ML20215H843

FOIA Request for All Records Re Util Mock Disaster Drill on 870311 as Reported in Encl Daily Tribune 870313 Article

ML20215H843
Person / Time
Site:	South Texas
Issue date:	04/10/1987
From:	Bauman L GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT
To:	NRC OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION (ADM)
References
FOIA-87-225 NUDOCS 8705070090
Download: ML20215H843 (4)

Text

.

GOVERf,4 MENT ACCOUNTADIUTY PROJECT 155.5 Ccinnecticut Avenue, N.W. Suite 202 (202)232-8550 Washington. D.C. 20036 MIDWl:ST OFFICl?

104 P.. WISCONSIN AVENUl?

APPLETON, WISCONSIN 54915-8605 April 10, 1967 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUEST MTREQUEST

% M d 1 -- d al-8 Director Office of Administration U.S.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission g f Ef = 2.d '3 )

Washington, D.C.

20210 TO WilOM 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, calanders, tapes, transcripts, summaries, interview reports, procedures, instructions, engineering analyses, drawings, files, graphs, charts, maps, photographs, agreements, hadnwritten notes, studies, data sheets, notebooks, books, telephones messages, computations, voice recordings, computer runoffs, and any other data compilations, interim and/or final reports, status reports, and any and all other records generated in connection with or otherwise concerning/ Ilouston Lighting and Power's " mock disaster" drill on Wednesday, March /11, 1987 as reported in The Daily Tribune on Friday, March 13, 1987 (article enclosed). '

This request includes all agency records as defined in 10 C.F.R. 9.3a(b) a'id the NRC Manual, Appendix 0211, Parts 1.A.2 and A.3 (approved Occober 8, 1980) whether they currently exist in the NRC offical, " working" invastigative or other flies, or at any other location, including private residences.

If an,' 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 all surrounding records, including but not limited to a list of all records w hich have been or are destroyed and/or removed, a description of the action (s) taken relevant to, generated in connect ion -

and/or issued in order to implement the action (s).

o090 870410 87050ja b h

een

b

.e GAP requests that fees be walved, because

" finding the information can he considered as primarily beneffting the general non profit, non-partisan 552 (a) (4) (a).

GAP i sa public," 5 U.S.C.

public interest organization concerned with honest and open government.

Through public outreacli, the Project promotes whistleblowers as agents of government accountability.

Through it Enviromental Whistleblower Clinic, GAP offers assistance to local public interest and citizens groups and intervenors in the concern for safety at nuc, lear power plants.

We are requesting this information as part of an ongoing monitoring project of the flRC's efforts to protect public health and safety at and near nuclear processing plants and radioactive waste facilities.

For any documents or portions that you deny due to a specific FOIA exemption, please provide an index i temizing 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 exemtion is relevant to the document or portion of the document withheld.

This index is required under Vaughn V.

Rosen (1), 484 F2d 820 (D.C. Cir. 197.3), cert. denied, 4f5 U.S.

977 11974).

look forward to your response to this request within ten (10)

We working days.

Sincerely,

[

Wil#lGjj Linda Bauman FOIA Coordinator Midwest Office i

t t Rosponses to this request should be mailed to 104 E. Wisconsin Avenue Appleton, Wisconsin 54915-8605 t

. - ~,

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--.y

' 5.

' Dress rehearsal' D

I

~

f]HL&P stages mock L' Edisaster drill at STP Elaine Richardso A pres se issued ' y coun-Gay stated that teams from,the

)

b

{ ~TheDaily Tribune ty sheriff's ofhee investigator Texas DepartmentofIlealth Ld t

.e"..h. 1

. Kenneth Ganson at 8:58 a.m. arrived at the site and were I 1

$~

fliouston Lighting and Powere reiterated that two earthquake moniteringradiationlevelsinnor-s

! !%Tepresentatives staged anotherin tren ors had been reported at the thweeterly diection of the site.

t

[l) ^

d;'La series 'of mock disasters plant and that it did not appear Garison reported that County

(.'[ Wednesday designed to test likely at the time that there was Judge Burt O'Connell had d..f emergency preparedness at the any threat to the public.

ordered the evacuation of allper-i

. South: Texas Project nuclear

sons withina 10-mileradius of the

, d(3 plant; A

I Radiation was being plant. Shelters were set up at

. The"dressrehearsal"drillgave released to the outside Palacios Iligh School and

', Lofficiaisonetastchancetotronout 1

! 3 the wrinkles in their emergency from Unit 1 and person McAllisterJumor HighisBayCs ty.

, } dresponse plan beforeit is graded nelin the Unit 2 control A county press releaseissued I.

f by the Nuclear Regulatory Com room gad geen inc at 11:17 a. m., stated that v

)

.I mission April 8. The plant must.

studentsatBlessingElementary, Jrpass the NRC testin order to beistructed to completely Markham Elementary and

.: licensed for operation.

Wednesday'edrillwasthefirst seal it off. Radiation TidehavenIlighSchoolhad been

to utilize the Media Information, levels were rising ' and. evacuated to McAllister Junior E

liigh and Bay City liigh School.

I

- ;; Center, set up in the Matagorda essential personnel' Evacuation continued. in the

, no m of the Holiday Inn, where; were being evacuated.

CollMatagorda, Citrus Grov,e and

(

.:: all communications between.

egeport areas. Residents "took place. Any newinformation' ilL&Pandmediarepresentatives,

• At9:23a.m.theconditio I

^

.,;hin the form of press releases and jlant was dec'ared a Site Area. 92 about the disaster war dispensed mergency as a result of a third Another briefing was called at u'

l.

briefings from the MIC. -

quake detwted at the, plant site. Lion on thelatest press release -

11:20 a.m.toconfirm theinforma-

Media were not allowed in the,l'he upgraded condition, meant

-: control room next door, which therewereactualorlikely failures radiation was bemg released to 1 waspatrolledbyasecurityguard. of plant functions requirmg pro-the outaide from Unit 1 and per-

, ;. Thirty telephones were set up in tection of site personnel and the sonnelin the Unit 2 control room 6 hadbeeninstructedtocom letelv

~ : the MIC for media use. with the Public, radiation had been releas-seal it off. Radiation leve[s wer~e d capebility for about 100 more, edinprojecteddosesnotharmful. rising land essential personnel 1: GeriKonigsberg,information of. to anyone.other than near the r were being evacuated.

! ficer for llL&P, said...

plant site,and that there atillwas Waldrop stated that the radia j

.. ' The;drillqbegan ehortly after noimmediatepublic hazard.

i

9

30 a.m.' Press releases had.been..

tion being released at that time t

.-idistributed at 8:05 a.m/ statingkWaldrop sununarized the eventsHL&P spokesperson that ilP&L authorities at STP of thelasTtwohoursleadingupto milireiris pechour; lie said the

)

.' :i; had issued - a Notification of theteurrent site emergency lowest level tolerable by h

.- Unusual Event, which simply status.With him on theinforma-was 20, so exposure levels were $

such thatit would take 200 hours0.00231 days <br />0.0556 hours <br />3.306878e-4 weeks <br />7.61e-5 months <br />

.Imeant something out of the or. tion panel were: Jerry Goldberg, ofexposurebeforeatherewasany.

dinary had happened but no group vice president, nuclear,ak. threat'to a psson's health.

' danger to to the public existed.,

llL&P; Teresa Gay, Bureau of. IIealsostated that there wa m,

i Another release at'8:48 a.m. Garisonof theMatagordaCounty were s confirmed that an earthquake ere alicm -

. strong enough to set off the Sheriff s Department.

ingthecoolant tospilloutinto the !

Goldberg stated that Unit 1

. plant s seismic alarm had been detected at 7:30 a.m. Thirty had suffered a loss of coolant in ' container. Garison stated that 8

i

' minutes. later a second quake loop A of the reactor coolin Celanese employees had beei.

resulted in the declaration of an system.'A pipe had broken an ~ evacuated.

Some questions arose as to the 7 alert,.which meant there was coolant was spillinginto the reac-timeliness of the information be-e potentialforsubstantialdegrada, tor containment. However,-he inggiven. '

tion of the safety level at the said, the reactor was stifi covered

.TWe aremakingeveryattempt r

andnoradiation wasleakinginto :to bly as po lant, and emergency nse facilities were activa, res t information in here as the atmosphere outside the con ! qui ssible and as ac-1 t

No La radiation release was reportel.

i See Dilll L Page 4 L

y 7

~

m-

Pege 4 Tha D:ily Tribune Friday, M rch 13,1987 Mock ' dress rahcarsal' drill I

Earthquakes focus ofdisaster During a subs'egh'ehiliriefing' t

the tim gostnoothly

. Continued from Page3 Waldropstatedthattheradiation formation to to k forin-cur tely as possible" Waldrop

levelshaddroppedto12mdhrems the AflC. A heplanteo HL&P,represen j replied. As to the validity of 5 per hour, and Goldberg reported

• tativesaidth rumors circulating about conda-

, that a spraywas beingconducted

• informationIaft go through so Dwas that the tions at the plant, Waldrop urged con the containment area to cool at the emmanypeople,:p mmvesdgators I media to get all theirinformation

the reactor and lower the fromHL&Pspokespersonsin the -

which would slow the througha e

1. siteit ha.d togo

'nEIMo~w a$md ' f tinie'what the l MIC and treat anything else as

~

. g of radiation..-

centernear the site tppeMons scenario will ' be. Participants o

p rumor.

At2:35,Goldberg

~ $g I ' moniapfhe Holida

' ""tml

' were only notified that there was At 12:20 p.m.

Waldrop

.10 percent of the fu I

en be

' tobeadrillWednesday.

-reported that there had been no

, damaged. When

- had beeN changein conditions at the plant.

I as to whythefuelf "That's the kind of scenarios

~ '

was :apparenti efect2v. A,'

. deciphered"by a technical cons"ul-they. write for us," he said after d.he saidit The reactor core continued to be stable and the temperaturein the

- repairteamwMa I tantintolayman's termsbeforeit the ofirst: press brtefing, dt rwasl!

corewasdrop ing.Threeinjuries attempting to ca could be disseminated to the speculating'on what would hap-were

- a worker had '

• i mediaviapressreleasesandbrief-pen next. "The only way you can ibrokenhishandtakmgsamplesin I auxiliary buildi rker had 1

• the fuel handling building and gotterioutunderhi power. J

[ings.

.Y 9.

i haveanemergencyatoneofthese beenexposed to ti thad The drills are designed to test plantsis tocategoricallywipeout two workers taking field samples I' ofRadia l every possible emergenef that awholelotof safety features.The Gay rted h Bureaui

• could occur' at a nuclear' power.

script writers can write them off had suffered conenmmation due nworkershadcheckedf facility. Goldberg said that an as soon as I put them in."

to holes in their gloves. All were samples for 3none,and}o %

din.e m a d found{

j earthquake at STP was almost

, undergoing treatment-

,.JSeveralHP&L and Central

A release at 1

32 p.m. stated men %

unpossible,theareaisone,of the Power andLight representatives a-

.that durmg the third quake, con,

most geologically stable m th agreed that the scenario was

. crete fell and apparently punc.

country.

./,

antikely at the STP facility

' tured a pipein the supplementary N

,"This plant is designed to because this is a very stable area, purge system of Unit i, therefore weg withstand earthquake damage but by. allowing for unlikely causing a rge valve to stick

,Ip e,. x -

far in, excess of anything around j

events, they can provide for any iopen and wmg radiation to be.

.A 42e dy here, he said.,

for the molck,' event' r' emergency that could releasedintotheMechanicalElee-

/4 he p7,N

^ The scenarios,tten for HL&P possi g,'occ.

y ur.

trical Auxiliary Building and out u

"#00s. disasters are wri

.j through a hole in the roof of that

/^ q ar,

arewrittenbyoutsidecompanies.

4 e

.'bui' ding.

ilhet 'he k MN 48 i Radiation levels ha the at-

.'.Clo A it

• M '

ai, > was written by Energy.Inc.',of sg e

'mosphere were measured at 18.),

i -

' Idaho' Falls, Idaho.

~ t..

s...

p,j milliterps per hour, stated in the ;

Nt

/r con. 48d

" Players" in the scenarios do og pOtdogD release as a dosage equivalent tn t

g 1

,n, e g *a n

o' ne. chest X-ray per hour.

therdaM'a4d [# o w,.

s Tempersture in tf.e co. - con-C t

n iete tinug! to drop rto g g e d

er

'h.s.,, n yld o

4