ML20207H225
| ML20207H225 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Comanche Peak, 05000000 |
| Issue date: | 08/23/1984 |
| From: | NRC - COMANCHE PEAK PROJECT (TECHNICAL REVIEW TEAM) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20207H212 | List: |
| References | |
| FOIA-85-91 NUDOCS 8607240111 | |
| Download: ML20207H225 (42) | |
Text
v s Q4-84-037 4
1 I
2 3
DO NOT DISCLCEE 4
5 6
7 8
9 .
10 _
11 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 12 .
TECHNICAL REVIEW TEAM STAFF 13 14 15 16 l _e DQ HOI Di3CLOSE 18 19 20 21 l 22 9
3 i 8607240111 PDR 860721 l i FOIA ,
l 34 KOHN85-91 PDR l [
i l
23 Taken by: Carmen Gooden, CSR, RPR August 23, 1984 i
.._ -.._ q wf y f0 _, , ___ _ _ _ , _ _ _ .
J %} Q4-84-037 x I '
. 1 l UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
~
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION l TECHNICAL REVIEW TEAM l 1
3 i 1
a !
DO NOT DISCI-vu"' ' ;
_ ! I a i TECHNICAL _ INTERVIEW l 6
7 g Thursday, August 23, 1984 Granbury, Texas 9
10 This interview was commenced at 2:00 pm.
11 PRESENT:
l ')
l MR. DICK WESSMAN, Technical Review Team Staff Nuclear Regulatory Commission ,f 13 l Washington, D. C. 20555 i l i 14 I ..
,1 MR. BOB HUBBARD, Technical Review Team Staff
.l Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D. C. 20555 I
,1 16 :
! MR. H. BROOKS GRIFFIN Nuclear Regulatory Commission I 3 ' '
Office of Investigation IS :
0 I -
II i
21 l
OiM 23 24 I
v eUo i
25 BIT (2)
__ _ ~
2 1 . MR. GRIFFIN: For the record, this is an interview of i 2 Donald A. Nisich, N-i-s-i-c-h.. Are you currently employed? i i
3 MR. NISICH: No, I was laid off while on vacation. l 4 i MR. GRIFFIN: When were you laid off?
5 MR. NISICH: Some say the 13th. I don't know whether '
i 6 it was--it's not clear in my mind whether it was the 13th 7 when everybody else was laid off, or the day I had returned, S which was the 17th of July.
9 MR. GRIFFIN: From Brown and Root. .
10 MR. NISICH: Yeah.
I 11 MR. GRIFFIN: The location of this interview is Granbury, i
12 Texas. Present at this interview: Donald Nisich; for the 13 NRC, Dick Wessman and Robert Hubbard; and for NRC OI, myself,l 14 H. Brooks Griffin. The subject matter of this interview
, 15 concerns possible intimidation, upgrading of material and 3
l 16 sign-off on an NCR.
! 17 Mr. Nisich, before I start questioning you, I'd request i IS that you please stand and raise your right hand. I want to 19 swear you to the contents of your statement. Do you swear i
! 20 that the information you are about to give is the truth, the j 21 whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
22 MR. NISICH: I do.
23 MR. GRIFFIN: Can I call you Don?
24 MR. NISICH: Sure.
l 25 MR. GRIFFIN: Don, before you were laid off in July, L
3 I I what was your position at Comanche Peak? !
2 MR. NISICH: I was a Level 2A Inspector. !
t 3 I MR. GRIFFIN:
A? I i
4 MR. NISICH:
A Inspector. !
5 MR. GRIFFIN: What does that signify?
6 MR. NISICH: That's the highest you can go without 7 taking a step up.
S MR. GRIFFIN: To a 3?
9 MR. NISICH: Well, to a Lead A Inspector.
10 MR. GRIFFIN: In what area?
11 MR. NISICH: In mechanical, piping, all those (Pointing 12 to a' list).
13 MR. WESSMAN: I believe you'll find them on the right-14 hand side. You'll see titles and on the second-page also.
15 MR. GRIFFIN: When did you begin your employment with 16 Brown and Root?
i l 17 MR. NISICH: July the 2nd, 1979.
i 16 MR. GRIFFIN: What job were you hired to do?
19 MR. NISICH: I was hired as an iron worker.
'I l 20 MR. GRIFFIN: When did you become a QC Inspector?
21 MR. NISICH: Approximately six months later.
E 22 MR. GRIFFIN: Did you work as a QC Inspector during 23 the remainder of your employment at Comanche Peak?
24 MR. NISICH: Yes--well, we'll have to stop there because 25 I was hired as an iron worker at STP and became a QC
. _ - _ _ _ _ - _ - _ _ _ . _ . _ _ _ _ _ _ . . _ _ . - . _ . - _ _ _ _ _ . _ - s. .. _ _ - _ _ . . _ . . . _ _ . _ _ _ , - . ._
4 1
Inspector at STP and was transferred from STP to Comanche 2 Peak.
^
3 MR. GRIFFIN: When did this transfer take place?
4 MR. NISICH: Approximately February of '82. .
5 12. GRIFFIN: Ckay. When you first transferred to l
6 Comanche Peak, who was your immediate supervisor?
I MR. NISICH: Billy Schnellgrove (spelled phonetically)
S was my Lead Inspector, and J. P. Patton was my supervisor.
9 MR. GRIFFIN: Who was your supervisor at the time of
.10 your ROF? ,
I :
11 MR. NISICH: Wayne Mansfield. {
l e
12 [ MR. GRIFFIN: I want to go into what we're going to i
13 'i characterize here as problems you had or what you believe 14 was a problem with intimidation. Y6u said this started at 15 STP? Could you just tell me about that in kind of a narra- ,
- l. 16 tive fashion?
i
'! 17 MR. NISICH: Generic?
I l 18 MR. GRIFFIN: What your personal experiences have been.
19 We're not in a position just to explore intimidation in i
i 20 general. If you've had instances that you believe constitute 5
! 21 harassment, intimidation or mistreatment of any kind, could E
l 22 you give me a narrative on that? ,
23 l MR. NISICH:- Well, being cast off aside or put in a 24 little cubbyhole, not being allowed to advance. There was 25 no consideration of advancement based on my experience, which l
i 5
I in 15 yacrs in tha nuclear power industry.
2 MR. GRIFFIN: You said this began at STP?
3 MR. NISICH: Yes, sir.
4 MR. GRIFFIN: You were not promoted when you believed
- I 3 -
you were eligible to be promoted?
l 6 I MR. NISICH: Well, no, not only that. It boiled down 5
to I was given an area at STP, and the people prior to me 5
that were working that area became Quality engineers, 9
superintendents and what-have-you; and they didn't do a good i
10 job as a result. I didn't know they didn't do a good job 11 when I started writing NCR's. I started writing NCR's 12 against Engineering f7r constant violations.
13 MR. GRIFFIN:
l ThNs was at STP?
l 14 i MR. NISICH: This was at STP.
15 MR. GRIFFIN: How was that received?
, 16 : MR. NISICH: B3dly.
i 17 MR. GRIFFIN: Was your transfer to Comanche Peak linked I
IS to this activity?
19 MR. NISICH: The reason why I felt there was a link i 20 with the activity was I kept hearing rumors around me that 21 they were going to get rid of me because of it, and I was 22 surprised to find that I was accepted at Comanche Peak and 23 ;
given $1500 te move on. I came to Comanche Peak as an A 24 Inspector on a telex signed by Tolson and Merritt. I have 25 I a copy of this telex at home.
l
6 1
MR. GRIFFIN: From the time that you arrived at 2
Comanche Peak, have you experienced any further mistreatment 3
like you experienced at STP, or have you heard any conversa-!
4 tion from anybody at Comanche Peak that refers to your 5
activities at STP which they felt were improper on your 6 ; part?
I S MR. NISICH: No, I've never heard of improperties (sic)
S as far as that's concerned. It started out shortly after t
9 I got to STP.
They were wanting to put me on a night shift.
10 It wasn't that 1 didn't want to go on night shift, but I had 11 personal problems at home.
12 '
however you want to call it. I asked for 13 ,
i a delay because on the day that I was supposed to be put on 14 night shift, which was the following night, I asked delay of
. 17 MR. GRIFFIN: Let me stop here for a minute. I think l IS we're going into an area that NRC has no--
19 MR. NISICH: I know--
?
- 20 MR. GRIFFIN: What I asked you was did your transfer--
21 when you arrived at Comanche Peak, did anybody refer back to 22 I
whatever problems you may have had at STP and hold it against, 23 l you up here?
l 24 j MR. NISICH: The only one time I heard something clearly 25 I was on night shift, and an individual was talking to another L
7 I
individual. They said, "Why don't we get rid of him?" They 2
said, "We can't; he knows too much about STP so we can't get 3
rid of him in that fashion."
4 MR. GRIFFIN: Why were these people discussing the need' i
to get rid of you at Comanche Peak?
i 6
MR. NISICH: In my mind it boiled down to doing the ,I I
I l job according to procedure and them not liking it. '
b MR. GRIFFIN: Who was being critical of your work?
9
! MR. NISICH: At that time it was Jim Reagan who is i
10 with TUGCO*now, and he was talking to Sam Bell; he's with 11 !
TUGCO now.
12 MR. GRIFFIN: Are these primarily the people that you 13 had disagreements with here? l l
14 MR. NISICH: That was on night shift. That was just l 15 the discussion. My disagreements were on day shift with i 16 ' individuals who were being promoted and based on their work,l 17 '
1 ,
what they had done, because I had followed behind them--not
- { IS all inspections are c.ane by one inspector. I just found so 19 much wrong and legally corrected them.
I.
i 20 MR. GRIFFIN: Yet they were getting promoted.
21 MR. NISICH. Up the ladder. They had one that came l 22 ;
from the Fab Shop and within five months he was a Level 2A
- 23 i Inspector, and this encompasses an awful lot of knowledge.
I 24 i I don't see how you can get it out of the Fab Shop. I can ;
I l
25 see hangers or component supports, but welding, piping, i
- * * * * '__..r- * . _ . . _ _ . _ . _ . . - . _ . . . _ _ . . _ _ . . , _ . _ _ _
8 3
2 -
rigging, an A Inspactor Level 2-- j 2 MR. GRIFFIN: Did this guy take all the required tests i
3 and receive all the recuired certifications? i I
4 MR. NISICII: Yes, he sure did. I i
- 5 ;iR. GRIFFIN: But he just did it very, very quickly?
6 MR. NISICH: Too quickly. And then he got--there was 7 a requirement of so many hours of liquid penetrant on-the-8 job training, and it was rigid and it was controlled and on 9 paper. Well, he come up one day and said, "Look, if I get a 10 three-part. memo for 60 some-odd hours PT training while I 11 was at the Fab Shop as a craftsman, will that work?" Someone 12 said yes. He went out and got 60 some-odd hours.
I 13 l MR. GRIFFIN: Did he have 60 hours6.944444e-4 days <br />0.0167 hours <br />9.920635e-5 weeks <br />2.283e-5 months <br /> worth of exposure to .
I 14 that while he was in the Fab Shop?
15 .
MR. HISICII: I have no idea. It violates the training i
16 procedure, the way it will be done. In other words, all l 17 your hours will be attested to by the Inspector who trains b
l.* 16 you on what day.
i 19 MR. GRIFFIN: What's this fellow's name?
i 20 MR. NISICH: Ted Neeley.
- i,s 21 MR. GRIFFIN
- When did this occur?
! 22 MR. NISICH: I would say around August of '82; August l
! 23 or September.
24 MR. GRIFFIN: Is he still around?
i 25 MR. NISICH: Right now he's a OE, or he's assumed the
9 I
, duties of a OE in tha NCR caction.
2 MR. GRIFFIN: Do you know for certain that he received 3
l credit for the 60 hours6.944444e-4 days <br />0.0167 hours <br />9.920635e-5 weeks <br />2.283e-5 months <br /> of liquid penetrant training? ,
4 '
MR. NISICE: Based on a three-part memo--
5 MR. GRIFFIN: Who signed it?
6 MR. NISICH: J. P. Patton.
7 MR. GRIFFIN: Did Patton know that he really had not S
received this?
9 FUt. NISICH: He could not have known the hours. Nobody 10 could have-known the hours unless they trained you. They 11 have a form, and if an individual comes up to me and asks 12 me,
- Don, I need some PT time; are you doing PT?" I'd say, 13 "Yes." I'd say, "Come on." I'd watch him perform the 14 functions of a liquid penetrant test, and whatever time that 15 he did that I would give him, plus or minus a half hour,
, 16 make it even normally.
I 17 MR. GRIFFIN: Now, you've given this as an example.
i IS Can you think of any other examples where you have been-19 harassed or treated unfairly as relates to your inspection
[
, I l i 20 duties?
l5 l8 21 MR. NISICH: Yes. I was, like I say, kind of cast off 3
22 to the side, put down on the Inspection Board, kept away from 23 Paper work.
24 MR. GRIFFIN: Where were you conducting your inspections?
25 MR. NISICH: Well, it varied. I inspected just about l
! I
10 I every part of the plant; just different Insp2ction Boards 2 in different areas.
3 MR. GRIFFIN: But they didn't actually assign you just 4 to a certain area and keep you--I mean, you had to fill out ,
i 5 l all your inspection reports each day just like everybody i l i 6 else, I presume?
I MR. NISICH: Yes, I did.
6 MR. GRIFFIN: What do you mean then by "kept away from 9 them"?
10 MR. NISICH: Well, the final thing happened--is when I 11 brought a letter from a doctor requesting that I be given I 12 i a job in an office for three to six months, and I was j l
13 received pretty warmly by the people,I went to in the N5 f I4 Group.
15 MR. GRIFFIN: Who was that?
16 MR. NISICH: Terry Matheny, and others within the Group, t
,! 17 They said they were glad to see me, and that they would give!
l IS me the name " Steam Line". Well, just as soon as Seivers l
19 found out--Bob Seivers found out about it, he said, "No s
i 20 soap", and got me out of the N5 Group and over to a corner 21 doing nothing.
22 : MR. GRIFFIN: What do you mean, "nothing"?
I 23 ! MR. NISICH: Well, he did not want me around the paper!
24 work so he got me over where I would gather up the paper 25 work.
11
. 1 i MR. GRIFFIN: Were you actually assigned to the N5?
i .
2 '
Were you part of the N5 Group?
i 3 i FR. WESSMAN: Let's go off the record for a minute. i 4
- (Off-the-record discussion was held.) l l
5i MR. GRIFFIN: Let me ask you some general questions 6 and maybe these questions will spawn some ideas about some 7 of the things that you experienced at your various jobs.
S During the time that you've worked at Comanche Peak, have 9 any of your supervisors ever threatened you with termination
.10 or threatened you with demotion or threatened to do anything 11 that would cause you harm, either financially or otherwise?
12 MR. NISICH: Yeah.. Well, just shortly before my layoff' 13 I was approached by Wayne Mansfield who was my Lead at that i 1
! 14 time. He said he did not like the time it took me to get 15 around per se.
16 MR. GRIFFIN: Working too slow?
l t
! 17 MR. NISICH: Yeah. I explained to hbn that I wasn't IS physically capable to get around as quickly as he would like, l
- and he said, " Don't think for one minute that I won't write 19 20 you up if you don't be here when I think you should be here.'
! 21 MR. GRIFFIN: Was he your supervisor?
33 ,
MR. NISICH. At that time. He mentioned the fact about!
23 me being in the office at that time. Well, at that time 24 l that I was in the of fice, not in the of fice that he was in 25 but an office within the building, I had called for an A I I
12 I .
Inspector bacause it was a mandatory hold point; and ha J went on about that. I said, "Well, what do you suggest?"
3 I called the ANI Inspector and said I'd be right there and l i
4 wait for him and take him to the product. He said, "Well, l
3 you're being watched so don't think that anytime that you're' 6
in an area you're not supposed to be it won't be reported."
7 MR. GRIFFIN: Had he been critical of you before this 8 about being out of your area or in an area conducting 9 inspections or doing work that was not assigned?
10 MR. N}SICH: . Yeah. He was the cause of--geing to Bob i
11 Seivers,tellingBobSeiversthatIhadsignedoffsomething) l 12 ; a product, and he and my night supervisor approached me and l
13 l said, " Don, is it true?" I said, "I don't know."
i 14 MR. GRIFFIN: Is this referring to this NCR?
15 MR. NISICH: No.
16 MR. GRIFFIN: This is a separate--
t h 17 MR. NISICH. This is separate.
,i 16 MR. GRIFFIN: What were you asked to sign off?
I 19 MR. NISICH: I wasn't asked to sign off. It was i.
i 20 implied that I signed off a product. So I was forced to go a 21 and investigate myself because I was told if I did, I'd have 22 to write an NCR against myself which was a procedure 21 violation. Well, this man didn't read everything in the 2 package because the product wasn't even built yet; it was t
l 23 still sitting in the Fab Shop.
l l
13 1
MR. GRIFFIN: So what he was saying was incorrect is ,
2 '
that right? l 3
!i MR. NISICH: Right, but he was trying to infer that I 4 i was doing wrong. i
. t l MR. GRIFFIN: To expand a little bit on what I asked 6
, you a while ago, if anyone had ever th,reatened you or-- i I
has anybody ever threatened you and at the same time ,
b instructed you to do something that you knew was wrong, like 9
buy off on an item or not inspect something that you were
'10 required to inspect?
i 6
11 MR. WESSMAN:
l Off the record, please.
12 I i
(Off-t'he-record discussion was held.)
13 MR. GRIFFIN:
Let me say here: while we were off the i
14 record, we discussed the contents'of a previous transcript 15 taken from Pz. Nisich which included an area that.we're 16 going to explore again, and it involves signing off on an 17 NCR under some duress--if I may characterize it--from some l 1S third party. Can you tell us about that?
19 MR. NISICH: Yes. There was a heat exchanger and it i !
i 20 had straps on it that's called anti-vibration streps. They 5
? 21 , were to be welded between the tubing on the heat exchanger l
22 ; on the top. This was done from the Mechanical Group. The i
21 millwrights did the welding. Well, the heat with the 21 welding rods was required to cause the welding rod to deposit 25 metal on to--it was too high because the straps were too thin l l
14 and therefore it caused a malt-through.
I So I wrota en NCR 2
on the subject of melt-through which was to be dispositioned.'
3 I never did see the results of that NCR. It's rare that the!
4 Inspector that writes the NCR sees the results because he i l 5 moves around so constantly and lots of times he does not 6 reinspect his own product.
7 MR. GRIFFIN: Did you also furnish us with that NCR S number?
9 MR. WESSMAN: My recollection is that we could not 10 recall the *NCR number.
Il MR. GRIFFIN: k' hen did you write this NCR?
12 ; MR. NISICH: This was on night shift a couple of years 13 ago, and as I explained to Mr. Wessman and this gentleman 14 over here (indicating Mr. Hubbard) , it is the only NCR that 15 I wrote; and all NCR's, a copy of it, must be in the package 16 in the vault on each heat exchanger.
a h 17 MR. WESSMAN: When we talked before, my notes have here i
18 that he thought it was done in the fall of 1983.
19 MR. NISICH: Approximately a couple of years back, or iI e
i 20 a year, year-and-a-half back; it doesn't matter because the 21 NCR is within the package.
32 MR. WESSMAN: Sure. We can refer to that.
23 MR. GRIFFIN: You don't know what the disposition was?
24 MR. NISICH: No.
25 MR. GRIFFIN: What makes you think somebody else bought
15
, i off on it?
MR. NISICH: All right. I was approached by Jeff 3
Pyland who at that time functioned as OE, and he---
MR. WESSMAN: Do you know how Pyland spells his last 5 c nane?
l 6
MR. NISICH: I really don't. Ithinkit'sP-y,butI'ml not sure.
< g MR. WESSMAN: P-y-1-i-o-n, or--
9 MR. NISICH: Something of that nature; I'm not sure.
0
--asked me to sign this NCR off, and I said, "No, I can't I
11 What they had done is they ;
because I didn't reinspect it." ;
1-had put the heat exchanger over the shell back over the i l
13 tubing and sealed up the heat exchanger. It's a huge heat 14 exchanger, and--
15 . MR . GRIFFIN: I may be off track here. Are you saying ,
16 they wanted you to disposition your own NCR?
jg li ji II MR. NISICH: No. They wanted me to sign off a product, 18 ll and I didn't see the results of the NCR or--
I9 MR. GRIFFIN: You don't know what they did, but you -
'8 1 20 know they didn't come back to you and show you the dis-21 position--
ll: . ,
22 MR. NISICH: Right. In other words, whoever got the !
1 23 NCR should have reinspected it or done what the NCR had 24 said and either signed it off or not signed it off, that 25 one area.
i
16
, 1 MR. GRIFFIN: Did you haar that another Inspactor had 2 signed off?
i 3 , MR. NISICH: Well, at that time there was nobody that ;
4 had signed it off, and there's a hold point on the Multiple .
I 5 Weld Data Card; and by signing off that hold point, I had I, 6 inspected all the welding on it.
7 MR. GRIFFIN: So they were trying to get you to sign 6 off something that would cover a number of welds--
9 MR. NISICH: The whole thing.
10 MR. GRIFFIN: On the heat exchanger.
11 MR. NISICH: Right.
12 l MR. GRIFFIN: And you had not inspected all those welds?
i l
13 l MR. NISICH: Nor had I reinspected it after the NCR had' i
14 ! been written. And then going through the package--the I 15 Package has got two holes in the top of it for clips to hold 1 i i
' the package together.
16 I happened to loosen up the clip and i 1; pick it up and found out that there was some more welds on j IS there and there was a statement written after the fact that i*
f 19 weld numbers one through X are the identical numbers of--
li jj -
20 identical to the bottom straps of weld numbers one through
!=
21 X. They're numbered identically, and I never even inspected lh. t 22 those welds.
I 23 MR. GRIFFIN: Who was asking you to do this?
24 l MR. NISICH: Jeff Pyland at first asked me to do it, 25 and he suggested that TUGCO would be very unhappy if I didn' t t
- - _ _ , . _ _ _ . _ . . . . _ _ - - , . - . . . . . . ~ . . _ . _ . . . . , . . . _ __ . _ _ _ _ , . . _ . _ . _ _ - _ _ _ _ _ . . _ , . _ . _
/ 17 I
sign it off because it would cost him a lot of money to re-open it and inspect it. I just told them "no soap". "You've 3
got an equal amount of welds. I wrote an NCR against a 4 i certain amount of welds and you've got an equal amount of .
t
. \
3 I welds that haven't been inspected by anybody from what I can ,'
i j l 6
,,,, ,o y m signing both of these things off."
l 1 !
j MR. GRIFFIN: Is the heat exchanger a safety system, I I b
Dick? ~
l 9
MR. WESSMAN: This particular' heat exchanger is. It's 10 l in the auxiliary building. Based upon the description, I :
! i 11 '
think it could be an RHR heat exchanger. They're generally ,
i
' I l ,,
l a large, tall heat exchanger that extends through a couple ;
f i 13 of floors in the building. !
' i 14 MR. GRIFFIN: Did Jeff Pyland--is he a TUGCO employee l l 15 or Brown and Root?
! s.
16 ,
i MR. NISICE: He was a Brown and Root QE. ,
f
- i. i .
lI I7 . MR. GRIFFIN: Is he still there? l j IS -
MR. NISICH: I don't know. I don't know if he was ;
19 caught in the layoff. There were some OE's caught in this i
i 20 layoff.
it j 21 MR. GRIFFIN: He was working there until recently?
22 MR. NISICH: Up till, as far as I know, July 13. If 23 l he's still there, fine. If he isn't, I really couldn't tell; 24 l you. ,
25 MR. GRIFFIN: Let me ask you your opinion on something.
i '
l
- 18 I '
If I go to Pyland and I ask him about this incident, is he 2 i likely to remember it? '
3 FUt. NISICH: I wouldn't know, but still, it would be 4 t
, perfectly clear if you go through the package and read it.
i 3
- MR. GRIFFIN: Did you sign off on it?
6 MR. NISICH: No, I did not.
~ '
MR. GRIFFIN: Did somebody sign off on the whole 8
package?
9 MR. NISICH: Well, let me finish. So later on--it 10 might have been a week; I don't remember; it's been so long 11 j ago--a Doug Snow approached me to sign these off. That's 12 when I discovered that,the statement I told you about, that :
13 j I found off the package, whereas the other welds were to be l
14 e
i numbered identically to the welds I wrote the NCR on. There 15
, was nothing to show that they were ever inspected, and I
). 16 !
never inspected them prior to them putting it back together.
I 17 I told them I couldn't do it.
j 16 MR. GRIFFIN: Did you give them an explanation?
19 1 01. NISICH: Yes. They agreed with me. They said, i 20 "How in the hell can a man sign off all the welds if all the
's
- j 4 21 information is not visible?" So they agreed to that. .
Then 22 ,
we had another conversation with Mr. Snow and Mr. Seivers, t
23 and I explained to Mr. Seivers why I didn't sign it off.
24 g "Now there's a telex in here," is what I told Mr. Seivers, i
25 "and it says the company representative accepts these welds.
. 19 1 ) I will sign off based upon the talex and giva reference to I
2 the telex stating that it was accepted by the tech rep from 3 the company." I 4
g MR. WESSMAN: You're referring to Westinghouse; is that h correct?
6 MR. GRIFFIN: So we're talking about the vendor welds.
7 MR. NISICH: No. These straps were installed in the 8
field as a modification to the heat exchanger, but since it 9
was a vendor-supplied heat exchanger, the vendor had to j 10 participate in the decision to make this field modification.
i
! 11 MR. GRIFFIN: But the point of your inspection was to 12 actually buy off on these welds, not to buy off on the 13 method that they chose to accept them; is that correct?
14 MR. NISICH: Right. In other words, the welds were 15 not officially inspected.
16 MR. GRIFFIN: Okay.
i! 17 MR. NISICH: Half of them were, to my knowledge, at that 18 l time.
19 MR. GRIFFIN: So you made an offer to buy off on what
+
i i 20 they intended to do, not the actual inspections?
8 21 MR. NISICH: I had offered, saying if the technical
>c 22 representative, by virtue of the fact of the telex that he l .
23 has in the package, accepts these welds, then I will sign j 24 off according to the telex as the authority for signing it I
5 off and no other way.
l
\
20 1 I MR. GRIFFIN: What was their response to that? l 2 ' I MR. NISICH: Seivers said, "No, we're not going to throw ,
3 ;
no stuff in the game." That's the last I heard about it, but 4 I it got signed off. '
i l
5 '
MR. GRIFFIN: Do you know if it was reinspected?
6 MR. NISICH: No, because they were very unhappy with it.
~
It took a lot of manhours to take that shell off.
8 MR. GRIFFIN: So they did not take the shell back off and
' 9 inspect it? -
10 MR. NISICH: No.
11 MR. GRIFFIN: Would you know if they had taken it off?
12
- MR. NISICH
- Yeah; as big as that thing is and as t
13 i many times as I walked right by it, it's visible.
14 MR. GRIFFIN: Do you know who signed off on it?
i 15 MR. NISICH: No, I don't.
16 MR. GRIFFIN:
- Okay. We'll explore that.
}' 17 MR. WESSMAN:
Brooks, we're planning on exploring the 18 technical aspect of it and, in fact, Bob has this issue to 19 pursue. It's one that we've not pursued yet, but based upon
.I i 20 the previous discussion with Don on August 8, we are headed t
21 down the path of looking at the technical and saf2ty impli-22 cations of the issue.
21 MR. GRIFFIN: Don, your perception of this was they 24 were asking you to do something you considered improper?
25 g MR. HISICH: It's in violation of the procedure and was t
l l
. - ~ - - . - - . _ _ , _ - . - . . . - - _ . - _ - _ _ _ . _ . _ . . - . - _ - _ . _ _ . .
21 I a cafety-relat2d product; yas, it was a problem.
2 ,
MR. GRIFFIN: You resisted them and did not do what they 3 asked?
4 MR. NISICH: No, I sure didn't.
5 MR. GRIFFIN: Anywhere during the various conversations 6 you had over accepting these welds, did anybody ever threaten 7 you or indicate to you that you might suffer as a result of 8 your not buying these?
9 MR. NISICH: Yes. Jeff Pyland said, quote,that TUGCO 10 would view this'as very unfavorable to me if I didn't do l
11 i it because it would cost them a lot of money to take it back 12 apart, reinspect it, put it back together, which it would; l
13 that's the truth.
14 MR. GRIFFIN: Did his statement make you feel as though 15 he was attempting to put some pressure on you to go ahead 16 ,
and sign these out?
8 i
$ 17 MR. NISICH: You would have to talk to Jeff Pyland on jj 18 this. I understand--
f 19 MR. GRIFFIN: I'm asking what--
i 20 MR. NISICH: In his own way he was given the job of 21 getting it signed off one way or the other, and he couldn't i
22 do it. Then it was given to Doug Snow to have me sign it 23 off, and he couldn't do it.
~
21 MR. GRIFFIN: Did Snow say anything other than can you i
25 sign ~it of f or will you sign it off?
l
22
! NR. NISICH: No, ha did not. l i
MR. GRIFFIN: Did Snow accept your explanation of why l l .
3 you could not?
! MR. NISICH: Well, he tried to explain to me why I ;
could.
6 MR. GRIFFIN: What explanation did he give that would make it okay?
6 MR. NISICH: It was to the effect that the vendor 9
accepted the welds anyway, and I said, " Fine, have him sign 10 it off."
II Did you ever hear, subsequent to your MR. GRIFFIN:
12 ' conversations with these people, which Inspector did sign j
13 i them off?
I4 MR. NISICH: No. -
15 , MR. GRIFFIN: Do you know when they were signed off?
16 MR. NISICH: What--
g l 17 MR. GRIFFIN: Was it '837
! I6 MR. NISICH: No, I don't know when it was signed off, i.
19 but the package is in the vault and it's very easy to
[
,i i- 20 determine by looking at that one hold point on the Multiple
{:j 21 Weld Data Card who signed it off, when it was signed off, i
22 by what authority.
23 MR. GRIFFIN: Other than this particular incident, do
, 24 i you recall any other incidents where anybody either threatenpd j
25 you or attempted to get you to do something that you
23 I
considered was in violation of procaduro, wrong, illGgal or '
2 improper?
3 j MR. NISICH: Yeah, the signing off of another NCR relat-I 4 ing to a pipe flange. Once again, these two gentlemer. here 5 ! have got it in great detail.
6 MR. GRIFFIN: Okay.
7 MR. WESSMAN: We did go through that the last time we 8 talked with Don.
9 MR. GRIFFIN: Okay. Good. I will rely on your earlier ;
10 transcript for that then. I may have to call you later if l l'
11 I have a question or two, but I will assume that you-all 12 l have covered that.
13 MR. NISICH: Mr. Griffin, I'll just give you the bottom 14 line of that one particular NCR, which you're going to rely i 15 on that prior transcript. I wouldn't sign it off because l
j, 16 it wasn't completed, and I told them so; and when I went
!! 17 back to sign it off or tell them that we're getting close to -
!! 16 being able to sign it off, I was told that it was signed i 19 off already.
20 MR. GRIFFIN: They wanted you to go ahead and sign it i 21 Off?
22 MR. NISICH: No, they had signed it off already.
1 23 MR. GRIFFIN: Who was involved in this?
24 MR. NISICH: Well, it was Ted Neeley who was involved 25 in it. And, like I said, al1~this information, I believe,
24
~
I you got in great detail. i 9 I MR.- WESSMAN : We do. We have that in a previous dis-
- e 3 l cussion. We did get the names of the principal players l
4 involved, so let's look at that and see whether you have to 5
call Don.
6 MR. GRIFFIN: Are there any other incidents that come I
to mind that have caused you concern in this area?
0 1 MR. NISICH: There was a hanger.
9 MR. WESSMAN: We talked about*a hanger on penetration 10 going from the auxiliary building to the reactor building 11 and the possibility of an incorrect heat number being 12 applied, but I don't recall somebody twisting your arm in '
l i l 13 relation to that activity.
I 14 MR. NISICH: No; in the transcript it should show where 15 the general foreman pulled Ted Neeley aside and Ted Neeley i
l 16 ' said, " Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. And it
! 17 was signed off.
l 18 MR. HUBBARD. I don't recall that aspect of it. Let's 19 look at that transcript and see what else we need to--
f i 20 MR. GitIFFIN: You weren't present on that one, were l 21 you, whenever they signed it off?
22 MR. NISICH: It's not necessary for an Inspector to be 23 present when--because of the way the system is made up, you 24 ,
have individual hold points and then a qualified Inspector 25 should be able to pick up the package, see where it left off
25
- I and begin again.
2 MR. GRIFFIN: Okay. Before final acceptance.
3 '
MR. NISICH: Right.
4 MR. GRIFFIN: Don, do you have any information that
. I !
3 ' '
relates to the issue, one of the issues that we're exploring,i 6
- independent of whatever information you may have, regarding 7 upgrading material?
6 MR. NISICH: Not in that manner. I do question the 9 I way some material was accepted, and I can give you--I can't 10 give you the ISO number, but the incidents around it.
11 MR. GRIFFIN: Are you talking about accepted as it's i
12 l received; material?
l 1 I i
- 13 l MR. NISICH
- No. '
14 , MR. GRIFFIN: What kind of acceptance are you--
l 1 15 l' MR. NISICH: There was a--I think it was a three-quarter l
16 inch stainless steel pipe that was used in Unit 1, and it
- l 17 was left over from Unit 1. It had been lying around some-ll I 16 place. Now, the traceability was hard to trace because the
,', 19 craf tsman would take an etching tool and etch the heat number
!! 20 on those things so there was no proof of changing the heat 3
j 21 number. '
l!
22 MR. GRIFFIN: Do you know where this craftsman got the 23 heat number?
24 but. NISICH: No, I sure don't.
25 MR. GRIFFIN: Did you see him put it on?
l
26 1
MR. NISICH: No; that's what bothered me. I went up 2
and had a big discussion about it because this piece of pipe 3 must have been lying on the ground someplace within the 4
building for a year and-a-half to be used in Unit 1, and ,
I.
5 they used it on the Unit 2 side.
6 MR. GRIFFIN:
. Are we talking on your hanger and piece ,
l 7 number five?
l 8 MR. NISICH: No, this is all together.
9 MR. GRIFFIN: We'll come back*to piece number five and 10 that stuff later then.
11 . MR. HUBBARD: Did they cut the piece up into smaller i
12 . pieces or lid they use this as the one piece that you saw 13 i lying there?
t 14 ; MR. NISICH: No. That's the whole thing in a nutshell.
l l l 15 In other words, they come up with a piece out of thin air, ,
16 call it a certain heat number, and it was supposed to have 17 been used in Unit 1. okay? I couldn't see any verification i
15 of where the heat number had been transferred such as the 19 notation that should be on the Multiple Weld Data Card about
,r 3 it ji 20 transferring heat numbers.
lt lj 21 MR. GRIFFIN: Would it have been possible to have the i
22 i i heat number on there all along and it was transferred on i
25 there, put on there recently?
ya MR. NISICH: That's not what bothered me. What 25 bothered me is this little piece of material had been sitting I l l
I . _,.._ _. .._ _ ._._ _ _ _ -.____. _._.
, 27 I
! in the building somewhere to be used in Unit 1 for a year I o
~
l i
and-a-half. Then all of a sudden it pops up, someone found i
3 l it, it pops up, and they used it on Unit 2 side a year and-4 a-half after it was issued to the field.
l 5
MR. GRIFFIN: How were you able to determine that it 6
was intended for use in Unit 17 MR. NISICH: By looking at the Material Requisition
, Request.
9 MR. GRIFFIN: Did it travel with this piece of materiali 10 MR. NISICH: It travels with the package.
I1 MR. HUBBARD: So there was documentation with it?
I MR. NISICH: For Unit 1.
l MR. GRIFFIN: Did the documentation have a heat number?
I4 MR. NISICH: I can't remember offhand.
15 MR. GRIFFIN: Is there any way we can identify this
! 16 piece of material?
?,
! II MR. NISICH: I can only go down there and put my finger i IS on it.
1.
lo 19 MR. GRIFFIN: Was it used in Unit 27 k
i 20 MR. NISICH: Yeah.
5 j 21 MR. GRIFFIN: Do you know-- ,
22 MR. NISICH: On the Unit 2 side. My question was: how 21 do you know this is the same piece of material that's been 24 sitting around for a year and-a-half? Where did the crafts-25 man get this piece of material? I was told the key to it
r .-
28 I l was intended una on thn Material Raqu2st.
Well, the intended 2 !
use on the top will give you an ISO number and the location !
3 i number.
I That's the intended use, but it wasn't put in any-4 where near where it was supposed to have been in Unit 1. It 5
was over in the auxiliary building that they put this piece 6 in.
~,
, MR. WESSMAN: Do you know whether when this material 8
was used in Unit 2 that the ISO for whatever system that this 9
line went into reflects that this piece was transferred from 10 Unit 1 to Unit 27 11 MR. NISICH: No, it wasn't. It just said on the very 12 bottom of the Material Request its intended use, an ISO J
13 number, a spool number, a location. You can get your
- 14 location and everything else from there. There was no i
15 reference that this piece was scrapped. It came from some-16 where. Legally being .taken from the Unit 1 side and put into 17 the Unit 2 side. It just showed up out of thin air. '
l 18 MR. GRIFFIN: What's your understanding of what would 19 be required to transfer the use of this pipe?
20 MR. NISICH: My understanding according to the procedure:
21 Prior to cutting any piece of material that requires a heat 22
, number, an Inspector must be present and see that the heat 23 number has been transferred and annotate that on the MultipleI 24 Weld Data Card, and at that time it wasn't done.
25 MR. WESSMAN: Do you know the system or any way that
, 29 wm might trac 2 backwards to find this componsnt?
I 2 MR. NISICll: The only way that I could do it, because I
3 it burns in my mind, is go down there and it's a branch of f I l
i !
4 i a--I think it's a twelve-inch pipe, it's a three-quarter inch 5 comes off the twelve-inch pipe.
6 MR. GRIFFIN: Do you know what system it is to?
7 MR. NISICH: No, not offhand. That far back you 8 start delving into reasons why I felt things weren't being 9 done right-- -
10 MR. HUBBARD: Excuse me. It was a twelve-inch off 11 what?
12 MR. NISICll: It was a piece that will come of f of a 13 twelve-inch pipe; a three-quarter inch pipe; it comes off 14 a twelve-inch pipe running north and south on 790 near the t
15 ceiling.
16 MR. GRIFFIN: So the piece in question is a piece of
! 17 three-quarter inch pipe?
l 18 MR. NISICH: Yeah.
f 19 MR. WESSMAN: If you were able to go back on-site, I
i ,
20 could you locate that piece?
lt 21 MR. NISICH: I could locate the spool and then take 22 the package and we can go through and probably find.the 23 P i ece, yes; but now you're getting into an area which we 24 call witch hunting, which one of those ISO numbers and revs.
25 MR. GRIFFIN: That's correct.
in I
MR. NISICH: I cen't giva it to you. l 2
, MR. GRIFFIN: I understand. .
3 l MR. NISICH: But I can put my hand on it.
4 MR. GRIFFIN: Do you know for certain that the approp-3 riate steps were not taken to transfer this piece of 6
material?
~
MR. NISICH: From Unit 1 to Unit 27 It was obvious, S
but then again here comes--
9 MR. GRIFFIN: So we're left with a procedural violation.
10 You're not really contending that the use of these or that 11 the content or the quality of the piece was in question, but 12 rather the fact that you're contesting the fact that it was 13 not transferred properly to use in Unit 2; is that right?
14 MR. NISICH: I'm contesting the fact that there's nobody 15 to prove where it come from and when you sign it off, you're I
t 16 saying where it come from, where it's going.
! l~ 22. GRIFFIN : When you say "come from", you mean which ll 15 melt back at the manufacturer or are you talking about where
[* 19 it came from--
li 20 MR. NISICH: On-site, on-site. In other words, you can
,t t 21 take a piece of scrap material and etch a heat number on it 22 and put it up in placer and then if it's not shown where this 23 heat number has been transferred from piece to piece that 24 was cut and not annotated on the Multiple Weld Data Card 1
25 that it was cut, and it shows up a year and-a-half later, l
.-. - -_-_ - _- . _ _- _ - _ _ - _ .. A
31 l l than you'va lost trocacbility. * '
l 2 MR. GRIFFIN: I 4
I thought you said there was a package '
! t 3 ; of material that traveled with this piece-- l 4 ,
MR. NISICH: Yes. 1' I
5 MR. GRIFFIN: --and it would contain a heat number, 6 would it not?
7 MR. NISICH: It would contain--well, let me get back 8
to where the fine point comes in in this thing. Ted Neeley 9 signed off the NCR, and his statement on it was that it was 10 not an NCR condition, saying that the Material Request states 11 intended use of that piece. But by virtue of the fact that 12 there was no--at that time now, there was nothing to show on 13 l the Multiple Weld Data Card where the heat number was trans-14 ferred and this piece shows up a year and-a-half later from 15 , the Unit 1 side and put into a different spool on the Unit 16 2 side, then you've lost traceability to that piece, t
! 17 tm. HUBBARD: You say an NCR was made, was written?
.i IS MR. NISICH: Yes.
I i 20 MR. NISICH: Yes.
i 21 MR. HUBBARDt What was the basis for your filing it?
I i
22 Just what you've told us--
j 23 MR. NISICH: Loss of traceability.
i ja MR. HUBBARD: Loss of traceability? Do you have any
- 3. id14 shst time frame you're talking about in this--
- = , - . , . - _ , ...._----.._.--..,__.__..,m,-. , - . - . . . - _ _ - , - . . . - , - - - _ _ . _ , - . - _ - . - -
e.- - -- -- . ,e-- , . - - - _ - - ,
32 MR. NISICH:
, ND. Thot'0 liko I cay--
~
MR. HUBBARD: A year, or last year, or the year before?
i e 3 i i MR. NISICH: Last year.
4 -
MR. HUBBARD: '83, roughly. Middle of the year, and of 5
the year? I'm trying to track the NCR. The NCR might be 6
a way to track it down.
MR. NISICH: The only way that I can show you on this S
one particular thing would be to put my hand on the product.
9 MR. HUBBARD: But I might be able to track it down throtigh the NCR.
II l MR. NISICH: But I don't know the NCR number.
i 3 ~9 i MR. HUBBARD: But the time frame would be helpful.
13
, MR. NISICH: I can't really give you--it was sometime 14 last year. It was just one of the many things that-evolved.
15 MR. GRIFFIN: Did you feel like Neeley's disposition 8 16
- was improper, incorrect?
II MR. NISICH: On more than one occasion, yes.
l IS MR. GRIFFIN: But I mean on this occasion.
I9 MR. NISICH: Yes.
i 20 MR. GRIFFIN: Let's go off the record for a minute.
It l 21 (off-the-record discussion was held.)
22 MR. GRIFFIN: While we were off the record, Don, you 21 I mentioned some circumstances surrounding your termination 24 l that you wanted to relay to us. Could you tell us about 25 that?
i I _
i 33 I
MR. NISICH: Yes, cir. Whsn I came off my vccation 1 j l 4
2 l on the 17th of July which was a Tuesday, I came on to the 3
job site and found out that my BRAS, the form used to keep 4 '
track of your time in the time office, was not where it was 5'
supposed to be. I went to the time office and found out that.
6 I had been terminated, and they had sent just another
~
Inspector down there to clear me off the job site; not a b
Lead; he was a former Lead. No one could give me a reason 9
why I was terminated at that time, so I went through the 10 motions of clearing off the job site. And I appeared before 11 a TUGCO representative who wanted a final statement from me 12 as to anything that I thought was wrong. I refused to sign 13 one of those. I told him at that point to me it was an 34 internal matter between Brown and Root and myself and that 15 I would not sign any statement whatsoever. In which case, y
16 he made that statement that I made on paper; he signed it 17 '
and dated it, and Larry Wilkinson signed it and dated it.
! IS I did ask Larry Wilkinson just how in the hell did--because i' 19 of the character of the people left on the job site, how did i.i 20 they determine who they were going to lay off. He said, j 21 " Don, I don't know; it surprised the hell out,of me." I do 22 know that the Inspectors, they gave other people a chance to 23 go back to the craft, and they didn't give me that. I didn't 24 know what my rights were per se as to insurance or anything 25 of that nature. They just quickly got me off the job site.
34 I
{ MR. GRIFFIN: Ccn you think of cny othar statements !
o l
that were made during these events that were clearing you [
l 3
l off the site that would have given you any indication as to j l
4 why you were involved in the ROF or why you were included?
5 MR. NISICH: Now you're going to have to go back prior 1
6 to the ROF--
I MR. GRIFFIN: I'm talking about--I'm not asking about b
the history of your work experience. I'm just asking you 9
did any of the people you had contact with that day when 10 you were being cleared off the site, did they make any 11 statements?
12 A Russell Morris--I had gone MR. NISICH: All right.
to the Training Section and Rusty Morris was in there. One I4 of the requirements for staying was being able to pass a 15 test to become an N5 Document Visual Inspector Level 2, j
16 which I did. It was told if you couldn't pass that test,
! 17 you couldn't stay because they were in vital need of that 16
! person that could take a package from the very beginning I9 and go through the whole process and retire it to the vault.
i 20 Rusty Morris: I asked him if he signed my certification,
.l 21 and he said that he had signed my certification, that he had 22 personally walked it to the vault and put it in the vault 23 where nobody could get at it; and that was the one piece 24 of paper that was not going to be lost. There had been 25 several things that had happened. Once again, I'd have to
35 1 go back to just prior to my vacation to give you a back-2 ground.
3 MR. GRIFFIN: On the day that you were terminating, 4 did anybody make any reference to your not contacting the 5 NRC or anything like that? I 6 MR. NISICH: This happened about two days prior to 7 talking to Mr. Wessman at my home.
6 MR. GRIFFIN: Who told you not to contact the NRC?
l 9 MR. NISICH: You're putting words in my mouth. He 10 didn't say don't contact--
11 MR. GRIFFIN: I've got to describe the subject somehow 12 because I want to get to it. Can you tell me what events 13 there were, whatever was said?
14 MR. NISICH: I had tried to get hold of Mr. Al Smith 15 who was from the Houston office--
16 MR. GRIFFIN: With Brown and Root?
I h 17 MR. NISICH: Yes. --to contest me being laid off and j 16 why an explanation as to why--he came to~Stephenville a 3 19 couple of days before I talked to these gentlemen here, and i
! 20 he was very, very vague. He said, "You wdssed too much i
- g gg time so you were automatically placed into a category."
s 22 MR. GRIFFIN: What was this fellow's name?
23 MR. NISICH: Al Smith.
ja MR. GRIFFIN: Al Smith. Did you already mention to Smith 1
25 that you were considering talking to the NRC7
36 I MR. NISICH: No.
2 MR. GRIFFIN: Why did Mr. Smith come to see you?
I 3 MR. NISICH: Because I had requested it, because I 4 didn't think I was laid off in a fair manner, that the lay-5 off itself was done improperly.
6 MR. GRIFFIN: Mr. Smith was from Houston?
7 MR. NISICH: Yes. It was very unusual that he should 0 come to see me in a way-out-of-the-way place like, Stephenvil e.
9 That's not normally done. .
10 MR. GRIFFIN: Did he explain to you that his trip to 11 Stephenville was for the express purpose of talking to you 12 about your layoff?
13 MR. NISICH: Yeah, but by the same token, he left me I i
14 with the impression that he was fishing for what I knew. l l
15 MR. GRIFFIN: Did you give him or anybody else at Brown!
16 and Root a reason to believe that you might require some ,
g jl 17 special attention? What I'm trying to find out, Don, is ;
! 18 why this guy came out. I mean, hundreds and hundreds of l Why did he pick you, do you 3
19 people get ROF'd out of there.
I i 20 know?
21 MR. NISICH: Only that I had asked, and I felt that i 22 he was on a fishing expedition because he kept asking me 21 questions like you're asking me questions. I didn't give 24 him any answers because I wasn't getting any answers. ,
i 25 '30s. GRIFFIN: Do you know why he came to see you?
l
'l .
sv 1
MR. NISICH: Because I was contesting my layoff, becaus e 2
I think that--it was my personal opinion that laying me off 3
in particular presented a sore point, something that was in 4
a touchy area, and they had to be careful in dealing--once '
5 again, we'd have to go back to STP.
6 MR. GRIFFIN: So you think it's linked to your dis-7 agreement?
8 MR. WESSMAN: As I recall, we talked on the 8th of 9
August with Don. Don had said that Al Smith was his QA 10 Manager at STP, so there is a longer term association than 11 just Comanche Peak.
12 MR. GRIFFIN: All right. Did Al make any reference to 13 you making your concerns known to third parties like the NRC .
14 or any of the intervenor groups or--
15 MR. NISICH: Yeah. He said, "I bet a bunch of people 16 are beating the bushes looking for you."
t I said, "Yes, I've ,
I 17 received some phone calls from people that have been laid off 18
! and are involved with GAP and NRC." The gist of the whole 19 thing and the statement made prior to ending our conversatiori t
i 20 and him going his way and me going mine is that " Jeez, I j 21 don't mean to make it sound like I'm twistin,g your arm, but c
22 before you--think carefully before you decide to talk to the 23 NRC or anybody else because you might want to work with us t'
24 or Brown an6 Root or possibly, as I understand, possibly in 25 the nuclear field again in two or three years. Just think
38 I about it."
2 MR GRIFFIN: Okay, Don. I want to ask you your opinion 3 about this statement. When he said this, the man that you 4 had know in a previous position, somebody that was not a 5 stranger to you, when he said this, was he threatening you 6 or was he giving you a left-handed warning that if you went 7 to the NRC or an intervenor and it became known, some people 8 in the industry might take it wrong and it could preclude 9 your employment? Was he threatening you or was he saying, 10 " Hey, this is a reality of the world. If you go out and 11 contact these people, it could hurt you later on." Did you 12 form an opinion one way or the other?
13 MR. NISICH:. Yeah. My opinion was what you--very closely 14 what you just said. .
15 MR. GRIFFIN: About it could hurt you possibly?
16 MR. NISICH: Later on.
Because that's a distinction that NRC
! 17 MR. GRIFFIN:
I; 18 makes. When we hear things like this, we're very interested A 19 because we don't want people suffering in this way. It's I It's a serious--can be a i 20 blackballing in the industry.
5 3
21 ,
serious subject if it keeps people from reporting deficiencie s. -
22 ! MR. NISICH: Well, you can have your recommendation in 23 your hands from a company, and you can apply to another 23 company and use this company as a reference, and especially 25 in the nuclear industry they are going to call the other
se company; so just because you have all this good stuff in 2 !
your hands doesn't mean it's what they're telling them when they call and want to know about you. I believe that someone 4
else--it's a big lawsuit involved here--has inferred this.
5 We know who we're talking about. It's possible from what
. 6 I've seen of other things that--it's possible that he's got 7
a case. Proving it is another thing.
8 MR. GRIFFIN: Do either of you have any more on this 9
subject? For the portion of this transcript that we're 10 making here, for my portion of it, I want to bring it to a II close. We will start on another transcript in a technical 12 area just for our own housekeeping.
13 MR. NISICH: You have what you feel is necessary?
14 If I don't, believe me, I MR. GRIFFIN: I think so.
15 won't hesitate to ask for more.
6 Now, you're going to have to--I'm going to i
MR. NISICH:
I ,'
,I have to move to cheaper quarters; therefore, I'm going to 16 l have to give you a forwarding address.
I 19 MR. GRIFFIN: If the phone lines go down, we'll get in 2
0 touch if we need to.
'?
91 MR. NISICH: Well, you might need a forwarding address.
l 22 MR. GRIFFIN: Okay. We'll get that. Also, we're going 23 to need a forwarding address to send a copy of this trans-21 cript, if you're moving soon, because you're entitled to it.
25 ~1CR. NISICH: I'll be moving the 31st of this month.
40 I
MR. GRIFFIN: I'll get your address when we go off the 2
record so we won't burden the record with personal items.
3 Don, have I or any other representative here threatened 4
you in any manner or offered you any reward in return for 5
your statement?
6 MR. NISICH: You have not.
7 MR. GRIFFIN: Have you given the statement freely and 8
voluntarily?
9 MR. NISICH: I have.
- 10 MR. GRIFFIN: Anything further that you'd like to add Il to the record?
12 MR. NISICH: I could go on and on, but only if it helps I3 you better understand what I'm trying to say; otherwise, no.
14 MR. GRIFFIN: I appreciate that.
15
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41
' CERTIFICATE OF PROCEEDINGS This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the Nuclear Regulatory Consnission 4 DO NOT DISCLOSE In the Matter of: COMANCHE PEAK TECHNICAL INTERVIEW 6
Date of Proceedings: August 23, 1984 Place of Proceedings: Granbury, Texas 8
were held as herein appears, and that this is the original 9
transcript for the file of the Commission.
10 11 12 Carmen Gooden 13 Certified shorthand Reporter 14 15
-/
16 p_ j lg Certified Shorthand Reporter
!! I7 and Notary Public l 18 My commission expires August 10, 1987.
- 19 i
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