Because I never got any data. 20 Q And why didn't you get any data? 21 A Because this portion of the procedure was never 22 done. 23 Q All right. And why wasn't it done? 24 A It wasn't done for a couple of reasons. 25 Q Okay. ~
Page 13 1 A It wasn't done because J.D. was insistent upon 2 tweaking it in and at my saying I don't want to do this, I'm 3 not going to do this, he or we decided that he should go and 4 talk to Bob and one of us stay back there at the rack. 5 Q. Bob being Bob who? 6 A Neal. 7 Q And who is Bob Neal? 8 A .My foreman. 9 Q Okay, so you left.the area that you were in and 10 went to talk to Bob? 11 A Yeah, J.D. did. 12 Q Okay. 1 7 '~ 13 A I stayed there and J.D. came back and said Bob said 71 i 14 tweak it in. MN MM Po hk d ,u (hegg, 15 Q Okay. 16 A And he had a DC card in his hand. 17-Q J.D. did? 18 A Yeah. l 19 So I sat there, you know, or whatever and Bob came 20 in, I believe it was Bob came in, and QC came in right after ] 21 that. }M 0" 22 Q Okay. -23 A So -- 24 Q Everybody's there, Bob and QC and you and J.D. 25-A Right. Bob was never really at the rack, he was pp i ~ g ! ! +. ll 4 ~( i
l ) i Page 14 3 kind of behind it, a little bit to the side because it's a 2 crowded aisle and we had a big cart and a lot of stuff on it. l 3 Q Okay. 4 A And so we were there and I think Bob took the DC 5 card from J.D. I had an impression it was already written. 6 Q Do you have any idea why the DC card was written? 7 A Oh, yeah. 8 Q Because you were out of cal? 9 A Right. 10 Q Do you think that was appropriate that a DC card 11 should have been written? 12 A Yes, sir. 13 Q But when J.D. came back from Bob, he told you that 14 Bob said to go ahead and tweak it in? 15 A Right. 16 Q And had you tweaked it in before Bob and the QC guy 17 came? 18 A No, sir. 19 Q Okay, go ahead. 20 A So the QC guy comes in relatively quickly, Bob is 21 probably at the SS' desk. And I'm back here with the data 22 sheet and J.D. starts talking to the QC fellow and goes into 23 telling him, this the light, this is the card right here and 24 the QC fellow looks at the card and this is the as-found 25 value.
Page 15 1 Q Now when you're talking about the data sheet in 2 this case, you're talking about the Test Data Sheet 1, is 3 that correct? ) 4 A They were all stapled together. 5 Q Okay, was Data Sheet 37 already in existence at 6 this time? 7 A No, sir. 8 Q Okay. 9 A But there's a whole bunch of data sheets and 10 they're all stapled together. 11 Q Right.. You had been doing a reading on a number of 12 bistables? 13 A Right. Well'we only actually use this Data Sheet 1 14 of 3 for the ACOT, it's probably got three data sheets just 15 for the ACOT and that's what we were doing, but we had the 16 others in case something goes out, then you go to the 17 appropriate subsection and find the card that's out and then o 18 you calibrate that card -- 19 .Q I'll tell you what we'll do, we'll make it easier 20 on our court reporter. I'll sit over here and you can look 21 at me. 22 A Okay. Where were we at? 23 Q You were saying that you had the data sheets in 24 your hand and that J.D. was talking to the QC guy about 25 something. e
Page 16 1 A Right. He was talking to him about the 2 calibration. 3 Q Okay. Did you hear what was said? 4 A Yes, this is the card that's out. 5 Q Okay. 6 A Pointed at it. Look and see the light -- it's got 7 a 1;.ttle light on it, tell you when it trips and extinguishes 1 8 -- and tweaked it in. 9 Q Okay. 10 A And he yelled -- he didn't yell, he spoke the as-11 left values to me. 12 Q Okay, he called out the as-left values to you. I 13 A Right. 14 Q The QC guy is there observing this. 15 A Right. 16 Q All right, you record them. 17 A I recorded it right there (indicating). 18 Q And that was 3.9907 19 A Yes, sir. That's the values that were given to me 20 and I documented them. 21-Q And where was Bob Neal at this time, could he see 22 what was going on? 23 A No, sir, I didn't see Bob -- I did not see Bob 24 there at all. h# I 25 Q No, I -- had he left already? I mean you said for
1 ] Page 17 1 awhile he came in and was standing on the other side of the 2 racks. 3 A It was all -- I explained to you that J.D. came 4'
- back, J.D. was the first one in, he said -- I said what's the 5
deal, Bob said tweak it in. Bob must have been the second 6 one.in -- yeah, must have been second one in, took the DC 7 card from J.D. I 8 Q Oh, that's right. -9 A QC comes in right after that. This whole thing 10 took about, you know, probably a minute. Bob was at the SS' 11 desk. 12 Q He had taken the DC card. 13 A He was talking to the SS, that's what I believe. 14 Q Okay. 15 A And it was us three back there and it was a big 16 crowded cart and the QC guy got right behind that cart, took 17 the card, and that's what happened. 18 Q And J.D. tweaked it in, he reads out the as-left 19 value, all right. I 20 A. Right. 21 Q And then what does the QC guy do? 22' A' He says okay, where do I sign? And I gave him the 23 .whole data package, I just had it all stapled together, this 24 comes with this and this is altogether in one lump, piece of 25 paper. I gave the whole thing. And he had a little. bit of
l Page 18 1 difficulty you know, finding where he was supposed to sign, I 2 believe.J.D. helped him with that. hb be$"T" gly. 3 Q Okay. 4 A And he wrote that there. 5 Q That's Whitaker's -- do you know Whitaker? 6 A I don't know him personally, I know him by face. 7 He's slender, brown-headed fellow. 8 Q Okay. You didn't point out to Whitaker where he 9 was supposed to sign? 10 A No, sir. 11 Q Did you see J,.D. point out to him where he was 12 supposed to sign? 13 A Well with the package together with both of them 14 they figured out where to sign. 15 Q Okay. Now I notice that they signed, and where I 16 say Whitaker's initials, I am now looking at a document 17 identified as page 154 of VEGP Procedure 24812-1, Rev 16, 18 which shows the initials RSW, the date 1/28/92, the notation 19 IR No. 3438. This handwritten notation was made in between 20 paragraphs number 4.3.38.18 and 4.3.38.20 on this document 21 entitled Checklist Step Verification. 22 To your knowledge, Mr. Wilkins, what do those 23 initials mean to someone who would be reviewing that 24' document? 25 A' That is the initials of the QC inspector, the date j
Page 19 L 1 that he inspected it and the number of his investigation 2 report -- inspection report. 3 Q And to your knowledge, what do those initials mean? 4 A That means that he has verified per that section of 5 the procedure -- 6 Q That section being 4.3.38.18. 7 A Have you got a straight edge? I can just use this. 8 Yes, sir. 9 Q What does that mean? Does that mean that that -- 10 that he is initialing that he has seen that part of the 11 procedure being performed? 12 A Yes, sir, there's e QC hold point. 13 Q Or does it just mean that he's verifying an as-left 14 value? 15 A It means that he has actually witnessed the as-left 16 . values. 17 Q Does it mean that he has witnessed the procedure 18 _being performed, the calibration procedure that -- 19 A Yes, sir. 20 Q It does, to your knowledge? 21 A Yes, sir. 22 Q And that -- 23 A well wait, -- it means -- 24 Q I'm ' going _ to aW: hLa, you know, what it means, 25 but --
I 4 ] Page 20 4 I think that the hold point is -- I think this hold 1 A i 2 point is when you go ahead and you find out and you calibrate 3 the card and then he has got to witness as-left values. 4 Q <As-left values. 5 A Yes, sir, j 6 Q So you think that initials probably means that he 7 has witnessed the as-left values at that point in the ) 8 procedure. 9 A Yes, sir, that's exactly what's happening. i 10 Q Okay. And he -- from what you just told me, he did 2 11 in fact witness those as-left values, is that correct? 12 A He didn't witness it per that section of the i 13 procedure. j 14 Q Okay, let's see what that section of the procedure 4 15 says. I 16 MR. BONSER: I think it's right here. 17 THE WITNESS: 4.3.38.18 -- right there. 18 BY MR. ROBINSON: 19 Q Okay, 4.3.38.18 in the procedures says "QC hold 20 ' point. Obtain QC authorization to proceed before continuing 21 with this procedure." ~ 22 A Yes, sir. 23. Q Are the paragraphs preceding this something that 24 the QC. guy should have observed or -- - 25 A Okay, right here, you've taken your as-found ( d ..._L.---_-__.._--.,___.._.
.= 1 i i Page 21 1 values. 2 Q Okay, let the record reflect he's pointing to 3 paragraph 4.3.38.15. 4 A That's where you would take your as-found values. i 5 Q Okay. 6 A That we didn't take, we didn't take those. YC I 7 Q But at this point, aren't we talking about this as-l 8-left value on Test Data Sheet I? Isn't the 3.990 the value 9 that this QC signature verifies as having read? 10 A He verified and he diligently did so -- he verified 11 this value. 12 Q Okay. 13 A But that wasn't the value he was supposed to be 14 verifying. 15 Q I see. This is the value he was supposed to be 16 verifying on Data Sheet 377 17 A Yes, sir. 9 18 Q Because -- and why -- what makes you say that? 19 Does paragraph 4.3.38.18 refer'to Data Sheet 377 i - 20 A It would be in this data sheet, it has you record 21 these in the data sheet, everything is Data Sheet 37. 22 Q Okay, let the record reflect that paragraphs 23 4.3.38.11, .13, .14, .15 and.16 all refer to Data Sheet 37. 24 A Yes, sir. 25. Q. And at the point in time Mr. Whitaker signed the t
Page 22 1 Checklist Step Verification, Data Sheet 37 had not even been 2 created.yet, is that correct? 3 A It was in the package, but there were no values, it 4 was blank. 5 Q It was blank. 6 A Yes, sir. 7 Q Okay. And to your knowledge, it was J.D. that 8 pointed out to Whitaker where to sign the checklist. Yes, sir, I don't think he could have found it f - ' 9 A kb( 10 himself. 11 Q Okay.- Whose idea was it to put the fabricated 12 values in Data Sheet 37. 13 A I'd have to explain that. 14 Q Okay, please do. 15 A After QC left and he had signed the paper, I 16 complained to J.D., I said this ain't going to make it, I 17 can't do this, I don't have any values, and I kept on, and 18 J.D. closed out the loop and put the loop back in service. I 19 kept on complaining and J.D. said well maybe we can yelp to 20 Bob and we can write in the comment section of the data sheet 21 that we tweaked in per the ACOT. 22 Q Okay. 23 A And that's when I said okay. 24 Q You agreed with that idea? 25 A It's the only thing I could have done, he put the
Page 23 1 loop back in service, QC had signed off on it, and then J.D. 2 is running around. little bit and he says, Marcel, go back 3 to the shop and check the rev on this procedure, I spoke to 4 David Wallace and there may be a problem with the procedure, 5 the procedure was just rev'd. 6 Q That's what J.D. said to you, that he had just 7 spoken to David Wallace. 8 A Yes. 9 0 And the procedure may have just been rev'd. 10 A Right. 11 Q Okay, go ahead. Did you go back to the shop? 12 A Yes. 13 Q Was Bob Neal still in the control room at the time, 4 14 when you went back to the shop? 15 A~ No, sir, Bob was in the shop over by David. 16 Q Had Bob Neal ever come back and done any 9 17 independent verification of any readings? 18 A No, sir. 19 Q Okay, go ahead. 20 MR. BONSER: Had you restored the system before you 21 went back to the shop? Did you say you had or had not? 22 THE WITNESS: The system was restored before I went 23 back to the shop. 24 MR. BONSER: Who had verified that t he system had 25 ben restored, had you all done that?
Page 24 1 THE WITNESS: Yeah, we did that. But I had not 2 gotten the procedure signed off because I was having these 3 problems about no values. 4 BY MR. ROBINSON: 1 5 Q Had Bob verified that the system had been restored 6 to service? 7 A No, sir, I think me and J.D. did. 8 Q Okay, go ahead. 9 A And -- I went back to the computer terminal, 10 checked the rev, Rev 16, I said whew, you know, normally~the 1 11 lead guy, the guy that gets the package when your boss gives 12 you a package -- you know, you're going to work with so and 13 so, you've got the package, you'rt the lead guy, right? 14 Q So you thought you were the lead guy here? 15 A No, J.D. was the lead guy. 16 Q Oh. i 17 A And he should have checked the rev. Bob gave him 18 the procedures, the first thing you do is you check the rev 19 for that procedure and it's got a big red' stamp on it and you 20 put your name on it every day. So I was relieved to know 21 that the procedure was the correct rev, and Bob says Marcel, 22 is there a problem, from across the shop. I said no, and I 23 go back'and J.D. was already working on Unit 2, he had told 24 me he was going to go ahead and work on Unit 2. Well the 25 system was back in service and I think the SS had come back
Page 25 1 there one time, you know, to see what was holding us up. I 2 didn't explain to him but somebody explained to him that we 3 had a card out, so I realized he wanted to get the paperwork 4 signed off, so I went up there and I -- 5 Q Who wanted to get the paperwork signed off, the SS? 6 A I felt that they wanted the loop back in service 7 and they will not call the loop back in service, even though 8 it is, until you are signed off. 9 Q Okay. 10 A So I had no data on Data Sheet 37, all I had was 11 data sheets of -- you know, the applicable ones. 12 Q Data Sheet 1, which showed at least the apparently 13 out-of-calibration value. . 14 A Right. 15 Q And the apparently within-calibration value after j 16 the tweaking. l 17 A Yes, sir, and the other sheets that went along. 18 Q Okay. 19 A So I signed it off and I don't know what time of 4 20 the morning it was, but it was in the morning, and I went 21 .back to my desk and I sat there and I looked at it and I 22 looked at it and I just stayed there I guess for awhile 23 _looking at it, I didn't know what to do. J.D. comes back i 24 through, has his paperwork finished on Unit 2, walks right by 1 25 me and goes into Bob's office and then he's gone to HEP. c-
I Page 26 1 Q HEP? 2 A It's a van that comes around to check your blood 3 pressure, your eyes and everything. 4 Q How could he have done his work on Unit 2 without-5 anybody to help him? Isn't it the same kind of situation, t-6 all these connections? Was he doing ACOT? 7 A Yeah, it was ACOT on Unit 1 and Unit 2. 4 8 Q -Were you supposed to have been helping him on that 9 one? 10 A He went ahead'and did it himself, I didn't see 1 11 anybody with him but I'm sure that he would have had to get 12 an independent verification. All you do is grab somebody in 13 the control room. 14 Q Okay. He would have been filling out his own data 15 sheets? 16 A Right, it's not an impossible task but when you 17 have two people I find it easier. I 18 Q Sure. So you're back at your desk. I 19 A Looking at this thing. 20 Q And he comes through, he's gone-already. 21 A He's gone. He didn't talk to Bob about what we 22 were going to do. And.I felt -- 23 Q What were you going to do? 24 A I felt that that's what they all wanted, I felt 25 that --
4 4 J Page 27 i 1 Q That being the fabricating of the numbers? ~ 2 A I felt at the time that -- sitting back there thinking about it, that just tweak it in, QC signed off, J.D. 3~ 1 j 4 saying we were going to talk to Bob but I know he really 5 didn't want to do that because -- I told him that's not per 6 the procedure, I mean I might as well just have gone and told 7 the QC guy right then when he was doing it, stop, what he's 8 doing is wrong. But I hadn't. 9 So, I had to go to HEP and Bob came up and said i 10 what's wrong, Marcel, you ain't got that paperwork finished 11 yet? I said no. 2 12 Q I mean theoretically, Bob told J.D. it was okay to 1 13 tweak it -- that's what J.D. told you, right? 14 A Yeah, J.D. told me that. 15 Q So, okay, did you feel a reluctance to talk about 1 16 that to Bob? 17 A I was kind of left out in the cold, I think I was 18 left holding the bag. I didn't get to make any of the 19 decision, I didn't -- I felt that I was left holding the bag 20 here and I felt that, looking at it, that Bob told J.D. to do 21 it.this way, J.D. don't lie and QC signed off on it, and I 22 pleaded with'J.D. the whole time through this not to do this. 23 Q What do you think.would have happened if you had 24 told Bob at that point that that's what had happened, you 25 didn't have a sheet 37-on the thing? m W
Page 28 1 A Bob would have got mad, QC would have got involved, 2 because.they had witnessed the right thing. 3 Q Bob would have gotten mad at who? 4 A Both of us. 5 Q But not if he would have given the approval to 6 tweak it, right? 7 A Right. 8 Q Do you think J.D. was lying to you when he told you 9 that? 10 A No. J.D. doesn't lie,'he's never lied to me. 11 Q So you were being serious when you said J.D. 12 doesn't lie, you weren't being sarcastic. 13 A I wasn't being sarcastic, J.D. is a very good man 14 and I have the highest regard for him -- at least 2 15 Q So you think that Bob did in fact give J.D. )k', 16 permission to tweak it? 17 A That's what I felt, yeah. I 18 Q Okay, so if Bob had given J.D. permission to tweak 19 it and, like you said, you would have had to get QC involved, 20 but wouldn't it kind of been okay -- guess if QC hadn't 21 gotten involved, Data Sheet 37 wouldn't necessarily have had i 22 to come into creation, would it? It could have just been ~ 23 tweaked into calibration and you wouldn't have necessarily 24 had to have had the Data Sheet 37, would you? 25 A No, sir, the procedure specifically -- if you find 1 1
n..~. .,u,- u .. ~ an.-.a.. I. Page 29 1 a value out of tolerance, you have to calibrate the card, 2 it's per the procedure. l 3 0 Yeah. { 4 A And it was going against the procedure so much so - f 5- - everybody knows in any procedure that you do that's got a 6 loop to it, if you find one part out, you have to go i } 7 calibrate that part. That's a given, it's a known. 8 Q Okay. 9 A So it's like it was gofm.g against the thing that we 10 do. 11 Q Okay, so y,ou're sitting at your desk and you've got s 12 this problem. 13 A Yeah. 14 Q And you've got to make up your mind I guess whether 15 you're going to talk to Bob about it or whether fou're going 16 to put some numbers in Sheet 37, right7 17 A Yeah, J.D.'s done gone. He said we'd talk to Bob ~ r 18 and I didn't want to tell Bob because I didn't do it really, t 19 I mean J.D. should have been the one to tell Bob. 20 Q Okay. So what happened. 21 A J.D. was gone, I was sitting there at my desk right 22 up front. Bob said have you got that paperwork finished yet, 23 . I-said no. J.D.'s done got his paperwork, he's gone to HEP. 24 I'm going like -- well -- he said here, give me that 25 paperwork, or fill that paperwork out -- or anyway, a few
-4 1 Page 30 1 minutes later after that I did what I did. And I feel bad 2 about it. i 3 Q You knew that those numbers on Sheet 37 there would 4 correspond to the readings on Test Sheet 1. 5 A I didn't know for sure. 6 Q In general. 7 A Yeah, it was my best guess, i 8' Q And did you have any conversations with J.D. the 9 next day or soon after that about the spot he put you on? l 10 A Yeah, I think it was the next day, we were working i 11 night shift. I heard somebody say that procedure was wrong l 12 and then somebody told me, I think Bob said that Scott i-13 Hammond, the supervisor, wanted to speak to me. i 14-Q Okay. l 15~ A And I went back and I told J.D., I said man, I 16 said, it's about that second data sheet, I said what do we 17 do. J.D. looked at me and he said tell the truth, that's the i i 18 only thing we can do. You can tell J.D. -- he's a pretty t 19 happy-go-lucky guy, you know, but when his face turns all red 20 and his eyes get big around. 21 Q It's kind easy for him to say when you're the one 22-that filled in the numbers right, to go tell the truth. 23 A Yeah. 24 Q Did he go tell the truth to Hammond? 25 A We both went at the same time.
,1 i Page 31 I' 1 Q Oh, at the same time. Okay. What happened? 2 A Scott asked us what happened -- well he kind of l 3 said I see what y'all did here, then he flicked it over and I 4 saw my second data sheet. And J.D. I think said -- I believe i 5 was J.D. that said we tweaked it in, told Scott that we had 6- ' tweaked it in. And then I said that I -- I was so engrossed 7 with guilt that I said I did it, you know, I forged the 8 values. And then that was about it for that meeting and they 9 kept us over a little while longer and they said our h 10 superintendent wanted to speak to us. 11 MR. BONSER: Which is who? 4 12 THE WITNESS: Mike Hobbs. And then Mike Hobbs sat i j. 13 there and said -- well he had a real bad look on his face, he 14' was hurt. I said I tried to stop it and he said what, 15 Marcel, what do you mean, after all the money we spent on 16 teaching you guys procedure compliance, you go on and do 17-something like this. What did you do. And the other guy 18 goes yeah, what did you do. And that's when I realized that l 19 if I had just let J.D. tell what he was going to tell, you 20 know -- 21 BY MR. ROBINSON: 22 Q You mean trying to make a comment on the Test 1 23. data sheet? 24 A J.D. just spoken in generalizations. It's fine -- 25 it wasn't doing me.any good to speak'in generalizations ~w
i Page 32 4 1 because there was nothing -- you know, it was like yeah, we 2 tweaked it in and it was in earnest basically -- I saw the 3 logic in what he was doing but it wasn't right and I kept on 4 saying that. Anyway, that's when I told -- really came in i 5 and told probably exactly what happened. 6 Q Okay. j 7 MR. ROBINSON: Go ahead, Brian. 8 MR. BONSER: At any time when you were discussing 9 this with your supervision, either Mike Hobbs or Scott 10 Hammond, did you ever bring up the event' where Bob Neal had 11 told you to go ahead and adjust it? Did you ever bring that 12 up?
- /W 13 THE WITNESS:
I always brought it up. It wasn't 14 until -- it was the short meeting after that that I went up 15 and'I told -- I had to speak to the Maintenance Manager and 16 that's when I told him Bob said to tweak it in. 17 MR. BONSER: That was Lewis Ward? 18 THE WITNESS: I told him that J.D. told me that Bob 19 said tweak it in. Bob ne'ver talked to me except what was 20 wrong, Marcel, and why ain't your paperwork finished. And 21 the funny thing about it, I feel so bad about this, but I get 22 along with J.D., we don't talk about it. He's a good man, 23 J.D. is, just had it in his mind. 24 BY MR. ROBINSON: 25 Q Well two things are kind of ironic about this
Page 33 1 thing. One is that the original as-found value would have 2 been okay if the data sheet would have had the new values in 3 there, isn't that correct? 4 A Yes, sir. I checked that rev. 5 Q Yeah, yeah. Well I mean, it says Rev 16 on Test 6 Sheet 37, you've got to assume that that's correct. 7 The other thing that's ironic is you probably would 8 not have been found out if the alarm still hadn't continued 9 to spuriously go off after you had tweaked it. 10 A If I had known that, I would have gone back to Bob 11 and-told him, but I did not know. I was at that HEP thing. 12 Q Oh, yeah. 13 A I would have run back and told Bob, but I didn't 14 know. 15 Q Have you ever done anything like this in the past, t 16 Marcel? 17 A No, sir, never. 18 Q The way I understand it, the reason you ended up 19 filling in those numbers is because you felt that J.D. was i 20 gone and since Bob was putting pressure on you to fill out i 21 the paperwork and you knew that the QC guy had signed off at 22 that step in the procedure, that you were forced to put in 23 those numbers essentially. . 24 A And because Bob told J.D. who told me, to tweak -- 25 just tweak it in. And that's exactly how I felt. 4
1 ) \\ Page 34 i 1 Q Okay. 2 A I felt pressure. 3 Q So the initiator of the tweaking idea was really 4 J.D. and he went and got Bob's authorization to do that, 1 5 right? 6 A That was my opinion, yes, sir. But let me tell you 7 about -- in hindsight on this thing, the word tweak is not a 8 good word, it's a -- it's not calibration. Maybe I took it 9 wrong, tweak to me -- 10 Q Just to reset the wheel, right? 11 A Yeah. But that word -- 12 Q Has a bad connotation? 13 A Yes, sir. 14 Q Yeah, well I understand that and we're using tha' 3 15 word to describe the resetting of those values by the 16 adjustment of the wheel. 17 A Yes, sir, but tweak has a had connotation to it. 18 Q Yeah. Okay, we understand what in fact was done. 19 A Okay. 20 Q If other people in your section got into a 21 situation like you did, they had to get their paperwork 22 finished and it was going to require fabricating some numbers 23 on some data sheets, are there other procedures that your 24 section works that would be susceptible to that kind of 25 fabrication if someone intentionally wanted to do it?
_ _ _. = _.. _ _ _ - _ - _ - _ _ _ _ i n. Page 35 1 A I don't understand. s 2 Q How much of your work is doing ACOT procedures, t 3 .what percentage of your work? 4 A I really wouldn't know. 4 5 Q Ten percent? 6 A I couldn't give you an answer. I would say of my ~ 7 time, 25 percent -- of my time. Some people do surveillances 8 a lot. If you work on night shift a lot, you get a lot of a 9 surveillances, they like to do them at night. \\ 10 Q Uh-huh. 11 A If you work during the day, you won't get any 12 surveillances, so it just depends on what your boss has'got 13 and if you're really on days or nights. 14 Q So if you're working nights, that other 75 percent i 15 of your time may be spent doing other surveillances. 16-A Right. This whole thing only takes 45 minutes. I' 17 Q Right. I'm assuming that the other surveillances 18 are also composed of electrical readings and the record of 4 1 19 electrical readings on data sheets. 20 A Yes, sir. 21 Q And I guess I'll go back to my original question, 22 -those types of surveillances would be -- I guess I want your ~ 23 assessment of how easy it would be to create fabricated 24-numbers on a data sheet to cover-the non-performance of a 25 procedure.
( l l Page 36 1-A It would be very easy. 2 Q Okay. l 4 3 A But I want to say what happened here, it wouldn't j have taken much more to take these values here, it wouldn't j 4 1 j 5' have taken much more. It would have taken putting in some I S different values in some decade box -- in the decade boxes 7 already connected, but then going through the procedure, j 8 finding what switches that had to be thrown, maybe some power 9 supply, some voltage sources, had to be hooked up, things f 10 like that, to be able to get the system in this configuration 4 11 to do this, but really it wouldn't have taken much more. And i 12 that's what the hard thing is, it wouldn't have taken that i 13 much more. 14 Q Was J.D. in a hurry to get to the HEP? 15 A I don't know if he was in a hurry. He works-fast j 16 all the time, he's a go-getter. i. t 17 Q Does he normally.- is he normally thorough in his i 18 work, even though he works fast? 19 A Yes, sir, I'd say he's a very conscientious man. j 20 Q Okay. ] 21 A I don't know where he came -- why he had this idea, 22 but.I wouldn't have done it, I don't think anybody else would 23 have done it. 24 Q Well I guess looking at it from a devil's advocate 25 position, why not ---if you were to assume that the i e .u
~ O Page 37 1 . comparative values or the high and low settings on Test Sheet 2 37, were correct -- 3 A Yes, sir. 4 0 -- and you were at a point where you could easily 5 get the set point to within value. 6 A Yes, sir. 7 Q Why not do it? 8 A It's not ethical, it's not right. 9 Q Is it just because there's a procedure that. tells i 10 you to do something else or is it because you are really 11 taking a chance on messing up some other system by doing it 12 that way? 13 A Yes, they're both -- we're raised on procedures, ) 14 'I've been raised on procedures, procedure compliance. Since 15 .I started working at Plant Hatch, procedure -- you follow the 16 procedure, it's been drilled into me and really -- especially 17 on a very complicated loop like this, you can't sit there and 18 mess around with something you don't know what, because you 19 will do exactly what you say, get on the wrong card, do 20 something_ wrong, mess something else up. These cards are two 21 inches apart. I wouldn't have done it. j i 22 Q Okay. j 23 A Nobody would have'done that because this is i 24 -something you don't mess with here, and that's why I was so 25 adamant. I.would never -- I was weak I guess but I argued my i i ~,
To i 1 l Page 38 1 point and then I sat there and thought about it. And that's 2 when I did it. 3 MR. ROBINSON: Okay. Do you have any other j j 4 questions, Brian? + 5 MR. BONSER: No. 6 MR. ROBINSON: That's all the questions I have, i 7 Marcel. Do you have any final comments that you want to make 8 that we haven't talked about that may clarify or add to the 9 discussion? 2 10 THE WITNESS: No, sir, I just want to say I've been 11 totally honest with y'all, I've been totally honest.with my 12 bosses from right up front. I appreciate that Georgia Power 4 13-saw the situation and let me keep my job. And it hurts me 14 real bad that I've kind of sacrificed my honor because that's 15 one thing I always really care a lot about, is that I'm 16 conscientious in the work I do. I've always prided myself on 17 that and I would just hope that whoever hears this tape or i 18 the people that are making the decisions about what'I've said 19 to you today realize I'm just a guy that.needs to work, you 20 know. I would never do this again and I've never done ~ 21 anythino like this before. m 22 MR. ROBINSON That was my final question. 23 Okay. Well I thank you for your time, I appreciate 24 your cooperation. It's now 5:04 and this interview is over. 25 (Whereupon, the interview was concluded at 5:04 t 4 y m
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I P t Page 40 CERTIFICATE Y This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of j Interview of Marcel Christof Wilkins Names Docket Number Place: Vogtle Nuclear Generating Plant, Waynesboro, GA Date: May 7, 1992 were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken stenographically by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under my direction, and that the transcript is a true and accurate d record of the foregoing proceedings. } hp --m AA#& ' _. WIILIIM L'. WARREW l Official Reporter Ann Riley & Associates 1 1 t}}