ML20206T404
| ML20206T404 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Braidwood  |
| Issue date: | 07/01/1986 |
| From: | Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel |
| To: | |
| References | |
| CON-#386-945 OL, NUDOCS 8607080109 | |
| Download: ML20206T404 (196) | |
Text
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OR G.NAL O
UN11ED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION IN THE MATTER OF:
DOCKET NO: 50-456 OL 50-457 OL COMMONWEALTH EDISON COMPANY (Braidwood Station, Units 1 & 2)
O LOCATION:
JOLIET, ILLINOIS PAGES:
6122 - 6315 DATE:
TUESDAY, JULY 1, 1986
/G.
O \\
O ACE-FEDERAL REPORTERS, INC.
OfficialReporters 444 North CapitolStreet 860 % 1 Wash pOn, M. M 1 egn7C801 or;
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(202)347-3700 3ggc7 cwo T
NATIONWIDE COVERACE
6122
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1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3
BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD.
4
__________________x 5
In the Matter of:
6
- Docket No. 50-456 COMMONWEALTH EDISON COMPANY 50-457 7
(Braidwood Station, Units 1 8
and 2) x 9
10 Page: 6122-11 College of St. Francis
- (^3 12 500 North Wilcox
(./
Joliet, Illinois 60431-13 Tuesday, July 1, 1986 m
14 15 The hearing in the above-entitled matter convened 16 at 9:00 A. M.
17 BEFORE:
18 JUDGE HERBERT GROSSMAN, Chairman 19 Atomic Safety and Licensing Board U. S.
Nuclear' Regulatory Commission 20 Washington, D. C.
21 JUDGE RICHARD F. COLE, Member, Atomic Safety and Licensing. Board 22 U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D. C.
23 JUDGE A. DIXON CALLIHAN, Member, 24 Atomic Safety and L!. censing Board U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(,
25 Washington, D. C.
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APPEARANCES:
2 On behalf of the Applicant:
3 MICHAEL.I. MILLER, ESQ.
JOSEPH GALLO, ESQ.
4 ELENA Z. KEZELIS, ESQ.
Isham, Lincoln & Beale 5
Three First National Plaza Chicago, Illinois 60602 i
6
.On behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory 7
Commission Staff:
i 8
ELAINE I. CHAN, ESQ.
GREGORY ALAN BERRY, ESQ.
9 U.
S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 7335 Old Georgetown Road j
10 Bethesda, Maryland 20014 11 On behalf of the Intervenor:
12
[}
ROBERT GUILD, ESQ.
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
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EXHIBIT INDEX MARKED RECEIVED 2
Applicant's Exhibit No. 69 6146 Applicant's Exhibits Nos.
3 70 and 71 6189 Applicant's Exhibit No. 72 6279 4
Applicant's Exhibits Nos. 73, 5
74 and 75 6297 6
Applicant's Exhibits 70 7
through 75 6314 8
9 TESTIMONY OF WORLEY O. PUCKETT 10 (Continued) 11 CROSS EXAMINATION (Continued)
(~T 12 BY MR. MILLER 6135
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13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 f()
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1 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
The hearing is reconvened.
i; 2
This is the 31st day of hearing.
3 We have some preliminary matters before we.getLonL 1
4 to Mr. Puckett's examination, the continuation of that.'
f
~
5 We had an in-camera ~ briefing yesterday by-Office of 6
Investigations, and, unfortunately, it was not a.
t-l 7
complete enough. briefing _for us to feel that we.can do i
8 anything dispositive.
9 The investigation itself apparently had been i
10 somewhat dormant for awhile.
.i i
11 As far as I know, we don't have any'present t
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)
12 indication as to whether-the alleger still_ seeks 13 confidentiality; and we left it that we would'have'a 14 further briefing next-Monday, eitherLhere in' Chicago or
~
15 in Washington -- that~is, in Bethesda -.so we won't-i j
16 have hearings scheduled for. Monday, and we'll begin our i
17 sessions'next week on-Tuesday morning.
18 Now, I don't want to ask the parties to hold off.on-
^
19 anything further.
I 20 It's my understanding, speaking only as the Board
[
21 Chairman now, that L. K. Comstock is actively-22 investigating this matter, and so'it wouldn't be fair I
23 for me to ask any other party to hold off on.its1 24 investigation.
l
)
25 I don't know that I.can say anything'further about l
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l that.
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-So that as far as the Board taking any. action, we 3
can't, until at least next Monday.
I 4
MR. MILLER: '
'Your Honor, from -- if I may I
l 5-
~just inquire as to what sourcelyou learned that Comstock 6
was investigating.
j 7
JUDGE GROSSMAN:-
Well, I believe'Comstock has 2
8 been in contact w'ith the alleger, and that's as far as I 9
want to go.
10 You know, there's a thin line as to what is i
4 l -
11 confidence and what isn't.
i /~
12 But the only reason I mention that.is that we, I'm
, (3/
13 sure, gave the parties the impression that we were 1
j 14 asking them to hold-off'somewhat on.taking further 15 action at least within~the hearing or as part of the
~
j 16 hearing, and I don't think it would be fair-to give the i
j 17 impression that everything is in abeyance now when 18 apparently it isn't.
19 So I've just-taken it on myself to indicate that
~
20 much, and-I don't care to~say any more about it.
21 MR. MILLER:
Your Honor, I would_just like to i
22 state for the record that attorneys from our firm have i
23
'been attempting:to make contact with-the alleger,-and 24 that may be the L. K. Comstock investigation to which-j ()
25 you refer, although-I don't_know, and we have an i
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address, and that's about all at this point.
2 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Okay.
Off the record.
3 (There followed a discussion outside the 4
record.)
5 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Back on the record.
6 Again, my information was, of course, secondhand, 7
and it may well have been that the attorneys were the 8
ones who contacted the alleger and not L. K. Comstock; 9
that is, the attorneys for Applicant.
10 Mr. Guild.
11 MR. GUILD:
Mr. Chairman, we only had the
/~N 12 information available tisat was on the documents that we C/
13 received, and so it should be apparent that was a pretty 14 old address here in the Braidwood vicinity.
15 We've been unable to get beyond that information; 16 and we would ask that if Applicant has more current 17 information on the whereabouts of the alleger, that they 18 provide that information to us and we, indeed, would 19 like to make an effort to contact the individual 20 ourselves.
21 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Okay.
I think that you are 22 entitled, as a discovery request, to have that 23 information, and so we'll direct the Applicant to give 24 you the information.
/~T
(_)
25 Do you have any objection to that?
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1 MR. MILLER:
I don't have any objection to 2
it.
3 I think -- well, I'll discuss it with Mr. Guild.
4 My information is that the man is not anywhere very 5
close by at all; and I guess before we -- my own thought 6
is that before Applicant proceeds, we're going to' await 7
some further word from the Board as to what your 8
ex-parte briefing tells you about -- about this matter.
9 But I'll be happy to share what information I have 10 with Mr. Guild.
11 (Indica ting. )
~N 12 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Okay.
And I can't imagine (d
\\
13 there's anything objectionable to Staff about that.
14 MR. BERRY:
No, your Honor.
15 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Okay.
So I guess we'll put 16 that matter aside now, and go on to one or two other 17 preliminary matters.
18 There was an objection on Friday, which the Board 19 sustained, and there was a partial answer given to the 20 question, and I just want to make sure that we note that 21 the question and answer are stricken from the record, 22 and that question was on Page 6015, and so was the 23 partial answer.
The question starts on Line 4 and the 24 answer -- the partial answer was on Line 16.
O)
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25 So that, of course, can no longer be referred to in Sonntaa Reporting Service, Ltd.
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the findings.
2 The next matter:
3 We had some sparring back and forth with regard to 4
one matter on Friday with regard to whether it's 5
possible that construction or crafts people would go 6
back and redo welds while a QC inspection is in i
7 progress, though this not being an in progress -- in 8
process QC inspection, but one on completed work, and it 9
is my recollection this involved inspections that were 10 performed back in 1981, 1982, which involved Mr..DeWald, 11 and I believe, to a large extent, Mr. Martin.
12 Now, I don't want to have findings on what
{}
13 possibilities were.
14 Either the procedure in effect was that as was 15 suggested was possible or it was not; and the two main i
j 16 principals, Mr. DeWald and Mr. Martin, are still with 17 the company, and at least one of them is at least a i
18 friendly witness and part of management.
i 19 So I think by tomorrow we really ought to know l
20 whether it's going to be contended that that was the 21 situation or we can let it rest, because I don't think j
22 we want to go and ask every witness who has some 23 expertise in that area as to whether it's possible to 24 have that kind of system whereby crafts people, who are l()
25 working other welds, are called back and rework other i
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1 welds that are being inspected at that time.
2 I have some skepticism as to how such a system 3
could operate; but I don't think we ought to pursue it 4
if that, in fact, is not what the Applicant is going to 5
contend was in effect at that time.
6 I hope I'm making myself clear, Mr. Miller.
7 MR. MILLER:
Yes, you are, Judge Grossman.
8 I have to search the transcript of Mr. DeWald's 9
cross examination.
10 It is my recollection, however, that he did, in 11 fact, address this topic during his cross.
(}
I will endeavor to find the transcript reference 12 13 for you; and certainly Mr. Martin is one of the 14 witnesses identified by Mr. Guild who will be testifying 15 during the Intervenors' direct case; but let me check 116 the transcript as a first step with respect to Mr.
17 DeWald.
j 18 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
It certainly is a first 19 step.
20 I consulted with Judge Cole to see if he recalled 21 anything like that, and neither of us did, and that's 22 the only reason I offered any opinion now as to my own 23 skepticism.
i 24 If it already had been testified to, then I'll
()
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on this subject, and if he did so testify, of course, it 7
2 would be appropriate for Intervenor to question whether 3
such a system is. feasible and for Applicant to buttress 4
the contention that not only was such a system in use, 5
but was actually feasible.
3 6
So I think it would be appropriate for you-to i
7 search the record and let us know where we are.
j 8
MR. MILLER:
Okay.
J 9
JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Any problems with that, Mr.
10 Berry?
11 MR. BERRY:
No, your Honor.
I Q 12 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Mr. Guild?
\\>
13 MR. GUILD:
No, sir.
{
14 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
No.
Okay.
15 That takes care of the preliminary matters that we 1
I 16 have.
q 17 We're still awaiting Mr. Puckett's appearance, and 18 our understanding was that he would be arriving at about
]
19 this time, and that we would be prepared to take some 20 recess until he actually arrives.
21 Mr. Guild?
22 MR. GUILD:
Yes.
I have one more preliminary i.
23 matter, Judge.
24 I might say we've endeavored to put together a
()
25 tentative order of witnesses and projection of. dates i
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1 that I thought I would read for the record just so that 2
at this stage, in any event, the parties and Board will 3
know where we intend to go.
4 Would you like me to read that at this time?
5 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Yes, please.
6 MR. GUILD:
Okay.
I have us starting on the 7
14th of July, which I think is a -- Monday or Tuesday?
8 I think it's a Monday afternoon.
9 The order of witnesses I have -- I'll just read 10 last names -- Saklak; Martin; Bossong; Hunter --
11 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Saklak?
(~3 12 MR. GUILD:
Yes.
V 13 Martin --
14 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Martin.
15 MR. GUILD:
Rick Martin; Larry Bossong, 16 B-O-S-S-O-N-G; R. D. Hunter; Perryman, Larry Perryman; 17 Herschel Stout; Mark Klatchko; Timothy Stewart; Myra 18 Sproull --
19 JUDGE COLE:
Could you spell that, please?
20 MR. GUILD:
S-P-R-U-L-L, I believe.
21 Larry Phillips; Dan Shamblin, S-H-A-M-B-L-I-N; 22 Michael Wallace; George Orlov, 0-R-L-O-V; James 23 O'Connor; Walter Shewski, S-H-E-W-S-K-I; Charles Well, 24 W-E-I-L; Robert Schulz; and Leonard McGregor.
()
25 I've omitted from that list of the witnesses that Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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I we had previously indicated that we intended to subpoena 2
Mr. Robert Patey.
3 Mr. Patey was not found by Applicants for-4 deposition, and we don't expect any better prospects in 5
tracking Mr. Patey down.
6 He's no longer employed by the company and some 7
distance from the site.
8 We don't need him as a critical' witness and 9
basically are abandoning our intention to call Mr.
10 Patey.
11 This, again, is a tentative list and obviously
(}
depends on availability, and it may change as we get 12 13 closer to the time; but I thought I might provide it to 14 the Board and parties at this time.
15 MR. MILLER:
One question, if I might, Mr.
l 16 Chairman.
17 The two expert witnesses --
18 MR. GUILD:
Indeed, I left our witnesses off.
19 With the experts, I would hope we could follow the 20 previous practice, and that is agree on a date certain, 21 and now that we have a little closer idea where we are 22 currently, I'll be in touch with them and other counsel, 23 if the Board would accept basically the proposition of 24 trying to fit them in on a date and time certain within
()
25 the witnesses here.
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1 I wouldn't intend to hold them for the end or do 2
them at the beginning unless the Board has other 3
preferences.
4 We will try to fit them in to try to accommodate 5
their schedules.
6 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Well,-I don't see why we 7
would interfere with.your scheduling of them, anyway, 8
since you will be calling all these witnesses, and you 9
can certainly fit your witnesses in whenever you want.
10 If someone is in the middle of testifying, we've 11 been lenient on that, and we will continue to do that,
}
and make way for the experts and then have the witness 12 13 that's on complete his testimony afterwards..
14 Now, I understand, before we get to these 15 witnesses, we still have a.few that Applicant is 16 calling, including -- well, what I have is a 17 continuation of Mr. Puckett, Mr. Bowman, Mr. Wicks and 18 Mr. Seeders.
19 MR. MILLER:
Correct.
20 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Okay.
And so it's 21 anticipated that those three-and-a-half witnesses will 22 be completed by the 14th of July or around that time, 23 and that Mr. Saklak will be called immediately after Mr.
24 Seeders, probably.
()
25 MR. MILLER:
Yes.
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If I might inquire as to whether a subpoena has j
2 been issued to Mr. Saklak.
3 MR. GUILD:
No.
They are going.out today;
~
4 and -we just arrived at those tentative dates.
j 5
You know, no one has been served'as of;yet.
l 6
JUDGE GROSSMAN:
It's usually. appropriate to 1
7 list the witnesses after.the subpoenaes have been 8
served, but, be that as it may, we will' assume that.they 9
will'be served sooner or later and.they will he-here.
10 Okay.
With that, we might as well just take our 3
11 recess now and await Mr. Puckett, so we are in recess.-
[}
(WHEREUPON, a recess was.had, after.which 12 i
13 the hearing was resumed as follows:)
14 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Okay.
We're back in 15 session, and Mr. Miller wi11' continue,with his 16 examination.
17 Mr. Puckett, you remain under oath.
18 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
l 19 WORLEY O. PUCKETT i-20 called as an adverse witness by the! pplicant herein, having A
1 21 been previously duly sworn, was examined and testified as j
22 follows:
23 CROSS. EXAMINATION
{
24 (Continued)
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25 BY MR. MILLER i
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Q Good morning, Mr. Puckett.
2 At the conclusion of last Wednesday's session, we 3
were -- or you were giving testimony regarding a concern 4
that is found at Page 9 of applicant's Exhibit 51.
5 I think that should be right on the top of your 6
stack.
7 If you would turn to that, please.
8 A
Page 9?
9 0
Yes, sir; the allegation that's recorded as Allegation H 10 there.
11 A
Yes.
~
12 Q
Am I correct, Mr. Puckett, that with respect to these 13 welder qualification record inconsistencies, that, in 14 your opinion, it was most likely that -- that the welder 15 had actually performed a good test; is that right?
16 A
In some cases, yes.
17 Q
Okay.
And it was just a question of the paper not 18 reflecting what probably took placer correct?
19 A
In some cases, yes.
20 0
Mere typographical error does not mean that a welder is 21 not qualified to do the work; right?
22 A
I would say no.
23 Q
Okay.
Does that mean that a typographical error may, in 24 fact, indicate the welder is unqu'alified?
()
25 A
Well, that would not be for me to decide.
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As far as myself, if I knew for a fact that I had 2
objective evidence that it was a typographical error, 3
then there would be no problem with it.
4 Q
Right.
5 And that's what you were talking about at the last 6
evidentiary session when you testified you just have to 7
do some additional research to make the determination as 8
to whether or not the test was a good one or, in fact, 9
the welder was unqualified; correct?
10 A
In some cases, yes, this is the case.
11 Q
All right.
Now, the next allegation that deals with
{}
welder qualification records is found on Page 10 of 12 13 Applicant's Exhibit 51.
It's Allegation I; and I'd like 14 you to just read it over to yourself, please.
15 Mr. Puckett, is Allegation I an accurate 16 characterization of your concerns regarding this aspect 17 of the welder qualification records?
18 A
Pretty much so.
19 If you can understand what is meant by what's 20 written there, yes.
21 Q
Well, I'm not sure I 'o.
d 22 Let me ask you a question.
23 Was the basic concern that welders had originally 24 been qualified to an E.
C. Ernst procedure that f')
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25 referenced welds on pipe and that these qualifications Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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I were carried over to Comstock once Comstock became 2
contractor on site?
3 A
Yes.
4 0
All right.
Is this another instance in which, on the 5
basis of the documentation that you were able to look 6
at, the welder's qualifications were indeterminate?
7 A
Yes.
8 Q
And that there may very well have been additional 9
documentation, which you just didn't see, which would 10 resolve the issue one way or another?
11 A
Possibly.
)
12 Q
All right.
I take it that the AWS Dl.1 Code authorizes
{}
13 a successor contractor to rely on earlier qualification 14 tests; is that right?
15 A
Yes, yes.
16 Q
So that aspect of it would -- is not in itself 17 disqualifying for the welder, is it?
18 A
No, it isn't.
19 Q
Again, it's a question of whether there is a paper trail 20 which indicates that Comstock properly took over, if you 21 will, the E. C. Ernst qualification procedure; is that 22 correct?
23 A
Yes.
24 One of my concerns, though, was the fact that l
()
25 originally a welder qualified to 9.2, which was on l
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pipe --
l l
2 Q
And that's the E. C. Ernst procedure; correct?
3 A
Yes.
4
-- and.that had a lower-limit to a thickness range l
l 5
and it had an upper range, of course, for a thickness l
6 range; and this welder may, for one reason or another, 7
terminate and come back at a later date to requalify.
8 Well, in this case, when he came back to requalify 9
for Comstock, he updated on plate, which is okay, too.
10 However, they give him unlimited thickness, which 11 the 9.2 would not have done, and in some cases, the
[}
welder's qualifications was just transferred from an E.
12 13 C. Ernst qualification card reflecting that he had taken 14 a test, which is 9.2, and he is carrying a qualification 15 card that references Procedure 4.7.1, when really he's l
l 16 never really seen this procedure.
17 Q
All right, sir.
18 It's a fact, is it not, that -- that the test for a 19 welder on pipe is a much more difficult test than a test 20 on plate?
21 A
Well, a welder that qualifies can weld' plate, also, but 22 not vice versa, with the exception of fillet welds.
23 However, I was concerned, again, with the 24 qualification range.
()
25 Qualifying on pipe, according to D1.1 '75, has.a l
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1 lower range to it; and most of these welders for 2
Comstock would be welding below this lower range if they 3
are welding on any kind of sheet steel.
4 Q
All right, sir.
5 Could you turn to the AWS Code.
Let me find it.
6 It's Table 5.26.1.
It's found at Page 64 of the 7
AWS Code.
l 8
JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Is that Applicant's Exhibit 9
12?
10 MR. MILLER:
Yes -- thank you, Mr.
11 Chairman -- it is.
12 BY MR. MILLER:
i{}
13 Q
All right.
Now --
14 MR. GUILD:
Could I have the page reference 15 again, counsel?
16 MR. MILLER:
Yes; 64.
17 MR. GUILD:
Thank you.
18 BY MR. MILLER:
19 Q
All right.
Mr. Puckett, looking at that table, the 20 second line item from the bottom is -- indicates a type 21 of weld, a groove weld on 6 inch Schedule 80.
22 And that refers to a pipe schedule; does it not?
23 A
Yes, it does.
24 0
And it was on that pipe that the E. C. Ernst welders
!()
25 qualified; correct?
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A Yes, sir.
2 Q
All right.
Now, the limitation and the minimum is 3
found, I guess, four columns over, and it's the.187 4
minimum --
5 A
Yes.
6 0
-- dimension?
7 A
Unlimited maximum.
8 Q
Right.
9 And, Mr. Puckett, do I understand that it's your 10 opinion that that.187 minimum dimension refers both to 11 the minimum dimension of pipe and plate?
(~3 12 A
I would say so, with the exception of fillet welds.
\\m) 13 Q
All right.
So that, in other words, if a welder who had 14 qualified on 6 inch Schedule 80 pipe was asked to make a 15 groove weld on plate that was less than.187 inches, he 16 would not be qualified?
17 A
In my opinion, no, according to what I read here in the 18 code.
19 Q
All right.
Do you know, Mr. Puckett, what the minimum 20 wall thickness is for 6 inch Schedule 80 pipe that is 4 21 inches in diameter?
22 A
6 inch is the diameter of your pipe.
Your Schedule 80 23 is the thickness of pipe.
24 0
I beg your pardon.
()
25 Do you know -- do you know what the minimum wall Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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1 thickness is for a 6 inch Schedule 80 pipe?
2 A
I do not off the top of my head.
3 Q
Okay.
Now, I'd like you to turn for just a second, if 4
you would, to Paragraph 5.17.4 of the Code, which is 5
found at Page 58, and I'd like to ask you to read that 6
to yourself.
7 A
That's 5.17.4?
8 0
.4.
9 And, actually, I'd ack you to also read 5.17.3.
10 A
Yes, sir, 11 Q
All right.
Now, can we agree that 5.17.3 states the r~'
12 thickness range for a groove weld when a welder
\\, -)
13 qualifies on plate?
14 A
Yes, sir.
15 0
And, in fact, that is -- he is qualified for that 16 thickness or any thickness less than the thickness on 17 which he qualifies, no lower limit; right?
18 A
No lower limit where plate is involved.
19 Q
Right.
20 Now, could you tell me where in 5.17.4 you find a 21 lower limit thickness range for the pipe weld?
22 A
Well, in 5.17.4, it says the welder who makes a complete 23 joint penetration groove weld pipe procedure 24 qualification test without backing strip.
()
25 To the best of my knowledge, their 6 inch schedule Sonntag Report 1ng Service, Ltd.
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pipe was run with backing strip.
2 O
Well, is the fact of the backing strip, then, the 3
characteristic of the test that leads to the thickness 4
limitation that I have -- that you have just described?
5 A
10 different people will give you 4 different 6
interpretations of what the Code will mean.
7 0
I'm sure that's right.
8 A
My interpretation is that there was a lower limit to it, 9
and that the welders were welding below that limit.
10 Q
Yes, sir.
11 My question to you is:
12 Do you find that limitation expressed in 5.17.4?
13 A
I find the paragraph in there that is relating to 14 thickness ranges.
It excludes pipe welding with backing 15 strip.
16 MR. MILLER:
Mr. Puckett, I don't believe 17 that's fully responsive to my question.
18 Mr. Chairman, Id request that the Reporter read 19 the question again.
20 I'm happy to have whatever explanation Mr. Puckett 21 wants to make, but I do think I need an answer to the 22 question.
23 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Sure.
24 Would you read that question.
()
25 (The question was thereupon read by the Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
~~~
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
i 6144
.O t
{
l Reporter.)
2 THE WITNESS:
Do I find --
3 BY MR. MILLER:
)
4 Q
The limitation of a minimum thickness range of.187 5
inches expressed in 5.17.47 i
l 6
A No.
J 7
Q All right.
Now, I think you stated earlier that you get 8
10 different people and you get 10 different 9
interpretations of the Code.
10 A
Yes.
11 Q
And, in fact, in that table that we were looking at 12 earlier on Page 65, there is a -- a minimum thickness
({}
13 specified.
i j
14 When you were employed by Comstock at Braidwood, 15 did you have occasion to consult anybody as to whether 16 this.187 minimum thickness, in fact, applied only to 17 pipe or applied to both pipe and plate?
18 A
No, I did not.
19 There appeared to be nobody in the Comstock-l 20 organization that was familiar with these -- these
]
21 figures and these codes.
22 O
I see.
23 You didn't -- you knew a man named Vogt, did you i
24 not?
()
25 A
Yes, I knew Mr. Vogt.
SonnLag Reporting Service. Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6145 r8 1
Q He was the corporate Level III Welding Inspector, 2
correct, for Comstock?
3 A
No.
Mr. Vogt was the corporate weld engineer.
4 Q
I see.
5 And did you consult Mr. Vogt at all on these 6
questions?
7 A
I do not know if this was brought up to Mr. Vogt or not.
8 I know that almost everything that I brought up to 9
Mr. Vogt and showed him in the Code -- Code he a, greed 10 with.
11 (Indicating.)
Q 12 Q
I see.
U 13 But you can't recall whether you specifically did?
14 A
I don't recall if this was shown to Mr. Vogt or not.
15 Q
All right.
Now, Mr. Puckett, I think that you earlier 16 stated that one of your concerns was about whether 17 Comstock had properly succeeded to the E. C. Ernst 18 procedure as a part of this Allegation I that we were 19 looking at?
20 (Indica ting. )
21 A
Now, will you rephrase that once more, please?
22 O
I'm sorry.
23 I think you stated earlier that one of your 24 concerns was as to whether Comstock properly took over,
()
25 ff you will, the qualifications for the welders that had Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
t 6146 O
1 originally been qualified to the E. C. Ernst procedure; 2
correct?
3 A
Well, I was concerned with this, yes.
4 Q
All right.
Do you know whether or not,.at about the 5
time that you were -- had been at the Braidwood site 6
for, oh, a few weeks, there was any identification of 7
this problem by anyone else in the Comstock 8
organization?
9 A
None that I'm aware of.
10 MR. MILLER:
Okay.
I believe the next number 11 is Applicant's Exhibit No. 69 for identification.
{}
(Indica ting. )
12 a
13 I'd like this document, which is a multi-page 14 document -- the cover sheet has the date of August 6, 15 1984.
It's from Mr. Simms and Mr. Seltmann to Mr.
16 DeWald and Mr. Rolan -- marked as Applicant's Exhibit 17 No. 69 18 (Indica ting. )
19 (The document was thereupon marked
^
20 Applicant's Exhibit No. 69 for 21 identification as of July 1, 1986.)
22 MR. BERRY:
What number is that?
23 MR. MILLER:
69.
24 BY MR. MILLER:
()
25 Q
Mr. Puckett, you are free to look at the entire document Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262 i
'6147 i O 1
I'd like to call your particular attention to the 2
second page, and specifically the -- about half-way down 3
the page, there's a reference to Audit Point 2, and I'd 4
.ask you to just read that to yourself..
5 Mr. Puckett, can we agree that the -- this quality 6
assurance audit. identified, at least for a welder V.
7 York, the same concern that you identified?
i 8
MR. GUILD:
Excuse me, counsel.
9 Before the witness answers that question, you 1
10 directed his attention to Audit Point 2, and I'm trying 11 to read beyond Page 2.
12 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
There seems to be a page-
[}
13 missing --
14 MR. MILLER:
Yes.
15 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
-- at least.
16 MR. MILLER:
Let!me see.
~
17 It's possible it just didn't get copied, the l
18 backside of it just didn't get copied, i
19 Well, I agree it appearu to be incomplete. copying.
i i
20 I apologize to the Board.and.the parties.
~
21
. We'll get a complete-copy and substitute it, if I' i
-22 may.
23
. JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Is it just one page.that's 24 missing; do you know?
- O 25 MR.>M1LtER:
- 1 de noe kne..
1 Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) - 232-0262-
.. ~
6148 1
JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Do you have another one?
2 MR. MILLER:
I do not.
3 The one I received --
4 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Oh, none of us have a 5
complete copy?
6 MR. MILLER:
No.
I'm sorry.
7 BY MR. MILLER:
8 Q
Mr. Puckett, can we agree that Audit Point 2 appears to 9
raise the same concern at least with respect to one 10 welder, Mr. York, that you identified?
11 A
Yes.
(~T 12 Q
And the auditor's Recommendation-A suggests one method x_/
13 of qualifying Mr. York -- or showing that Mr. York's 14 qualification to the E. C. Ernst procedure,~in fact, 15 qualifies him to the Comstock procedures; correct?
16 A
If it was correctly done, I would say yes.
17 Q
Okay, sir.
18 Now, Mr. Puckett, can we agree that, with respect 19 to Allegation I, that at least insofar as the E. C.
20 Ernst procedure, that this is another area where the 21 welder's qualifications were indeterminate, as far as 22 you were concerned, pending further_research on your 23 part?
24 A
This was part of the concern, along with all the other
()
25 things they made up the concern of the welders being Sonntag Reportina Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinoic 60134 (312) 232-0262
.- -...=-
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6149 1
indeterminate 1y qualified, yes.
2 (Indicating.)
3 Q
And is your answer the same with respect to the test on 4
the 6 inch Schedule 80 pipe that -- that you observed, 5
that further research would be required before you could
)
6 determine whether or not the welder was, in fact, 7
properly qualified or whether or not there was, in fact, 8
a limitation expressed on his welder qualification card?
l 9
A Irregardless of whether there was a limitation placed on 10 his welder qualification card or the test card, in the 11 cases I seen, there was no limitation.
12 The Code says that there will be a limitation; and
[}
j 13 that was my concern.
14 Q
All right.
So this was one where just based on the 15 research that you have done, you had determined that, in 16 your opinion, based on your interpretation of the Code, 17 the welder was unqualified?.
18 A
If he welded on a component lesser in thickness than a 19
.187.
20 Q
I see.
21 And that had -- in order to make that 22 determination, we would.have to go and see just what he l
23 had done in the field; correct?.
24 A
That's exactly right.
O
.25 Q
okey.
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A That's why I said a welder -- I would not say that they 2
were not qualified, but that their qualification was 3
considered indeterminate.
5 4
(Indica ting. ) -
5 0
All right.
6 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
I'd like to point out that, 7
with regard to the page that's missing, it appears that 8
the corrective action taken might be more extensive on j
9 the second option than on the first.
j 10 MR. MILLER:
I agree.
11 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
So that we do really need 12 that before we complete our examination here.
i U'~'
i 13 MR. MILLER:
Yes.
I'm going to endeavor to 14 get the entire document.
15 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Yes, I know.you are going to 16 do it.
17 I just wanted to point it out in the record at this 1
18 point so that we don't lose track of it later'on when we 19 get the corrected copy.
20 MR. MILLER:
Okay.
Thank you.
d 21 BY MR. MILLER:
22 Q
Then there were a number of allegations that -- or 23 concerns that you brought to the NRC that begin on Page 24 11 and continue on to -- well, there are four
()
25 allegations made with respect to what the-NRC report d
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
4 6151 0
1 characterizes as welder qualification records 2
allegations.
1 3
A Page ll?
4 Q
Yes, sir.
5 A
Are you talking about right below J, Allegation I?
6 Q
Yes, sir.
7 And my first question is:
8 Is that an accurate characterization of your 9
cencern?
10 A
Yes, it is.
11 Q
Now, it is correct, is it not, that if a welder
{~)
qualifies on one-half-inch thick material, he is 12 13 qualified for making fillet welds --
14 A
Yes, it is.
15 Q
Excuse me.
I didn't quite finish my question.
16
-- for making fillet' welds on material of unlimited 17 thickness?
18 A
Yes, it is.
19 Q
All right.
And is this, once again, a situation in 20 which, as far as you were concerned, additional 21 research, as to whether the limitation to the fillet 22 welds was, in fact, expressed on the records and 23 observed in the welding that the welder was asked to do 24 in the field, would resolve your concern one way or the
()
25 other?
i Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6152
(
1 A
I would have to have objective evidence that this welder i
2 had not done anything other than fillet welds.
3-Q All right, sir.
i 4
'Am I correct,.Mr..Puckett, that the vast bulk of 5
the welding work that was done by comstock was,'in fact, l
j-6 fillet welds?
i' 7
A Yes.
8 Q
Okay.
9 A
Fillet welds and flare bevel..
10 Q
Allegation 2, which is found on Page 12, I believe --
t 11 well, first of all, is that an accurate characterization-i f{)
12 of your concern?
4 j
13 A
Yes.
14 However, that was what we: discussed in the question t
j 15 before the last.
16 Q
Right.
l l
17 I just wanted to make certain'that'we had already 3
18 covered the matter --
19 A
Yes.
j 20 0
-- and I want to movelon.
21 Then Allegation 3 at the v ry bottom of Page,12,-is e
22 that an accurate characterization of your concern?~
23 A
Yes.
24 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Okay.
Could you~1et-the
()
25 witness also read the follow-up on'that?
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1 MR. MILLER:
Oh, certainly.
l 2
JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Okay.
3 MR. MILLER:
I don't mean --
4 JUDGE GROSSMAN:.
I hate to take more time, q
5 but there may.be something else in there that would 6
qualify his answer.
7 BY MR. MILLER:
i i-8 Q
First of all; Mr. Puckett,-I want to direct you to the 9
allegation, but please feel' free'to review the entire 10 document.
i 11 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
With regard --
l 12 THE WITNESS:
Thank you.
13 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
-- to'the NRC. review and the 4
i j
14 conclusion thereafter.
1 1
15 THE WITNESS:
Sure.
16 MR. GUILD:
Are you asking the. witness:to do
-i 17' that for Allegation 2?
18 MR. MILLER:
'Well, I'm happy to have.-- if 19 you want to back up and do it for any-of the other 20 allegations, to the extent you haven't donc so, feel 21 free to do so now.-
22 MR. GUILD:
Well,.I. don't think counsel-has 23 asked him to do so in the past, so if;-- counsel'n
^
24 questions have been directed only at the allegation.
()
25 If he wanted to comment'on the NRC review or i
I-Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva,. Illinois.60134 (312) 232-0262
4 6154
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conclusions, I suggest that that should be asked.
2 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
No, I'm not suggesting that 3
he comment on that.
4 I'm just suggesting that, by reading the follow-up, 5
he may be more precise in answering.the questions _ posed 6
to him with regard to the allegations.
7 MR. GUILD:
Yes.
8 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
With regard to anything 9
else, Mr. Guild, you are free to ask whatever questions 10 you want on cross examination, 11 MR. GUILD:
Yes.
("T 12 THE WITNESS:
I have read them.
U 13 BY MR. MILLER:
14 Q
All right.
And let me ask you, now that you have 15 reviewed some further material, as to whether or not 16 what's shown as Allegation 3 at the bottom of Page 12 of 17 Exhibit 51 is, in fact, an accurate characterization of 18 your concern?
19 A
Yes, it is.
20 Q
Could you turn, Mr. Puckett, to Paragraph 5.29 of 21 Applicant's Exhibit 12.
.It's Page 67 of the AWS Dl.1 22 Code.
23
-Have you read over that paragraph, sir?
i 24 A
Yes, sir.
l
()
25 I'm very familiar with those paragraphs.
~
j Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
i Geneva, Illinois 60134
)
(312) 232-0262
6155 q
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Q All right.
And it's a fact, is it not, that there are 2
two options expressed as to the retest procedure; 3
correct?
4 A
Yes, sir, two options.
5 Q
One of them is -- involves two test welds for the welds 6
in which the welder failed and the other is one complete 7
retest after further training or practice?
8 A
Yes.
9 Q
Now, once again, is this a situation in which the 10 records indicate -- that you looked at, only indicated 11 one retest, and you were unable to determine whether
(-)N there was any evidence of training or -- or practice?
12
\\-
13 A
Yes, that was my concern.
14 The way I interpret the Code here, it says that 15 there is evidence that the welder has further training 16 or practice.
17 Now, that, I would guess, depends on a person's 18 interpretation, but evidence is to me -- on something 19 that a welder done six months or a year ago would, in 20 some way, have to be documented or I could not consider 21 that as evidence.
22 For the welder to say, "Okay.
I went and I 23 retrained, I've come back and I want to take the test 24 again," I cannot accept the welder's word for that.
()
25 Somewhere along the line, there has to be a Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6156 O
1 training program, as-we had set up at Zimmer, because at 2
Zimmer we were asked the same question, "Why haven't you 3
been documenting the fact that these welders has had 4
further training," or whatever the case might be.
5 So we were, in fact, required to set up-a training i
6 facility for welders that were rejected on the-test and r
7 document the fact that they had had retraining before 8
they would go back and take a test for qualification.
9 (Indicating. ).
10 Q
All right.
It's correct, is it not, that at Zimmer, in 11 at least one instance, a welder substituted for the
)
welder who was supposed to be taking a test?
Isn't that 12 13 right?
l 14 A
That was an allegation that was made, and I don't.think 15 that was ever proven.
16 I really don't know.
I wasn't personally involved j
17 with it.
18 (Indicating.
4 19 Q
I see.
20 But that was an allegation that was made at the l'
21 site, at Zimmer; correct?-
22 A
I think that an allegation of that type was made.
23 Q
So that where Welder X was supposed to be-taking the 24 qualification test, instead Welder Y would go in and
()
25 take his. test for him?
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
~.
!~
2.
6157 l(
i 1
A I really don't know.
i 2
(Indicating.)
3 That was an allegation that was made, as I said 4
before, and I really don't know what the outcome would 5
be.
6 Maybe_the NRC'could tell us.
7 I
7 Q
Well, you know, they will undoubtedly get the chance.
i j
8 Was there ever any allegation like that at 9
Braidwood while you were there?
10 A
None that I know of.
11 Q
Okay.
And was it your understanding that the NRC 12 required some additional procedural controls at Zimmer 13 on the whole. test process because of thiscallegation 14 that one welder'was substituting for another in taking 15 these tests?
16 A
Well, that's possibly what it may have been over.
I 17 really don't know.
l 18 But then at Zimmer, again, we were working like 30 4
19 test booths, and in most cases, all.of'them full, 20 qualifying pipe fitters, electricians,: welders, i
l 21 millwrights and heavy 1 equipment' operators; whereas at 22 Braidwood, they only had.3. test booths.
23' Q
I see.
~
24 So-it was, again, easier to control the process'at
~
' ()
25 Braidwood because -- just because you had less going' on.
1 Sonntag Reporting Service,.Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois-60134' (312). 232-0262
m.
i 6158 1
9 1'
in terms of numbers of_ people taking the test?
2 A-Well, in the earlier stages of Braidwood, we had the 1
3 same type of' situation and the type of set-up that we i
j 4
had at the -- pardon me -- at the early stages of 5
Zimmer, we had the same kinds of situations that'I found 6
at.Braidwood, and we were required on down the line that j
7 all of these rules be stiffened up; and that-was the 1
4 8
whole idea when I got' to Braidwood -- and I seen the -
9 same' conditions that I had witnessed at the Zimmer 4
10 project -- was to try to get these taken care of.
11 Q
Okay.
Now, let's turn, 'if we might, to Allegation 4, 12 which is found at Page 13.
j 13 And in this one, Mr. Puckett,_I-would ask ---I i~
14 would ask you to read the -- the paragraph that follows 15 with respect to the NRC review of this matter.
i 16 A
Yes, sir.
I 17 Q
All right.
Is the allegation.an. accurate--
l 18 characterization of your' concern?
l 19 A
Yes, it was.
20 Q
All right.
And, again, with respect to this allegation, 21 you-didn't have an opportunity,-did~you, to go back and 22 do further research on the back-up records that would --
23 might'have shed some light on --'on the. situation?
24 A
No, I did not.
- hn 25 Q
Okay.
In-fact, what Mr. Schapker apparently did, by i
i Sonntaa ReDortina Service. Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262.
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1
- checking the PTL records-to see what the situation was, 2
.is what you yourself would have done to follow-up on --
3 on-this situation; correct?
4 A
I eventually would have.-
f 5
My concern at the: time was just recording-and i
6 reflecting what we found.
7 (Indicating.)
I 8
Q Did Mr. --
l 9
A' Eventually a Non-Conformance Report wouldJhave been
{
10 written, and it would have been dispositioned as to what l
11 they wanted to do about this condition;.whether it be, 12 you know, a further check or whatever.
1 13 However, we had problems, again,.at the Zimmer l
14 project that were basically of this same nature,-a
~
~
15 thickness range was involved,_so forth and so on, and 16 these turned out to be real problems to us, and the NRC 17 did not go to the-independent agency-and check their 18 test records, and I've often wondered.about-that; and 19 that's why I used the phrase the other. day that it seems-20 like the NRC had been inspecting 1with two different rets' l
21 of rules, one for Zimmer and-one for Braidwood.-
22 Q
Mr. Puckett, in your opinion,:was the further i
j research -- that is,.looking at the independent agency's 23 24
- records ---a proper approach to determining whether O
25 there was a real problem here or whether it.was just'a i
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2 A
Yes.
3 0
-- discrepancy?
4 A
Yes.
5 Q
All right.
And so on the basis of your review at the 6
time you left Braidwood, the circumstances, with respect 7
to this Allegation 4 on Page 13, was that the welders' 8
qualification were, in effect, indeterminate pending 9
further review of other records;. correct?
10 A
Yes.
11 Q
Now, let's turn, if we might, to Allegatior43 -- or it's
)
Subparagraph K of Applicant's Exhibit 51.
It begins on 12 j
13 Page 14.
14 First of all, is Allegation 1 an accurate 15 characterization of your concern?
16 A
Yes.
4 17 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Did you have sufficient time 18 to read the entire --
19 THE WITNESS:
I have previously read this.
20 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Oh, okay, fine.
21 MR. MILLER:
All right.
22 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
You have to allow the Board 23 a little extra time.
24 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
I'm sorry.
es (s,)
25 MR. MILLER:
I'm sorry.
I apologize for Sonntaa Reportino Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134
- (312) 232-0262
1 l
1 6161
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l that.
4:
2 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
I'm.sorry.
3 Mr. Miller, you may proceed.
4 MR. MILLER:'
I beg your pardon.
1 5
BY MR. MILLER:
4 6
Q Mr. Puckett, is this, again, another situation where 1
7 further research into the PTL records would shed light i
8 on'whether or not there was, in fact, a -- what you f
9 characterize as record falsification or whether there.
1 10 was simply the wrong date put down~on the form?
11 A
When I made this allegation, the allegation I -- that I y
r
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made, I said that there appeared-to be~ falsification of 12 i
13 records, whether intentionally or non-intentionally.
1 14 Of -- what I was saying basically there was.that.
l
]
15 what the records reflected, there was no possible way.
I 16 that it could have happened.
l 17 Q
And when you used the word " falsification," you weren't j
18 necessarily suggesting that somebody had' deliberately i
19 falsified the' record; correct?.
20 A
No, I.was not.
21-0 All right.. And'let me go back' to my question,:then.
'c
{
22
.Further research into other. records, say,.-from.the 23-independent testing agency, would shed' light onfwhether i
j 24 there was,.in fact, a falsification of the-records or
()
25.
whether there was' simply a missed date or.--~or'a form Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262-
6162 1
was misdated, I should say?
2 A
Yes.
3 Well, this basically is the same allegation, I 4
think, that we talked about prior to this.
5 Q
I see.
6 A
They are related.
7 Q
So it'is perfectly appropriate, in order to -- to 8
determine whether there is, in fact, an unqualified 9
welder, to do the further research that you described 10 earlier; correct?
11 A
Yes.
[}
When I was given this assignment to do this 12 13 research, I asked for help, because I knew it was an 14 impossible task in the length of time that I was given, 15 and I was flat refused.
I was told, "There will be no 16 help for you."
17 Q
All right, sir.
18 Let's turn to Allegation 2 on Page 15.
19 And is_that an accurate characterization of your 20 concern?
21 A
Yes, it is.
22 I might add that review that I have.done and that 23 we have as Exhibit 68, that was only a partial review.
24 I think I was going alphabetically and.only got to the
('jT 25 J's.
s Sonntaa Reportina Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262 1
i' 6163 1
(Indica ting. )
2 O
Yes, sir.
3 We'll come back to Exhibit 68, Mr. Puckett.
t 4
Is Allegation 2-yet another. Instance where review a
5 of some of the back-up records would determine whether i
6 or not this welder was, in' fact, unqualified, because.it 7
was physically impossible to do what the record said or j
8 whether ther,e was simply a -- oh, a mistake made in the 9
dimension that was recorded on the welder qualification 10 records?
11 A
Yes.
Possibly if I could have dug into this a little 12 farther, I would have found the test reports reflecting 13 that it was not, in fact, one-inch plate that had the-l 14 root and face been done on it.
15 However, again,.I hate to keep beating this to 16 death, but at the Zimmer project, we had a welder's j
qualification test record tAhat ;just reflected"that the
~
i 17 i
18 welder test had been passed, and'it.didn't reflect i
19 whether it be root or face orlwhatever the case may bei.
~
j 20 and this welder's qualification was-considered as l
21 indeterminate and the welder had to go back to the test 22 facility and requalify.
I 23 Q _
At Zimmer, was there any r'eview of these subsidiary I
24 records from the independent testing agency?
{O 25 A
2hae is what 1 mentioned a minute age.
I Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
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6164 1
It seems to me that at Braidwood, the NRC is going 2
all out to get all the records they can get to research, 3
and at the Zimmer project, they never bothered to do so.
4 Q
I see.
5 Mr. Puckett, I take it that, in your opinion, it is 6
a proper way of dispositioning these concerns to do that 7
additional research; isn't that right?
8 A
Yes, that is the only way to do them.
9 Q
Okay.
Now, the third allegation -- the allegation 10 identified as Allegation 3 on Page 15 is that you 11 overheard that an inspector inspected a thousand welds
/~T 12 in one day.
(_/
13 And I'd like you to look at the -- at the NRC
/
14 review paragraph on that, if you would.
15 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Now, what page is that?
16 MR. MILLER:
Page 15, the last -- Allegation 17 3 on that page.
18 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
I'm asking where 2P is.
19 MR. MILLER:
Oh, 2P is a -- that's found on 20 the bottom of Page 18.
21 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
I must say I'm amused by the 22 fact that they keep this person anonymous until the last 23 sentence here, which gives it all away.
24 MR. MILLER:
May I continue?
()
25 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Yes.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
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1 BY MR. MILLER:
2 Q
Mr. Puckett, this report -- that is, Applicant's Exhibit 3
51 -- indicates that you were reinterviewed on March 12, 4
1985, by Mr. Schapker, the inspector who prepared this 5
inspection report.
6 Now, do you recall that that interview took. place 4
7 in your home?-
8 A
Would you repeat that question?
9 Q
Yes.
10 Do you recall that Mr. Schapker came to your home 11 in March of 1985 to get some further information about r~%
12 certain of the concerns that you raised?
O 13 A
Yes.
14 Q
All right.
And the statements'that are found in the 15 bottom paragraph on Page 15, are they accurate as best 16 you can recall?
17 A
I don't recall saying that they were located on the 18 turbine floor.
I said they could have been located on 19 the turbine floor, because I'm unsure of exactly where 20 they were located.
21 (Indicating.)
22 The statement that I heard was just as above, that-23 there had been a welder there that had inspected a 24 thousand welds in one day.
()
25 Q
Do you recall the -- the individual who -- who you l
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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1 overheard making that cs x nent?
2 A
By name, no, I can't i: this time.
3 There must have been a dozen weld inspectors 4
sitting around, and they were discussing something, and 5
one had made a statement to me that he had personally 6
seen an inspection record reflecting that this 7
particular inspector, who I won't mention his name, 8
either, had inspected a thousand welds in one day.
9 Q
Mr. Puckett, you don't need to be shy about it.
His 10 name has been mentioned first by him and then by a 11 number of other witnesses who have taken the stand.
,}
(t's Mr. DeWald, isn't it?
Isn't that the 12 13 inspector to "hom you were referring?
14 A
That's who 'he conversation was in reference to, yes.
15 0
All right.
And was this in the QC Inspectors room where i
16 they had their --
17 A
Weld inspectors, right.
18 Q
Was this just a bunch of inspectors sitting around 19 chooting the breece about Mr. DeWald and --
20 A
I really don't think so.
I really believe that this 21 person was serious inasmuch as he spent a lot of time in i
22 the vault.
23 Q
Oh, yes, I'm sure.
I don't mean to suggest otherwise.
24 But was this kindHof just shop talk among the
()
25 inspectors with respect to this?
Sonntaa Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
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6167 O-1
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l A
I don't know how the conversation come up.
I wasn't 2
really listening to it until I heard that an inspector 3
had inspected 1,000 welds in.one day.
4 Q
Then your ears perked up; correct?
l 5
A My hair stood up and a little bit ofJeverything else.
i 6'
Q Yes, sir.
7 (Laughter.)
8 Now, Mr. Puckett,-you were an inspector at the i
9 Zimmer facility; correct?
8 l
10 A
Yes, I was.
I 11 Q
On AWS welding within the structure discipline;_ correct?
i j{}
12 A
In some cases, yes.
l 13 Q
At the Zimmer facility,~was~it the_ practice to fil'1 out 14 an inspection -- a separate inspection report for every 15 component that you inspected?
16 A
No, not completely.
17 In some cases, there would be more-than one weld 18 listed on a form, but they were thereJand'the inspection P
19 requirements _were on that form, and you just performed
.20 the required inspection.
Then you~were buying offLthe 21 weld that was listed; but unless it was like on a. Class 22 D system in piping, these, in fact, were individually 23 inspected; and with the -- the AWS-Dl.l'mostly with the:
24 ironworkers that we inspected, they had a weld map-()
J reflecting all the welds that was_ going to be inspected, 25 Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois,60134
_ (312) 232-0262:
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6168 QJ 1
and they were recorded on a weld map until all the welds 2
were performed, and then the welders' weld form was 3
stamped off and the weld map was stapled to this form.as 4
objective evidence to the inspections.
5 (Indica ting. )
6 0
On the weld maps where the inspections were performed, 7
did the inspection activities ever run over a period 8
longer than one day at Zimmer?
9 A
Yes.
10 0
Over how many days?
11 A
Well, each -- each weld there could be dated.
In other
(~3 12 words, they had a place there to register the heat V
13 number of the components that you were welding on, 14 and -- and then it also had a date for each individual 15 weld.
You could date for whatever time you done this 16 particular weld.
17 (Indicating.)
18 Q
How about on the inspection form itself:
19 On the weld map that you used to perform the 20 inspections, did you have a separate --
21 A
Cn the inspection form or the -- the way our forms were 22 made up, it was referred to as a KE 1 form.
It had all 23 the necessary information on there inasmuch as the --
24 the system that you are working on, the components, the
()
25 mark to mark numbers, the heat numbers, the type of Sonntaa ReDortina Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6169 (h
ss/
1 filler material, the size of filler material, your 2
amperage and voltage ranges and all those inspections 3
that were required.
4 This was all on one form, and as well as the 5
identification for the individual welder that had done 6
these welds.
7 Q
All right.
Let me see if I understand, Mr. Puckett.
8 In other words, there was one form that was a 9
combined weld installation for the welder to fill'out 10 and then an inspection form for the inspector to take 11 over and do his inspections?
12 A
No.
It was all on one form.
[}
13 It had previously been filled.out by the weld 14 engineering department.
Then it went to the QA 15 Department for them to put the required inspections on 16 the form.
17 This was all signed off by both weld engineering 18 and QA/QC, and then it goes to the field for their --
19 for the installation.
20 However, if a weld map was going to be used, it 21 referenced the weld map and -- and how it was to be 22 used.
23 0
Let me try and be very specific as to the information 24 I'm trying to ascertain.
()
25 As an inspector, when-you performed your Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
~
6170 7U 1
inspections at Zimmer that may have taken more than one 2
day for a specific weld map that you were assigned, was 3
there an indication on the form that you filled out that 4
the inspections took longer than one day?
5 A
No.
6 Q
So you just dated the inspection form with a date that 7
you completed your inspections?
8 A
It would be, and it would reference the weld map, which 9
would have the individual dates.
10 Q
And those would be the individual dates that the welder 11 performed the weld; correct?
(')
12 A
Yes.
%J 13 BOARD EXAMINATION 14 BY JUDGE GROSSMAN:
15 Q
Just to make sure:
16 There was no individual date for when each weld was 17 inspected; is that so?
18 A
No.
19 But, again, like I say, at most on our weld maps we 20 would be talking about 10, 12, 14 welds.
21 We would never have a weld map that would involve a 22 thousand welds or even a hundred, I don't think.
23 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Okay.
24 BY MR. MILLER:
()
25 0
Was the procedure at Zimmer ever changed so that if you Sonntaa Reportina Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6171
,h 1
interrupted your inspection at the end of a day, that 2
you -- when you -- when you resumed the inspection 3
activity the next day, you had a new form to fill out?
4 A
No, not that.I can recall.
~
5 Q
Okay.
6 A
All they had for the next day would be a weld rod 7
withdrawal form, if a welder was performing welding, t
8 that would reflect the day that he' withdrew-his. filler 9
material.
j 10 (Indicating.)
11 Q
Mr. Puckett --
12 BOARD EXAMINATION 13 BY JUDGE GROSSMAN:-
14 Q
Excuse me.
I'm not sure we tied this down completely.~
1 15 If the welder -- I'm sorry.
i I
16 If the QC Inspector carried'over his' inspection from one day to the next, he would'still retain the same 17 l.
18 form, and the only date he would put.on it would be the j
19 date on which he completed-his inspection; is-that 20 correct?
l l
21 A.
That.would be when -- when the' inspection was -- all the 22 inspections was complete; but there would be a reference 23 on this form referencing it to the weld-map, which would
^
i l
24 give you your individual inspections and your 25 independent -- your individual dates of these 1
I i
Sonntaq Reporting Service, Ltd.
1 Geneva, Illinois 60134 i
(312) 232-0262
f 6172 30 1
inspections; that is, if the inspections was done over 2
a period of days.
3 (Indicating.)
4 Q
Well, okay.
5 That seems to be. inconsistent with the answer you 6
gave before.
7 And now it appears that you are saying there was.a 8
date for each inspection on this weld map?
9 A
On the weld map itself; but they had a -- what we i
10 referred ~to as a hard card or a KE 1 card.
11 This card just gave your information saying on the 12 components that you were going-to be welding on,-whether 13 it be a structure beam or whatever, and.it.gives you 14 your mark to mark or your two pieces that will be 15 fitting together, the weld map number that you:are' going-16 to be using, and gives you a procedure to weld by, and 17 it tells you the type of filler, material.
18 And this is all filled out with.the weld 19 engineering department; and it gives you, of course, i
20 your reference to your drawing numbers.that are-
~e
-21 involved, and then below that the QC Department fills.
22 out the inspections that needs to,be performed'on these 1
23 welds.
l 24 They have a copy of the weld map, they see where
()
25 the welds are and what type of welds-that are involved, Sonntaa ReDortina Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois-60134 j
- (312) 232-0262 o
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l 6173 O
1 and they assign the inspection.
2 (Indicating.)
3 The actual inspection is done on the weld maps and 4
stamped off on the weld maps, and once all the work is 5
done on this -- that -- that is referenced on this cne 6
card, then that card-is signed off and dated and as the 7
final inspection; but it references back to the weld 8
map.
9 (Indicating.)
10 0
And the weld map does, then, have the date of each 11 individual inspection?
12 A
Yes.
13 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Okay.
14 BY MR. MILLER:
15 Q
Mr. Puckett, at -- when you were at the Braidwood' site, 16 did you ever hear of a practice where inspectors in the 17 early 1980's used to record their inspections informally 18 in little notebooks, and when they had completed a 19 number of days' inspections, would record them on a 20 single inspection report?
21 A
No, I had not.
22 Q
Did you ever discuss with Mr. DeWald this question of 23 whether or not he had inspected a thousand welds in one 24 day?
()
25 A
No, I did not.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
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(~)
(/
.1 Q
Did you ever hear Mr. DeWald refer to the fact that he 2
had inspected a thousand welds in one day in his 3
conversations with you or with any Level II Weld 4
Inspector?
5 A
No, I did not.
6 Q
Did any other member of Comstock supervision ever say, 7
in effect, "If Irv DeWald could do a thousand welds in 8
one day, there's no reason why you guys can't hurry up 9
and get more done"?
10 A
I never heard that said.
11 MR. MILLER:
Mr. Chairman, this is a good 12 time if you want to take a break.
13 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Fine.
14 We'll take a 10-minute recess.
15 THE WITNESS:
Thank you.
16 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Mr. Puckett, again, if you 17 want a recess at any time, just ask for it.
18 MR. MILLER:
Just tell us.
19 (WHEREUPON, a recess was had, after which 20 the hearing was resumed as follows:)
21 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
We're back in session.
22 BOARD EXAMINATION 23 BY JUDGE GROSSMAN 24 Q
By the waf, Mr. Puckett, in answer to the last two-()
25 questions relating to whether Mr. DeWald had mentioned Sonntaa Reportina Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312)
-232-0262
6175
(')
U 1
the thousand welds and perhaps extorted persons to match 2
his performance there, I noticed that you smiled for 3
both answers.-
4 Do you recall that?
5 A
No, sir.
6 THE WITNESS:
Is this thing on?
7 (Indicating.)
8 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
I think so.
9 MR. MILLER:
It's all dead.
10 I'm not going to touch it.
11 MR. BERRY:
I notice you said " extorted."
n.
12 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Exhorted.
L) 13 Did I say extorted?
14 I'm sorry.
Exhorted.
15 MR. MILLER:
Now he's smiling.
16 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
That was the mike that was at 17 fault for that.
18 Okay.
If you don't recall that, then, then I_ don't 19 want to put any words in your mouth.
20 THE WITNESS:
The only reason that I was 21 smiling is because a statement like that to me is so 22 ridiculous.
23 I mean, I know that there is no way that a man 24 could inspect and document a thousand welds in one day,
()
25 whether it be in the area.where it would be safety Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262 i
6176' 1
O.g l
1 related or not.
1 2
(Indicating.)
3 JUrDGE GROSSMAN:
Okay.
That's fine.
4 I just wanted to see if there was anything further 5
beyond that, and there isn't, and I'll let Mr. Miller -
6 proceed.
7 BY MR. MILLER:
8 Q
And, in fact, just to follow up on your -- your last 4
9 answer, Mr. Puckett, any experienced weld inspector 10 would know that it was ridiculous to suggest that you 11 could.do a thousand welds in a day; isn't that right?
12 A
Yes, sir.
{}
13 Q
Mr._Puckett, the welder qualification records issues 14 that you have addressed in your testimony, some last 15 Wednesday and then here this morning, are at least, in 16 part, taken from your review of the records that's 17 reflected in Applicant's' Exhibit 68;-isn't that correct?
18 A
Yes, sir.
19 This is a partial review.
I didn't get the review i
20
' completed.
21-I believe that most of the names on mine have been 22
. marked through for some--reason.
23 0
It's a highlighting, and'I can't tell'you who's
[
24 responsible.for that.
()
25 A
Whatever the case, the typed page~that is enclosed in Sonntaa Reoortina Service,-Ltd.
Geneva, -Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
=. _,
,._._..;._.__,~_,-.._.-
k 6177 1
here was a -- just a preliminary, quick review of the 2.
current welders on the project.
That was just the 3
currents welders, the ones that were at that time 4
employed by -
by Comstock and was welding.
5 I was more concerned with them than I was the 6
others, because the others was no longer there, and if 7
there was a problem, it could be a long-standing problem 8
that, even-though old, we would have to address.
9 Q
Okay.
But it wasn't going to get any worse because.they i
j 10 were currently -- they weren't currently welding on the 11 site?
4 12 A
Yes, sir.
13 Q
Okay.
And you,.in fact, made this list in response to a.
14 direction from Mr.'Seltmann that he gave you some five-15 days or so prior to the time you'left the.Braidwood-16 site; correct?
17 A
Yes, sir.
18 Q
You worked over the weekend, at least on Saturday, to do 19 your best to review the welder.. qualification records?
20 A
Thursday afternoon; 12 hours1.388889e-4 days <br />0.00333 hours <br />1.984127e-5 weeks <br />4.566e-6 months <br /> on Friday; I think 12 hours1.388889e-4 days <br />0.00333 hours <br />1.984127e-5 weeks <br />4.566e-6 months <br />
- 21 on Saturday; and then-on Monday, it was about 2:00 22 o' clock in the afternoon, and I-think-I got to a Mr.
f 23 Johnson or something, in the J's, when I was called to 24 the office, yes.
, ( )_
25 0
All right.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
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And when you were called to the office, you were
.2 informed that your employment with Comstock was 3
terminated; correct?
l 4
A Yes, sir.
4 5
Q And at'that time you took this. list, Applicant's Exhibit i
6 68, with you when you left Comstock?
7' A
Yes, I'did.
1 8
At my exit interview with Mr. DeWald and Mr. Seese, 9
they asked me if I had any records.or. anything I wanted 10 to turn over to them, and I said that any: records'or.
11 papers that I wanted to turn over to them Ifwould want 12 NRC to be present.
They would not have NRC there, so I-l 13 turned over no records.
14 (Indicating.)
l j
15 Q
All-right.
So you left the. site with Applicant's 16 Exhibit 68 in your possession and did not leave a~ copy i
17 with Mr. DeWald or Mr. Seese; correct?
l' 18 A
No, I did not.
i 19 0
All right.
So that when you left the site, Comstock j
20 management was uninformed as to what your partial' i
21 records review of welder-qualification records showed; f
22 correct?
l 23 A
Well, yes -- yes and no.
~
24 I had-mentioned to Irv:once before, and showed him
()
25 a copy of the typed form' showing, "This is the problems Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
...., +
.. -. ~..
6179
'(:)
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that I'm finding with-the current welders'
.2
' qualification.
There's a good possibility that'the
~
'3 older welder qualification could be as bad or even as 4
worse" -
"even worse."
5 (Indicating. )
^
' Q Do you-recall at about what date --
6 7
A
-No, I ido not.
8 Q
-- what month you showed this typed sheet?
9 A
Dates and names I have very hard problems-with.
i 10 (Indicating.)
l 11 Q
I'd now like to turn, Mr. Puckett,~to what's identified I ()
as Allegation L.
It's at the top-of Page 16 of 12
~
13 Applicant's Exhibit 51.
j 14 And once again, I'd like'to ask you whether that is 15 an accurate characterization-of_your concern?
16 A
Pretty much so.
l l
17 I don't remember just' exactly what it was at that
}
18 time.
I was speaking off the top of my head.
19 It was either -- it could be that 123 and the 23 is i
j 20 inverted.
It could be the other-way around there.
i 21 However, I do remember. checking for a welder's i
22 identification stamp, and-I found it, and in further j
23 looking into-the records, I'found that it had also been 24 assigned to other welders, and at~least two of these
!()
25 welders seemed to be currently employed.at the time-with 4
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
I Geneva,. Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
4
-6180
(
i l~
Comstock.
4 2
(Indicating.)
l 3
Q All.right.
Mr. Puckett, is there any requirement in th'e AWS 4
~
5 Code that a -- well, before we start on.that,.let me ask 6
you to describe for the record what~the master hammer 4
7 log is.
8 A
.The master hammer log is.a log that is maintained that' i
9
. reflects a uniquely identifying number or symbol for a 10 welder, one in which he would stamp;each individual weld i
11 that he done with to reflect that, in fact,.he had done i
12 it and identify the weld to himself.
13 (Indicating. ).
t 14 0
Is there -- now let me ask the. question.
j 15 Is there any requirement, that you.are aware of, in 16 the AWS Code that there be such a-unique identifying i
17 number or symbol assigned to each_ qualified welder?-
l 18 A
Not that I'm aware of off the top of my head,1no.
19 Q
All right.
Was there a Comstock procedural requirement, i
20 of which you were aware, that required the use of a 21 unique identifying number or symbol for each welder?.
j 22 A
The best-I can recall, they did have a procedure that 23 addressed this, but it didn't have a whole lot to say 24 about it, other than the fact that the welders would be
{)
25 assigned a unique identifying number.
Sonntaa ReDortina Service, Ltd.
Geneva,-Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
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6181 8
h.
1 (Indicating.)
I 2
Q All right.
Now, take a look at the NRC review paragraph 3
for that allegation, if you would.
4 A
I have no problem with that, if, in fact, that was the 5
finding.
6 Q
All right.
I take it that at the Zimmer facility every 7
welder-got, in fact, a unique symbol assigned to him or 8
-her, and that if that-individual-left the site, that 9
symbol was permanently retired, if you will?
10 A
Yes.
11 Q
All right.
At Braidwood, for Comstock, there were r
12 numbers --
l 13 A
Pardon me.
14 It was -- it was retired, or if this welder ever 15 hired back in, he would receive'the same stamp, unless, 16 of course, he changed crafts.
17 (Indicating.)
18 Q
I_see.
19 A
And they did that sometimes, they changed crafts.
Then 20 they may get another number, 21"-
Q Okay.
At Braidwood, the same number might be assigned 22 consecutively to two different welders?
4 23 That is, Welder A is a signed'No. 23, let's say.-
24 That welder leaves the employment of Comstock, and
()
25 Welder B arrives on site some time after that and is Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262 u -
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6182 i
1 assigned, again, Stamp No. 23.
2 Is that basically the way the-system worked as you-3 understood it?
F
}
4 A
Yes.
.l 5
However, my concern with this -- this-method would i;
6 be -- if this is the way they are. going to-do it and if i
7 this is suitable to NRC, then I guess it's okay.
8 But my concern would.be if somewhere down the line
~
i 9
a welder's qualification was considered indeterminate, 10 the welder was later found not.to be qualified, and all j
11 the welds that he had done.would have to be identified, l
12 this could be an enormous project trying to identify.
1 13 what this unqualified welder had done and to' address.
I i
14 those' items.
15 Q
All right.
In such a circumstance, Mr. Puckett, at the 16 zimmer facility, what you.would have to do would be to j
17 look for that welder's; unique symbol on weld 18 installation reports, or whatever.the equivalent was at 19 Zimmer, in order to determine what components-he'_had 20 welded on; correct?
l-l 21 A
Yes, you could do that.
1 l
22 You could find'it, of~ course,-in many ways:.
2 23 On the component.itself; on his weld rod withdrawal i
j 24 logs, if he was welding; and on the. finished forms.
O 25 sue I might say.enae involved in these-forms there l
Sonntaq Reportinq Service, Ltd.
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6183 J
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could be many, many thousand forms that would have to be 2
reviewed looking for a particular welder's symbol.
i 3
Q Right.
4 And, of course, reviewing the work in the field is 5
a little bit impractical, isn't it?
6 You wouldn't search the plant from top to bottom i
7 simply looking for a specific welder's stamp?
8 A
Well, it would be addressed on a Non-Conformance Report, 9
I would think, if it was found to be a problem, and this 10 would have to be addressed through engineering and 11 dispositioned, and the disposition acceptable to all
{}
concerned on the project, and finally to the Nuclear 12 13 Regulatory Commission.
14 Q
Yes, sir.
You may not have understood my question.
15 But in order, at Zimmer, to determine where this 16 welder, whose qualifications were not proper, had 17 welded, you just wouldn't simply start out in the field 18 looking for his symbol on welds, would you?
You would 19 check the records?
20 A
No, we would not.
21 X)
Okay.
Now, at Braidwood, in the same situation, where 7
22 you had a welder whose qualifications were inadequate 23 for some reason, he would have been assigned a number, l
24 correct, in the master hammer log?
()
25 A
Yes.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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Q And in addition, to make certain that there was no 2
possibility-that another welder with the same number was 3
involved, you would have to check.the dates of 4
employment and qualification for the welder whose 5
qualifications were suspect; correct?--
6 A
Yes.
7 But as I mentioned earlier, when you first 4
8 mentioned this, when I-was looking at these stamps --
l 9
and I don't remember how the name -. numberswere 1
10 arranged, whether it was 23 and 123 or vice. versa, 123 i
11 and 23, but the numbers that I was looking at, it 12 appeared that two welders had the same stamp-and both 13 welders were on the project at the same time.
14 (Indicating.)
I 15 Q
Well, was the number -- was the same welder assigned 23 16 and 123?
17 A
I don't recall just how it was.
I don't recall-just how 18 the numbering was at this point.
19 You know, it's been quite some time ago --
20 (Indicating.)
21 Q-I know.
22-A
-- and this was just one of many things that, you know, 23 I was involved in doing research on.
l 24 0
All right.
Mr. Puckett, did you ever have the t O 25 opportunity, while you were at staidwood, to go beyond
'1 Sonntac Reportina Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262 i
6185 1
the master hammer log itself; that is, to look at the 2
dates of employments of the welders or their dates of 3
qualifications to check it against the master hammer 4
log?
5 A
I never got an opportunity to do this; and the reason 6
that I was looking at this master hammer log in the 7
first place was in the procedure that they had for this 8
master hammer log and for the issuing of the welders' 9
stamps or hammers, whichever you prefer to call it, it 10 had a note in there that when a welder was terminated, 11 that his welder's qualification card and that his weld 12 hammer or stamp would be turned in to QC.
)
13 Well, I could find nobody in the QC Department that 14 was responsible for receiving this and recording this.
15 However, the procedure reflected.that it would be 16 received by QC and that it would be put into the hammer 17 log that the man had terminated and.that this hammer was 18 no longer -- longer in use.
19 My concern was, there, that there was nobody made 20 responsible for receiving this and putting it in the 21 hammer log; and there was a -- a case where I noticed a 22 hammer and a set of stamps that had been laying on a 23 desk for some three days, and when I inquired about 24 them, they said, "Well, the steward turned them in.
The
()
25 man terminated," and nobody had taken them to the vault Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262 4
6186 q
V 1
and made these entries.
2 I made the entries myself; and I put out a memo and 3
I talked to the steward and -- for Comstock and told him 4
from there on, any time that a welder was terminated for 5
one reason or another, that was -- that he was to turn 6
in his welder's qualification card and hammer to me so I 7
could assure that it was being entered as it should be.
8 Q
In your review of the master hammer log, did you see any 9
indication for any welder, prior to the time that you 10 were there, that he had, in fact, been terminated and 11 his hammer turned in?
(~T, 12 A
I really never looked for any other than that.
%-)
13 0
I see.
14 This is, again, another instance in which 15 additional research should be necessary to determine the 16 extent of the problem and -- and what the corrective 17 action, if any, was necessary to deal with it?
18 A
Possibly so.
19 Q
Let's move on to Allegation M, which is also on Page 16.
20 I'd like to ask you to look at that, please.
21 "..
Is that an accurate --
22 A
~That is basically what I said, yes.
23 Q
All right.
And how many Level II Quality Control 24 Inspectors were assigned to the uelder test booth at
()
25 Comstock at Braidwood?
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1 A
Of those that I am aware of, there had been oneiprior to 2
myself; and, of course, I worked in the test booth-3 myself, and I qualified two other Level II Inspectors to 4
run the test facility.
5 Q
All1right.- And do you remember the name of the two 6
individuals you qualified?
7 A
It seems to me that it was a Mr. Winters, and the other 8
name slips me now, but he was the one that wrote.the 9
Non-Conformance Reports for myself.
10 Q
That's Mr. Miner?
11 A-Mr. Miner, yes; Mr. Miner and Mr.. Winters.
12 Q
All right.
I'm not certain that there is a Mr.-Winters
)
13 employed as a QC Inspector.
14 Mr. Wicks?
15 A
Wicks-had been the Level II Inspector that-had the test 16 lab before myself.
17 Q
I see.
18 Now, once'again, to your knowledge, Mr.-Puckett, is 19
.there any requirement in the AWS Code that'there be 20 someone full time -- a QC Inspector full time in the 21 weld test facility?-
22 A
No, there is not.
23 0
All r'ight.
In fact, at Zimmer,.that had been a 24 requirement directed by the Nuclear Regulatory
()
25 Commission; correct?
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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1 A
Yes; at a late date in the project, yes.
2 Q
And --
3 A
My concern was there were certain requirements of the 4
Code -- when you are running a welder's qualification 5
without having a representative from the QC Department 6
there to witnesa this, it.would be hard put for me to 7
say that I could not witness a test and later sign a 8
test saying that all the rules had been complied with 9
when I hadn't actually witnessed the test myself.
10 Q
I see.
11 So it was your pcsition that there had to be a QC 12 Inspector continuously in the welder test booth while a
)
13 welder was qualifying; right?
14 A
Not continuously, no.
They could be in the shop and the 15 test booth.
The test booth was located inside of the 16 shop.
17 I was not opposed to this man being there where he 18 could monitor the test and occasionally walk in.
19 My concern was with the one inspector that had been 20 running the test facility, and he was required to leave 21 the building altogether and do additional-inspections in 22 the field, which could take hours.
23 MR. MILLER:
Might I have just a second, your 24 Honor?
()
25 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Sure.
Sonntaa Reportino Service, Ltd.
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6189 I-j u.
1 MR. MILLER:
I'd like the' Reporter-to mark, 2
.as Applicant's Exhibit 70 for identification, a document i
1 3
that is three pages.
It is not titled, and its heading i
I-4 is -- I'm not sure it is a word, "I-N-D-O-C-T-0-R-I-N-E i
5 for Weld Test Facility."
J l
6 THE WITNESS:
Indoctrination is what it was i
7 supposed to have been.
1 8
MR. MILLER:
All right.
Thank you.
9 And then a two-page document which is also undated,
)
10 and it's entitled, " Rules, L. K. Comstock. Test 11 Facility."
3 12 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
I take it that second one is 13 marked --
i 14 MR. MILLER:
71.
I 15 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
-- as Exhibit 717
~
l 16 MR. MILLER:
Yes, please.
)
i 17 (The documents were thereupon. marked l
18 Applicant's Exhibits Nos. 70 and-71 for 19 identification as of July 1, 1986.)
g i
20 BY MR. MILLER:
f 21 Q
Mr. Puckett, you have before you documents that have i
j 22 been marked Applicant's Exhibit 170 and Applicant's l
1 23 Exhibit 71.
J I
24 Can I ask you first as to whether or not either of
- ()
25 these two documents were the rules or the procedures j
I 3
l Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134-l (312) '232-0262
2 6190
)
I which controlled the weld test facility prior to the 2
time that you arrived at Braidwood?
3 A
Yes, the one that has "Indoctorine for Weld Test i
4 Facility" on it.
5 Q
All right.
That was prepared by some other individual 6
prior to the time that you arrived at Braidwood; is that 7
correct?
8 A
Yes.
9 Q
All right.
I take it, then, that Applicant's Exhibit 71 10 are the rules for the facility that you put together; i
11 correct?
12 A
Yes, sir.
i 13 MR. MILLER:
Hold on for just a second.
a l
14 BY MR. MILLER:
15 Q
Now, Mr. Puckett, looking at the third page of 16 Applicant's Exhibit 70, there are, in fact, identified 17 tasks for the QC Inspector to accomplish during the l
18 course of the test process; is that correct?
19 A
You are talking about 15?
20 Q
I guess it starts with 15 and -- and then runs 21 through --
22 A
Is it all right if I read the rest of these?
~
23 Q
'Oh, by all means, p1 ease.
i 24 A
Sure.
()
25 Yes, sir, I've read it.
1 i
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l Sonntaa ReDortina Service, Ltd.
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Q All right.
And can we agree that Steps 15 through 20 2
really set forth the points in the process where a QC Inspector is to provide verification of the process; 3
4 correct?
5 A
Yes, sir.
6 Q
All right.
7 A
This tells him at points where he should -- that it's 8
mandatory that he check these areas.
9 MR. GUILD:
Mr. Chairman, the first page of 10 the document also prescribes steps that the QC Inspector 11 apparently is to perform.
i 12 MR. MILLER:
I'm sorry.
)
13 I didn't mean to suggest that there were not other 14 assignments to the QC Inspector.
15 BY MR. MILLER:
16 Q
But once the weld test has begun, these were the -- the 17 steps that -- that is, 15 through 20 -- this was the 18 steps that the QC Inspector was to be involved in; 19 correct?
20 A
Yes, sir.
21 Q
Now, in Step 15 -- ISD, there is a -- a reference to the 22 welder tack welding his coupon to the test fixture in j
23 the designated position?
24 A
Yes, sir.
! ()
25 Q
Could you describe for us what that step involves?.
i Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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1 A
It involves -- they have a holding device in the fixture.
l l
2 that you put the coupon in and-then you.use.a small --
a 3
deposit a small tack weld, the coupon to the fixture, to 4
prevent this from being turned in the -- in the test j
5 fixture while being welded.
l~
6 0
So, in other words, that's a precaution to make certain i
j 7
that a welder who is supposed to be qualified in the j
8 vertical position doesn't take his coupon and switch'it i
l 9
to the flat position, let's say?
1 i
10 A
Yes, sir.
With correct monitoring,=if you have'it tight.
~
11 in the jig, this could not happen.
i j n 12-JUDGE GROSSMAN:
We'll take a five-minute i V I
13 recess now.
l l
14 (WHEREUPON, a recess was had, after-which 15 the hearing was resumed as follows:)
i i
16 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
We're back'in session.
l 17 Please continue, Mr. Miller.
18 MR. MILLER:-
I'm sorry.
19 Could I have the last question and answer, Mr.
i 20 Reporter, please.
ii 21 (The question and answer were thereupon j
22 read by the Reporter.)
23 MR. MILLER:
All right.
l l
24 BY MR. MILLER:
l ( )-
25 Q
And, in fact, Paragraph 19 states -- that is,.
t j
l l
l Sonntaa Reportina Service, Ltd.
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' (312) 232-0262 i,
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1 Applicant's Exhibit 70 -- states that the QC Weld 2
Inspector's responsibilities between the root inspection 3
and further steps are to, among other things, monitor 4
the in-process welding; correct?
5 A
Yes.
6 Q
Do you know who the author of Applicant's Exhibit 70 7
was?
8 A
The one that we've been discussing?
9 Q
Yes, sir.
10 A
No, I do not.
11 Q
And, to your knowledge, Mr. Puckett, was this procedure
(~}
12 generally followed in the weld test facility?
v 13 A
To the best of my knowledge, it was followed after I was 14 there.
15 This is a pretty good procedure, and -- and I like 16 what it says here; but my concern was with the -- the 17 weld inspector that had previously been assigned to the 18 test facility for inspections -- he was very concerned 19 himself because he was assigned work to do in the field, 20 and he could not do what he considered was the required 21 monitoring of the test facility; not the way he would 22 have liked to, anyway.
23 0
And that was Mr. Wicks; correct?
24 A
Yes, it was.
()
25 0
All right.
Now, Exhibit 71 is -- are the rules for the Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
i 6194 LO 1
test facility that you -- that you authored; correct?
1' l
2 A
Yes, sir.
3 Q
And you identify, in ParagraphL6 of Applicant's Exhibit 4
71, certain mandatory hold points, and those are -.are i
5 roughly equivalent to the requirements for QC inspection
{
6 that are found-in Paragraphs 15 and 19 and 20 on l
7 Applicant's Exhibit 70; correct?-
j 8
A Yes, sir.
l 9
However, the ones'that-I wrote was a set of rules 10 that the individual welder was going-to read and cign, 11 reflecting that he had read this and that he understood 12 it.
13 (Indicating.)
I j
14 The set of rules that we just discussed prior was 15 for the inspector in the test facility to read and to 16 direct these people to do these things.
They never.
j 17 actually read this themselves.
i 18 (Indica ting. )
1 19 Q
I see.
i 20 You say they never actually read this themselves?
21 A
To the best of 'my knowledge.
j 22 Q
You mean the welders never actually read Applicant's l
23 Exhibit 70?
i 24 A
No.
1
()
25 There was one copy of that,'and I was
---.I was-i sonntao'Reportina Service, Ltd.
Geneva,-Illinois' 60134-(312) 232-0262 i
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6195 (v~\\
1 informed that this existed, and I had to go to the 2
office to get a copy of it.
3 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
The question is:
4 Who didn't read that, the person monitoring the 5
test or the welder or --
t 6
THE WITNESS:
The individual welder that would 7
be taking the test.
8 The difference between the two is the one that I 9
authored, the welder would read this and he.would sign 10 it at the bottom documenting that he had read it and 11 that he understood this test was to be put into the test
("3 12 jig and that it was to be tacked in there and it was to
\\/
13 be kept in the fixed position; because I know there has 14 been cases where, at Zimmer, we would catch a welder, 15 and he would have his coupon out of the jig, and he 16 says, "Well, I was unaware that I couldn't take it out 17 to grind on it."
18 So I wanted to assure that this type of thing did 19 not happen at Braidwood; thus, the reasoning for my set t
20 of rules and the fact that I would require that the 21 welder read these and it be part of his: required reading 22 and that he sign saying that he understood these rules.
j 23 BY MR. MILLER:
24 Q
And these were also the rules that -- that is,
()
25 Applicant's Exhibit 71 -- that were to guide the QC Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6196 O-1 Inspector?
2 A
To guide the QC Inspector on how he was to run the test-3 facility and what the welder's responsibilities-would be 4
while they were there.
5 0
All right.
Mr. Puckett, in Exhibit 71, is there.any 6
direction to the inspector-that he monitor the-welder 7
test as it is taking place?
8 A
Now,-is this the one that I authored?
9 Q
Yes, sir.
10 A
No, there is not.
j 11 The individual inspector - -this was for the welder 12 himself to read and sign.
13 0
Was it --
14 A
The individual inspectors were instructed by this one 15 and by myself as how they were to' conduct theirself in 16 the test facility.
17 (Indicating.)
18 Q
So, in other words, Applicant's Exhibit 70 continued in 19 force as instructions to the QC Inspector?
20 A
It was, in fact, I think, authored for the QC Inspector.
21 Q
And then your change to the approach was to add 22 Applicant's Exhibit 71, which was to be signed by the 23 welder; correct?
24 A
Yes, reflecting that he understood and that he would
()
25 obey these rules.
Sonntac Reportino Service, Ltd.
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6197 O
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I also had a copy of it ~ posted inside the test 2
facility for ready reference.
3 Q
Now, Mr. Puckett, just one more question on -- on these 4
forms.
5 In Applicant's Exhibit 71, would you look at 6
Paragraph 16, please.
7 A
16?
8 0
Yes, sir.
9 A
Yes.
10 Q
Yes.
11 Did you regard that as adequate control of the 12 welder's filler material used in the -- in the test?
13 A
Control of his filler material?
14 Q
Yes, sir.
15 The fact that anything was unused could be left in 16 the portable electrode oven overnight?
17 A
Oh, let me read this.
18 16, the way I read it, it says, "The-QC welding 19 inspector will verify all the aforementioned prior to 20 welding."
21 I have to go back and read all the aforementioned 22 to see --
23 Q
I'm sorry.
I meant 71.
24 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Yes, you did say 71.
He was
()
25 looking at the wrong exhibit.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6198 1
On your rules; it's 71.
2 THE WITNESS:
This is reflecting the weld test 3
coupons --
4 JUDGE COLE:
Are you on the right exhibit, 5
Mr. Puckett, Applicant's Exhibit 71?
6 THE WITNESS:
I see 16.
It's below that.
7 I was reading 15.
I'm sorry.
8 JUDGE COLE:
Okay.
9 A
Yes, this is the way the procedure read at the time.
10 BY MR. MILLER:
11 Q
And, in your opinion, that was adequate control of the 12 welder's filler material overnight?
13 A
Well, in the -- in this facility, because it was -- it 14 was inside the electrical fab shop, which would be 15 locked up, and inside the weld test facility, which i
16 would also be locked up, and this would be monitored 17 prior to and on the return of the QC Inspector each day i
18 to see that these were all hooked up and that the 19 electrode was hot.
20 Q
All right.
When you were at --
21 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Excuse me.
22 I point out that 17 --
23 MR. MILLER:
17, in fact --
24 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
-- takes care of the
()
25 posribilities of a malfunction, which --
i Sonntao Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
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1 MR. MILLER:
Yes.
2 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
-- is the other reason for 3
the testimony that we heard with regard to controls not 4
being adequate.
5 MR. MILLER:
Yes.
6 BY MR. MILLER:
7 0
Well, let me just ask you:
8 Were there three shifts working in the weld test 9
facility at Braidwood while you were there?
10 A
No, there was not.
The welders that I seen qualified 11 only qualified during the daytime.
12 0
Okay.
So even under this procedure, Mr. Puckett, at the
{}
13 conclusion of the day shift, the weld electrode -- the 14 portable electrode oven would be plugged in, but the QC 15 Inspector really wouldn't come back for another, oh, 14, 16 15 hours1.736111e-4 days <br />0.00417 hours <br />2.480159e-5 weeks <br />5.7075e-6 months <br />; isn't that right?
17 A
Well, he was there at the end of the shift to assure 18 that it, in fact, was plugged in and there was power to 19 it.
20 0
All right.
21 A
And at the next day, he would check it to see that --
22 during the night that the electrode oven had not i
23 malfunctioned or that possibly somehow the rod had been 24 exposed to ambient temperature; possibly a water line
/~m
(_)
25 break or something, and -- and saturate the electrode Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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with moisture.
l 2
(Indicating.)
3 Q
Well, if there was a power outage, for example, that i
j 4
occurred from 10:00 P. M. till 3:00 or 4:00 in the 5
morning, and then power was restored and the oven heated' 6
up again, when the inspector came-back the next morning, i-7 the oven would still be on, and he-wouldn't know, would 8
he, per this procedure, that the weld rod had been i
l 9
exposed to ambient temperatures for a period exceeding 10 four hours?
J 11 A
I would say that he would not.
g j
12 Q
In your judgment, Mr. Puckett, with'the addition of the-13 rules for the welder that you developed, was the 14 procedure in place adequate to control the weld test i
i 15 facility?
l j
16 A
The-procedure that governed the running of.the test --
l 17 the actual test procedure for welder's qualification is J
18 the 4.7.1.
I 19 This was just an indoctrination for the individual 20 Weld Inspector that was going to'be doing the inspectJon 21 in the test facility..
q 22
'(Indicating.')
i 23 Q
Did you personally ever observe an inspector assigned to
{
24 the weld test facility being assigned to do inspections i
!O 25 1
ene f1 1d wa11e 1d --
e1 der 2u 11fic eioa test i
j I
Sonntaa Reoortina Service,-Ltd.
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(312) 232-0262
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l 1
was in process?
2 A
No, I did not.
3' I would not allow that to happen'after I was there.
f 4
Q Did anyone.ever attempt to assign.an inspector. assigned
{
5 to the weld test facility to field inspections while you i
6 were at Braidwood?-
i 7
A-No.
It was very well known by.Mr.'DeWald and to the i
i 8
rest of management people that it was my contention:that 9
there should be someone'in or near the test facility at.
l
]
10 all times while welder's test was being -- taking place.
11 Q
All right. -They never crossed you on that?
12 A
No, they did not.
{}
j 13 Q
So yourfconcerns arose from statements that were~made by i
14 Mr. Wicks, who was in charge of the weld test facility j
15 before you got there?
16 A
Yes.
4
~
17 The way this all come about is I wanted Mr. Wicks 18 to work with me in the test facility to set-up the new I
19 program, and he was so opposed to it -- and actually, on 1
j 20 a construction site, I would say that one of the easiest i-21 positions that you might have would be' running a test f
22 facility, so that's what prompted me to ask him, "Well, 4
,i 23 why wouldn't you want this job?
1:t will be a gravy' job 24 once we get the program all set-up".; and then he went on
. ()
25 to tell me how-it was done'before and what he was i
i j
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required to do before, and he said he just wanted to 2
completely get away from it.
3 (Indica ting. )
4 Q
Let's go on to Allegation N, which is on Page 17 of 5
Applicant's Exhibit 51.
~
6 First of all, again, is that an accurate 7
characterization of the concern that you expressed?
8 A
I don't think that I said that the corporate Quality 9
Assurance Manager intimidated anybody.
10 When I held this discussion -- and I don't know l
11 where it was at, Glen Ellyn or with the NRC Inspector-12 that came to my house -- what I said is, "I don't know 13 whether you would consider this intimidation," but then 14 I went on to say that the corporate QC Manager 15 supposedly had told him the Lead Inspectors in -- in all 16 the different categories there at Braidwood,' inasmuch as 17 welds inspection and terminations and configurations and 18 all -- they were having some problems and.they were 19 discussing with them, and he told them if they wanted to 20 walk out, that he had 20 people to replace them.
21 (Indicating. )
22 Q
All right.
This was not a conversation that you 23 personally overheard?
24 A
No, I did not.
O 25 Q
oo you recall the name of the individual who'related Sonntag Reportino Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6203 g
(,/
1 this conversation to you?
2 A
It seemed like to me that his name was Ron Frisby.
3 0
Okay, all right.
4 A
He was one of the -- he was a Lead Inspector for one of 5
the groups there.
6 Q
He was the --
7 A
Management -- they had a problem, and they had to call 8
management, and management came right out from 9
Pittsburgh because of the problems that the QC 10 Inspectors were having.
11 (Indicating.)
r^s 12 And they didn't have a general meeting where all QC U
13 Inspectors would attend.
They had a meeting where the 14 Leads would attend this meeting with Mr. Marino and then 15 they would pass on to the individual inspectors that 16 information that he had; and this is one of the things 17 that they passed on.
18 Q
All right.
This was a meeting that took place while you 19 were on site?
20 A
Yes.
21 Q
Is Mr. Frisby a Weld Inspector?
22 A
I'm thinking that he was into something else; but he was 23 a Lead at the time.
24 (Indicating.)
(m
(,)
25 0
All right.
Do you know whether this same comment was Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6204 7V 1
relayed by any of the other Lead Inspectors in -- in the 2
welding area, for example?
3 A
There was at least two.
4 The other -- the other Lead that was there, I don't 5
recall what his name was at the time, but he concurred 6
with it at that time, and then a little later, on at a 7
meeting we did have, I heard several of them, of the 8
Leads, talking, and they were discussing this item.
9 They were pretty upset about it.
10 Q
All right.
I think in a previous answer you said that 11 there were problems and Mr. Marino came out from
~N 12 Pittsburgh to address the Leads.
(d 13 What problems are you referring to?
14 A
They were labor problems mostly, and the fact that in 15 order for a inspector to get an increase in salary 16 there, they wanted him to do an additional 17 qualification.
In other words, the more things that you 18 qualified for, the more money that you would get; but 19 their concern was these qualifications were more or less 20 being held over their head and put off from time to time 21 for individual inspectors, and new people would come in 22 and be more or less appointed to go through this 23 training when there had been people waiting there to go 24 through this training so they could get the additional
/-( ),
qualification and the money; but it was -- it had to do 25 1
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. \\.)
1 with labor and the qualification bit.
2 (Indicating.)
i 3
MR. MILLER:
All right.
Mr. Chairman, I'm 4
willing to go as long as you wish.
5 This is a convenient breaking-time.
6 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Okay, fine.
5 i j 7
We'll break for lunch, then.
8 We'll come back at 1:15.
(WHEREUPON, the hearing was continued to 9
10 the hour of 1:15 o' clock P. M.)
11 12
-(:)
13 14 15 16 17 18 l
19 I
t 20 21 22 23 l
24
()
25 Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois-60134 (312) 232-0262
6206 O
1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3
BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD 4
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _x 5
In the Matter of:
6
(Braidwood Station, Units 1 8
and 2)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _x 9
10 Met pursuant to recess.
11 Tuesday, July 1, 1986.
1:15 P.
M.
12 O
13 14 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
We're back in session.
15 Mr. Miller, please proceed.
16 MR. MILLER:
I'd like to have the record i
17 reflect that my partner, Mr. Gallo, has distributed 18 Applicant's response, in opposition to Intervenors' 19 motion to admit late-filed contentions, to all the
]
20 parties and the Board.
21 BY MR. MILLER:
3 4
22 Q
Mr. Puckett, I'd now like to move on to Allegation o, 23 which is found at Pages 17 and 18 of Applicant's Exhibit i
24 51.
(}
25 First of all, Mr. Puckett, as before, is this an Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
ueneva, 1111nois culag (312) 232-0262
6207 4
()
1 accurate characterization of your concern?
2 A
Yes, sir.
3 Q
Could you describe what a full penetration weld is for 4
us, please?
5 A
That is when you take two pieces and weld them together 6
and make a full penetration weld, a weld that penetrates 7
through the entirety of the two pieces of metal that is 8
being welded together.
9 Q
And that is unlike a fillet weld, which just joins the 10 surfaces of two pieces of metal?
11 A
Yes.
12 0
Did you personally observe any full penetration welds 13 within Comstock's scope of work?
14 A
I seen the components in the fabrication shop laying on 15 the bench.
They were beveled, and they were tacked up 16 to have full penetration welds performed on them.
17 I went back and I read the procedure dealing with 18 the inspections, and our procedure did not deal with any 19 inspection other than visuals.
20 0
when you say "our procedure," you' re talking about --
21 A
Comstock's.
22 Q
That's 4.8.3 --
23 A
I think that was the number of it.
24 0
-- the inspection procedure?
()
25 A
Right.
l Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
]
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6208
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1 So I go to L-2790 and I think it was Form 1701 and 2
checked their requirements for this, and they reflected 3
that a full penetration weld needs either mag particle 4
inspections or UT's or radiographs.
5 0
Do you recall the components that you observed being fit 6
up in the fabrication shop?
7 A
They were some kind of an alarm system.
I have no idea 8
where they were to be installed, but it was some kind of 9
an alarm system.
10 The bracket evidently was -- was too long, and they 11 shortened it and was putting it back together.
There 12 were several of these components.
O 13 0
Mr. Puckett, do you have in front of you what has been 14 marked as Applicant's Exhibits 9 and 16?
15 They are the Form 1701 and the Sargent & Lundy 16 specification L-2790.
17 A
They may be here.
I don't know how easy or difficult 18 it's going to be to find them.
19 0
Mr. Puckett, I place before you copies of Applicant's 20 Exhibits 9 and 16.
21 (Indicating.)
22 Let's turn first to Exhibit 16, which is the 23 Sargent & Lundy specification L-2790.
I'd ask you to 24 turn to Page 4.3 of that exhibit, if you'd just look
(}
25 yourself at Paragraph 401.19 and then 401.19.1.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6209 1
Mr. Puckett, can we agree that those paragraphs in 2
the specification L-2790 address the field welding 3
inspection requirements for Comstock's scope of work?
4 A
How many of these are you referring to?
5 Q
I'm referring to 401.19 and then 401.19.1.
6 A
Yes, pretty much so.
7 0
And can we agree that there is nothing specifically in 8
the specification that deals with the inspection 9
requirements for full penetration groove welds?
10 A
I do not see nothing here.
11 Q
All right.
12 Let's go now -- it does refer to the requirements O
13 of Form 1701, does it not?
14 A
Yes.
15 0
All right.
16 Let's turn to Applicant's Exhibit 9 in evidence, 17 and again I call your attention to numbered Page 5 of 18 the exhibit.
19 A
Was that Page 9?
20 Q
Page 5, sir.
21 A
Oh, okay.
22 0
And that page refers you to the table that follows to 23 determine the requirements for examination of --
24 nondestructive examination of welding; is that correct?
(])
25 That's Table --
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6210 O
1 A
I'm still reading it.
2 0
I beg your pardon.
3 Mr. Puckett, have you gotten through 1701 at the 4
place I indicated and the table that follows?
5 A
Yes.
6 0
And this is the form to which you had reference when you 7
said you believed that --
8 A
I think this was the form, yes.
9 0
-- that required radiographic testing of full 10 penetration groove welds?
11 A
Yes.
12 0
Looking at Table 01-2, which begins at Page 6, can we 4
13 agree that the materials on which full penetration 14 groove welds were performed within Comstock's scope of 15 work were not structural steel?
16 A
I do not know.
17 Like I say -- or like I said earlier, the 18 components that I seen were on the bench in the shop.
I 19 have no idea where they were to be located at that time.
20 However, the following day, when I was at 21 Pittsburgh Testing Laboratories, having a welder's test 22 coupons evaluated, I asked a gentleman in Pittsburgh 23 Testing, who at that time seemed to be the Lead there --
24 he was the person that everybody was coming to -- I
(}
25 asked him, other than a visual inspection, what kind of Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinsis 60134 (312) 232-0262
Y 6211 i
1
()~
l inspection did PTL do for Comstock.
2 He said other than weld test coupons, they had done 3
no other inspections on partial penetration or full 4
penetration welds of any kind.
4 5
It's possible Comstock didn't do any other than the 6
ones that I seen on the bench.
7 0
All right.
8 Well, can we agree that the ones that you saw on 9
the bench were not built-up girders and columns,. as --
i 10 A
I would say that they weren't that.
11 Q
All right.
12 Were they rolled beams and columns?
()
13 A
I have no idea what the purpose was for.
It was some 14 type of an alarm system, and I have no idea where-they 15 were to be installed.
16 Q
All right.
Well, let me just press on with looking at 4
i 17 this table.
18 I take it, then, your answer would be the same; 1
19 that they were not as shown on -- or as described on 4
20 Page 7:
chimney steel liners, steel stacks, steel coal 21 bunkers, silos, steel tanks?
22 A-I would say that-it's nothing that I -- I would say that 23
-it's nothing that I see reflected on Page 6.
24 Q
I take it they were not welding studs, as reflected on 25
'Page 8?
(}
l Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
j Geneva, Illinois 60134 i
(312) 232-0262 j
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6212 O
1 A
No, it was not studs.
2 0
Then if we turn to Page A-2, which is Table 01-3 of this 3
Exhibit 9, I take it you can also agree that as far as 4
you knew, they were not containment liners, pool liners, 5
sacrificial shield wall liners --
6 A
No.
Comstock had nothing to do with the pool liners or l
7 sacrificial shields unless they were making an 8
attachment to it.
i 9
0 Well, I realize it's been a long time since you looked 10 at Form 1701, Mr. Puckett.
11 If you can identify any of the components that you 12 believe had full penetration groove welds done by 13 Comstock that are within the scope of this, I'd like you 14 to take your time and describe them for us.
15 A
I cannot describe -- I mean, I cannot identify the 16 components.
17 I know that I brought it to the attention of Mr.
18 DeWald, and later I went to Sargent & Lundy.
19 The gentleman over there -- he was in their Welding 20 Depa r tment.
They called him Stu Klevens.
I can only 21 assume that his name was Stuart Klevens.
22 He confirmed to me that yes, in fact, full 23 penetration welds should have additional inspection 24 other than a visual.
(}
25 0
That was full -- Mr. Klevens said that with respect to Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
ueneva, 1111nola culas (312) 232-0262
6213 N.J l
full penetration groove welds --
2 A
Yes.
3 0
-- within Comstock's scope of work?
4 A
Within Comstock's scope of work.
5 0
Is this another area, Mr. Puckett, where if you had been 6
able to, you would have wanted to do additional research 7
into just what type of components these were to 8
determine just how they fit in with Form 170l?
9 A
Well, one of my basic concerns was -- with anybody I 10 talked to in management and the one person I talked to 11 in Sargent & Lundy -- I thought that was as far as it 12 would have to go.
O 13 Nobody within the Comstock organization had any 14 knowledge of any full penetration welds, and they had no 15 knowledge that there was further inspection required if 16 there were full penetration welds.
17 0
After your conversation with Mr. Klevens, did you 18 document your concern to Comstock management in any way?
19 A
The components were still on the bench in the 20 fabrication shop when I was terminated.
I never got an 21 opportunity to do anything with them.
22 But they were still trying to decide what they were 23 going to do with them.
They hadn't welded them out.
24 They just had them tacked together.
(}
25 0
You say "they."
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6214
- (2) 1 This is'the Comstock personnel?
2 A
Yes.
3 0
So that was the welders and --
4 A
Yes.
i 5
I finally convinced Irv that they ought to hold up 6
on it until they find out if, in fact, additional 7
inspection was required before they welded them out.
j 8
Q Mr. DeWald was ultimately accepting of that suggestion?-
t 9
A Well, he stopped them f rom any further work on them 10 until such time -- I don't know what was done after I I
11 left.
12 0
This was towards the end of your stay at Braidwood?
()
13 A
Yes.
14 0
So at least as far as you knew when you left the site, 15 Comstock management -- Mr. DeWald, specifically -- was j
16 being responsive to your concerns about the inspection 17 requirements on these welds?
18 A
Based on past performance, I -- I did not know if they j
~
19 would do anything at all with them.
20 0
But they had, in fact, stopped the fabrication process 21 as a result of your concerns?
22 A
Yes, sir.
23 0
okay.
i 24 A
If nothing else, I achieved something.
(]}
25 Q
Let's go on to Allegation p, Mr. Puckett.
That's the Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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1 bottom of Page 18 of Applicant's Exhibit 51.
2 You may wish to look at the next paragraph on the 3
top of Page 19, because I'm going to have a few i
4 questions about that as well.
5 A
Did you ask me to look at something else on this page?
J 6
0 Yes, sir:
the first paragraph at the top of Page 19, j
7 Mr. Puckett.
8 First of all, is the sentence at the bottom of Page 9
19 an accurate characterization of your concern?
l 10 A
Yes, it is.
11 But the NRC review on the other page I don't think 12 deals with this at all, because my statement to him was
()
I 13 that I had been on tour in the building with Mr. DeWald.
14 This was one of the earlier tours.
I'm not just sure 15 where we were at in the building.
We had been up and
- 16 down several floors and things.
~
17 Mr. DeWald had pointed out welds to me and said, "I
l 18 inspected these welds."
It was on a large' hanger there.
19 I just more or less glanced at the welds, and I saw 20 welds that he said he had accepted that I would not have 21 accepted.
22 Q
So this was actually based on your -personal observation 1
23 on a tour with Mr. DeWald?
e 24 A
Yes, it was; but at the time I'm not sure where we were
(]}
25 at in the building.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134
-(312) 232-0262 i
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. _. ~. _..
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6216 O
1 Q
All right.
i l
2 And you don't recall now whether it was in a 3
safety-related or nonsafety-related --
4 A
No, I do not.
5 Like I say, I hadn't been on the project but for a 6
matter of days when I made the first tour of the i
7 building with Mr. DeWald.
8 Q
Mr. Puckett, how close were you to the welds when Mr.
i 9
DeWald pointed them out?
1 10 A
Well, some of them started at the floor, and they went i
11 on up; that is, the hanger came down to the floor.
It i
12 was kind of like in a corner, and they came down to the
()
1 13 floor.
i i
14 The welds started at the floor, and they moved all 15 the way up the hanger to the ceiling.
I was observing i
16 welds that were close enough to look at.
17 (Indicating.)
i l
18 Q
Within a few feet?
19 A
Yes.
20 0
Were the welds in a painted or unpainted condition?
21 A
The best I can recall, they were unpainted.
22 Q
Did you say anything to Mr. DeWald 'at that time?
23 A
No, I did not.
l 24 Q
All right.
[}
25 I take it you didn't get out a fillet weld gauge or Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
ueneva, 1111nois outag (312) 232-0262
6217 O
V 1
any measuring instrument to actually measure the 2
acceptability of the weld?
3 A
No, sir.
4 0
Would you agree that acceptability of a weld is 5
something that's within limits within the range of an 6
individual inspector's judgment?
7 A
Yes, sir.
8 0
And that what may be rejectable to you may be acceptable 9
to another inspector and vice versa?
10 A
I would not have an inspector working for me that would 11 have accepted some of the welds that I seen.
12 Q
And what was the specific defect that you observed?
O 13 A
Well, I could see that there was undercut; there was 14 excessive spatter; there was slag; there was cold lap or 15 overlap, whichever you prefer to call it; and there was 16 areas in the crater that were below the nominal wall, 17 excessive craters.
18 Q
Did Mr. DeWald specifically identify the welds that he 19 said he had accepted or did he just point generally in 20 the direction of the hanger and say --
21 A
He said that he had -- he said, "I've inspected all of 22 these welds," and he was referring to all the electrical 23 welds in the area,.of course.
24 (Indicating.)
()
25 MR. MILLER:
If I might just have one second, Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134
)
l (312) 232-0262
6218 1
please.
2 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Sure.
3 BY MR. MILLER:
4 0
Do you know, Mr. Puckett, whether or not any of the 5
welds had been reworked and reinspected since.the time 6
that Mr. DeWald was an inspector at Braidwood?
7 A
Well, there was a couple of the welds that was down low 8
that he had pointed to his acceptance stamp on.
9 I would assume if the welds had been reworked, they 10 would also have removed his acceptance stamp.
11 0
At your deposition, Mr. Puckett, you said you were --
12 you were sure that some of the welds were located on the O
13 turbine floor; is that correct?
14 A
We had been -- we were all through the building.
He 15 showed me several locations, and some of them was, in 16 fact, on the turbine floor.
17 0
And that --
18 A
I mean, I can remember him identifying, you know, "This 19 is the turbine building," and he was reflecting that he 20 had done a lot of inspection in there as well.
21 0
But outside of the turbine building, you don't recall 22 any location for these welds?
23 A
Not the locations.
We had been all the way from the 24 bottom of the reactor all the way up.
{}
25 0
And he had identified welds in each location for you?
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinai r 60134 (312) 232-0262
6219 O
1 A
Not every location, but there were locations where he 2
did do work.
3 Q
Mr. Puckett, I think you said that this occurred very 4
early in your tenure at the Braidwood site.
5 Did you ever call these welds to the attention of 6
any of the Level II QC Inspectors?
7 A
No, I did not.
I felt that chese welds would have been 8
identified and something would have been done about them 9
once I was qualified.
10 Until such time that I was qualified, there was not 11 a lot that I could personally do about them.
12 0
All right.
13 You didn't --
14 A
The other inspectors were already having their problems 15 with Mr. DeWald, so I -- I'm sure that they didn't want 16 to get involved with it.
17 0
Well, at least Mr. Miner was willing to write -- or sign 18 Nonconformance Reports for deficiencies that you 19 identified; correct?
20 A
Yes.
That was later on, yes.
21 0
But you never took Mr. Miner back to these welds and 22 asked him to verify that they were, in fact, rejectable?
23 A
I don't even know if I could have found my place --
24 myself back to that area then because of the direction
(}
25 we went into the buildings and the different route i
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 6u134 (312) 232-0262
6220
~h (d
1 changes and things that we took in the process.
2 Given time, I could go back to the area; I could 3
find the area again.
But I mean, just to walk directly 4
to it -- I couldn't do that.
5 0
I see.
6 But you never,-- in any event, you never went with 7
Mr. Miner or any other QC Inspector to look at those 8
9 A
No, I did not.
10 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Excuse me.
11 Did the NRC inspectors ever ask you to do that, to 12 go back to the building and see if you could point out
()
13 those locations?
14 THE WITNESS:
I really had no contact with 15 the NRC inspectors while at Braidwood, other than just a 16 cordial hello and things like that.
17 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
I meant after you had made 18 these allegations.
19 THE WITNESS:
No.
They did not ask me to go 20 back and identify anything.
21 MR. MILLER:
Could I just take another 22 minute, please?
23 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Sure.
24 BY MR. MILLER:
(]}
25 Q
Mr. Puckett, let's move on to Allegation r -- well, one Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6221 Lo 1
last question on Mr. DeWald's welds that you would have 2
rej ected:
3 Did Mr. DeWald tell you what his welder's stamp i
4 number was?
5 A
Sir?
6 Q
Did Mr. DeWald tell you what his welder's stamp number 7
was?
8 A
No, he did not.
9 It was a symbol.
He just pointed, and he said, r-10 "That's my weld stamp."
11 Q
Let's move on to Allegation r, which is found at Page 12 20.
j 13 Now, firstHof'all -- well, you ought to read the 14 first paragraph under "NRC review" as well.
15 First of all, Mr. Puckett, is the allegation, as 16 stated and as amplified in your interview with Mr.
17 Schapker, an accurate characterization of your concern?
j 18 A
Pretty much so, yes.
19 Q
All right.
20 Why don' t you turn to Page 89 of Applicant's 21 Exhibit 12, which is the AWS code.
22 Figure 8.8.5 is the condition that you observed --
23 the type of weld that you observed in the f abrication i
24 shop; correct?
(]}
25 A
Of the same type, yes.
I Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 l
(312) 232-0262
l
\\
i 6222
(~%
%-)
1 Q
All right.
j 2
And as I understand it, the dashed lines along the 3
right-and left-hand sides of the figure indicate that 4
the weld filler material is deposited underneath --
5 A
Yes.
6 0
-- and the --
7 A
That is to represent the area of wald.
8 0
Right.
9 And then the uninterrupted kind of diagonal lines 10 along the top of the diagram indicate that the weld 11 filler material is deposited on the top of that surface; 4
12 is that correct?
O 13 A
Yes, it is.
14 Q
And break is to occur at the corners; correct?
15 A
According to the drawing as reflected here, I would say 16 yes.
17 0
Is the size of the break specified?
18 A
It is not specified there.
19 We had this same problem at the Zimmer project.
20 0
Well, do you know what the reason -- the technical 21 reason is, if any, for this interrupted --
22 A
I do not.
I do not know all of the engineering 23 evaluations for reasons for this.
24 I did read the code, and I noticed that this was
(]}
25 being done.
I know that this same type of joint design Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6223 g3V 1
had caused us problems at Zimmer.
2 So I brought it to the attention of management 3
inasmuch as I showed them the picture in the book, as 4
you see here; and I also went and got a sample and 5
brought it to them.
6 At that time they were in concurrence that, yes, in 7
fact, this is wrong that we should be doing this.
This 8
weld should be interrupted at the corner.
9 0
What happened then?
10 A
Nothing.
11 0
Well, how long prior to your -- at what point in your 12 time at Braidwood --
s 13 A
I asked about this again, and Mr. DeWald said that he 14 would be asking Sargent & Lundy about it.
15 0
All right.
16 And I think the allegation that's stated here in 17 Applicant's Exhibit 51 says that you first noticed it 18 within three days after you started working there.
19 A
Yes.
20 During the period of time that I was there, I also 21 addressed it to Mr. Paserba, and I showed him the 22 drawing and I showed him a sample weld.
23 His statement to me was, "This is the type of thing 24 that we hired you to do.
Keep up the good work."
(}
25 However, nothing was ever done about'it.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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6224 O
1 0
were these -- this type of a welded connection -- how 2
many of them were there created while you were at the --
3 at the Braidwood site?
4 A
It was a weld that was real frequently being done, quite 5
often being done.
6 Q
Did you ever observe anywhere that there was an 7
interruption at the corner?
8 A
No, I did not, not none of these particular. type of 9
welds, I did not.
i 10 Q
So that every one that you saw was just continuous 11 across the plane?
12 A
All the way around.
O 13 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Excuse me.
14 The first one you brought this to the attention of 15 was Mr. DeWald?
16 THE WITNESS:
Yes -- pardon me.
17 The first person that I brought it to the attention 18 of was Mr. Saklak, and he never mentioned anything to 19 Mr. DeWald about it.
So I mentioned it to Mr. DeWald on 20 the same day, yes.
21 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Okay.
s 22 That was not clear in the record.
23 BY MR. MILLER:
24 0
Then you mentioned it to Mr. Paserba, and then you
(}
25 mentioned it to Mr. DeWald again; correct?
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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6225 O
1 A
Yes.
2 0
And Mr. DeWald indicated to you that Sargent & Lundy was 3
looking into the issue?
4 A
No.
He said that they would have to check with Sargent 5
& Lundy on it.
6 If this was ever done, I don't know.
7 0
All right.
8 This diagram is, in fact, found in Chapter 8 of the 9
code that deals with design of welds; " Design of New 10 Buildings" is the chapter?
11 A
Yes, it is, i
12 0
But it's a design chapter, isn't it?
()
13 A
Yes.
We were building a new building.
14 0
Well, did you understand that this was a feature that 15 ought to be considered by the architect-engineer?
16 A
I knew it was a feature that was of great concern at the 17 Zimmer project and that I didn' t want it to be a problem 18 with us there at Braidwood.
19 0
So the same thing had happened at Braidwood; is that 20 right?
21 A
Yes, sir.
22 O
There had been an uninterrupted --
1 23 A
Yes, sir.
24 Most of the things that I have related in the whole
(])
25 transcript is things that I have seen that really gave l
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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(312) 232-0262
i 6226
(
1 us problems at Zimmer and contributed to our closing.
2 I did not want that to happen at Braidwood.
l 3
Q Mr. Puckett, do you know what the resolution of this 4
specific issue was at the Zimmer facility?
f 5
A I don't really recall.
6 I think there was a Nonconformance Report written 7
on it, but I don't recall seeing any disposition.
This 8
was in the later part of the project as_ well.
j 9
I know that they started the welders -- f rom that i
10 time on, I know that they were doing the welds and they i
i 11 were interrupting them at the corner after this concern 12 was brought up.
(
13 0
Well, why don't you look at the NRC review, the further 1
14 paragraphs on this allegation, Mr. Puckett.
1 15 Does Mr. Schapker's review indicate to you that at 16 least the welds he looked at didn't have the continuous 17 characteristic that you observed?
18 A
My understanding of what Mr. Schapker is saying here is 19 that the welds that he looked at complied with the 20 drawing, which I agree with.
21 The drawing, however -- I looked at several 22 drawings reflecting this particular type of weld, and it i
23 just reflected the area that -- fillet welds was.
l
)
24 supposed to go on both sides and at the top.
It-just
- (}
25 reflected the area that was to be welded with fillets.
i i
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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l JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Excuse me.
2 Are you saying, then, that the drawings were okay; 3
it's just the application in the field that was 4
improper?
5 THE WITNESS:
No, sir.
The drawings were 6
unclear.
7 The drawings reflected that there would be a 8
quarter-inch fillet weld on both sides and a 9
quarter-inch fillet weld at the top, but with no 1
10 reference as to whether it should be all the way around I
11 the component or not.
12 It was just reflecting that there was a fillet weld C:)
13 that went there.
I 14 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Oh, I see.
15 THE WITNESS:
The only thing that I found 16 which addressed this particular type.of weld was the i
17 code.
18 JUDGE COLE:
Mr. Puckett, did you happen to 19 see welds of this type where they were not interrupted 20 at the corner or did you just see it on the drawing?
21 THE WITNESS:
I seen the actual welds.
22 I took a sample weld that had been done in the shop 1
23 and was going into the field to be installed and showed 24 it to management people, and I also showed them the
(])
25 drawing.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
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JUDGE GROSSMAN:
And the weld you showed to 2
management people was not interrupted at the corner?
3 THE WITNESS:
No, sir.
It was-welded up each 4
side, but they welded up around the corner on it.
5 N ow, it would be pretty difficult to make a weld on 6
a component like this without breaking at the corners, 7
but they should have left a clearance at each corner.
8 They picked up the weld there and welded up and 9
around these corners.
10 MR. MILLER:
Go ahead.
11 JUDGE COLE:
Mr. Puckett, why did they have 4
12 an interruption at the corner?
(
13 THE WITNESS:
I really don't know, sir.
14 I would think that it has to do with some type of 15 stresses.
16 JUDGE COLE:
All right, sir.
Thank you.
17 BY MR. MILLER:
18 Q
Let me understand, Mr. Puckett.
19 From your response to Judge Grossman's or Judge 20 cole's questions, it is, in f act, quite difficult for 21 the welder to make a continuous weld up and around that 22 corner without interrupting his arc at some point in time; isn't that correct?
23 24 A
Yes, sir, it very well could be, unless he was welding
()
25 with one hand and using the other hand and doing the Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, 111irois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6229
(~)~
u.
1 weld in the flat position, just kind of turning it as he 2
goes.
He could do it, but it would not be the practical 3
way to do the weld.
They would weld up each side across 4
the top.
5 However, they were also connecting the corners, 6
which they should not have done.
7 Q
I see.
8 There was a separate pass made to connect the 9
corners, from what you observed?
10 A
Yes.
11 Q
Well, the last sentence in Mr. Schapker's review of this 12 allegation says that he went and looked at 50 cable pan 13 hangers with the reference weld orientation.
14 A
And he said it complied with the drawings.
15 0
Yes, sir.
16 A
And I agree.
The drawings reflected that there was a 17 certain size fillet weld there.
18 But neither the drawings nor the procedures that 19 were provided for the inspectors addressed this 20 particular type of weld.
21 The only reference that I could find was in the 4
22 code, and I know this had been a problem at the Zimmer 23 project.
That's why I went to the code.
24 0
Well, the drawing itself just showed a fillet weld the
(]}
25 length of the material?
g Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 6U134 (312) 232-0262 m
y-.
9 vT--
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. = y
6230 AV 1
A Yes.
It just reflected with the arrow pointing to where 2
the fillet weld went on each side and on the top of the 3
common plane.
4 Q
And so it was left to the individual welder to determine 5
whether he would just make those fillet welds or then 6
would go on and join them across the common plane?
l 7
A Yes.
8 0
All right.
9 And when you lef t Braidwood, you didn't know what, 10 i
if anything, Sargent & Lundy was going to be doing about 11 this; correct?
12 A
No, I did not.
O 13 But Sargent & Lundy, I'm pretty sure -- I don't 14 know how it was involved, because I just got bits and 15 pieces of it, as I was working at that time with the 16 Historical Weld Department at Zimmer.
17 But Sargent & Lundy had to address this -- this 18 same problem and supposedly make changes to their --
19 their specification at the time.
20 I can't remember what the number of their 21 specification was at Zimmer.
22 0
Do you know whether or not they had to go back and 23 actually cut out any of these welds?
24 A
No.
(}
25 There was a Nonconformance Beport written, as I Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6231 O
1 said, and I'm not sure'what the disposition was<on it.
2 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Excuse me.
t j
3 Mr. Berry, I take it you are making notes on all of 4
these things that NRC can fill us in on.
5 I don't want to have to make a special Board I
6 request for everything, but I-would hope - that you will 4
7 fill in the holes'when it's appropriate.
8 MR. BERRY:
Yes, your Honor.
The Staff 9
witnesses will be prepared to Laddress these matters.
10 MR. MILLER:
Excuse me for one second.
11 BY MR. MILLER:
4 12 Q
Mr. Puckett, in the very first part of your examination 13 in this proceeding, you described your experience at' 14 Zimmer and that, at a certain point in time, Mr.
f 15 Goedecke came on as the Project Weld Manager, I believe.
t 16 A
Yes, sir.
17 Q
Af ter the Zimmer project was canceled and you were laid 18 off, you maintained your contact with Mr. Goedecke, did j
19 you not?
20 A
Well, I had found out through a friend where he had 21 gone, yes.
I 22 0
And that --
i i
23 A
And he contacted me, I think, the best I can recall.
i r
24 Q
So this would have been in the -- in-the late winter or i
(])
25 early spring of 1984, the.first contact?
J
^
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6232 O
1 A
Possibly.
I don't remember when the first contact was.
2 0
All right.
3 Well, he was attempting to assist you in finding 4
another position, was he not?
5 A
No, not really.
6 I ' told him to keep me in mind; but at the time 7
prior to applying for work at Comstock, I was more or 8
less taking a break f rom 20 years in the military and 9
nine years at Zimmer hardly without a vacation.
10 0
I see.
11 What was the occasion for your getting in touch 12 with Mr. Goedecke af ter you lef t the Zimmer plant?
O 13 A
I admired the man's knowledge greatly.
14 0
All right.
15 It's a fact, is it not, that from time to time 16 after you became an employee of Comstock at Braidwood, 17 you would call Mr. Goedecke to discuss some of the 18 issues that were of concern to you there?
19 A
Yes, sir.
20 0
And do you recall how many different times you called i
21 Mr. Goedecke?
22 A
No.
There was two or three times.
I'm not at all sure.
23 Q
All right.
24 A
But these were things that I was fairly sure of, but l (}
25 there was a possibility that I might be misinterpreting Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illimals 60134 (312) 232-0262
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6233 f
i O
1 something in the code.
2 I know, with him being a member of the committee, i
3 that he would know if, in fact, I wasn't -- was using 4
the correct interpretation.
5 So on these things that I was concerned with, I 6
would call him; and each of the times that I did call 7
him, he concurred with what I already had suspected.
8 0
Okay.
9 And was one of the items that you called him about 10 whether or not the AWS D1.3 code was mandator-1 for use 11 on thin-gauge material?
12 A
Well, no.
I -- I did not call to ask him if it was O
13 mandatory.
14 I knew, at the end of the project at Zimmer, that 15 we had gone to the D1.3 code; and he at that time was 16 the one that implemented this.
I wanted to find out 17 just what our problems was at Zimmer and see if the same 18 type of thing may relate to the Braidwood project.
19 He concurred to me then that yes, there really 20 should be a requalification; and if you' re going to do 21 that, it should be in accordance with the D1.3 code.
22 0
The reason he said there should be a requalification was 23 what, sir?
24 A
He didn't give a reason other than the f act that you
()
25 have a revision of the code; and I would assume, as Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6234 l
)
1 evidently he knows, that they have a reason -for that.
2 It must be a better method of doing things.
3 0
I see.
4 And did you tell him in that conversation what
)
5 edition of the AWS Dl.1 code you were using?
6 A
I did at the time.
I think I did, yes._
7 I don't really recall, you know, if I did discuss 8
that with him or not.
9 0
Well, Mr. Puckett, I'd like to show you Page 226 of your 10 deposition in this proceeding.
11 The question was asked, "Can you recall the subject 12 matter of any of the four or five telephone gg V
13 conversations you had with Mr. Goedecke?"
14 The answer was, "I recall one in particular, and it 15 had to do with a Nonconformance Report that was written.
16 It had to do with the A446 material, galvanized material 17 and the procedure we had.
We had qualified it in 18 accordance with AWS Dl.l.
19 "I confirmed with him that it should have been 20 qualified in accordance with AWS Dl.3.
He concurred to 21 me verbally, of course -- this was in a telephone 22 conversation.
He concurred that, in fact, if you change 23 a type c: grade of material, that a procedure has got to 24 be requalified."
(]}
25 Now, in this same conversation that you had with Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
GeTaev a, IllinniM0134 (312) 232-0262
6235 O
1 Mr. Goedecke about the D1.3 code applicability, did you 2
also discuss the question of joining A446 to A36 3
material and whether a specific procedure qualifying the 4
welding of those two materials was required?
5 A
I remember talking to him about it, and I just don't 6
know.
It was a five-or ten-minute phone conversation, 7
and I don't really recall offhand just -- just what it 8
was all about, you know.
9 I do know that we were discussing this A446 to A36; 10 and he mentioned that, in fact, if you change a type or 11 grade of material, that the procedure should be 12 requalified.
O 13 Q
All right.
14 And you understood that to mean that there should 15 be a specific procedure qualification for the A446 to 16 A36 material; correct?
17 A
I personally thought so, yes, 18 0
And did you tell Mr. Goedecke that there was a qualified 19 procedure for joining A446 to A500B material?
20 A
No, I did not.
1 21 0
During this same time period, did you -- this is 22 obviously the summer of 1984, because you were already 23
-- you were an employee of Comstock at the time; is that 24 correct?
(}
25 A
Yes.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd-Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6236
)
1 Q
Did you ever discuss welder qualification records with 2
Mr. Goedecke?
3 A
I think if I did, it may have been something to the 4
effect that, "I'm finding problems with.the welders' 5
qualifications, and they' re basically the same type of 6
problems that we had at the Zimmer project."
7 Q
Did you ever discuss with Mr. Goedecke whether or not a 4
8 stop-work order ought to be issued at the Braidwood 9
site?
10 A
I don't really recall ever talking to him about that.
j 11 Q
Did you ever discuss with him your concerns about weld 12 rod filler material?
O 13 A
Yes.
14 I told him that I thought that their weld rod 15 filler material control procedure and the actual control 16 of filler material in-the Comstock organization was 17 rather lax.
18 Q
Do you recall what his response to you was?
19 A
Mo, I don't.
20 Q
Did you make that observation about weld rod filler 21 material to Mr. Goedecke in connection with any action 22 that you yourself were planning on taking?
23 A
No, no; just on things that I had witnessed.
4 24 Q
I see.
(}
25 You were just observing to him what you were Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, illi'noi s 60134 (312) 232-0262
1 6237 O
1 finding as you were --
2 A
-No.
I wasn't observing anything.
3 I just made a statement to him, and that statement 4
I related to you.
5 0
At this same - time period, Mr. Fuckett, were you in 6
contact with Mr. Vogt on any of these issues?
7 A
I don't recall talking-to Mr. Vogt about these 8
particular things.
9 I didn't get to.see him that often.
He was out 10 there maybe three times during the three-month period I.
11 was there; and a couple of the times he was there, he 12 was only there for like a day or so.
,O 13 He was working on requalification of a-procedure 14 and I had welders in the test facility, so I got to see 15 him but for a few minutes at any of the times that he 16 was actually out there.
17 Q
All right.
j 18 Do you recall calling Mr. Vogt about some of these 19 issues?
20 A
No.
I don't recall ever having a phone conversation j
21 with Mr. Vogt.
22 0
Okay.
j 23 Mr. Puckett, you were present in the inspectors' l
24 office in mid August, 1984, when Mr. Sahlak got into a
, (]}
25
-- well, a shouting match, if you will, with another QC Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262 1
6238 1
Inspector; is that correct?
2 A
Yes, sir.
3 0
All right.
4 Can you tell us the name of that other QC 5
Inspector?
6 A
I know the name just about as well as mine, but it just 7
doesn't come to the top of my head.
8 (Laughter.)
9 0
Mr. Seeders?
10 A
Mr. Seeders, yes, Mr. Seeders.
11 0
Can you tell us, as best you can recall today, what 12 happened?
O 13 A
Mr. Seeders was sitting behind his desk.
It was just an 14 open desk, kind of like this, and he had paperwork laid 15 out all over it.
He had paperwork in his hand.
16 (Indicating.)
17 I walked up and was talking to him about something; le and I don't even recall what it was about now, because 19 this happened and it kind of startled me.
Mr. Saklak 20 walked into the room, and there was a half a dozen 21 inspectors in the room.
22 He hollered at Mr. Seeders and told him, "You 23 haven't got time to hold bullshit sessions.
I want you 24 to do your work."
(}
25 Mr. Seeders stood up, and he had some paperwork in 8
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60131 (312) 232-0262
6239
/\\V 1
his hand.
He said, "What?"
He says, "I told you I 2
don't want you holding bullshit sessions.
You.got work 3
to do."
4 He says, "I have my work right here in my hand."
5 Mr. Saklak got a little bit belligerent with him and 6
starting screaming and hollering and told him to come to 7
his office with him; he was going to write him up.
They 8
left the room.
9 Q
Did you observe Mr. Seeders raise his voice back-to Mr.
10 Saklak?
11 A
No, sir.
He did not.
12 0
And that was the last -- that was the extent of your O
13 observation of --
14 A
Of what I observed, yes.
15 0
Mr. Seeders was a calibration' inspector; correct?
16 A
To the best of my knowledge, he was, yes.
17 Q
All right.
18 And was he talking to you about calibration 19 inspections?
20 A
I don't think so, no.
21 Like I say, I don't recall.
It was something that 22 I walked up and said to him, and he just responded.
23 Q
N ow, following that, you were interviewed by Mr. DeWald; 24 isn't that right?
(}
25 A
No, sir; Mr. Seese.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
6240 O
1 Q
Mr. Seese.
I see.
2 Excuse me.
I don't have the right document.
3 I'd like to show you a document.
It is Attachment 4
5 to Mr. DeWald's prepared testimony.
5 MR. GUILD:
Mr. Chairman, may I look on?
6 I don't happen to have my copy.
7 BY MR. MILLER:
8 0
I'm looking at a document that has the Bates stamp in 9
the lower right-hand corner.
It's No. 2016.
10 (Indicating.)
11 Now, Mr. Puckett, it's your recollection that --
12 well, having looked at the document, do you recall the 13 interview?
14 A
I did not have an interview with Mr. DeWald.
15 0
Okay.
16 Your recollection is that it was an interview with 17 Mr. Seese; correct?
18 A
Right.
19 This evidently was passed on from Mr. Seese to Mr.
20 DeWald, and he's writing it down the way he understood 21 it.
22 0
Well, do you recall that, by and large, those were the 23 questions that were asked of you, Mr. Puckett?
24 A
It wasn' t anything -- it wasn' t anything like that.
(}
25 Some of these words I don't even know, i
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 00174 (312) 232-0262
6241
(
1 However, the conversation that I had with-Mr. Seese 2
is he asked me what I thought caused all of this.
I 3
don't -- and I reflected to him that I did not know, 4
unless there was some kind of a personality clash 5
between the two.
6 At that time I did not know.
I did not know at 7
that time that Mr. Seeders would at a 'later date accuse 8
Mr. Saklak of trying to get him to do things that were 9
not in accordance with the code.
10 MR. MILLER:
I'm sorry.
May I have the last 11 portion of the answer read back, please?
12 (The answer was thereupon read by the 4
13 Reporter.)
14 BY MR. MILLER:
15 0
Which code are you referring to, Mr. Puckett?
I 16 A
Well, procedural codes; a slip of the tongue.
17 0
My precise question to you now, Mt. Puckett, is whether 18 or not that is an accurate reflection of what you told 19 Mr. Seese.
20 A
Well, neither one of us -- Mr. Seeders was seated; I was 1
I 21 standing.
I was not holding a conversation with various 22 people; I was holding a conversation with Mr. Seeders.
1 4
23 I hao been there for approximately five to seven 24 seconds prior to Mr. Saklak walking through the door and
(}
25 this all starting.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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6242 O
1 Q
Any other things that are not quite accurate in either 2
the questions that were asked or the responses that you 3
gave?
4 A
I mentioned -- when they asked me, you know, "What do 5
you think caused this," I says, "I don't know, unless 6
there's a great dislike or unless they have a 7
personality conflict."
8 At this time I did not know either Mr. Saklak or 9
Mr. Seeders that well.
I mean, you know, they weren't 10 people that I dealt with every day.
11 Q
Well, were you asked the question in substance, "Do you 12 feel there is harassment and intimidation being O
13 practiced in the QC Department?"
14 A
I said that I hadn't witnessed any.
15 Q
Did you say that, "I personally don't see that Mr.
16 Saklak is harassing or intimidating the people, as I 17 haven't witnessed such action"?
18 A
Like I say, I had known him for a short period of time, 19 and I had known this to be the case.
20 Q
Did you say to Mr. Seese that, in your opinion, he was 21 just doing his job?
22 A
No, I did not.
I said, "In my opinion, there is a 23 personality clash between the two."
24 That was before I knew either one.
It was later f'T 25 that Mr. Seeders, I guess, accused Mr. Saklak of
\\~J l
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinels 00134 (312) 232-0262 1
i
6243 (w) s.
1 intimidation or something.
I don't know.
2 0
But based on your observation of this incident and your 3
stay at the Braidwood site for, oh, it was approximately 4
ten weeks then, you had not observed Mr. Saklak 5
harassing or intimidating QC Inspectors; isn't that 6~
right?
7 A
I hadn't been working around him.
Mr. Saklak had an s
4 8
office out in the building as well and a group of 9
inspectors out there.
4 10 I don't know that he did.
I do not know that he 11 did.
I heard inspectors say that he had later on, but I 12 never witnessed any of this, no, I didn't.
, O 13 0
All right.
14 Well, did you tell Mr. Seese, when he interviewed i
15 you, that, as far as you could tell, Mr. Saklak was just 16 doing his job?
17 A
I don't recall saying it that way, no.
18 0
Now, Mr. Puckett, when your deposition was taken 19 February 6th, I asked you some questions about this 20 document, as follows.
21 "I show you" -- this is a question by me, Mr.
22 Puckett.
23 "O
I show you Page 4 of this memo."
24 MR. GUILD:
How about a page reference,
(}
25 Counsel?
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 6U134 (312) 232-0262
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()
1 MR. MILLER:
Page 232.
2 BY MR. MILLER:
3 0
It says:
4 "You are free to read the whole thing,-if 5
you wish.
6 "Page 4 purports to be a 7
summarization or perhaps a verbatim 8
recitation of questions and answers 9
between you and either Mr. Seese or Mr.
10 DeWald."
11 Then there's an indication that you were perusing 12 the document.
O 13 "O
First of all, do you recall ~having some 14 questions asked of you along the lines 15 that are - "
16 You answered, "Yes.
These were along the lines."
17 "O
Did you give in substance the answers 18 that are set-forth on that document?
19 "A
Pretty much so.
Yes, it's pretty much 20
. like this.
21 "O
Is there any changes to it that you can 22 recall that you think were not quoted 23 accurately?
24 "A
Well, up here in response to the first
/'%
25 question, I said," quote,
"'I feel there
(_)
i Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinc1M01"3 4 i
(312) 232-0262
6245 1
()
1 is a personality clash between these 2
two,'" close quote, meaning Mr. Seeders 3
and Mr. Saklak.
4 "Down here at the bottom in the 1
5 summary, it says," quote,
"'Mr.
Puckett's 4
6 opinion:
a very heavy dislike and 7
personality clash,'" close quote.
8 "I don't know where those words came 9
from.
I never used them.
10 "O
You never used the words," quote, "'very 11 heavy dislike'"?
Close quote.
12 On Page 233:
I (
j 13 "A
No.
In fact, I said I hadn't seen any 14 intimidation by Mr. Saklak, which I 15 hadn't.
16 "O
You did say you felt there was a 17 personality clash?
18 "A
I thought -- that is the only thing I 19 thought it could be.
It seemed like the 20 two people didn't like each other."
21 Did I ask those questions and did you give those 22 answers?
23 A
Yes.
That's the way I answered them.
24 I thought that was the way I answered it today
(}
25 here, too.
I Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262 l
6246 1
So the answers you gave in your deposition are correct?
1 0
s 2
A Pretty much so, yes.
3 0
Now, of course, Mr. Puckett, at the Zimmer f acility, 1
4 there were other allegations of harassment and 5
intimidation while you were there, weren't there?
6 A
Yes.
i 7
At the end there was a whole lot of allegations, 8
and the only intimidation that I'm really aware of that i
9 there was any push on was when one of the craftsmen 10 threw a bucket of dirty water on a QC Inspector that 11 happened to be a lady.
12 (Laughter.)
O 13 0
Well, in any event, the terms " harassment" and 14
" intimidation" were not new to you when you had your-15 conversation with Mr. Seese at the Braidwood site?
16 A
No.
17 MR. MILLER:
Your Honor, I'm about to launch 18 into a line that may take a while.
I'd like to go 19 continuously.
20 Perhaps we cculd take our break right now.
21 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
That's fine.
We'll take a 22 ten-minute break.
23 MR. MILLER:
Thank you.
l 24 (WHEREUPON, a recess was had, after which
(}
25 the proceedings were resumed as follows:)
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd, Geneva, Illiners-60134 (312) 232-0262 l
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6247 i
O 1
JUDGE GROSSMAN:
We're back in session.
2 MR. MILLER:
Thank you.
3 BY MR. MILLER:
i 4
Q Mr. Puckett, during the course of the time you spent at 5
Braidwood with Comstock, you had an occasion -- you had 6
occasions, really, to observe the performance of some of 7
the Level II Quality Control Inspectors, did you not?
8 A
Yes, sir.
9 Q
And you formed an impression that they were 10 professional, highly-motivated individuals, did you not?
11 A
Yes, sir.
12 Q
That --
O 13 A
The ones that I was associated with and that I observed 14 their work, yes, I did.
15 0
And you never saw a Quality Control. Inspector being 16 asked to sacrifice the quality of his inspections in 17 order to produce greater numbers of inspections, did i
18 you?
19 A
Not in those terms, no, sir, not directly in any way.
20 0
In fact, you never saw an inspector compromising the 21 quality of his inspections in order to get more 22 inspections done --
23 A
No, sir.
24 0
-- isn't that right?
()
25 Now, I'd like to return for just a moment to.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illino-i r 60134 (312) 232-0262
-.- - =.
6248 (a~'\\
1 Applicant's Exhibit 56, which is your memorandum to Mr.
2 DeWald of August 22, 1984.
3 I believe you testified earlier that when you wrote 4
this memorandum to Mr. DeWald, which you I think 5
characterized as a " personal letter," you were trying to 6
encourage Mr. DeWald to sit down with you and discuss 7
the problems that you were finding; right?
8 A
Yes.
l 9
0 You were concerned that what you were seeing at 10 Braidwood was similar to what you had observed at the 11 Zimmer facility; is that right?
12 A
No, sir.
)
13 0
Was there any --
4 14 A
They had no problems with morale of the Oc people at 15 Zimmer that I can recall.
16 0
I see.
17 So there was that difference; in that sense, the 18 Braidwood situation was perhaps a little bit worse than 19 at Zimmer, in your opinion?
20 A
In some cases, I thought so.
21 0
When you used the word morale," you were really 22 referring to the inspectors' dissatisfaction with their 23 pay and the cross-training, were you not?
24 A
Not entirely that.
()
25 The fact that they were working in some cases seven Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
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1 days a week -- it was mandatory that they be there; and 2
they were told, "If you aren't here, you'd better have a 3
good reason as to why you are not."
4 Some of these inspectors were commuting 130, 140 5
miles one way to and f rom work; and if they couldn' t get 6
home on the weekends, they didn't get home at all.
7 They were concerned with the f act that they were 8
given schedules and it was suggested to them how many 9
inspections they should perform over an inspection day.
10 0
But once again, you didn't observe that as causing the 11 inspectors to compromise the quality of their 12 inspections, did you?
O 13 A
I don't believe a good inspector would under any 14 circumstances.
15 Q
Putting aside the morale problem you've just described, 16 you had, in fact, observed conditions with the 17 procedures and so on that were comparable, in your mind, 18 to what had taken place at Zimmer; correct?
19 A
Yes.
20 Q
You were trying to head off, if you will, at Braidwood 21 what had happened at Zimmer; correct?
22 A
That was my full intent.
23 0
That is, the NRC themselves finding some of these 24 discrepancies -- I think the words that you used in your
({}
25 deposition were, "It would be as bad as a heart attack,"
i Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinoin 60134 (312) 232-0262
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1 as far as the NRC was concerned and would perhaps lead 2
to shutdown of the work and perhaps eventually 3
abandonment of the facility; correct?
2
'4 A
Based on these same type of findings that contributed to 5
the closing of the Zimmer project, yes.
6 0
And so your August 22nd memo to Mr. DeWald was basically
)
7 an effort, if you will, as one very experienced weld 8
inspector with a Navy background to another to talk this 9
out and to -- I think the words you used were --
10 A
Keep it in-house.
11 0
-- keep it in-house and sit down and develop lines of 12 defense; correct?
()
t 13 A
That and address the problems that we had; that it would 14 be better for us to address them than for NRC to find 15 these items out.
16 Q
As I recall your testimony, though, you didn't really 17 expect that on the basis of this memorandum, Mr. DeWald i
18 would stop the work; correct?
19 A
No, I really didn't.
20 Q
You thought that what this would do would be to 21 stimulate a conversation man to man, if you will, 22 between the two of you and --
23
.A And maybe bring somebody up f rom the management of fice.
I 24 Q
So you could scope the situation, see just what was
(])
25 required; perhaps a stop-work would be required, but l
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
i Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262 4
6251 0
1 perhaps there was something else that could be done; 2
right?
3 A
Well, not at this time.
It would have took a lot of 4
research to determine just what the magnitude of our 5
problems was.
6 As I said here, I wanted to find out just how bad 7
we were, because it was my observation that every time 8
that I had a problem and I tried to find -- to solve 9
this problem or find justification for it, in the d
10 process I would find two or three things that was just 11 as bad.
12 0
And yet, as you say, you didn't expect Mr. DeWald to 13 just act and shut down the entire job on the basis of 14 this memorandum?
15 A
No, I did not.
16 Q
All right.
17 Now, I think you've previously testified at some 18 length, under examination by me, as to what your 19 perception was of the concerns that you testified to; on 20 some of them, as I think you just said, your research 21 was not yet complete.
22 So the situation was indeterminate; it was going to 23 take a lot more work before you knew whether you, in 24 fact, had a nonconforming condition or whether, through
(]}
25 additional research, the particular item -- such as, for i
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Gerreva, 111iT101r60134 (312) 232-0262 1
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1 example, weld rod control or welder qualifications --
2 was adequate; isn't that right?
3 A
I don't recall saying that they were adequate.
4 I had a lot of problems with them.
These are 5
problems that, had I been given time, I would have taken 3
6 care of those problems that I could have and I would 7
address the ones for further evaluation that I could not j
8 have taken care of.
9 Q
Right.
.i 10 Well, I didn't mean to suggest that it was your 11 prior testimony that the welder goalification issue or 12 the weld rod control issue was adequate.
l 13 What I said was that it was your feeling in the 4
14 summer of 1984 that, as to those issues, the status of
)
15 them was indeterminate?
16 A
Indeterminate.
17 Q
And that you'd need additional research before you could 18 reach a conclusion one way or the other as to whether or 19 not you had a nonconforming condition or whether your i
20 additional research would indicate that, in fact, 21 everything was as it should be; correct?
l 22 A
Correct.
23 Q
All right.
1 24 And on some of these issues, you really didn't even
(]}
25 suggest that an NCR be written, because you don't write Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
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1 an NCR when you think you've got a nonconformance; you 2
want to be more positive than just having a suspicion; 3
isn't that correct?
4 A
I would -
I would think so, yes.
5 0
All right.
6 Now, other of the issues that you identified had, 7
when you wrote this August 22nd memorandum to Mr.
8 DeWald, already led to stop-work orders.
9 The one on the A36 to A446 welding -- that was a 10 concern, was it not?
11 A
Yes, it was.
12 O
And there had been a stop-work ordered there.
O 13 There was also a concern with the stainless steel 14 welding that you had identified in terms of the 15 procedure qualification, and a stop-work order had been 16 issued on that one; correct?
17 A
Yes, sir.
18 Q
All right.
19 And I think you testified just this af ternoon that, 20 with respect to the inspection requirements for full 21 penetration groove welds, that the fabrication of those 22 welds had, in fact, been stopped by Mr. DeWald at your 23 insistence; correct?
24 A
Yes, sir.
(}
25 0
All right.
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1 Now, again you had identified other inconsistencies 2
in the weld procedures.
3 I think you referred to'the multiple technique 4
sheets f or the same positions and that, again, that made 5
those procedures indeterminate --
6 A
Yes, sir.
I 7
0
-- in your opinion?
8 Now, other issues that you had identified during 9
the course of your time at Braidwood were, in f act, 10 being, I think you said, properly tracked.
The weld 11 preheat issue, for example -- there were NCR's being 12 written.
()
13 I think you even said that you and Mr. DeWald had a 1
14.
chuckle over the f act that the engineer attempted to 4
l j
15 qualify the procedure without having QC involvement; 16 isn't that right?
17 A
Yes, sir.
18 0
And when you made changes to the welder qualification 19 test booth procedures and prohibited the QC Inspector 20 f rom making field inspections, no one challenged you or 21 crossed you on that action that you took, did they?
22 A
No, sir.
23 At this point I was getting pretty angry with all 24 of this stuff being shoved on the,back burner.
/~T 25 0
All right.
i
\\-)
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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' O 1
And in this same time frame, this August 22nd time i
2 frame, you had reported-five days earlier or so to Mr.
3 Seese that, as far as you knew, there was no harassment t
4 or intimidation of QC Inspectors that was taking place?
i 5
A By Mr. Saklak.
i l
6 0
By Mr. Saklak?
7 A
Right.
I knew of no intimidation, Mr. Saklak 8
intimidating any inspectors.
)
9 Q
All right.
t 10 At this point in time ---
11 A
I did not even consider what happened to me when I left 12 the Braidwood project as being intimidation.
!O 13 Q
I see, f
14 A
Since then, it's been brought up that I was intimidated i
15 against.
i 16 I never thought of it as that when I left.
I j
17 thought of it as an unjust termination.
18 Q
Well, I want to show you a document that's Applicant's 19 Exhibit 3 in evidence.
It's the stop-work procedure.
20 I think we can get out your required reading list 21 and find it was one of the documents you read when you
[
22 processed in to the site.
1 l
23 (Indicating.)
24 MR. GUILD:
Are you asking him to do that, 25 Counsel?
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1 BY MR. MILLER:
i j
2 Q
Look at Applicant's Exhibit 50 in evidence.
3 You'll see, on the last page of. the exhibit, that j
4 you reviewed Section -- QA Manual, Section 4.11.3, Rev.
I 5
A, on July 5,1984; correct?
6
-(Indicating.)
i l
7 A
Yes, sir.
j 8
Q And that procedure references, does it not, in part, in I
9 Paragraph 2.5, that a typical operation in which work l
10 stoppage may be considered -- one of them, Paragraph l
11 2.5.2, is nonconforming material or equipment being j()
12 installed without an approved conditional release.
13 Do you see that, Mr. Puckett?
i 14 A
Yes, sir, I can see that.
i 15 Q
okay.
)
16 And if you'll look --
17 A
Is it all right to read the whole thing?
i 18 Q
Oh, certainly.
I'm sorry.
Take your time.
19 Mr. Puckett, can we agree that the procedure that's l
20 set forth in Paragraph 3.1 of Applicant's. Exhibit C j
21 requires the QC Manager -- in this case, Mr. DeWald --
j 22 to coordinate the request to stop work with his l
23 higher-ups based on conditions adverse to quality I
24 identified previously on an Inspection Correction Report
(}
25 or a Nonconformance Report; correct?
i i
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1 A
Yes, sir.
2 0
And with respect to the two items as to which there was 3
a stop-work order -- the A36 to A446 and the stainless 4
steel weld -- there were, in fact. Nonconformance 5
Reports initiated; correct?
6 A
Yes, sir.
7 MR. GUILD:
Let me note an objection at this 8
point.
9 Counsel is using the term "stop-work order."
He's 10 using the words "stop-work order," as I understand, to 11 reflect some use of it as a term of art with reference 12 to this particular procedure.
}
13 That is not a fact in evidence.
In fact, there's 14 evidence to the contrary.
If counsel is suggesting that 15 those are stop-work orders pursuant to this procedure, I 16 think that's objectionable.
17 MR. MILLER:
I certainly didn't intend to so 18 characterize them.
19 BY MR. MILLER:
20 Q
There were, in fact, stop-works ordered -- that is, 21 directed -- by Mr. Rolan, the project manager for 22 Comstock, with respect to the A446 to A36 material and 23 the stainless steel welding; correct?
24 A
Yes, sir.
(}
25 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Excuse me.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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Refresh my recollection, Mr. Guild, as to what the l
4 2
-- unless it's going to --
3 MR. MILLER:
I think I can help.
4 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Oh, okay.
5 MR. MILLER:
Mr. DeWald testified that the 6
forms that are attached to this procedure and so on were 7
not filled out in connection with the stop-work.
8 MR. GUILD:
And they made no reference to l
9 this procedure when they took those actions.
None of 10 the parties did.
11 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
All right.
12 BY MR. MILLER:
13 Q
Now, the last paragraph, Mr. Fuckett, of Applicant's 14 Exhibit 56 speaks about the fact that, "We" -- meaning 15 "I"
" assume Comstock QC" -
"we're dangerously 16 approaching a complete breakdown in our QC program."
17 Do you see those words?
18 A
Yes, sir.
4 19 Q
And it's correct, is it not, that your statements in the j
20 preceding paragraph that, "I strongly recommend that all 21 welding be stopped," and that, "We're dangerously i
22 approaching a complete breakdown," were really an I
23 attempt by you to break through to Mr. DeWald to get him 24 to sit down and talk with you about the problems that
(}
25 you were experiencing; isn't that right?
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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1 A
I wanted him to, and, of course, the inspectors 2
themselves -- the attitude of the inspectors, 3
threatening a mass walk-out, a walk-off of the project 4
-- those type of things bothered me.
i 5
I thought that Mr. DeWald was aware of it, but I 6
wanted to make him known -- I wanted to make known to 7
him just how serious this was getting to be, yes.
8 0
I think I was flippant earlier when I was asking a 9
question about analogizing to hitting a mule over the 10 head with a 2-by-4.
11 But you did really want to get his attention so you i
12 could have this discussion on a broad range of issues
' (:)
1 13 that were troubling you; is that right?
i 14 A
Yes, sir.
15 Q
That discussion never took place, did it?
16 A
No, it did not.
17 The discussion that took place over this was kind 18 of detrimental to myself.
It was through Mr. Seltmann, 19 which I was supposed to have no contact with, as he was 20 in the QA Department.
21 But he was the one that read me the riot act and 22 let me know in no uncertain terms that Mr. Marino in the 23 home office was very displeased with me even writing a 24 letter or anything like.this.
, (]}
25 0
Well, you never had -- you never were able to have your Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
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6260 O
1 discussion with Mr. DeWald or with Mr. Seltmann or with 2
Mr. Marino or with Mr. Seese; isn't that right?
3 A
The discussion that I had with Mr. Seltmann -- like I 4
said, he told me that Mr. Marino was very displeased 5
with me; and then he told me, "You think that these" --
6 what is the term here?
7 I'm not thinking too clearly, but these reviews 8
that needed to be done -- that I was to do them; that 9
this was Thursday, and by the following Thursday, I was 10 to go to the QC vault and I was to review all the 11 welders' qualification withdrawal forms that had been 12 issued on the project since it had started; that I was O
13 to do a review on all the welders' qualification test 14 forms; and that I was to do a further review on all of 15 the procedures and make the required changes in them, j
16 and I had a week to do this.
17 I told him -- I said, "You know this is physically 18 impossible.
There is no way I can do this."
He said, 19 "That's what you' re requested to do."
I said, "Will I 20 have any help with this?"
He said, "There will be no 21 help."
22 0
So you --
l 23 A
So I put in a request to Mr. DeWald to give me open 24 access to the QC vault so I could start this review.
(}
25 0
And that was the extent of your conversation with Mr.
J Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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1 Seltmann?
2 A
A conversation that I should not have been having with 3
Mr. Seltmann.
He should not have been pressuring me 4
whatsoever, as he was in QA, a separate department from 5
the QC Department.
6 Q
But in any event, you didn't have the type of 7
conversation in any respect that you had hoped to have 8
in terms of a free exchange with Comstock management 9
about the problems that you were seeing and trying to 10 map out a course of action in-house to deal with it?
11 A
No, I did not.
12 Q
Now, as far as Mr. DeWald was concerned, since you never O
13 had the discussion with him, all he had available to 14 him, in terms of an expression of your concerns, was the 15 memorandum itself; correct?
16 A
Yes, this and the things that we had discussed verbally, 17 procedural problems and the stop-work orders that had 18 already been issued.
19 Q
All right.
20 Now, I'm correct, am I not, that you never had any 21 discussion about your concerns -- that is, that you 22 thought there ought to be a sit-down meeting to kind of 23 review the range of problems that you believed you had 24 found -- with Mr. Gieseker or anybody else from
(}
25 Commonwealth Edison Company?
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1 A
No, I did not.
2 I only met Mr. Gieseker a couple of times; and the 3
last words he said to me was, " Shut up.
I don't want to 4
hear no more about it."
5 0
That was at the August 22nd meeting?
6 A
Yes, sir.
7 Q
So you didn't regard him as anybody who was likely to be 8
very sympathetic to your -- to sit down and talk about 9
the range of problems that you believed you had found 10 with respect to Comstock?
11 A
No, sir.
12 O
Now, can we agree, Mr. Puckett, that if one just reads 13 the memorandum, there is, in fact, the words from you, 14 "I strongly recommend that all welding be stopped"?
15 That's what the words say, isn't it?
16 A
Yes, sir.
17 0
And from reading this memorandum, without the oral 18 explanation, for example, that you gave when I asked you 19 about the applicability of the AWS D1.3 code to that 20 material, one would never know, would they, just from 21 reading the memo, that, in fact, it's your position that 22 use of the DI.3 code is not mandatory but, under i
23 Comstock's specification, it was optional?
24 THE WITNESS:
Are you asking me to answer
(]}
25 that "yes" or "no"?
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd, ueneva, 1111ndis cu144 (312) 232-0262
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1 The way you asked the question --
2 MR. MILLER:
I don't mean to be confusing.
3 THE WITNESS:
I get two or three questions 4
into one thing there.
5 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Well, that's correct.
6 You're asking him if, just from reading a letter, one 7
could come to a conclusion that you haven't asked him, 8
to begin with.
9 So if you want to ask him his conclusion first and 10 then ask if it's reflected in the letter, you have two 11 questions.
12 MR. MILLER:
All right.
O 13 I believe that the witness' prior testimony 14 establishes that, in fact, it was his position, when he 15 wrote this memorandum, that the use of the AWS Dl.3 code 16 was not mandatory; and I can get out the transcript 17 reference if --
18 THE WITNESS:
It is not mandatory.
I didn't 19 know -- the question that I was getting didn't sound 20 like what you just said.
21 MR. MILLER:
No.
I'm backing up just a bit.
22 BY MR. MILLER:
23 0
Can we agree, however, that just f rom looking at what 24 the words in this memorandum say, "There are at least
(}
25 five other procedures that were incorrectly qualified.
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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(:)
1 The aforementioned procedures were qualified using the 2
criteria of AWS D1.1-1975, and it should never have been i
3 done" -- then you go on to say, "All of our procedures 4
that involve A446 should have been qualified using the 5
criteria of D1.3, which has a completely different set 6
of test requirements and a completely different set of 7
essential variables."
8 Now, Mr. Puckett, you've explained on the record --
9 and I think I understand your testimony -- that what you 10 were saying was that, "Since there are inconsistencies 11 in the procedures, if all the procedures are going to be i
12 requalified, let's consider at least requalifying the
()
4 13 procedures to D1.3."
14 My question to you, sir,-is:
From the face of this l
15 document alone, isn't it clear that the words that are 16 used suggest that the procedures for thin material that 1
l 17 had been qualified to AWS Dl.1 were, in fact, 18 incorrectly qualified?
4 19 MR. GUILD:
Objection; irrelevant.
20 The witness has fully explained exactly-what the 1
21 basis was for his opinion, and he's fully explained that 22 this memo was not, in isolation, the only information 23 that was communicated to the. addressee of the memo.
24 Therefore, what1the memo, standing alone by -itself,
(}
25 might or might not suggest to Mr. Miller, as a reader, Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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1 is really irrelevant to the subject matter of the 2
proceeding.
i 3
JUDGE GROSSMAN:
Well, what you say may be J
4 so, Mr. Guild, but I think Mr. Miller is still entitled 5
to get the answer to that question as to whether, 6
standing alone -- what the interpretation of that letter 7
would be.
8 Now, I think you ought to repeat the question.
9 MR. MILLER:
Repeat the question, 10 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
I'm overruling the 11 objection.
12 (The question was thereupon read by the
()
13 Reporter.)
14 A
There was other inconsistencies that we discussed the 15 other day.
16 I didn't really go through the procedure.and get to 17 dig any of these out, other than the fact that there was 4
18 numerous qualification forms in the back there, when 19 there should have only been four; this type of thing.
20 This was not the only problem, the f act of the 446 21 and A36.
There was other inconsistencies within the 22 procedures themselves, and --
23 MR. MILLER:
Mr. Puckett -- I'm sorry.
I i
24 don't mean to interrupt you.
Please continue.
(])
25 A
(Continuing.)
I might add that some of these Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 6U134 4
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1 procedures that we're talking about here -- the master 2
copy of them, the first draf t of these procedures and 3
the record of the qualification of the procedure itself 4
were supposed to be readily accessible in the QC vault, 5
and I did not find this to be the case.
6 I personally tried to get the people in the QC 7
vault to produce these documents for me, and they could 8
not.
9-I went into the QC vault myself, and I searched for 10 these documents in the area where they were supposed to 11 have been kept; and I could not find the great majority 12 of these documents showing when and who qualified the O
13 procedure in the first place.
14 BY MR. MILLER:
15 Q
Mr. Puckett, I'm going to ask you to put yourself in the 16 position of being the Quality control Manager at 17 Comstock, and you've had a person, who was hired as a 18 Level III welding engineer, over a period of some months 19 raise concerns f rom time to time about various aspects 20 of the program, all right?
21 In other words, I'm asking you to put yourself in 22 Mr. DeWald's position.
23 After about 10 or 11 weeks, you receive a i
24 memorandum that says, "The procedures for thin material
(]}
25 were qualified to the criteria of D1.1, and it should Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
ueneva, Allinois oulae (312) 232-0262 i
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1 never have been done.
All of our procedures that 2
involve A446 should have been qualified using the 3
criteria of Dl.3."
4 Now, just taking those words alone, isn't it clear 5
that the statement that's being made says that the D1.3 6
code was the only code that was applicable to the 7
qualification of weld procedures for thin material?
8 A
No, it wasn't meant to be that way.
4 9
0 I know it wasn't meant to be, Mr. Puckett, but I'm i
10 asking you:
Just looking at the words --
11 A
I know what you' re saying.
12 MR. GUILD:
Objection, argumentative.
> O 13 MR. MILLER:
I'm not arguing with the 14 witness, your Honor.
15 MR. GUILD:
The document speaks for itself.
16 If Mr. Miller's position is that this is the way he 17 understands this -- and that's really the way I hear him J
l 18 saying it -- he's arguing with the findings.
19 But asking the witness to essentially put himself 20 in Mr. Miller's shoes, when the witness has said for the 21 second time it's not his intent or his reading, I think-22 is impermissible argument.
23 JUDGE GROSSMAN:
That's'one thing, and I tend i
24 to agree with that, Mr. Guild.
j
[}
25 But now, Mr. Miller, since you indicate that he Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 6U134 (312) 232-0262
6268 1
ought to put himself in Mr. DeWald's place -- the prior 2
objection that Mr. Guild had was, I assume, that this 3
letter could be -- that your question could have 4
referred to others reading the letter, other than Mr.
5 DeWald.
6 But if you're going to refer specifically to Mr.
7 DeWald, I don't know that it's fair to ask the witness 8
to divorce himself from everything else or to divorce 9
Mr. DeWald f rom everything else that the witness had 10 said to him along the line that he has so f ar testified 11 to.
12 So I'll have to agree with Mr. Guild's prior
(
13 objection if you' re going to specify Mr. DeWald just 14 receiving this letter.
15 MR. MILLER:
Well, the reason I put it in i
16 those terms is I wanted to ask Mr. Puckett to look at 17 just the words in this letter in his capacity, his own 18 capacity, as an experienced individual involved with 19 procedures and ask him, if he were just looking at the 20 words, whether he wouldn' t agree that the words say, 21 "You should have qualified your procedures to D1.3, and 22 the qualifications'of those procedures to D1.1 means 23 that they are incorrectly qualified."
24 BY MR. MILLER:
25 0
That's what the words say, isn' t it?
(}
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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A It was not meant to be that way.
2 If I was to put myself in Mr. DeWald's place and I 3
received a letter like this f rom one of my employees, t:
l 4
the moment that I got it -
the f ollowing _ moment, he i-5 would be in my of fice and we would - be discussing it.
j l
6.
O I think we' ve established that that.never happened. -
[
i j
7 Did you exaggerate your statenent of the 8
applicability of these-two codes j ust to get Mr.
i 1
9 DeWald's attention?
i 10 A
I don' t think so. -
11 Q
Again, Mr. Puckett, it would be '-- just looking at the 12 wor ds, aren' t you saying that it is the Dl.3 code that j
13 applies to the welding of thin material and-the Dl.1 14 co de, does not?
l 15 A
N o, si r.
i 16 That's not what I am. saying.
~
l j-17 0
What do the words, "incor rectly qualified" ---
i 18 MR. GUILD:
Obj ection.
i j
19 Mr. Chairman, he did get that answer, that was at j
~
j 20 least the third time; and I would ask where this might
)
l.
21 go.
3 22 JUDG E G ROSSMAN : :
I suggest - that, you'know, i
23 this is appropriate f or the brief; you can use the 24 answers f or impeachment or.you can use your own
~
!h 25 ar gument.
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- O t
As f ar as' the letter goes, I don' t see what mor e l~
2 you can get f rom the witness, accept the same kind of 3
answer another f ew times.
i 4
MR. MILL ER :
W ell, if I may j ust ask --
4 5
JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Sur e..
i 6
MR. MILL ER :
-- one more question along this I
7 line.
8 BY MR. MILL ER :
9 Q
When you used the words, " incorrectly _ qualified, " the 10 third sentence in the letter, what does that mean?.
I 11 A
It was a summation to me.
12 My thoughts behind this whole thing, had these
]
13 procedur es been qualified.in _accordance with with - D1.3 i
i 14 and, in f act, we were going to requalify those-f 15 procedures, we would do it tin accordance with Dl.3, = that 16 we would be a whole lot better of f.
j 17 Mr. DeWald, as'I said, did not.have any reaction' to l
18 this at all.
19 To this day, I am --
I' am still puzzled as to w hy j
20 he -never called me-to see.what-these concerns were
- :21 really about --
1 i
22 Q
Well --
I.
23 JUDG E GROSSMAN :
Excuse me.
i l
24 A
(Continuing. )
-- or to ask'me to clarify the letter.
l()
~
25 JUDG E G ROSSMM4 :
Excuse me.
1 Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
9 Geneva, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262 4
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Could I get your whole answer starting f rom the 2
be ginning?
I am not sur e that you used the right code,-
3 and I j ust want to make sure that you did.
4 So I will ask the Reporter to read your answer.
5 (The answer was thereupon read by 6
the Reporter. )
7 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Back on the record.
i 8
I j ust wanted to make sure you understood you 9
wanted to use Dl.3 both times at the beginning of your 10 answ er.
11 Did you?
12 THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir.
13 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Okay.
That's f ine.
14 BY MR. MILL ER :
1 15 Q
You say just "be better of f. "
16 Just better off in terms of satisifying the Nuclear 17 Regulatory Commission, Mr. Puckett?
18 A
Just being better of f in -- in complying with the codes.
19 Q
But --
20 A
I think the codes are meant f or when a new addition 21 comes out, you know, that there is a reasoning f or it, 22 that it -- it's got to be better, if there were some 23 additions made to a procedure that's incorporated, and a
24 and issued as a new procedur e.
()
25 I think it would be better of f - f or all concerned.
Sonntaa Reportina Service, Ltd.
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There evidently was reasoning behind coming out 2
with a Dl.3 code.
3 I haven' t done any evaluations or anything on it; 4
but I know in looking at the criteria required f or --
5 for qualifying a procedure to Dl.1, with the thin gauge 6
materials and qualifying the procedure in accordance 7
with D1.3 with a thin guage material, there was a great 8
variance in the essential variables and the test that 9
_ was r equi red, some a little more stringent, some not so 10 stringent.
11 Q
But being better of f does not mean, does it, that the 12 procedure qualified to Dl.1 was incorrect?
13 A
N o, si r.
14 Q
Okay.
Now, Mr. Puckett, do you believe that the 15 preparation and sending of this memorandum led to your 16 termination as an employee of Comstock?
17 A
I think that it contributed to it.
18 Q
I think you have previously testified that Mr. DeWald 19 received this memorandum.
I think he's testified on 20 this record that he read it, and if he j ust read it 21 without your explanation that you have given us in 22 testimony here today, he didn' t f ully. understand, did 23 he, what your concerns were or whether you were, in 24 fact, f or example, actually recommending that work be
()
25 stopped immediately or that you simply wanted to sit Sonntag Repor ting - Service, Ltd.
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4
,'k) 1 down and talk with.him?
2 MR.. GUILD:
Obj ection.
3 A
I do not know.
4 MR. GUIL D:
Excuse me, Mr. Puckett.
5 Mr. Chai rman, obviously the witness can' t speculate
{
6 on what Mr. DeWald did or did not understand.
7 If that's --' that is the essence of Mr. Miller's i
)
8 pending question.
9 MR. GUILD:
About what Mr. DeWald understood?
10 MR. MILL ER :
I j ust wanted to establish that 11 he was never able to explain to Mr. DeWald what --
12 TH E WITN ESS :
B asically, what I was going to 13 say is:
14 I didn' t know what Mr. DeWald had thought.
1 15-Being that he never called me into his of fice, I 16 thought he was doing.the same as he had done with-so 17 nany verbal requests that I had made of ~' him:
shove it 18 on the back burner.
i 19 BY MR. MILL ER :
20 Q
But shutting down the complete work was a really quite a 21 drastic recommendation, wasn' t it, Mr. Puckett?
22 A
Yes, si r.
23 Q
And not one that could likely be ignored?
l 24 A
I didn' t know whether to ignore it or not, to get some-()-
25 response at a' later date to the home of fice.
Sonntag Reporting Service,- Ltd.
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.A If it achieved any purpose whatsoever, I will have to 3
say I considered it worth it.
0 But, in f act, when you w rote the memorandum, you didn' t 4
5 expect that the work would be shut down at all, did you?
6 A
I did not know.
I thought it was something that they 7
would think was serious enough that it would at least 8
require a discussion.
9 Q
The answer to my question is:
10 At the time you w rote this memo, you r eally didn' t 11 expect that'your recommendation was going to be j
12 f ollow ed, and didn' t put it f orward on that basis?
13 A
I did not think that this letter would do it..
14 Q
And, in f act, af ter the discussion, it might be that the 15 consensus among you and Mr. DeWald and others, was that
.I 16 a stop work was not, in f act, necessa ry ?
17 A
That's a possibility.
18 Q
Can we agree that, because Mr. BeWald and you never 19 discussed the means that you wanted to communicate to 4
20 him about this letter that you sent him, this personal 4
21 letter, as you characteriz ed it, that there was, in 22 fact, what I would call truly a f ailure to communicate 23 on this issue between you and Mr. DeWald?
24 A
W ell, I really do n' t know.
1 ()
25 I do know that those items that was addressed to 1
-Sonntag Repor ting Service, Ltd.
Genev a, Ill inois 60134 l
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6275 O
1 Mr. dew al d, by nonconf ormance report, that he had to 2
answer to, he answered to and agreed with at the time 3
they were w ritten.
4 Q
And there was --
5 A
This letter I got no response f rom whatsoever.
6 Q
There were certain other items that you had raised, that 7
you had been responsive to as well?
8 A
Ver bally, yes.
9 0
So it wasn' t j ust a non-conf ormance report, was it?
10 A
No.
11 0
All right.
Now, to the extent that your termination was m
12 based on this letter --
13 A
Okay.
Par tially.
14 Q
Par ti ally, yes, I said to the extent that it was.
15
-- and we -- I think we have established that you 16 and Mr. DeWald never -- never communicated as to the 17 explanations that you wanted to give orally to him about 18 what your meaning was with respect to the statements 1
19 that you were making and the recommendations about stop i
20 work and so f orth, it's a f act, isn' t it, Mr. Puckett, l
21 that your termination was really based on what I think 22 you yourself characterized as a debatable situation, as 23 a f ailure to communicate between you and Mr. DeWald on 24 the concerns that underlay this letter; isn' t that O
2s
<1eht2 Sonntaa Reportina Service, Ltd.
Genev a, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
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(
l A
N o.
2 Q
In other words, -you believe that you were terminated in 3
part because you made this recommendation; correct?
4 A
In part because I made the recommendation, yes.
5 0
The recommendation --
6 A
Possibily -- the recommendation, as you say, is a little 7
strong.
It was written to -- to attract strong 1
8 attention, but f rom within the organiz ation, within QC, 9
and Comstock.
10 I didn' t expect that -- that I would ever see it i
11 again, re ally, I mean, you know, other than to. discuss I
12 it there.
13 For it showing up again here, it' s -- I w on' t say i
14 that it's a surprise, af ter seeing all these other j
l 15 documents; but at the time I wrote it, I never expected-16 it to still be around.
}
- 17 Q
Why is that?
You expected Mr. DeWald to destroy it?
18 A
W ell, I didn' t know what he would do with it; but I i
19 di dn ' t -- I didn' t write it on paper that was meant to 20 be retained in any kind of file or anything.
It was a 21 personal letter between.him and I.
22 0
And that was because you really wanted to keep it within 23 the Comstock 'organiz ation to get these problens 24 resolved?
()
25 A
Ye s, I did.
j Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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(~)
1 Q
Well, this was on the same day, Mr. Puckett, that you i
2 had the meeting with Mr. DeWald, Mr. Gieseker, and to-3 discuss the stop work on the A36 to A446 welding; 4
cor r ect ?
)
5 A
I don' t really renember if it was on the same ~ day or 6
- not, 3
i 7
0 Okay.
i 8
A It may have been.
9 Q
And that was a situation in which not only Comstock but 10 Commonwealth Edison and Sargent & Lundy, the architect i
11 engi neer, were involved in attempting to resolve the
]
12 concerns that you had expressed; isn' t that right?
13 A
They attempted to, yes, si r.
14 0
And on the very same day -- and I think the record will 15 establish that it was the same day that this' meeting was 16 convened -- you wrote Mr. DeWald this memorandmn that 17 suggested that all the work, -including the work A36 to i
18 A446 material, be halted?
e i
19 A
W ell, I am not sure it was on the same day or not.
l 20 I wrote this tua in handwriting, and I gave it to l
21 one of the clerk typists to type, and I -don' t ' r ecall --
22 this could have been prior to or it might have been on 4
23 the smne day, I am not at all sur e, i
i 24 Q
Well, Mr. Puckett, you were -- as you were terminated on 1 ()
25 August 29th, and af ter you were let go by Comstock, I-1 i
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think your parting words to Mr. DeWald and Mr. Seese 2
were that you were going to the NRC and to a lawyer; 3
cor rect ?
4 A
I said I was going to a lawyer.
I think I might have 5
said that, "You will be hearing f rom me, I am going to a 6
lawy er. "
7 As I mentioned earlier, when I lef t the proj ect, I 8
did not consider any intimidation against me whatsoever; 9
I thought that I was j ust being unj ustly -- unj ustly 10 termina ted.
11 Later along the line, the word " intimidation" came 12 up f rom other people, maybe Mr. -- the NRC inspector.
13 I' m sor ry, I f orget the name --
14 Q
Schapker?
15 A
It might have been Mr. Schapker, it may have been the 16 people f rom the Labor Department, that possibly I was 17 intimidated against at the time I was terminated.
18 I did not consider it that, and I never thought of 19 it as that method.
l 20 0
That is, you always f elt that you were able to raise 21 these saf ety concerns to Mr. dew al d.
Per haps his -- he 1
22 wasn' t as responsive as you would have liked, but at 23 least you~ f elt f ree to raise them; correct?
24 A
I hoped to, yes.
()
25 0
And, in fact, in this -- in this memo, perhaps you Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
G enev a, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262
4-6279
(
1 overstated your concerns j ust a little bit to get his 4
2 attention, correct; that is, in your recommendation, for 3
exampl e, to stop work?
f I'
4 A
Possibly the language was a little strong.
5 0
All right.
Right af ter you were terminated, you called 6
Mr. McG regor, the NRC inspector, did you not?
7 A
N o, si r, Mr. McG regor called me.
8 Q
I see.
9 Do you know how Mr. McGregor got your name?
10 A
He said that one. of the other inspectors came to him.--
11 I think this was the way that I got it -- one of the 12 other inspectors had came to him and -- and told him O.
13 that he should contact me and talk to'me.
]
14 I had been driving all night the night bef ore.
I 15 drove back.to Ohio, which is approximately 350 miles, 16 and he called me the' next morning and-he asked me what 17 had taken place;.and I told him what I thought the 18 problem was there, the same things, that I thought that
.l 19 I had been unj ustly ' terminated, and he was the one that 20 recommended the Labor Department f or me.
21 MR. MILL ER:
I see.
4 22 I would like the Reporter to mark as Applicant's 23 Exhibit 72 for identification, a memorandwa -f rom Mr.
24 McGregor to Mr. Weil at the NRC dated August 28, 1984.
()
25 (The, document 'was thereupon marked Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
4 4
Genev a, Illinois 60134 (312) 232-0262 I
,.,,,.m.
...r.-
._r,
,.,__-,--..w.,.
6280
(
l Applicant's Exhibit No. 72 for 2
identification
- as of the 1st day of 3
July, 1986. )
4 BY MR. MILL ER :
5 O
Mr. Puckett, this is a document that was produced by Mr.
6 McG regor during the course of your deposition.
7 You may recall that.
8 Does this represent an accurate characterization of 9
what you told Mr. McG regor on the telephone call that 10 took place on August 28th?
11 A
It' s pr etty close, it's pr etty close.
12 Q
Now, about, oh, seven or eight lines up f rom the bottom 13 of the first page, when you describe to Mr. McG regor the 14 circumstances under which you were terminated by Mr.
15 Seese and Mr. DeWald, you say, "I had predicted it 16 because I had written a letter to Irv DeWald," and can 17 we agree that --
18 A
Okay.
By pr edicting it, I had kind of knew it, I kind 19 of expected it; but the f act that management didn' t want 20 to talk to me, and because they were grading tests of 21 mine and losing tests of mine and making me go back and 22 take retests and calling them not qualified or that 23 there was no rej ectable items on a particular test, and 24 it was pretti obvious to me that they were trying to
()
25 find reason not to qualify me, and I kind of f elt in Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Genev a, Illinoi s 60134 (312) 232-0262
6281 O
1 myself that they were planning on terminatino me.
2 Q
Well, but you state, or Mr. McG regor reports that you 3
stated because it was you had written a letter to Mr.
4 DeWald?
5 A
I mentioned that I had written a letter to Mr. dew al d, 6
yes.
7 Q
And can we agree that it's Applicant's Exhibit 56, your 8
August 22, 1984 --
9 A
Yes.
10 0
-- letter you that r ef er to there?
11 A
Yes.
12 Q
Now, did you tell Mr. McG regor in this interview at'any i
13 point in time that you had not expected Mr. DeWald to 14 act on your request to stop work, but simply to call you 15 in f or a discussion?
16 A
He never asked.
17 Q
And you didn' t volunteer?
18 A
No.
19 It ' s -- like I say, this was the f ollowing morning, 20 and I think he's got it down here around 8:30, around 21 9: 00 o' clock.
I had been driving all ~ night long, and he 22 called me the next morning and I was a little. bit tired.
23 Q
And you --
24 A
And I may have been j ust a little bit bitter as well.
(~)'i 25 Q
A little angry at being terminated?
u Sonntaa Reporting Service, Ltd.
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A I was probably angry at being terminated as well; but 2
that had nothing to do with all the things that -- that 3
we have covered here.
4 Q
Do you recall whether you told them that -- to use your 5
words -- that the recommendation in your August 22, 6
1984, letter, to all -- that your strong recommendation 7
that all welding be stopped,.was perhaps a little 8
strong?
9 A
I didn' t tell him anything; in f act, I believe this is 10 almost word f or word what I said, with a f ew 11 ty pographical errors in the typing.
I think that he may 12 have taped this, taped our conversation, and then typed 13 what was said.
14 The granmar here is real poor.
That sounds j ust 15 exactly like me.
16 Q
But y ou don' t -- in any event, you don' t recall having 17 stated to him that your recommendation of stopping work 18 was a little strong?
19 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Mr. Miller, when you get the 20 answer to the question, one time is enough.
21 MR. MILL ER :
All right.
22 BY MR. MILL ER :
23 Q
Now, af ter this telephone in'aerview with Mr. McG regor, 24 you traveled to Region IIT E eadquarters in Glen Ellyn,
()
25 did you not, to --
l Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Genev a, Illinoi s bU134 (312) 232-0262
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A At a later date I was contacted by Region III in Glen 2
Ellyn and requested to come up, yes.
3 0
In f act, that was an interview that was transcribed by a 4
Court Reporter and you were sworn to tell the truth and 5
so on; isn' t that right?
6 A
Yes, si r.
7 Q
And do you recall whether in that interview at any point 8
you stated that you had recommended the stop work in-9 order to stimulate a conversation with Mr. DeWald that 10 you didn' t expect him to act on the recommendation?
11 A
I can only recall, I think that I said that this was not 12 to have been a quality document, but j ust a personal 13
. letter f rom myself to Mr. dew ald.
14 I did not reflect of them that I expected Mr.
15 DeWald to do anything, because I don' t know what he 16 might have done.
17 I was hopinn that he would call me in f or a 18 co nv ersa tion.
19 MR. MILL ER :
W ell, may I have the answer -read 20 back, pl ease.
21 I need the question and the answer.
22 (The question and answer were 23 thereupon read by the Reporter.)
24 MR. MILL ER :
W ell, other than --
()
25 TH E WITN ESS :
Can I go to the bathroam?
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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1 MR. MILL ER :
W hy, certainly, i
2 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Let's take 10 minutes.
3 (WHER EU PON, a recess was had, af ter 4
which the hearing resumed as f ollows:)
5 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Back in session, Mr. Miller.
-6 BY MR. MILL ER :
7 0
Bef ore the break, Mr. Puckett, I think we were 8
ciscussing your interview -in Glen Ellyn, that f ollowed 9
af ter some -- some time, it was --- the transcript that I 10 have indicates it was Tuesday, Sept ember 11, 1984, 11 again, within a relatively. short time af ter you lef t the 12 B raidwood - site.
O 13 My question to you is:
14 Do you recall in that interview whether or. not you-15 told the NRC inspectors that your August 22nd memorandum 16 to Mr. DeWald was a personal letter designed to -
4 17 stimulate conversa tion and that you didn' t expect Mr.
18 DeWald to act on your recommendation?
19 A
I am not really sure that I mentioned it to Region III, 20 per se ; if - I did, I told him that it was meant' as a.
21 pertinent letter to DeWald, and not meant to be a 22 memorandum or a quality docanent, something that would 23 go on f ile.
24 Q
All right.
Mr. Puckett,. I want to show you a copy = of O
~
25 the transcripe of your interview of Tuesday, September i
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6285 1
lith, and I want you to look at the questions and 2
answers that appear on Page 100, and.f eel free to look 3
at the other pages as well, if it~will help in putting 4
it in context; but if you will start with your answer on 5
Line 3 of Page 100 of - that transcript, that's what I 6
would like to specifically direct your attention to.
7
<MR.
GUILD:
Mr. Chairman,' I don' t have a copy 8
of the document.
I will look over the witness' 9
shoulder, if it's all right.
10 JUDG E GROSSMAN :
That's fine.
11 I may join you there, since I don' t have the 12 document, either.
13 THE WITNESS:
This starts here.
14 MR. GUILD:
Okay.
15 Just the portion relating to the aemo.
16 MR. MILL ER :
Yes.
.That's all I would like.
17 THE WITNESS:
Okay.
From the answer or right 18 down to the bottom; is that right?
19 MR. MILL ER :
Yes.
20 BY MR. MILL ER :
21 Q
My question, first, is:
22 Having looked at the transcript of this interview, 23 Mr. Puckett, do you recall whether or not you at least 24 showed and perhaps lef t with the NRC Staff in Glen Ellyn
()
25 a copy of the August 22, 1984, memor andum?
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1 A
I don' t r enenber if I did or didn' t.
4 2
Q Having looked at this transcript, does this indicate.
3 that you showed it to them. at least?
8 4
A I do n t -- I don' t think it does.
I mentioned it.
5 Okay.
I said yes, this is the letter; so.-
6 evidently, I did have a copy of the lettor,; yes.
i 7
Q And do you recall now whether or not you lef t a copy 8
- with them or not?
9 A-I don' t recall if. I did or did not.
10 Q
All right.
11 A
More than likely, it seemed like to me that most of the 12 documents that I had they -- they copied them.
i 13 Q
I see.
I see,
^
14 Can we agree that, at least at that page of the 15 transcript of your interview, when you showed the letter 16 to them, that is the August 22 nd memorandum, you did not 17.
state to them, to - the NRC Staf f, that the letter was l
18 really a stimulus to Mr. DeWald or. to try to get him to
~
i 19 have a discussion with you,. and that you didn' t expect i
20 him to act on your recommendation to stop work?
]
i 21 A
N o, they did not ask, and I did not volunteer auay 22 inf ormation.
l 23 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
By the way, the witness, I 24 take it,- understands when you say, "a ct on. a
. ()
25 recommendation," you mean act to stop. work?
l Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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MR. MILL ER :
Yes.
2 JUDGE GROSSMAN :
Okay.
That's f ine.
3 That's the way I understood his answers to be, and 4
not j ust act in general.
5 MR. MILL ER :
Yes.
I' m sor ry.
6 MR. GUILD:
And, Mr. Chairman, the f act of 7
the matter, when the first predicate question was asked 8
some time ago, he explained that stop work was one 9
po ssibility, but they expected an intervening discussion 10 to transpire bef ore any further action was taken.
11 I take it that every time a summary question is 12 asked again, the witness is_ ref erring back to the whole 13 series of events he expected?
14 MR. MILL ER :
There is a prior reference in 15 the transcript -- and I believe that my question can be 16 interpreted along that prior ref erence, and we will 17 argue the time point in our findings.
l 18 JUDG E GROSSMAN :
Oh, but I j ust want to make 19 sure that every time the witness agrees with you on 20 acti ng, that he means immediately stop work.
21 MR. MILL ER :
Yes.
~
22 JUDG E GROSSMAN :
And that's -- okay.
That' s 23 fine.
24 MR. GUILD:
I am ref raining f rom obj ecting
()
25' each time on the understanding that the witness is Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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1 ref erring back to his prior detailed answer to the line 2
of questioning.
3 BY MR. MILL ER :
4 Q
Mr. Puckett, I would like to show you a document, which 5
is Intervenors' Exhibit No. 25 in evidence, and ask you 6
if that letter to the Deparbnent of Labor is in your 7
handw riting?
8 A
N o, si r, it is not.
9 It's in my wif e's handw riting.
10 0
I see.
11 A
She corrects my grammar and my writing.
12 Q
Okay.
She wrcte this at your suggestion or direction?
13 A
Yes.
14 0
You essentially told her how to -- what you wanted to 15 say; is that right?
16 A
Yes, si r.
17 Q
And then the copy I have doesn' t have your signature, 18 but you did sign it and send it -off' to the Department of 19 Labor ; cor r ect ?
20 A
Yes, si r, I did.
21 Q
All right.
22 JUDG E GROSSMAN :
I' m sor ry.
23 Uhat document is that now?
24 MR. MILL ER :
It's Intervenors' Exhibit 25,
()
25 your Honor.
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MR. CALLIH AN :
(Indica ting. )
J 2
JUDGE GROSSMAN :
Thank you.
3 BY MR. MILL ER :
4 Q
Mr. Puckett you are f ree to read the entire document.
5 A
It' s been aw hile.
I would like to read it.
6 Q
Okay.
All right.
7 A
I hadn' t received a letter f rom my wif e since 'I got out 8
of the N avy.
1 9
Q Mr. Puckett, in the paragraph on the second page, it's 10 the second f ull paragraph that begins with the words, j
11 "In a review of L. K.
Comstock procedures and 12 documentation, " do you see that?
b-)g 13 A
Yes.
14 0
And this was the letter that began your Department of-15 Labor proceedings; correct?
16 A
Yes.
17 Q
All right.
And in the paragraph that I j ust directed 18 you to, there is the statement, I find, related through 19 a memo, that " working stopped bef ore any action was 20 taken. "
21 And, agai n, the ref erence to the recommendation j
22 through a memo that work be stopped was reference to 23 Applicant's Exhibit 56, your August 22, 1984, 24 memorandum?
{()
25 A
I don' t think -- I don' t -- I don' t really renember at Sonntaq Reportina Service, Ltd.
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1 the time; but I don' t think I was ref erring to those 2
mem os, I was ref erring to the. handwritten memos on the 3
A36 and A446 that later resulted in a non-conf ormance 4
report.
5 This letter that I wrote Irv DeWald is not really a 6
mem o, and I don' t think that I was ref erring to that.
I 7
would have to read this a little closer.
The words are 8
not exactly ny own, but let me look at it j ust f or a 9
man ent, pl ease.
10 I was -- at the time this was written I was 11 ref erring to the handwritten memo that has a heading of 12
" memo" on them that I sent to Irv.
I think they
(-)
w/
13 resulted in non-conf ormance reports and -- and this 14 letter at a later date.
15 (Indi ca ting. )
16 0
Well --
17 A
Excuse me.
18 0
Is there any other memo besides -- or writing, I should 19 say -- besides this August 22, 1984, memor andum, that 20 recommended that work be stopping, gener ally ?
21 A
It -- it's been awhile since I w rote those memos, but I 22 did have some handwritten memos that I addressed to Irv 23 regarding the procedures on stainless steel and -- and 24 on the A4 46 to A36, and later, this already was written,
()
25 when I was talking aere.
When I w rote this down, I may Sonntag Repor ting Service, Ltd.
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have been referring to a combination of memos and the 2
letter and all.
3 Q-All right.
Weli --
t 4
A I -- I cannot very well write in this length of time,
.i 5
you know, everything that -- that occurred with me there 6
at the B raidwood proj ect.
3 7
0 So it's your testimony today ~that you can' t tell if --
8 looking at your letter to the Department -of - Labor 9
whether -- if that paragraph that I mentioned to you you 10 are ref erring to this August 22nd memorandum or some 11 other memorandum; is that correct?
(~g 12 A
Just to this memorandum.
It could have been a V
13 combination of those.
14 This is more or less j ust an outline of what took 15 pl ace.
16 Q
Mr. Puckett, do you r ecall --
17 A
Incide ntally, the Labor Departnent did go to B raidwood 18 I
and -- and do a review on this.
19 C
Do you recall ever -- and-I mn going to go back to 20 dealings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission' Staf f 21 and you were terminated -- do you recall ever telling 22 any representative of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 23 that, when you wrote the August 22, 1984, memorandum to 24 Mr. dew al d, that you hoped that it would cause or result
()
25 in a conversation between you and that you did not Sonntaq Reporting Service, Ltd.
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expect it to result in an immediate stop work?
2 MR. GUILD:
' Obj ecti on.
3 Now, this clearly is a point where, if counsel is 4
purporting to recite the witness' prior testimony, and 5
intends to _ rely on the question as accurately 6
summarizing that testimony, that summary. is inaccurate, 7
and that the question is obj ectionable, unless counsel 8
concedes that what he's doing is ref erring back to --
9-ref erring the witness back to his prior answer where he f
10 explained the tale of a series of events that he hoped 11 his August 22nd memo would spur.
j 12 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
We will assume that Mr.
13 Miller means it in that context, in which the witness 4
14 explained exactly what he wanted done, and that Mr.
15 Miller is j ust tying all the loose ends now.
16 He's already. asked this question with regard to the 17 discussion with Mr. McG regor, and he asked.the question 18 with regard to a further discussion, and now you are 19 just tying the ends, as f ar as I can see, with regard to 20 the entire NRC at any later time; is that oo.. rect, Mr.
l 21 Miller ?
22 MR. MILL ER :
In f act, I would call the i
23 Board's attention to the transcript, Page 5465, where 24 the question was asked to Mr. Puckett, "Did you or did
(])
25 you not expect Mr. DeWald, on the basis of this written Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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communication to, as you say, quote, ' all welding be 2
stopped, ' " close-quo te.
Answ er, "I did not expect 3
that,"
and that is the basis f or my question.
4 MR. GUILD:
Let's look at prior questions and 5
the f ollowing questions, Mr. Miller, be cause, in f act, 6
the witness was asked the question again today, and you.
7 shouldn' t have asked 'and shouldn' t have been allowed to
~
8 ask it, and his answer was in greatly more elaborate 9
terms than simply the answer that you have simply read 10 from the transcript.
11 JUDG E GROSSMAN :
W ell --
12 THE WITNESS:
But it seems like, to me, that I 13 am getting the same question over and over ~ again, and 14 he's looking f or diff erent answers to the same question.
15 JUDGE GROSSMAN :
W ell, yes, that's improper 16 and I really shouldn' t -- it's improper-f or me to allow 17 the same question to go on again and again, because each 18 answer generally is going to be a little diff erent, 19 depending on the context, it all ought to mean the same 20 thing; but you can' t expect that everyone is going to 21 say each word the same way.
I 22 MR. MILL ER :
Oh, I do n' t, and I am not 23 attempting to impeach the witness at all.
24 Since his testimony has the understanding of what
()
25 the recommendation was, he has -- he has indeed i
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testified f ully as te the context in which the 2
recommendation was made, and how he meant it.
That' s 3
what his --
4 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Okay.
5 And your question is designed to elicit f rom the 6
witness whether at any later time, other than the two 7
meetings you have already covered, did he give that f ull 8
meaning to the NRC, that he didn' t expect an immediate 9
stop work action to be taken j uct as a result of his 10 sending this letter to Mr. DeWald?
s 11 MR. MILL ER :
Correct.
That's exactly ny 12 question, your Honor.
13 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Okay.
14 MR. MILL ER :
Mr. 'Puckett, do you have that in 15 mind?
16 THE WITNESS:
I-don' t recall telling anybody ~
17 in NRC that this letter was meant to stop work order --
id I mean, you know, to stop work.
19 (Indi ca ting. )
1 20 I don' t recall ever telling anyone in the NRC that 21 that -- this letter, as we have been discussing, was 22 meant to stop work.
23 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Okay.
But the (;uestion 24 really is, whether you told anyone at NRC that you i
()
25 didn' t expect that the letter would result in an i
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immediate stop work action by Mr. DeWald.
2 Did you?
3 THE WITNESS:
I did not tell anybody in NRC 4
that I expected it to.
5 JUDGE GROSSMAN :
Or that you didn' t expect it 6
to?
7 THE WITNESS:
Or that I didn' t expect it to 8
make an immediate stop.
9 MR. MILL ER :
All right.
10 BY MR. MILL ER :
11 Q
Now, I think you previously testified, Mr. Puckett, that 12 you and Mr. DeWald never had any discussion about the dgx 13 memorandum --
14 A
About the letter.
1 15 0
I' m so r ry, I keep on calling the memorandum ---that's 16 ny word.
Your word is " letter. "
17 This personal communication --
i 18 A
Ye s.
19 Q
- - Applicant Exhibit 56.
20 A
Yes.
21 Q
And at the time you lef t the site af ter.your close-out 22 interview with -- or during your close-out interview 23 with -- Mr. DeWald and Mr. Seese, at that point in time, 24 did you make any ef fort to tell them that, when you
'()
25 wrote this letter, that you were hoping to have a Sonntaq Reportina Service, Ltd.
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discussion with them on the subj ect of it?
2 A
No; I have -- really, f rom the time I wrote the letter, 3
I was doing a review, when Mr. Seltnann called me in and 4
he put me on a review, which was on a Thursday, in the vault down there; and during that period: of time, I 5
6 really didn' t have contact with anybody other than the 7
people that was in the vaults there.
8 I was usually in there in the morning as soon as 9
they opened, and one of last people out, doing these 10 reviews;.and I didn' t see Mr. DeWald again until I was 11 called in f or termination.
12 0
I see.
(3 g) 13 And at that time you didn' t discuss the subj ect of 14 this --
15 A.
No, I did not.
16 Q
-- letter?
17 A
Ns, I did not.
18 MR. MILL ER :
Okay.
I would like the Reporter 19 to mark as Applicant's Exhibit.-- I believe we are up.to 20 7 3; is that cor r ect --
Yes.
22 MR. MILL ER :
-- Comstock Procedur e 4.7.1, 23 Revision A, and as Applicant's Exhibit 74, Comstock 24 Non-conf ormance Report 3276, and as Applicant's Exhibit
(])
25 75, a copy of a page f rom the Comstock Welder Sonntag ReportinJ Service, Ltd.
Gencya, llTinois 6013~4 (312) 232-0262 l
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.y 1
Qualification Test Log.
2 (The documents were thereupon marked 3
Applicant's Exhibits Nos. 7 3, 7 4 and 75 4
for identification as of the 1st day of 5
July, 19 86. )
6 BY MR. MILL ER :
7 Q
Mr. Puckett, first of all, I would ask you' to look at 8
Applicant's Exhibit 73, which is Procedure 4.7.1, and 9
ask you whether you have ever reviewed that procedure.
10 bef or e?
11 A
Yes, I hav e.
12 Q
Okay.
13 A
Let me see.
This one was approved on 10/19/84, maybe 14 not this copy.
I better look at it and see.
15 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
N o, I' m sor ry, this copy was 16 approved 9/18/84, looking at the top.
You are looking 17 at the r evision, superceded by Revision B.
18 MR. MILL ER:
There is an indication that the 19 final approval on this revision was actually April 18, 20 1984, the middle of the page, and the third page of the 21 exhibit indicates an ef fective date of April 18, 1984.
22 I imagine.
23 A
(Continuing. )
-I think this was probably the one that I 24 seen, then.
()
25 BY MR. MILL ER :
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1 Q
Well, again, if we look at Exhibit 50, it indicates that 2
you reviewed Revision A of Section 4.7.1, on Jun'e 1, 3
1984; correct?
4 A
Yes.
5 Q
Mr. Puckett, again you' re f ree to review the entire 6
document, but I would ask that you look specifically at 7
Paragraph 3.10 on Page 5 of 10.
8 JUDGE GROSSMAN :
By the way, Mr. Miller, 9
could you explain again to me why those dates are 10 different?
The top date says Revision A and under that 11 it says, 9/18/84 ; but f urther - down it says, 4/18/84, and 12 then 5/10/84 for the implementation day.
13 Do you know what that 9/18/84 date is?
14 MR. MILL ER :
Let me consult, ifImay.
15 (There followed a discussion outside 16 the r ecord. )
17 JUDGE GROSSMAN :
Okay.
Let me point out that 18 what Judge Cole -has j ust shown me here, and that is that 19 there are some brackets and "A" written in through the 20 body of this, and what it suggests to me is that we have 21 the original procedure, 4.7.1, with a Revision A, 22 revisions marked out in the body of the procedure, but 23 that only suggests -- and I don' t know if that's so --
24 and that the Revision A took place on 9/18/84, and that
'( )
25 the original version was implemented on 5/10/84, and, Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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so, if that's true, I' suppose one could look through the 2
body of. this; and as long as there isn' t any bracket i
3 with an "A" next to it, can assume that it was in effect 4
and to begin at.5/10/84.
S'
'MR.
MILLER :
I -- again, I - j ust -- I can' t
}
6 answer that the question.
The page that I have specific 7
ref erence to does not have any brackets and it shows a 8
revision as of July 18, 1980.
)
9 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
(Indica ting. )
10-
'BY MR. MILL ER :
11 Q
And, Mr. Puckett, are you with me on Page 5 of '10 at the j-12 document?
13 A
Yes, I know what you are referencing to, yes.
3 i
14 Page 5 of 10; right?
15 Q
Yes.
16 And is there a provision with respect to the 17 witnessing of welds made for the purpose of -welder i
18 qualification?
19 A
Yes, 'si r.
20 Q
Okay.
And it says that an LKC QC Inspector must be present to witness the welding process, position of 21 l
22 wel d, electrode used and so f orth; is that correct?
23 A
Yes, si r.
24 Q
And since you never qualified as a Level III Quality iO 25 Cenero1 znsgector, you were not a Qc ins, ceor within i
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1 the meaning of this paragraph; is that right?
2 A
No, si r.
This was one of the inconsistencies that I was 3
concerned with in the procedure.
4 Because this particular note would allow any QC 5
Inspector to do this inspection in the test f acility I
6 even if he was not a qualified weld inspecter, he could 7
be a termination inspector, he could be 'a configuration 8
inspector, and this was one of the inconsistencies, and 9
I see that it still remains in the procedure.
j 10 MR. MILL ER :
W ell, I do n' t believ e y ou 11 answered my question.
12 I would like the Reporter to --
13 A
(Continuing. )
No, si r.
The Code -- I mean the 14 procedure did not permit me to -- to witness this test 15 in the test f acility.
16 How ev er, I was directed to qualify - people to-17 witness this test in the test f acility; so it only 18 seemed natural to me that if I was qualified --
19 qualified to instruct people on how this test and j
20 inspection was supposed to do -- to be, that I was also 21 qualified to do the inspection myself or witnessing the i'
22 inspe ction.
23 MR. - MILLER :
All right.
24 A
(Continuing. )
How ev er, the Code does not require that a O
j 25 oC Inspector has to witness a test, it j ust reflects Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
Geneva, Illinois 60H4.
(312) 232-0262
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that the test be witnessed.
2 BY MR. MILLER :
3 Q
All right.
But as the procedure states, the procedure 4
does, in f act, require that there been a QC Inspector --
5 A
Yes, yes.
6 0
-- witnessing the test?
7 A
Yes.
8 0
I would like you to turn to Applicant's Exhibit 74, 9
which is NCR 3276.
10 I would ask you to turn'to the 4th page of the 11 exhibit, and that's your signature about halfway down 12 the page, is it not, on that?
13 A
Yes, it is.
14 0
Okay.
And that's the witnessing of the test that's 15 ref erred to in paragraph 3.10 of the weld -- I' m sor ry 16
-- of Procedur e 4.7.l?
17 A
Yes.
18 Q
And if we look at the last page of-the Applicant's 19 Exhibit 74, that we find your signature again in the 20 same location, do we not?
21 A
Yes, si r.
22 Q
All right.
23 A
Again, this was to witness a test that was ultimately 24 determined by Mr. Mer edith of PT & L, he had the final
()
25 disposition on the test, and the final concurrence by Sonntaa Reporting Service, Ltd.
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Mr. DeWald, that this was an OK test; in other words 2
when Mr. DeWald looked at this paper, if he had a 3
problem with me signing these papers,' it should have 4
been brought to my attention at that time,.and not at a 5
later date.
6 Q
Well, --
7 A
He was concurring with what is on this paper.
8 (Indicating. )
9 Q
And ultimately, of course, this nonconf ormance report 10 was written to disposition the f act that you witnessed 11 those tests; correct?
12 MR. GUILD:
Well, obj ection.
13 The witness has been shown a document.
The 14 document is certainly not something that' the witness can 15 speak to, since it's dated af ter his departure f rom the l
16 site.
17 It may be Counsel's position as to want to 18 establish this through another witness, but the witness 19 certainly is not competent to respond to the question.
20 MR. MILL ER :
W ell, this is a witness who was 21 onsite f or 90 days, and has demonstrated some 22 familiarity with non-conf ormance reports.
23 MR. GUILD:
Mr. Miller, I can testify, too.
24 I have looked at the document; but the f act of the 25 mater is --
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JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
W ell, Mr. Miller, I assume 2
that was a foundation question and it's unnecessary.
3 If you had a further question in which you want to 4
pose a hypothetical, I will let the witness assume 5
something.
6 You may proceed.
7 MR. MILL ER :
. All right.
8 THE WITNESS:
I would like to assume 9
something.
10 I would like to assume that this non-conf ormance 11 was w ritten af ter I lef t the proj ect, to j ustify my 12 termina tion.
13 BY MR. MILL ER :
14 0
In other words, it's your position, Mr. Puckett, that a 15 procedural violation by you should have been ignored by 16 Mr. DeWald and the others and 'no non-conf ormance report 17 issued; is that correct?
18 A
When I brought this up to Mr. dew al d, he told my that I 19 should not be signing these f orms.
20 I had taken a form to him.
21 And Mr. DeWald --'at this time he had been signing 22 these forms and f ound no problem with them, with my 23 signature on them.
24 I went to Mr. DeWald with a paper with my signature
~
()
25 on it, and asked him to sign it, and he said, "I w on' t -
Sonntaq Reporting Service _f Ltd.
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do it.
You' re not qualified to witness this test. " I 2
said, Sihat do you mean?"
He said, "You will have to 3
take this back and get somebody else to sign it. "
I 4
told him, "If I had somebody else to sign this docmnent, 5
as witnessing the test, when I myself had actually 6
witnessed the test, that wou..d be f alsification of.
7 documentation and I won' t do it. "
8 He signed it.
He was all in a huf f about it.
He l
9 signed it; and this non-conf ormance report, it's the 10 first time I have ever seen it.
11 Q
So again, Mr. Puckett, do you believe that Mr. DeWald I
.12 should have overlooked the procedural violation by -
13 having you sign this and not' initiate a non-conf ormance 14 report?
15 MR. GUILD:
Obj ection.
I 16 Asked and answered.
17 MR. MILL ER :
I don' t believe he answered the 18 question at all.
19 MR. G ALLO:
No, he didn' t.
20 MR. GUILD:
He gave you a full explanation of 21 the circumstances that are within his knowledge, 22 Counsel, and I don' t believe it's proper now to put a 23 document bef ore him that clearly post-dates the man's 24 termination and ask him to speculate about the
()
25 circumstances under which it was written.
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JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Excuse me.
2 But let me ask:
Mr. Miller, what relevance does 3
that have as to whether he believes that or not?
4 MR. MILL ER :
Your Honor, we have heard a lot 5
of testimony from the witness with respect to the 6
circumstances under which non-conf ormance reports should 7
have been issued by Mr. dew ald, that Mr. DeWald 8
poo poohed his concerns and shrugged his shoulder and so 9
on; and now I am just asking him whether it is his 10 position with respect to this non-conf orming condition, 11 as to when he was an actor, that Mr. DeWald should have 12 not issued a non-co nf ormance r eport, and he has N/
13 volunteered a statement which justifies the situation, 14 but he has not answered that question.
15 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
But the question I have is:
16 What relevance it has?
17 What if you gave him another example of a 18 non-conf ormance report and asked him what it has to do 19 with him, and asked him whether he believes it should 20 have been w ritten, what is the r elevance, why this is 21 any mor e r el ev ant ?
22 MR. MILL ER :
Because he has j ust testified, 23 your Honor, that it was -- that this was a 24 non-conf ormance report that was issued af ter his
()
25 termination to provide an af ter-the-fact j ustification Sonntaq Repor ting Servicej Ltd.
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for it.
2 JUDG E GROSSMAN :
W ell, there was an obj ection 3
to the whole line of questioning, and maybe it should 4
have been sustained; but in view of the f act that he did 5
answer that, I take it -- I will overrule the obj ection 6
and let him answer this f urther question.
7 How ev er, I think we are going beyond what is 8
relevant and so we will get that one answer and move on; 9
and the question I take it is:
10 Assuming that this is a procedural violation, i
11 should Mr. dew al d h av e -- well, he didn' t institute 12 this, or should a non-conf ormance report have been 13 instituted?
14 A
Yes.
A non-conf ormance report should have been 15 instituted, and I think that I would even go along with 16 the recommended disposition, because that's what I have 17 been saying all along.
18 It's not really a requirement that you be qualified 19 to witness a test, when you have a third party, an 20 independent agent, that's going to do the final 21 acceptance of this test.
22 BY MR. MILL ER :
23 Q
Fi nally, Mr. Puckett, take j ust a look at Applicant's 24 Exhibit 75.
It's the single sheet.
()
25 Can we agree that it's your signature that appears 4
Sonntag Reporting Service, Ltd.
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in the column, " Tested by QC, " f or all but the last 2 2
entries on the page?
3 A
It appears to be so, yes.
4 MR. MILL ER :
If I might j ust consult, I think 5
that concludes my examination.
6 (There f ollowed a discussion 7
outside the record.
8 BY MR. MILL ER :
9 Q
Mr. Puckett, other than the review of the procedures 10 that you have been able to look at during the course of 11 your testimony here, since your deposition, have you had 12 occasion to look at Comstock procedures that are 13 curr ently in ef f ect ?
14 A
Just a quick review of some of the procedures that you 15 have put in f ront of me, and I am not sure whether they 16 are a current revision or an old revision.
17 0
All right.
So other than this exaniination and your 18 deposition, you haven' t had occasion to look at any 19 Comstock weld or weld inspection procedures?
20 A
No.
21 MR. MILL ER :
No f urther questions.
22 THE WITNESS:
You' re kidding.
[
23 MR. MILLER :
I wouldn' t kid about something 24 like that.
(])
25 JUDG E GROSSMAN :
Mr. Guild, are you prepared Sonntaq Reporting Service, Ltd.
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1 to begin now?
2 MR. GUILD:
Mr. Chairman, if the Board 1
3 pl ease, it's 20 minutes until 5:00, and I think I can, 2
4 if I.have an opportunity to review ny notes, my 5
examination will' be shortend a good deal, and I would 6
ask, if it suits the Board and parties, that we recess i
7 at this point and begin tomorrow morning.
8 THE WITNESS:-
I second the motion.
9 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
By th e w ay --
10 MR. MILL ER :
Oh, I have to move --
11 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
You haven' t off ered some of l
12 the exhibits into evidence.
()
13 MR. MILL ER :
That's cor rect.
L 14 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
But j ust to continue this 15 discussion, Mr. Guild, I take it you don' t want to have 16 to bring Mr. Puckett -- Mr. Puckett back; is that
{
17 correct?
l 18 MR. GUILD:
No more than Mr. Puckett would 19 like to come back, I am sure.
20 J UDG E G ROSSMAN :
That's right; and so we only i
21 have a day-and-a-hal f.
I 22 MR. GUILD:
I understand, Judge.
{
23 JUDG E GROSSMAN : Okay.
24 MR. GUILD:
My expectation is that it's going
()
25 to be brief, and it's a matter of simply assembling my f
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notes.
2 I don' t expect to take long.
3 THE WITNESS:
I kind of f eel committed f or t
4 the duration, whatever it might be now.
5 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Okay.
That's fine.
So w e 6
won' t wor ry too much about that.
7 Now, you wanted to off er some exhibits, I take it, l
8 Mr. Miller.
9 MR. MILL ER :
That's correct.
10 I am not of f ering at this time Applicant's Exhibit 11 69.
1 12 MR. COLE:
We need also Page 2 of that, if i
13 you are ever going to of f er that.
14 JUDG E GROSSMAN :
That's why you are not 15 off ering it.
I 16 MR. MILL ER :
I don' t think this is the proper i
17 witness to off er it through any.
I 18 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Okay.
19 MR. MILL ER :
But I do off er Exhibit 70 and 20 71, 7 2, 7 3, 7 4 and 75.
21 MR. BERRY:
Could I have those numbers again?
22 MR. MILLER:
70 through 75.
23 JUDG E GROSSMAN :
I take it, Mr. Guild, you I
24 have obiections to 747
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25 MR. GUILD:
Yes, 74 and 74 alone, your Honor.
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1 I don' t obj ect to the receipt' in evidence of the 2
other documents.
i and s
3 Applicant's 74, obviously lacks f oundation, 4
it's a docanent that Mr. Puckett can' t sponsor,.and.to -
5 the extent it's being of f ered to prove that, in f act, i
l 6
this was action taken, Mr. Puckett is not competent to I
i 7
so testify.
8 He can answer. the question in a hypothetical vein, 9
which he, if this 'were the dispostion, '"Will you 'think 1
l 10 about it," and he said what he thought about' it.
11 If Counsel wants to prove what Applicant did, he 12 needs to put. up someone who is competent to testify.
i 13 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
W ell, Mr. Berry, what's your j
14 position?
i l
15 MR. BERRY:
W ell, I believe, on Exhibit 74, I 16 mean, the Board has previously addressed this type _ of.
17 situation and sustained the Intervenors' position, so
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i 18 the Staf f will accept that.
19 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
W ell, if I have addressed --
20 I have sustained whose position it was, and if _.there is 21 no f oundation, we can' t admit the document.
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22 MR. B ERRY :.
And' this _ strikes me that. this is 23 the same.
The same issue arose before in the previous t
24
-- and the pr evious exhibit,.and the Board ruled,
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25 basically, to the ef fect that. Intervenors has addressed, 1
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1 is arguing now, and the Staf f is not going to -- the-2 Staf f accepts that ruling and consequen?.ly has no 3
obj ection to Exhibits 70 through 75 'and -- with the 4
exception, if 74 would f ollow, we endorse the 1'
5 Int erv enor s' po sition.
l 6
MR. GUILD:
Well,. your Honor, I think that 7
the witness' testimony has satisfied the points I wished f
8 to make with respect to this.
9 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
I was going.suggest that, 10 and you don' t need the document.
11 MR. MILL ER :
The only thing is that there are 12 attachments to it that are in his handwriting that he 13 did authenticate, and they are two of the weld 14 qualification test records that are attached to the NCR.
15 I would ask that the document be admitted f or. the -
16 limited purpose of demonstrating only that an NCR was i
17 written on September 12, 1984, which is the date that, 18 again, he observed and that ~ the two pages of the 19 attachme'nt that bear his signature are admitted for. the j
20 truth of the matter stated, that is, that he signed 21 them, as Mr. Puckett signed them, on or about the date 22 they bear.
23 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Well, ' the only -- the latter 24 part we can accept; but as f ar as the first point, being
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25 the NCR was written, I don' t think that it's -- that you s
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l have foundatien f or that; and so if we admit it, it will 2
only be for the two qualification test records that Mr.
3 Puckett signed; and if you wish to bring someone else in l
4 to supply the foundation for the NCR having been 5
written, we will accept it. at a later time.
6 MR. MILL ER :
'Your Honor, I would -- well, 7
okay.
I understand the Board's ruling.
I respectf ully 8
except to it.
I think this is a business record and 9
should come-in on that basis; but we have already had an 10 argument on that and I have lost, so --
11 JUDG E GROSSMAN :
W ell, it's not as though 12 it's an'insurountable problem.
13 MR. MILL ER :
No, it isn' t; but it. simply -- I 14 don' t believe that there is any realistic dispute on Mr.
15 Guild's part that this is, in f act, an NCR that was 16 written in the normal course of business and processed 1
17 in accordance with Comstock's QC procedures.
18 MR. GUILD:
Mr. Chairman, the f act of the 4
19 matter is that the witness surmises that the document 20 was only originated to document a case to terminate him, 21 and I think-the circumstances of its production is, 22 indeed, suspect.
That underscores all the more the 23 reason why it shouldn' t simply come in without a 24 spo ncor.
It's Applicant's obligation to demonstrate
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25 that it's -- it was prepared in the normal course.
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We think this is reasonable to question.
2 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
I don' t mean to have a 3
prolonged discussion on this, Mr. Guild; but he does not i
j 4
have to supply that much foundation that you could 5
attack what you are attempting to attack now.
6 All he has to do, basically, is bring in some l
7 witness, other than Irv DeWald, :to supply - the 8
foundation; so you wouldn' t have the opportunity you i
4 9
think you would have.
10 MR. GUILD:
My only point, Judge, is that
-i 11 subclause of that rule, the business record rule, the-12 Federal version of the business record rule,.does allow 13 the challenger, the adversary, to of f er that there are 14 conditions that undermine the reliability of the-15 document, and that's' exactly what's in issue here is the
)
16 reliability.
i 17 JUDG E GROSSMAN :
Well, that is correct.
18 And we have made our ruling; and so we will accept 19 the document only with regard to the two pages that have 20 Mr. Puckett's signature on it, and the rest is not 21 received, but those two pages' are received, an'd we will i
22 take the whole document in to go along with the record.
23 MR. GUILD:
' I do n' t --
i 24 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
And we are receiving those i
e O
25 other exhibits, 70 through 75, accept f or 74, which we i
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1 are receiving only a limited portion of.
2 (The documents that were marked 3
Applicant's Exhibits Nos. 70 through 75 4
for identification, were thereupon 5
received inevidence as Applicant's 6
Exhibits Exhibits 70 through 75 in 7
evidence as of the 1st day of July, 8
1986.)
9 MR. GUILD:
Mr. Chairman, I j ust would note 10 that, with respect to 74, the document was put to the 11 witness and he was asked to read it and express -- he 12 expressed an opinion and his opinion was on the basis of 13 reading the text of the. disposition.
14 I take that to be in the f orm -- of more or less --
15 a hypothetical question; would you agree with this; and 16 essentially he said he would, and if the document is in, 17 as the Chairman has ruled, for the limited purpose for 4
18 which it's in, at least the witness' testimony should be 19 understood in light of the language that appears on the i
20 f ace of the document.
21 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Okay.
That's fine.
i 22 You now, we will adj ourn -- whatever all that means 23
-- we will adj ourn until tanorrow morning.
24 MR. MILL ER :
I think Mr. Guild was,. in a
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25 sense, a little sorry he made the obj ection in the first i
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2 MR. GUILD:
That's not at all -the case.
3 It's j ust if I could have read -- or 'the document 4
-- or you should have the witness read the language that 5
is put to.him, but doesn' t establish that you originated 6
the NCR on that particular date.
7 JUDG E G ROSSMAN :
Okay.
We will adj ourn until 8
tomor row morning at 9 :00 o' clock.
9 (WHEREUPON, at 4 : 50 o' clock P. M., the 10 hearing was recessed to the 2nd day of 11 July at the hour of 9 : 00 o' clock A. M. )
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14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
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CERTIFICATE OF OFFICIAL REPORTER OV This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the UNITED STATES - NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION in the matter of:
NAME OF PROCEEDING:
Braidwood Station Units 1 62 Commonwealth Edison Company (Evidentiary llearing)
DOCKET NO.:
50-456/457-OL PLACE:
Joliet, Illinois O
DATE:
Tuesday, July 1, 1986 were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Ad (sigt)
]
(TYPED)
Glenn L.
Sonntag Official Reporter Reporter's Affiliation
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