ML20235K888

Responds to Directing That Further Communication Re Plant Investigation & Issues Concerning Safety Be Sent to Region Iv.Appointment of Independent Team to Review Allegations Requested.Gap & Util Correspondence Encl

ML20235K888
Person / Time
Site:	South Texas
Issue date:	03/04/1987
From:	Garde B GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT
To:	Stello V NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO)
Shared Package
ML20235K715	List: ML20235K712 ML20235K716 ML20235K847 ML20235K888 ML20235K910 ML20235K942 ML20244D591
References
FOIA-87-467 NUDOCS 8710050265
Download: ML20235K888 (7)

Text

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9 GOVERNMEIN 'CCOUNIAI)lLilY PROJEG <

1555 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 202 l whington, D.C. 20036 (202)232-8550 l j

GOVER!iMENT ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT MIDWEST OFFICE 3424 MARCOS LANE APPLETON, WISCONSIN 54911 March 4, 1987 l

Victor Stello Executive Director Operations U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission '

l Washington, D.C. 20555 l RE: South Texas Investigation

Dear Mr. Stello,

Your letter of February 18, 1987 regarding our South Texas investigation states that any futher communications regarding South Texas should be directed to Mr. Bob Martin, Regional Administrator. Your letter also urges us to bring forth any issues regarding safety to Region IV promptly.

( Given the history of incompetence in Region IV regarding issues of nuclear safety and the more recent evidence of impro-priety in Region IV I am surprised that you would continue to advise us to take allegations of nuclear safety to your present

. regional management. Your professed faith in the Regional management can only be bureaucratic posturing, as I seriously doubt whether even you can ignore the seriouness of the impro-prieties confirmed in the recent and continuning investigation by the Office of Inspector and Auditor.

Mr. Stello, =t ecme point you must assume responsibliity for the operation in Region IV to insure that the public health and safety around the Region IV facilities is protected. You apparently are willing to sacrifice that assurance in order to give the public appearance of support for Mr. Martin et.al. Your error injudggmentisincredible. Within the past 18 months seen evidence and testimony of the improper release of a draft we have inspection report on the Sequoyan Fuels Corporation fatal accident to Kerr-McGee officals, the harassment and intimidation of resident inspectors, the deletion items from inspection reports, the improper manipulation and/or release of inspection report results to enchance the possibility of licensing, the destruction of documents, the failure to comply with statutory requirements under the Freedom of Information Act, the failure to properly investigate allegations of engineering, technical or hardware deficiencies at I reactors in Region IV, the release of confidentiality of site employees that have come forward with concerns, the cooperation 87100SO265 070930 {p1h-%- k[

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with utility officals to discredit whistleblowers, and a total j disregard for public accountability.

For all 'of the above. reasons we would be irresponsible if we led more whistleblowers blindly to the slaughterhouse of your Arlington office. 'At some point you must choose between protecting and defending the egos of your staff and. protecting the public health and safety. You are paid by the taxpayers and citizens to do the later. We will not participate in your doing the former.

I hope you are able to find an independent team to review the South Texas allegations.

Gincerely,

-__ d iM Billie Pirner Garde

(-

cs cc: James Mattox Attorney General State of Texas w/end. OIA Report 86-10 1

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met. EDO 2482 Taylor COVERNMEM ADCOUNTADILITY PROJECT Cys: Stello

1555 Connecncut Avenue, NW., Suio 202 l, Washington, D.C. 20036 (202)232-8550 Roe

{ 7 Rehm Zerbe Denton March 27, 1987 Murray Jerry H. Goldberg Group Vice President, Nuclear Houston Lighting & Power Corp.

P. O. Box 1700 Houston, Texas 77001 RE: Investigation of the South Texas Project by the Government Accountability Project

Dear Mr. Goldberg:

f Your widely distributed letter of March 18, 1987 was a {

surprise to me. Please be assured that the Government Accountability Project (GAP) has not made any final decision regarding possible cooperation with HLs? on allegations.

( As Mr. Geiger and your counsel were well aware, I was in trial the week of March 9-14, 1987 in Houston, litigating a South Texas related Department of Labor case, Goldstein v. EBASCo, 86-ERA-36. The following week I was on a personal / professional break while moving both my home and my office to new locations.

I did call Mr. Geiger and specifically informed him that I was )

not working from March 16 to 21, 1987, and that I would contact '

him regarding the proposals during the following week.

Therefore, your conclusion that " GAP has no interest in j proceeding further" with negotiations is insincere and appears to l be deliberately taking advantage of my one-week " working" l vacation.

I am uncertain whether HL&P is terminating negotiations on a potential working relationship. If so, please notify us of that in writing. If you are not, let me summarize where the 1 i

negotiations are apparently mired.

HL&P, through Mr. Geiger, has informed us that allegation investigations would have to be done by the SAFETEAM, but has I agreed to a number of modified procedures to alleviate some of I our concerns. He has indicated, however, that HL6P is not willing to make additional concessions which would assure us that our clients are legally protected from reprisals, that the Investigation properly pursues the correct allegation, and that an adequate investigation was conducted once completed.

Fo I A- S'7 - %7 ac G:ET

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As I arefully explained to Mr. Geiger, the employees wa represent have no faith ir. the credibility of the SAFETEAM.

Their individual and collective. experiences have demonstrated

{ that the SAFETEAM is not independent, does not protect or defend employees from harassment and discrimination, is neither able nor willing to reach truthful conclusions, has no authority to require or implement corrective actions, does not generate deficiency paper in compliance with federal regulations, does not report' allegations or findings of wrongdoing to the NRC, and is institutionally incapable of processing significant safety-related concerns. ,

The employees' experiences were confirmed by the information.

we recently obtained from HL&P in discovery in the Goldstein case. For example, one SAFETEAM investigation contained allegations of harassment and intimidation, violations of hold points, and significant defects in the quality of work in the ,

Reactor Control Building (RCB). A comparison of the interview of the engineer making the serious allegations with the results of that investigation prove that the SAFETEAM did not even understand the allegations, did not investigate the allegations given to the SAFETEAM of serious construction and quality defects in the RCB, and had no basis for its conclusions.

In any event you should be aware that GAP understands its obligations to ensure that' allegations of safety concerns are investigated. In that regard, we have a proven history of discovering massive safety problems and seeing that they are addressed. We would gladly match our history of demonstrated concern for public health and safety with any other organization,

( and feel confident that the comparison would reflect quite l favorably upon us.

As for the South Texas Project, NL&P and/or EBASCo and/or 3

Bechtel have been made aware of serious safety concerns through internal processes. We have also been in contact with the NRC and other appropriate government bodies regarding processing of allegations about South Texas. Recently, Region IV of the NRC received extraordinary criticism from the NRC Office of Inspector I and Auditor (OIA) regarding the handling of allegations at the Comanche Peak facility. Therefore, it is not appropriate to submit allegations to Region IV until some adequate resolution of the concerns raised by the OIA has been completed. We have asked the NRC for guidance as to how to proceed, given Region IV's lack of credibility. To date, we have not received a response.

So as you can tell, we are attempting to ensure that any information which comes to us about the South Texas plant is properly investigated, and that the appropriate corrective

macsures w311 result. Wa are not " withholding" information or playing " games," as you suggest. We are merely seeking the proper forum to ensure that the. workers' complaints do not again I fall upon deaf ears. Unless additional safeguards are provided we will not turn over information to internal, site-based programs, like SAFETEAM, which have already been proven to be ineffective.

Our paramount' concern is that the South Texas plant, if and when completed and operational, will be safe and in compliance with state and federal law. We hope that you share that goal?

However, public expressions of concern are hardly adequate. Our clients are' waiting to see effective action before they will risk their careers and jobs by working within your " system".

Ultimately, action not words will determine who is representing the public interest!

Sincerely, l

i Billie P. Garde l Director, GAP Midwest 1 BPG:079D01-

j cc NRC Chairman L. W. Zech i NRC Commissioners 4 K. M. Carr T. M. Roberts J. K. Asselstine

.(. F. M. Bernthal l NRC Executive Director V. Stello NRC Dir. I&E J. M. Taylor 4 j

T. V. Shockley, CP&L

. A. vonRosenberg, CPSB }

M. B. Lee, COA l e

i 1

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J Ref. EDO 2482 k%

/ .C Taylor M Cys: Stello Zerbe The Ligitt Roe centon Company sou, ion tighting & eoser p.o.nox ivoo nou, ion.Texa,2700i <N3,228 92 April 6, 1987 I Ms. Billie Garde l Director of the Midwest Office j Government Accountability Project l 3424 N. Marcos Lane i Appleton, Wisconsin 54911 l

Dear Ms. Garde:

In response to your letter of March 27, 1987, please be advised that Houston Lighting & Power Conipany is very skeptical that any further dialogue with GAP would be constructive. Although we are ready to utilize our SAFETEAM organization to perform investigations of any concerns related to nuclear safety or quality at the South Texas Project, we believe that protracted discussion with your organization is wasting valuable time that could be better spent investigating such matters.

Your obvious low regard for SAFETEAM, which is consistent with the manner in which GAP has criticized other nuclear projects, prompts us to again urge that you immediately share your concerns with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Your letter suggests that you have sought " guidance"

( from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission but "have not received a response".

That statement is puzzling. In fact, you have received a response from Mr. Stello by letter of February 18,1987 (available in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission public document room) in which you were assured of the availability of Nuclear Regulatory Commission resources to resolve issues your clients might raise. That letter concluded that failing to bring forth information promptly "would not be in the best interests of assuring the prompt resolution of legitimate safety concerns".

Your letter states that Houston Lighting & Power and its contractors have been made aware of serious safety concerns through internal processes.

The innuendo is that nothing has been done. To the best of our knowledge, every such matter brought to our attention or those of our principal contractors has been investigated and resolved or is the subject of a pending investigation. If you have information to the contrary, please tell us.

The statement in your letter concerning information obtained during discovery for the Goldstein case and and the conclusions.which you have drawn from that information are presumptuous at best. Contrary to your statement, a comparison of the interview transcript and the investigation report reveals that each of the issues raised during the interview were understood, investigated, and conclusions drawn based upon the facts. In any event, as you well know, the Goldstein case has been adjourned. When it resumes later this year, the defendant will present its case and a

' conclusion will be reached based upon all the evidence.

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4, Houston Ughthkower Corapany Ms. Billie Garde

-( April 6,1987 -

g Page 2 s

I reiterate our suggestion that you try our SAFETEAM system as I modified to meet your concerns with respect to any matter of potential "

safety consequences. In the meantime, however, we are taking steps to request appropriate government officials to obtain from you or your

!' organization information which could potentially affect the safety of the i

South Texas Project. If such information exists and is furnished to us, we will spare no effort in pursuing its resolution.

In closing, let me add at the risk of being imodest, that the Sc. e.,

Texas Nuclear Project is managed by experienced professionals of the highest integrity. Our concern for public safety is of paramount importance. Any suggestion by your organization to the contrary is not supported by the record. Our concern for protecting the public and the plant is demonstrated by our dogged determination to unearth weaknesses wherever they can be found and dealing with them. SAFETEAM is but one of many techniques that we utilize in that effort. While our SAFETEAM program is not perfect, I believe it to be among the very best in the country.

Very truly yours, 1 J. H. Goldberg Group Vice-President, Nuclear JHG/JEG/sd cc: Chairman- L. W. Zech Commissioners K. M. Carr T. M. Roberts J. K. Asselstine F. M. Bernthal Exec. Dir. V. Stello Reg. Adm. R. D. Martin Dir. I & E J. M. Taylor 3

Owners T. V. Shockley A. vonRosenberg M. B. Lee

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