ML20215C173

Requests Assistance in Contacting Individuals Alleging Safety Violations Listed in Employee Legal Project to Governor Dukakis

ML20215C173
Person / Time
Site:	Seabrook
Issue date:	09/26/1986
From:	Kane W NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I)
To:	Tracy S EMPLOYEE'S LEGAL PROJECT
Shared Package
ML20215C160	List: ML20215C157 ML20215C173
References
NUDOCS 8610100135
Download: ML20215C173 (1)

Text

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UNITED STATES

/ p ase NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

,8- 7, naa m e f $30 PARK AVENUE MING OF PRUSSI A, PENMSYt.VANI A 19404 2 4 SEF 1986 Sharon Tracy Employee's Legal Project P. O. Box 633 Amesbury, Massachusetts 01913

Dear Ms. Tracy:

It has come to our attention that your organization has prepared a letter for Governor Dukakis, dated September 12, 1986, which was distributed unsigned on September 18 at a press conference. In that letter, your organization asks the Governor to undertake an independent investigation of alleged safety violations at Seabrook.

As discussed on the telephone on September 23, the NRC Region I office has prepared a summary of the specific allegations included in, and attached to, your September 12 letter. These are included as an attachment to this letter.

As also discussed in our telephone conversation, the NRC would like any addi-tional, specific information that may be available so that these allegations may be thoroughly reviewed. To this end, we ask your assistance in making direct contact with the individuals who made these allegations.

We note a copy of your September 12 letter was to be provided to Richard Starostecki, formerly of the NRC Region I Office. We have no record of a copy of your September 12 letter being received here in the Region I Office. The type of information included in your letter to Governor Dukakis is important to us. We rely on prompt notification of potential safety concerns in order to help us to achieve a timely and effective resolution of the issues. In order to avoid future problems of this type, please inform us by phone when you receive allegations of this nature; formal correspondence should normally follow your call.

Presently, I am filling the position formerly held by Mr. Starostecki. Please feel free to contact me to discuss the matter further. I can be reached at (215) 337-5230.

Your cooperation with us is appreciated.

Sincerely, h

A f ) W William F. Kane, Director

Attachment:

As Stated cc:

Senator Nicholas J. Costello Robert M. Hallisey, Massachusetts State Liaison Officer (Note to Robert Hallisey: Please distribute copies of this letter to other appropriate State and Legislative staff.)

SUMMARY

OF SEA 8 ROOK ALLEGATIONS RAISED BY THE EMPLOYEES LEGAL PROJECT - AMESBURY, MASS.

The Employees Legal Project included the below concerns in a letter to Governor Dukakis dated September 12, 1986.

Construction concerns addressing the integrity of containment:

1. Cement was poured in below-freezing temperatures (contrary to procedure recammendations designed to produce proper solidification and strength).

2. Cement which was tested and rejected as an improper mixture by a safety inspector was subsequently poured.

3. Empty beer cans and bottles were discarded in the wet cement by workers drinking on the job, potentially creating air pockets and affecting the integrity of the containment.

4. Superficial patches were applied to major cracks in the containment (resulting from improperly cured cement). -

5. Steel rods designed to support the containment wall were improperly severed at the second-story level of the reactor to simplify the construction process.

Other safety-related construction concerns:

6. The volume of the water from the fire sprinkler system is not adequate because the pipes are partially clogged from sitting for several years with water in them. When the fire sprinkler system was tested, it was only checked for pressure not for volume.

7. When the service water lines were tested, some of the inside cement coating broke off. This system cools essential parts of the plant and must be debris-free. The only parts of the lines replaced were the elbows where the greatest friction occurs.

8. When the service water system was turned on for testing, a valve was accidentally left closed. A geyser of 750,000 gallons of salt water flooded the equipment vault building.

9. Paint is crucial to a plant's safe operation in keeping dust down and so radiation can be easily washed away. The paint on the floor of the containment is peeling.

StMiARY OF SEABROOK ALLEGATIONS 2 Concerns regarding the adequacy of employee training, working conditions, and supervision:

10. No training records exist before April,1985, preventing assessment or verification of training and orientation processes.

11. Extensive written procedures and instructions were used as a primary training tool, although some workers were illiterate and many foreign engineers were not fluent in English.

12. Workers with no previous experience were trained "on the spot" in delicate techniques to perform critical welding (and other reports allege that although all welds should be tested, many are inaccessible).

13. On-the-job drug and alcohol abuse of epidemic proportions was reported by contact after contact. Cocaine was cited as the drug of choice.

14. Engineers and tradespeople routinely work 18 to 20 hour2.314815e-4 days <br />0.00556 hours <br />3.306878e-5 weeks <br />7.61e-6 months <br /> shifts.

15. The company has been having some painters do quality control checks-on other painters' work. By federal law, those who do quality control must be organizationally independent; members of the same union checking each other's work does not meet this criteria.

16. Workers report personal harassment subsequent to voicing safety complaints.

Additional concerns attached to the September 12 letter in the form of signed statements:

17. There were cracks in the cement of the equipment vault which were leaking water, and cracks in the inside containment dome between the inside and outside domes which were just patched over. It i s my understanding that patching on hardened cement doesn't last very long. (Similar to No. 4)

18. Rebar, wire, pieces of steel, and other debris was thrown into an

, electric generator on the second floor of the north side of the equipment vault.

19. A lit cigarette fell into a four inch conduit full of wires and cables and caught the wires on fire. Four or five gallons of water poured down the pipe finally put the fire out. This incident was never reported.

20. People doing checks for startup did their checkoffs very carelessly.

o

SUMMARY

OF SEABROOK ALLEGATIONS 3

21. Any kind of drug there is was available there. People did cocaine on the cable trays. (Similar to No. 13)

22. Security there was very slack. To see if the security system worked, someone put gunpowder in their pocket and mixed up a paste and rubbed it on their pants, then stood right against the machine which detects those things. It did not go off.

23. Guards would smoke in the doorway of the area where the fuel is held with both the doors open. Much of the time the back door of that area was held open with a block of wood.

24. Implementation of the TP-10 procedure which enables NCR's to be written eliminating normally required steps. This saves the licensee money by eliminating certain steps of inspection.

25. Safety-related construction procedures are ambiguously written with language open to interpretation by the reader.

26. Procedures are written to allow unsafe conditions to continue to exist, i.e., revised or newly written procedures justify an unsafe condition. -

27. Improperly trained welders are welding onsite.

28. Improperly trained electricians are onsite.

29. Trainers and engineers give classes inadequately to groups withia their organization.

30. Alleger has worked 18-20 hour shifts. (Similar to No. 14)

31. A11eger has seen other engineer technicians and craftspeople working 13 to 20 hour2.314815e-4 days <br />0.00556 hours <br />3.306878e-5 weeks <br />7.61e-6 months <br /> shif ts. (Similar to No.14)

32. The tracking of blueprints is impossible.

33. Battling and sabotage existed between different contractors.

34. Contractors are engineering and constructing jobs improperly to prolong site work.

35. Some people are trained and retrained, while others are left untrained due to the inadequate tracking system.

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