ML20136H455
| ML20136H455 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 11/19/1984 |
| From: | GENERAL PUBLIC UTILITIES CORP. |
| To: | Dieckamp GENERAL PUBLIC UTILITIES CORP. |
| References | |
| SP-I-TMIA-014, SP-I-TMIA-14, NUDOCS 8508200332 | |
| Download: ML20136H455 (3) | |
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gun :H I found out that the mailgram to Udall was typed by a Barbara Hull at Penelec.
Also - you were helicoptered from TMI to Johnstown on May 8 and returned on Mr. Burditt's plane on May 9.
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May 9, 1979 a
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Dear Congressman Udall:
The story in the N.Y. Times of May 8,1979 reporting on the visit of your sub-committee to the Three Mile Island plant is grossly in error.
The " pressure spike" was not in the reactor vessel. The pressure gauge which showed a spike at about 1:58 p.m. on the day of the accident reads pressure within the reactor containment building.
The' pressure spike did initiate containment building spray which is designed to cool the steam released into the containment building and to scrub anticipated iodine in the design basis accident. Since building pressure did not indicate the continuing need for building spray, the operator turned off the spray pumps. It was this action and the building pressure recorder that Mr. Floyd referred to as being in. view of the NRC inspectors in the control room at the time.
There is no evidence that anyone interpreted the " pressure spike" and the spray initiation in terms of reactor core damage at the time of the spike nor that anyone withheld any information.
On the evening of Thursday, March 29 when the technical staff sent to the site to investigate the accident was reviewing and correlating plant data from.the numerous sources, the spike was noted and postulated to be the result of a hydrogen-oxygen explosion within the containment building. The technical staff recognized that the probable source of any hydrogen was a zirconium-water reaction in the reactor core. The presence of hydrogen vould indicate that high temperature conditions must have existed in order to result in significant reaction and hydrogen production. _This recognition led __to_ measurements to_ detduce. the ' extent of a hydrogen. bubble Trithin the primary reactor. cooling loop. The results of these measurements iiere promptly reported to the NRd.on Friday, March 30.
In addition, the first gas sample from the containment building atmosphere taken at 4:00 a.m.
on March 31 revealed the presence of hydrogen gas and a reduced oxygen level which were supportive of the previous. postulate.
I regret that this aspect of the accident has been misunderstood and inaccurately reported. I think the full understanding of the Three Mile Island accident is of such vital importance to the nation that the work of your committee and the other bodies that will be inv.atigating the accident should not be deflected by inaccurate reporting founded on presumptions of duplicity.
j Sincerely, H. Dieckamp President General Public Utilities Corporation cc: Editor, New York Times NRC Commissioners
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LaidtoExperts y,ag in Reporting Laid to Experts or_
r parently misread si of the true nature MIDDLETOWN, Pa., May 7-A tecit.
reastamed From Page Al of the accident in first few hours, nician from the Three Mile Island nu.
be eving their instruments and not clear plant teu vismas r _
Floyd, the technician, told the touring Congrene=ma that the gas explosion had a very unush t 1) to ad today that ais reem r..-
Federal inspectors anew inat me psam's been clearty monitored by the control in,"he remarked.
heel core was sermany ammassa swo room instruments in full view of both The group was taken to the base of the days before the damage was formally re.
plant operators and the N.R.C. Inspec.
190 foot high reactor containment build.
pertedand the a
~ ormeaccioent tors, whout he did not identify. *We as, ing, where John G. Herbein, a Metropoli.
sumed they knew what we were doing," tan Edison vice president, pointed at the buse circular concrete structure and madecuane.
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Jim Floyd, a control room supervisor, he added.
He said the explosion had triggered an said: "We figure there are about 400,000 gallons of radioactive water in the base.
told members of a House energy succom.
automauc fire control spray inside the snittee that inspectors from the Nuclear reactor buiMing that had to be tumed off smt of this building." He indicated an Regulatory Coramanan were standing by operstors, again in full view of the ry line on the structum, saying,
, It's upto about thesix footlevel."
by as the tracing needle on a reactor pres.
commissioninspectors.
The who were receiving 8888' "*P'8'e In Washington, Frank Ingram, a corn. the first tour of the stricken plant
'preemr spike,,,
mission spokesman, said that existing since President Carter arrived at the That smiled caused by an emplosion of hydroges la the
, reguladons might require plant opera. height of the crisis, were shown a variety reacter vessel and showing that the rene.
. tors and Federal inspectors to report ter core itself had been damaged, was re.
safety eachtaats to N.R.C. officials, "de. of systems under construction designed to guarantee that the reactor can be can.
corded at 1:5 P.M. Wednesday, March pendmg on the circurnstances." But he tinuously cooled without radioac.
4
- said the circumstances of this incident E, about 10 hours1.157407e-4 days <br />0.00278 hours <br />1.653439e-5 weeks <br />3.805e-6 months <br /> after the start of the ns.
. wm still to be determined by the agen.
Herman president the tivewateroutof tlwreactorbut tion's apost serious =wtaar accident.
cy's investigation, which wHl alas con. General Public U Corporation, Reported 2DaysI.aeor sider whetherany reporting Wremet Metropolitan Edison's parent company, existadorwasvioisted.
said them was at least one known in.
The conunission has said that it was Mr. Ingrans sald the commientari couM stance of human error-two valves on a
[
est aware st the==pla=i== entG Fridayd impose penalties for infractions of its Search 30, when it was formaDy reporte
,Q we the by taw Metroponten Edison Company,
,,g opmscr who had ekned tlw valm tradi.
which operates tim reactor. Comcasty of.
infractiontorevocationof anoperatingII. cated cet a check list that he had reopened fielais have said the significance of the cense and finesup to 85,000.
g event wasnot renussamumm.
'Disterbing'to Udall "We have the name of *.his person. We la another A,
a m gmwing At Middletown, Representative Morris han interviewed him. His response was, concern over maclear pow. Presidst K. Udall, Democrat of Arisons, who is 'I thought I completed that,'" and re.
Carter told organisers of yesterday's an.
chairman of the enheameriittee, said the cPened the valves Mr.Dieckamp said.
easmariane demonstration that shutting disclosurewasextremelyJ;.;. 7,;.4 CommissionofficialstoldtheC= _
i down all the nation's nuclear generating "The fact that there was an explosion seen that the plant was now stable and plants, as the protesters were demand.
that first morning and that the company that no more radioactivity was being lag, was '.* cut of the quanalan," but he knew about it certainly should have been released frorn it than from a normal oper.
mided that his Whaum was @
,p
- gald.
te the tour, Mr. Udall told report.
t to minimise the need for nuclear powr.
Victor Gilinsky,a commission member ers "You get inside one of these things Senator Edward M.Kemdy tom consut.
who came along on the tour, said he was and you realise how enormously complex meats that he famed a moratorham on concerned about the report that N.R.C. and complicated they are. Maybe the building new riuelear plants and a thor
- inspectors on the site may have known is so comples it's beyond the ough examination of all existing reactor, about the a paa=lan two days before their ability even well.latentioned people to
[Page AIS.]
Juperiors.
control. The future of auclear pour This is the first I have heard that they hangsira doubt." -
At the crippled spel==* generator, Mr.
- y "erved it at the time it happened," Mr.
Pobs Centhseeden Pege Alg,Chiasses hGilinsky said. "It will be a subject of qmsticulous review."
Mr. Floyd attempted to reconstruct the night of the accident for the visitors. "A lot of things happened real quick," tw d
5 #{.hp He showed the t'=-
a llow I
tag dangling from a control board tru.
I ment that he said might have curvered a i
7A*(
light showing that a critical valve was'
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'A cleoediastandof open.
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..b He said that centrol room operators ap.
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