ML20211A900

Responds to 850930 Memo Re Lecture Slides of General Physics Corp.No Present Avenue Exists for Enforcement Action.Encl Describes Options Re Possible Future Contracts & Pending NRC Actions.W/List of Actions

ML20211A900
Person / Time
Issue date:	10/18/1985
From:	Dircks W NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO)
To:	Palladino N NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
Shared Package
ML20211A884	List: ML20211A879 ML20211A900
References
FOIA-86-37, FOIA-86-A-37 NUDOCS 8606110406
Download: ML20211A900 (3)

Text

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.. OCT 181985

MEMORANDUM FOR: Chairman Palladino FROM: William J. Dircks Executive Director for Operations

SUBJECT:

,, GENERAL PHYSICS LECTURE SLIDES FOR GPU NUCLEAR The purpose'of this memorandum is to respond to Questions 1, 2, and 4 posed in your memorandum of September 30, 1985 regarding the lecture slides of General Physics Corporation. The questions and responses are set forth below. Question 3 will be answered separately as you suggested. .

1) Do you agree that there exists no present avenue for enforcement action against General Physics or an NRC licensee who contracted with General Physics under any current NRC requirement? For exan.ple, can it not be inferred from 10 CFR 50.70 (or some other provision) that licensees I must be cooperative and candid with NRC and maintain an adequate training I program to that end?

Answer: We agree with the OGC analysis that there exists no present avenue for enforcemeni. action against General Physics or any NRC licensee 1 who contracted with General Physics.

2) What options now exist with respect to present and future NRC contracts -

with General Physics Corporation? (You should consider the results of the OGC legal analysis to be provided by October 1,1985.)

Answer: The joint memorandum from OGC and OELD dated October 4,1985 describes the options which now exist with respect to NRC contracts with General Physics Corporation. We are evaluating whether -NRC should exercise any of these options and will so advise you.

4) What is the status of any pending NRC staff actions on this matter?

Answer: The status of pending NRC staff actions is described in the Enclosure.

(Signed) William J.Dirsks William J. Dircks i Executive Director for Operations

Enclosure:

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'. . l STATUS OF STAFF ACTIONS ON GENERAL PHYSICS CORPORATION l

1. On September P and 10. 1985 the Vendor Program Branch (VPB) performed an inspection at f.eneral Physics. As a result of the inspection it was  :

concluded that the t' raining material identified which dealt with practices that could mislead NRC inspectors was an isolated case and was contained only in material used in two Appendix J._ Containment Leak' Rate Testing, courses. -

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3. Letters were sent on September 13, 1985 to Baltimore Gas & Electric Company, Carolina Power & Light Company, Virginia Electric & Power Company. Houston Lighting & Power Company, and Duquesne Light Company requesting the licensees to reinstruct personnel who attended the course, review policies and procedures that assure candid comunications with the NRC, remove any remaining objectable material, review leak rate test results conducted since the course and review internal controls over contractor provided training.

The licensees were requested to provide a response to the requested actions.

and to coment on the more general allegation that it was traditional industry practice to be less than candid regarding reporting containment leak rate testing. .

The staff is reviewing a voluntary response from General Public Utilities, dated September 3,1985, describing actions that they have taken subsequent to identification of the objectionable material.

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Government Accountability Project 1555 Connecticut Avenue. N.W.. Suite 202 Washington. D.C. 20036 (202) 232-8550 llillie Carde Dircctor. Environmental Whistleblower Os. ,nac '

January 14, 1986 PREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUEST FREEDOM OF INFORMATION -

ACT REQUEST Director Office of Administration [8[8 -Mh87 Nuclear Regulatory Commission ff Washington, D.C. 20555 To Whom It May Concern: ,

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), 5 U.S.C. $552, the Government Accountability Project (" GAP")

requests copies of any and all agency records and information, including but not limited to notes, letters, memoranda, drafts, minutes, diaries, logs, calendars, tapes, transcripts, summaries, interview reports, procedures, instructions, ~ engineering f

analyses, drawings, files, graphs, charts, maps, photographs, agreements, handwritten notes, studies, data sheets, notebooks, books, telephone messages, computations, voice recordings, computer runoffs, any other data compilations, interim and/or final reports, status reports, and any and all other records relevant to and/or generated in connection with IE Information Notice 85-101, " Applicability of 10 CFR 21 to consulting Firms Providing Training," December 31, 1985; specifically all information concerning the vendor' inspection of "a company tha.t -

supplies consulting services, including training, to the nuclear industry."

This request includes all agency records as :lefi.ned in 10 C.F.R. $9.3a(b) and the NRC Manual., Appendix 0211, Parts 1.A.2 and A.3 (approved October 8, 1980) whether they currently exist in the NRC official, " working", investigative or other files, or at any other location, including private residences.

If any records as defined in 10 C.F.R. $9.3a(b) and the NRC Manual, supra, and covered by this~ request have been destroyed and/or removed after this request, please provide a21 surrounding records, including but not limited to a list of all records which have been or are destroyed and/or removed, a description of the action (s) taken relevant to, generated in connection with, and/or issued in order to implement the action (s).

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GAP requests that fees be waived, because " finding the information can be considered as primarily benefitting the general public," 5 U.S.C. $552(a)(4)(a). GAP is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest organization concerned with honest and open government. Through public outreach, the Project promotes whistleblowers as agents of government acqountability.

Through its Citizens Clinic, GAP offers assistance to local public interest and citizens groups seeking to ensure the health and safety of their communities.

We are requesting the above information as part of an ongoing monitoring project on the adequacy of the NRC's efforts to protect public safety and health at nuclear power plants.

For any documents or portions that you deny due to a specific FOIA exemption, please provide an index itemizing and describing the documents or portions of documents withheld. The index should provide a detailed justification of your grounds for claiming each exemption, explaining why each exemption is relevant to the document or portion of the document withheld.

This index is required under Vaughn v. Rosen (I), 484 F.2d 820 (D.*C. Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 415 U.S. 977 (1974).

We look forward to your response to this request within ten days.

Sincerely,

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[ Billie Pirner Garde

} Director Environmental Whistleblower Clinic i

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[facw%,, ~ UNITED STATES 8 c NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION i E WASHINGTON. D. C. 20555 k, ...../ March 13,1986 Ms. Billie Garde, Director Environmental Whistleblower Clinic Government Accountability Project 1555 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.,

Suite 202 IN RESPONSE REFER Washington, DC 20036 TO F01A-86-37

Dear Ms. Garde:

This is in further response to your letter dated January 14, 1986, in which you requested, pursuant to the Freedom of Infonnation Act (F0IA), access to all agency records relevant to and/or generated in connection with IE Infor-mation Notice 85-01, " Applicability of 10 CFR 21 to Consulting Firms Providing Training," December 31, 1985; specifically all information concerning the vendor inspection of "a company that supplies consulting services, including training, to the nuclear industry."

The additional records listed on the enclosed Appendix A (continued) as items 10 through 15 are available in the NRC's Public Document Room.

== The documents listed on the enclosed Appendix B contain information whirn constitutes advice, opinions and recommendations of the staff. Release of these documents would tend to inhibit the open and frank exchange of iJeas essential to the deliberative process. These documents are being withheld in their entirety from public disclosure pursuant to Exemption 5 of the F0IA (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(5)) and 10 CFR 9.5(a)(5) of the Comission's regulations.

There are no reasonably segregable factual portions.

Pursuant to 10 CFR 9.15 of the Commission's regulations, it has been deter-mined that the information withheld is exempt from production or disclosure and that its production or disclosure is contrary to the public interest.

The person responsible for the denial of documents 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 listed on Appendix B is Mr. John C. Hoyle, Assistant Secretary of the Commission. The person responsible for the denial of documents 3 and 7 listed on Appendix B is Mr. James A. Fitzgerald, Assistant General Counsel.

This denial may be appealed to the Secretary of the Commission within 30 days from the receipt of this letter. Any such appeal must be in writing, '

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l Ms. Billie Garde addressed to the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, DC 20555, and should clearly state on the envelope and in the letter that it is an " Appeal from an Initial F0IA Decision."

This completes action on your request.

Sincerely, Q -

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Donnie H. Grimsley, Director Division of Rules and Records Office of Administration e

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APPENDIX A CONTINUED RE: F01A-86-37

• A10 08/30/85 Letter to' Chairman Palladino from Rep. Markey, Re: GPC Lecture Slides, (17 pages)

Accession No. 8510220432

• All 09/03/85 Letter to Palladino from Clark, Re: Markey inquiry (14 pages) Accession No. 8510220432A

• A12 09/04/85 Memo to Commissioners from Dircks,

Subject:

General Physics Corporation Instructional Course for Licensees Containing Material Objectionable to the NRC (38 pages) Accession No. 8509060051

• A13 10/10/85 Letter to Rep. Markey from Palladino responds to 08/30/85 letter (2 pages) Accession No. 8510220432

• A14 11/08/85 Letter to Chairman Palladino from Rep. Markey (3 pages) Accession No. 8601280305A

• A15 09/19/85 Letter to Merschoff from Deutsch (13.pages)

Accession No. 8509230204

• THESE DOCUMENTS CAN 8E LOCATED AT THE PUBLIC DOCUMENT ROOM (PDR),

LOCATED AT 1717 H STREET, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20555, UNDER THE ACCESSION NUMBERS IDENTIFIED AS THE DOCUMENT DESCRIPTIONS.

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, APPENDIX B RE: F01A-86-37 B1 09/10/85 Memo to Chairman Palladino from Lando W. Zech, Jr. Re:

The General Physics Corporation Matter (1 pag.e) 82 09/18/85 Memo to William J. Dircks from Nunzio J. Palladino Re:

General Physics Corporation Lecture Slides (1 page)

B3 09/18/85 Memo to Chairman Palladino from Herzel H. E. Plaine, General Counsel Re: Lecture Slides for GPU Nuclear (1 page) 84 09/24/85 Memo to Herzel H. E. .Plaine and Guy H. Cunningham from n James K. Asselstine Re: Lecture Slides for GPU Nuclear (1 page) 85 09/30/85 Memo to William J. Dircks from Nunzio J. Palladino Re:

General Physics Lectures Slides for GPU Nuclear (2 pages) 86 Undated Memo to Chairman Palladino from Victor Stello Re:

General Physics Lecture Slides for GPU Nuclear (5 pages)

B7 10/04/85 Memo to the Commissioners from H. H. E. Plaine, General Counsel and James P. Murray, Acting Executive Legal Director Re: General Physics Corporation Lecture Slides for GPU Nuclear (4 pages) 88 10/18/85 Memo to Chairman Palladino from William J. Dircks Re:

General Physics Lecture Slides for GPU Nuclear (3 pages)

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89 10/29/85 Memo to Commissioner Bernthal from James K. Asselstine Re: COMFB 85-11 -- General Physics Contracts with NRC (1 page)

B10 11/21/85 Memo to W. J. Dircks from N. J. Palladino Re: General Physics Lecture Slides for GPU Nuclear (2 pages)

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