ML20238A296

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Transcript of Mk Graham 860626 Investigative Interview in Grandbury,Tx Re Region IV Regulation of Plant.Pp 1-10
ML20238A296
Person / Time
Site: Comanche Peak  Luminant icon.png
Issue date: 06/26/1986
From: Graham M
NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION IV)
To:
Shared Package
ML20237F760 List: ... further results
References
NUDOCS 8708200435
Download: ML20238A296 (12)
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Text

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C:aciNlg UNH EU STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

..i..

IN THE MA1 itR OF: DOCKH NO:

INVESTIGATIVE INTERVIEW l

LOCATION: GRANDBURY, TEXAS PAGES: 1- 10 DATE: THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 1986 As-FEDERAL REPORTERS, INC.

444 Nort. ( Attachment DD 8708200435 870819 PDR 202 N ADDCK 05000445 R

NADOffWIDE COVERAGE

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. -i 1 BEFORE THE t 2 OFFICE OF INSPECTOR AND AUDITOR )

i

. i 3 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

, k 4 - - - -

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5 Interview of:  : j I

, i 6 MITCHELL KEITH GRAHAM  :

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7 ---- ----------X -

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i 8 Room 101 ,

1 The Plantation Inn 9 Granbury,-Texas  ;

' i- j 10 Thursday, 1 June-26, 1986 11 f

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-i 4 12 APPEARANCES:

I i 13 For the Commission: ,

14 GEORGE A. MULLEY, JR. i Special Assistant to the Director-15 Office of Inspector and Auditor .

Nuclear Regulatory Commission l 16 j l i .,

17 18 i

19 20 ,

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l 1 Whereupon, l 2 . MITCHELL KEITH GRAHAM,- j 1

3 having been duly sworn to tell'the truth', the whole truth . .I

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1 4 and nothing but the truth, was interviewed and answered as -

i 5 follows* "

6 MR. MULLEY: The time is 5:00 p.m., and the  !

7 date is the 26th of June 1986. We are in Room 101 of The 8 Plantation Inn in Gra; bury,. Texas.

9 Present is Mr. Graham, who is an NRC consultant I

'l 10 at the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Station; myself, George  !

11 Mulley, Special Assistant to the D'irector, office of Inspector I

12 and Auditor, NRC; and the court reporter, Ms. Sandra I

Harden. l 13 ,

14 I have asked Mr. Graham here today to discuss -

- i 15 information that he may have concerning Region IV's regula- )

)

16 tion of the Comanche Peak' Nuclear Power Station.

17 BY MR. MULLEY:

18 G Mr. Graham, before we start,.would you give 19 us a brief resume of your background.

20 A okay. I have eleven years experience in i 21 engineering and quality control. I was a field engineer at 22 different plants, and I was involved with quality control at

.23 different plants.

24 I've been through a total of six different 25 plants. I worked as a field-engineer at the Calloway Plant ,. g b

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3 1 and Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, j i

2 The other plants I worked as a quality control

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' i 3 inspector. j 4 I have a background in welding inspection.

d 5 I'm a Certified Welding Inspector with American Welding 6 Society.  ;

7 I have an NDE background in different dis-8 ciplines of NDE, such as MT, PT., RT, UT, and DT.

9 G How long have you bee,n at Comanche Peak?

10 A I got on the site the middle of August of last 11 year. I believe it was the 17th, if I'm not mistaken.

12 G Since being on the site, what areas have you 13 been involved with? .

14 A I'm assigned to the mechanical discipline.

15 We have different ISAP's,which are Issue" Specific Action Plan ,

16 that came about as a result of the technical review team 17 performing an assessment of the allegations. l 18 0 During your time at Comanche Peak, have you l

19 been given the freedom by Region IV to.go out and conduct i 20 your inspections and thoroughly develop any findings that you.

I 21 may have, and then to document your findings without any l l 22 restrictions by the Region as to how or what you should say? j 23 A Yes.

24 0 How would you describe Region IV's 25 inspection policy at Cc.nanche Peak? -q

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( . .

! 4 j A. I would say that it's a very effective 2

inspection pbogram that they're conducting. Of the other i 3

plants that I've been associated with, this is probably one l f the most effective inspection programs by the NRC that I4 4 l 1

g I've been around. l J i

l 6 Q. Do you feel that they're doing an objective 7

and thorough job out there?

i j g A. Yes,'I do.

Q. e Have you perceived an attitude by R'gion IV, to j 9

! , (

10 go ut there, get these inspections done so we can get the )

1 13 plant on line and don't go into new areas or anything like 12 that?

13 A No, quite the opposite. If we have any finding i

14 in any other area th'an what we're assigned to--we ca'll those l

15 ut-of-scope observations or findings--we pursue those.

16 equally. 1 17 Q. Has there been an attitude displayed by Region 18 IV to handle problems on an informal basis versus writing up !

19 a violation and have the licensee go through the drill of 20 formally replying back in writing?

I 21 A. Not.to my knowledge.

l 22 Q. The findings that you have developed, that  !

23 you have written them in an inspection report and it has gone 24 up and come back--

25 A Right. I have no problem with that. .

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I' i 1 G Has the Region steered you away from QA issues 2 at TUGCO and Comanche Peak more towards the quality control i 1

3 hardware problems that are.a little easier to fix?  !  !

I i

4 A. No, sir. QA/QC is really not my assignment. l

~

5 I'm part of the mechanical discipline, and that overlaps 6 into quality control and quality assurance aspects. ,

7 But, no, they haven't.

8 G So if you find a QA problem out there, you have l

l 9 got the freedom to develop it and to try to get it resolved?  !

i l .

l 10 A Yes.

11 G Has the Region instructed you to confine your l 12 inspections to the follow-up of the comanche Peak Response j 13 Team Action Plan and not to get involved with a4 y new 14 issues, or not to reinspect old items?

15 A No, sir, they haven't.

16 0 Do you have the freedom during the course of i 17 your work to look at new issues, if you see any new problems, 18 to develop them?

19 A Sure. I have-- As a result of some of my 20 inspections I have got outnide the scope of the CPRT 21 program.,

l 22 G Is the CPRT program basically what you are j 23 here to review?

24 A Yes, sir, that is our charter.

25 G But you.have been able to get beyond that, if _.

6 i

i you have to'  !

1 l l' j 2 A. I.have documented in the inspection reports ,

3 cases where the findings were out of the' scope of the CPRT j i

4 program.

i 5 0 And you have received no resistance at all fred i

6 Region IV or anybody else?

l 7 A No, sir.

l 8 g Is there an attitude displayed by Region IV l l

l 9 to try to assist the licensee in any way that the Region can 10 to get this plant--you know, to take less than an objective 11 approach to its regulation at Comanche Peak?

12 A No, sir, I dont feel that way.

13 G Okay. Have you ever observed any tendency for 14 Region IV to feel that maybe the licensee is being unduly )

I 15 criticized by interveners and, therefore, the Region should )

i 16 help out the licensee?

17 A. No, sir.

18 0 Do you believe that the Region IV and the NRR 19 inspectors that you have come across, do you believe that i .

20 they're qualified to conduct the inspections that they're  !

l i 21 working on? I {

l 22 A Yes, I do. I believe that they are some of <

j I

23 the better qualified. people within the NRC, especially the l 24 IE people. They came out of the Vendor Surveillance Branch, l, 25 and they were exposed to a lot more background than the --

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1 7 1 typical NRC in.spector would be.

l 2 That's the way I feel about it. l

^

l 3 G I understand that your group of consultants ,

i 4 has quite a bit of in-depth, specific expertise in various 1

5 areas, that maybe the NRC people don't have. They have more- l l 6 of a general background.

7 Have you picked up this at all?

8 A. Well, I work for Lee Ellershaw. He's the tean '

l 9 leader for the mechanical discipline, and he is very 1 10 experienced. I 11 G Have you ever had the occasion to go back and 12 look at an area that the NRC has already inspected and found 13 problems?

14 A No, I can't say that I have.

15 0 Have you ever been instructed to not document' 16 the findings that you have found during your inspections?

17 A. No, sir.

18 G Whenyousubmitaninspectionreportuptothc!

19 Region, have there ever been any changes to the inspection 20 report that you have disagreed with?  !

1 21 A. No, sir.

'22 G Do they come back the same way you wrote j 23 them?

24 A No, not exactly. The way we operate is we 25 work on a monthly or bimonthly inspection report, and what --

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8-l I we do is we do our inspections during.that reporting period.

2 We make notes of' cur findings, and then'at the end of the j 3 month,.weassembleallofournotesandhresentourfindings.

4 So when the final report comes back, is it; G

5 in the same'-pretty much the same format as the draft report ]

6 that went up? l k

7 A. Well, we sit down with our team leaders. He , l' i

8 have an input that we supply to them, and then they basically 3 l

9 edit it for grammatical errors and make it more presentable -l l

10 where it can be understood by the average person.

I 11 '

O Has there ever been any meaningful content I2 taken out of the report?

l 13 A. No, sir, not that I know of.

14 0 Have you ever had an occasion to have anybody 15 from the licensee come to you with concerns, and then relay 16 these concerns to the Region IV inspectors and have nothing-17 done with them?

I8 A. Could you repeat the question?

19

% Yes.

20 l Have-any licensee employees ever come to you 21 with concerns, problem areas that they've identified that -

22 they think something should be done?

23 A. No, sir.

24 0 Do you know of any concerns being surfaced 25 ~"

by allegers or licensee employees that have gone-to the t

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Region, that the Region has taken no action?

2 A. NQ.

3 G Do-you.know Shannon Phillips? i

j 4 A' Yes.

I 5 G Do you know Tom Westerman? '

I. 1 6 A Yes. He was the on-site team leader.

r t- 1 7 G Have you ever witnessed any disagreement l l

between Phillips and' Westerman concerning how.each perceives .

l 8 I i

9 their job should be done at Comanche Peak?

10 A No, sir.

11 O Have you ever. heard any conversations or have' 12 any secondhand knowledge about'any disagreements between j

}3 Westerman and.Phillips?

14 A No, I can't say that I really have, 15 0 Has anybody'ever instructed you to stay away i

16 from Phillips or anybody else at Region IV?

17 A. No, sir.

i 1 Do you have much involvement with Phillips 18 O l l

19 with your work?

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20 A We have had some areas that did overlap-and l 1

21 I hsve discussed different subjects with him.

f 22 O How do you evaluate Phillips' work as an' .

23 inspector out there?

l 24 A I really don't--haven't had enough involvement 25 with him to make a statement about that. -- <

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1 0 Do you feel then that you've.been allowed to 2 do.your work at comanche-Peak without' interference from  !

3 Region IV, to do an objective, thorough' job of~ documenting .

4 what you've found? j S' A. Yes, I.do. We've.had excellent cooperation. j 6 with all the Regional people that I'm associated with.

7 0 Is there anything that:you would like to 8 add? [

9 A. No.

10 MR. MULLEY: Okay. That closes it.

11' (Interview concluded at 5:10 p.m.)

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i I REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 2 -

3

.I hereby certify that the. proceedings herein 4

are contained fully and accurately in the notes taken by me 5 during the sworn interview of MITCHELL KEITH GRAHAM on June-6 26, 1986, commencing at the hour of 5:00 p.m., and that this- I 7 is a true and accurate transcript of the same. '

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8  !-

j 9 _, 3 d u 7lh.&

Sandra' Harden b i 10 -

Reporter i 11 My Commission expires: 4-89. l 12 i 1

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