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%*..**) May 23, 1985 l
l i-MEMORANDUM REPORT l
SUBJECT:
COMANCHE PEAK: ALLEGED IMPROPER DISCLOSURE OF CONFIDENTIAL SOURCE OIA FILE: 85-29 BACKGROUND This investigation is predicated on testimony, before the Atomic Safety ani Licensing Board, that Evert MOUSER, a former Quality Control (QC) Inspector it Comanche Peak, provided information, allegedly in confidence, to Donald D.
DRISKILL, Investigator, Office of Investigations (01), Region IV, and that the information was shortly thereafter known to the utility company's supervisory or management personnel.
SUMMARY
A comprehensive review of the hearing transcript revealed testimony pertinent to this allegation was contained on pages 22936 through 22939 and 23090 through 23100. The testimony on pages 22936 through 22939 is in response to questions from Judge Peter BLOCH, Chairman, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Anthony Z. ROISMAN, Esq. Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, on behalf of the Citizens Association for Sound Energy. Copies of pages 22936 through 22939 have been appended to this report as Attachment 1. Pertinent portions of this testimony have been highlighted.
The testimony on pages 23090 through 23100 is in response to questions from Stuart A. TREBY, Esq., NRC, on behalf of the NRC staff. Copies of pages 23090 through 23100 have been appended to this report as Attachment 2. Pertinent portions of this testimony have been highlighted; portions relevant to the allegation are summarized below:
I. MOUSER states that he never requested confidentiality nor was it offered or inferred by DRISKILL; This report is the property of the Office of Inspector and Auditor. It may not be reproduced or placed in the Public Document Room without written permission.
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- 2. MOUSER appears to indicate that information provided to DRISKILL in instances where formal confidentiality was not requested may have been discussed with others. However, MOUSER appears to indicate that the information which was cor.fidential was not so discussed;
- 3. Throughout the pertinent testimony, MOUSER was questioned regarding DRISKILL revealing the sources of his information and/or status of ongoing investigations and in each instance, MOUSER stated DRISKILL did not do so.
On April 29, 1985, DRISKILL was interviewed. He has known MOUSER for several years but has only had one interview with him wherein an in-depth discussion took place relative to an 01 matter. He has never had any discussions with MOUSER wherein a request for confidentiality was brought up either by MOUSER or him. As a general rule, he does not talk to more than one person at a time and he cannot recall any instance where he might have been sought out by MOUSER and other individuals and engaged in a group discussion relative to any subject. He does not recall mentioning the name of Dave AMBROSE to MOUSER.
On one occasion he did_have an individual who requested confidentiality and executed an agreement with him before provid 5 information. This individual provided a quantity of " highly technical" inr. mation. The information was of such a nature that he could not make a judgmen, as to what warranted invest-igation. He provided a summary of the information to the Region IV enforce-ment division. At a subsequent enforcement meeting, at which representatives of the Texas Utility Generating Commission were present, these items were discussed, not the specific source of the information, but the specific problems. This information could have been passed to officials at Comanche Peak.
On April 30, 1985, MOUSER was interviewed. He has known DRISKILL for about two years and has had two conversations with him. One conversation took place only between DRISKILL and him. He has never asked for confidentiality nor was it offered to him by DRISKILL. He recalls telling DRISKILL that he would not like what he discussed with him "to become general knowledge." He has never signed any document that granted him confidentiality.
On May 14,1985, an 01 confidential source was interviewed. He was granted confidentiality and signed a formal confidentiality agreement with DRISKILL relative to information he provided during five or six discussions he had with him from March 1983 to June 1983. While he did perceive a lot of " pressure"
'- being placed on him subsequent to his discussions with DRISKILL, he had no i reason to believe his confidentiality was compromised by the NRC or DRISKILL.
He was never confronted by anyone accusing him of supplying information to the NRC.
Conclusion l
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The allegation of breach of confidentiality against DRISKILL is not substantiated. No evidence was found to indicate any misconduct on the part of 01 employee, Donald DRISKILL. This matter is therefore closed, c-.,, ..
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1 t f(e t 2s Charles Kraus. Investigator Office of Inspector and Auditor A_
Keith u. Logan, i Ks for Investigat ons$stantDirector Office of Inspec'.%c.hnd Auditor Attachments:
- 1. Cy of transcript pages 22936-22939
- 2. Cy of transcript pages 23090-23100
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.h f 22936 BRT 1 O When you had your conversation with Mr. Driskill 2 in November of '83, did -- was it a recorded conversation?
I 3 Did someone transcribe it in some way? Or tape it?
4 A No, it was not. It was just between him and i
5 myself.
6 O Did you feel comfortable in answering all the 7 questions that he asked you without any reservation?
8 A Well, I knew Mr. Driskill and I was hesitant to 9 talk to the gent 2.emen.
10 0 Why is that?
11 A I don't trust the gentlemen.
12 O Trust in what sense?
13 . A ,
That he was doing the job that he was hired to 14 do. {
l 15 0 Were you concerned that -- ]l 16 JUDGE BLOCH: I'm sorry. What did that mean? 'j I
17 THE WITNESS: gThat,he was indeed an investigator' ,
18 and that, indeed, from prior experience with the man,'<that:
19 what you told to him in-confidence did indeed not stay _in 20 confidence.
21 BY MR. ROISMAN:
22 O And had'you had an experience like that'withDhia 23 before?
24 A Yes, I did. l l
25 0 Would you recount it for us, please?
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1 A It was when I was in the design change authority 2 group up on the hill, working with some other gentlemen, f
3 who were -- two other gentlemen and myself, that talked to 4 Mr. Driskill during an audit that they dio on the site.
5 And- some of what the one gentleman brought up was 6 squestioned a few days later by the supervisor.
7 O You mean somebody.from the plant raised 8 questions about a subject that this man had mentioned as 9 far as you and he knew, only to the NRC investigator?'
10 A Yes. And then also at that meeting one of the 11 ' gentlemen -- I should say after the meeting, one of the 12 gentlemen said that Mr. Dri1 skill had been talk - had 13 talked to many of the inspectora ,on-site at dif forent ,
14 times and that -- like I say, this is hearsay from this 15 gentleman -- and that the information that they talked 16 about was inanediately general information of the utility.
l 17 .And being an NRC man, that was not supposed to be the way 18 it was. What you told them in confidence was to be kept 19 in confidence.
~20 0 Do you think that was fairly common knowledge 21 among the people that you had contact with at Comanche 22 Peak? That is, that if you told something to Mr. Driskill 23 you should expect that it would ultimately get to the 1
24 company?
25 A It wasn't so much to Mr. Driskill. It was told --
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l 1 and this is the feelings that the inspectors had, and many 2 of them made comment about it -- that they felt that if
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I 3 you talked to the resident man or any of the NRC people l 4 that were dealing with the plant down there, that it is 5 just like talking into a loudspeaker. It went right back 6 into the utility.
7 O Was that a condition that was prevalent at the 1 8 time that you first started at Comanche Peak?
9 A Yes.
10 0 or is it something that arose after that?
11 ?. That was the feeling that was there all the time.
12 The inspectors all felt that way. That if you talked to 13 the resident man or scenething like that, it was talking 14 dittectly to the utility. I hate to point the finger at 15 the guy, this is kind of deep charges, you could say --
16 but this is the feelings that were there.
17 O And how broad was your expost_. to inspectors 18 and other people that formed the basis of your feelings 19 that it was a fairly widespread belief at the plant?
20 A .A number of the inspectors that I talked to that 21 had been there for a very long' period of time, all felt 22 that way.
23 0 Both coatings and non-coatings inspectors?
24 A Yes, ASME inspectors, non-ASME side of the house, 25 welding inspectors, henger inspectors.
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22939 i BRT I 1 0 In your job in the design change area, did you
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2 have occasion to come in contact with lots of difierent 3 inspectors from different disciplines? l
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4 A Yes, I did. Like I say, we are all a family. !
5 We knew each other from different jobs. I worked with 6 them in Idaho, Washington, places like this.
7 O When you say "we" you are now talking about QC 8 inspectors as the "we"?
9 A Yes.
10 JUDGE BLOCH: With respect to the people who 11 worked with you when you were the supervisor, you told us 12 that all but three of them had spoken to the NRC. Did you 13 have any feeling frdm what they told the NitC at that' time 14 that their confidences were not kept?
15 THE WITNESS: I think the inspectors felt that 16 the reason why the -- the feelings management had was 17 because of the information that was getting back to them 18 through a source, which they all tabbed as being the NRC 19 man.
20 Like I say, these are all feelings and thoughts from 21 these inspectors.
22 MR. ROISMAN: I have no further questions at 23 this time.
24 EXAMINATION 25 BY JUDC2 BLOCH:
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R f 9E 23090 21578.0 ~# Ofjl-BRT 1 BY MR. TREBY 2 O Mr. Houser, I would like to take you back to the 3 1983 interview, I believe it was in November, with 4
4 Mr. Driskill, when you were at the Midland site.
5 A Yes.
6 0 I think you've previously testified that the 7 trip report matter was not his principal purpose for 8 interviewing at that time, but rather it came up rather
- 9. casually during the interview; is that correct?
l 10 A I seem to recall thatt yes. I 11 O Have I properly characterized your testimony?
12 A I felt as though6 ;;I got this feeling fraet him 13 that he was there more in the Dunham case, but he did not
( 14 tell me specifically it was for the Dunham case'.
15 0 Okay. And when he discussed the trip report, 16 did he show you a copy of it? l 17 A I don't recall seeing its no.
18 O Did he indicate how he had come'to know about 19 the trip report?
20 A No. -
I don't think he told.me how he-did come to 21 know about it; no.
22 O Did he indicate in any way that he was 23 conducting any investigation with regard to the trip
' 24 report?
25 A No, he did not. At least I don't recall it.
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- 23091 21578.0 BRT 1 O Well, what, if anything, do you recall about the 2 conversation between you and him, about the trip report?
( 3 A That it did exist and he made indication that he --
4 I think he asked me: Do you know of the Lipinski trip 5 report? I told him yes, I did.
6 O And was that the end of the conversation? Did 7 he ask you -- well, was that the end of the conversation? i 8 A I don't recall much more thiin that; no.
9 0 You don't recall whether he asked you how you 10 became aware of the trip report?
11 A No, I don't.
12 O And he didn't indicate in any way how he had 13 become aware of it?
I 14 A No, he did not say anything about that.
15 0 With regard to the discussions you and he had 16 about the Dunham matter, did he ask you whether you wanted 17 any confidentiality with regard to those matters?
18 A I don't recall him saying anything about that; 19 c,no .
20 0 Did you request any confidentiality?
21 A No, I don't think I did. I don't recall.
22 O Do you recall signing-any document with regard 23 to the question of confidentiality?
4 A No, I don't. I don't recall anything like that.
24 25 0 In the course of his discussing the Dunham
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'J 'J ; y 23092 BRT "5sJ 1 matter, did he discuss with you any information which 2 other employees at the Comanche Peak site may have given g
3 him about the Dunham matter?
4 A He had indicated that someone down there told 5 him that I would be able to give him some information 6 about it.
7 O Did he identify who that person might be? i i
8 A No, he did not.
9 O Can you recall in any way how he might have 10 violated anybody's confidences in his discussions with you {
11 about the Dunham matter?
12 A one name did come up in the. conversation, a I
13 gentleman by the name of Ambrose.
( 14 O Did you tell me how that name came up in the 15 course of the conversation?
16 A It might have been that had said -- told 17 Mr. Driskill that I might have something to say about it.
i 18 I don't recall. I remember Dave's name came up but I
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19 don't recall the context it was in. I also said Dave was 20 a friend I knew.
21 O What job did Kr. Ambrose have at the Comanche 22 Peak site?
23 A He was a contings inspector that worked for me.
24 O Mr. Dunham was also a coating's inspectort is 25 that not correct?
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1 A Yes, he was.
2 O Did Mr. Ambrose have anything to do with the
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3 Dunham matter, as it related to the Department of Labor?
4 A Not to my knowledger no. f 5 O Do you think there was any -- well, at the time, 6 do you recall any concern that Mr. Ambrose' name was 7 mentioned to you?
8 A No, I don't.
9 0 Had you ever had any other discussions with 10 Mr. Driskill?
11 A I had talked to him at the plant if you mean 12 that?
13 0 Yes.
I 14 A I talked to him down at Comanche Peak.
15 O How many times had you talked to him down at 16 Comanche Peak?
17 A It was not so much myself. I was in with a 18 group of three of us that talked to him. There was one 19 gentleman that did all the talking. And that was the one 20 time he came -- or, I guess twice he came up there. Two 21 days in a row, I should say.
22 O And what was the subject matter of that 23 discussion?
24 A The subject matter of that discussion centered 25 around the design change documents we were working on.
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23094 21578.0 LYs,fhf/l[l[ff g) f BRT * ' ~ s.m; 1 And son.c of the hanger inspection wo'r k that some of the {
other groups was doing, the as-built group was doing. And 2
g 3 the discussion centered around documentation problems we 4 were running into. And that's basically the big thing I 5 could remember from that conversation.
6 O Did Mr. Dristill state the purpose of that 7 discussion at the time you and these two other people were 8 meeting with him?
9 A State the discussion -- of what we were going to 10 talk about?
11 O Right.
12 A It is kind of on the basis of, he was there and 13 we talked to him. And it's -- we have something to tell I 14 you about the design change area that -- things that we 15 have found, things that we know of.
16 O Did you seek him out or had he sought you?
17 A We seeked him out, talked to him.
18 O The three of you together?
19 A Yes.
20 0 At that time do you recall whether you had av ed 21 for confidentiality?
22 A I don't think we did.
23 O Did you sign any statement with regard to the
' 24 question of confidentiality?
25 A No, I don't remember anything.
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21578.0 I in f 23095 BRT 1 0 Do you know whether the other two people who i 2 were with you requested confidentiality in your hearing?
3 A That I don't have any way of knowing.
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4 0 Did you observe them signing any documents?
5 A No, I did not.
6 O And during that conversation you provided 7 Mr. Driskill with whatever information the three of you 8 had to provide to him?
9 A Yes.
10 0 During that conversation, did he raise any 11 information that he had heard on that subject from any 12 other people at the Comanche Peak site?
13 A I don't think he did. I don't recall anything. l I 14 O Did you have any or do you have any reason to 15 believe that any of the information that you or the two 16 other people gave him became known to other persons?
17 A By talking with other inspectors and by talking 18 to this other gentleman who was with us,-the third man in 19 the group, he said that some of the things that he had 20 thoughts -- was in the as-built group, I had nothing to do 21 with the as-bt ilt group -- some of the things that he had 22 brought to Mr. Driskill's attention were, indeed, brought 23 to management personnel's attention also.
24 O But was that the same information that occurred 25 during your meeting with Mr. Driskill?
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21578.0 ff 23096 BRT 1 A That I don't -- that I'm not able to recall.
2 0 Did the person who 1old you that indicate that 3 he had requested confidentiality?
g 4 A At one time this gentleman did address it as 5 confidentiality with Mr. Driskill. The time that he told 6 me the information had surfaced was a time later on after 7 he had left the site.
8 O Did he ever indicate to you that he had executed 9 any document with regard to confidentiality?
10 A Yes, he did.
11 0 During the time that you were a QC lead 12 inspector, or supervisor in the coatings area, did you l
13 ever hear of a notice of violation and a civil penalty i 14 being imposed against the Comanche Peak facility for 15 actions of Harry Williams?
l 16 A Yes, I did. I was told by Mr. Driskill while I 17 was at -- when he talked to me in Michigan, that that had l 18 happened.
19 0 Were you aware of that, at any time while you 20 were at the Comanche Peak site?
21 *A No, I was not.
22 JUDGE BLOCH: Mr. Treby, you used the word 23 " imposed." Was it imposed or proposed?
( 24 MR. TREBY: Proposed. If I said " imposed" I 25 meant " proposed." As far as I know there has never been I
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1 any passage of money.
2 BY MR. TREBY:
3 O When Mr. Driskill discussed that matter with you, j g 4 did he indicate that there had been an investigation done 5 by the NRC's Office of Investigation?
l 6 A Yes, he did. He indicated that there had been a 7 very thorough investigation done and that, indeed, the NRC 8 had -- was giving them a penalty, and that Mr. Williams 9 had, indeed, signed an affidavit indicating intimidation.
10 0 Did he indicate that during the course of this 11 investigation they had spoken to OC inspectors?
12 A Yes, he did.
13 O Did he give y'ou any idea of how many OC
( 14 inspectors they had spoken to?
15 A No, he did not.
16 O Did he indicate that -- whether it was one or 17 two or a larger number than that?
18 A I took it that it was a large number.
19 0 Given that information, do you find it 20 surprising that OC inspectors at -- in the coatings 21 department, indicated they had had conversations with the 22 NRC?
23 A I feel that they did.
' 24 0 Do you know whether those conversations related 25 to that investigation or related to other discussions they
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- l ,O3 21578.0 23098 BRT 1, may have had?
2 A I'm not able to indicate that but it could have 4
g 3 been; yes.
i 4 O Do you have any personal knowledge one way or 5 the other?
6 A No, I do not.
7 O Do you recall a time in December, approximately J 8 December 13th, when I had a telephone conversation with l
9 you and inquired whether you had selected an attorney?
10 A Yes, I do.
11 O And did you advise me you had selected an 12 attorney?
13 A Yes, I did. .
( 14 0 Subsequent to that date, did you or I ever have 15 any other conversations?
16 A No. Nothing that I remember.
17 O Subsequent to that date did you have 18 conversations with any other lawyers in this room?
19 A Yes. Mack Watkins had called, and told me that 20 they were in the process of trying to locate a lawyer for ]
21 me, under the conditions that I had talked to Ms. Garde 22 about.
23 0 Right.
' 24 A And that I should not freely speak to anyone 25 other than my lawyer and let him handle all of the work.
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l 21578.0 23099 BRT 1 The same thing -- basically the same thing I told -- you 2 know -- that we talked about.
3 0 And did you have any further conversations with g
4 Mr. Watkins?
5 A No. I did not have any conversations with 6 Mr. Watkins but there was a gentleman from Mr. Watkins' ;
i 7 firm called and told me that, I guess it's after -- this i 8 is after I talkod to you. And told me that they were 9 still looking for some -- for a lawyer. And at that time 10 I indicated that I had selected Mr. Sims.
11 0 Did you ever have any conversations with 12 Mr. Gallo?
13 A No. I never met the man before.
( 14 MR. GALLO: Yesterday.
15 THE WITNESS: Excuse me; Thursday.
16 BY MR. TREBY:
17 0 Did you have any conversations with Ms. Garde or 18 Mr. Roisman after that -- after you selected Mr. Sims as 19 your attorney?
20 A I think Mr. Roisman placed a couple of calls to 21 my house but I was not there. And I don't recall having I 22 any conversations with Ms. Garde. If I did, I probably 23 indicated to her to talk to my lawyer also.
I 24 O There was an indication that a transcript was (
i 25 sent to you by Ms. Garde?
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1 A Yes. )
2 O Was that before or after Mr. Sims was selected g 3 as your attorney? 3 4 A Before.
5 O Did you request her to send you that transcript?
6 A She said she could send me a transcript of the 7 trial if I was interested and I said: Yes, send it to me.
8 I'll-look at it.
9 Q Was this at the time that she had called you to 10 tell you about their offer to get you an attorney?
11 A No, this was prior to that time.
12 MR. TREBY: All right. I have no further l 13 questions.
( 14 JUDGE BLOCH: I am a' bout to take my leave. May 15 I ask though, before I go -- let's go off the record and 16 discuss the schedule.
17 (Discussion off the record.) ;
18 JUDGE BLOCH: Mr. Reporter, let the record 19 indicate that I have left the deposition.
20 CROSS-EXAMINATION 21 BY MR. GALLO:
22 O Mr. Mouser, going back to that day in 1983 when 23 you made a copy of the Lipinski trip report, the one that
' he gave you to read, Judge Bloch asked you a series of 24 25 questions about the operation of the Xerox machine, e
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