ML20195B945

Affidavit of Gj Catapano Re New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution Contention NHLP-3 & Sapl Contention 17.Stated Improvements & Planned Installation of Emergency Power Generator Will Make for Adequate Network

ML20195B945
Person / Time
Site:	Seabrook
Issue date:	05/16/1986
From:	Catapano G ALLCOMM, INC.
To:
Shared Package
ML20195B803	List: ML20195B799 ML20195B811 ML20195B815 ML20195B826 ML20195B835 ML20195B848 ML20195B876 ML20195B886 ML20195B899 ML20195B924 ML20195B939 ML20195B945 ML20195B951 ML20195B956 ML20195B969 ML20195B985 ML20195B992 ML20195C010 ML20195C017 ML20195C022 ML20195C033 ML20195C041
References
OL, NUDOCS 8605290593
Download: ML20195B945 (12)

Text

.._ . . --

P UNITED STATES OF AMERICA \$ /

n - ~/ ,

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION  ; -

1 before the gq?f? '-

ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD I J

)

In the Matter of- )

)

PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY OF ) Docket Nos. 50-443-OL

-NEW HAMPSHIRE, et al. ) 50-444-OL

) Off-site Emergency (Seabrook Station, Units.1 and 2 ) Planning Issues

)

)

f' AFFIDAVIT OF GARY J. CATAPANO '

RE NECNP CONTENTION NHLP-3 AND SAPL CONTENTION 17 1

GARY J. CATAPANO,.being on oath, deposes and says as follows:

1. He is the President of-AllComm, Inc. which has contracted with the-joint owners of Seabrook Station to -

evaluate and design. communications systems and to specify communications equipment for emergency planning purposes in -

~ connection with Seabrook Station. A statement of his professional background and qualifications is attached hereto and marked "A".

2. As part of an EPZ wide effort to upgrade the existing communications systems discussions were held with 8605290593 860520 PDR ADOCK 05000443 0 PDR i .

4

,- . . . - . _ . . . - . . , - - _ - __ .. ,__.r,_,-.., - - _ - _ _ _ - - - , , ,

c local and state public safety officials. Based upon an evaluation of the existing communications equipment, input based upon experiences of these public safety officials during past public safety emergencies, consideration for

technical engineering parameters and design objectives and an analysis of the communications requirements of the RERP a reconfiguration of many of these systems was recommended. -

.3. A complete complement of radio communications equipment was purchased for all EPZ police departments to allow sufficient quantities of portables and pagers and ,

mobile units to insure adequate communications resources existed to staff all traffic control posts and have portables available for routine police activities that may occur at the same time an incident occurs at Seabrook '

~

- Station. Additionally, base stations and other types of communications equipment was also purchased to facilitate

RERP communications.

4

4. New mobile units, portables, and pagers were also purchased for the Fire Department. All of the equipment purchased is wide band multifrequency, capable of allowing

communications to occur on numerous frequencies. In most communities within the EPZ new dual address pagers were supplied for the police and fire departments and for use by I

the key municipal officials ac outlined by the RERP.

5. A corplete communications package was also

\

purchased for each local EOC. Included in this package was  ;

i 4-

a NHCDA command and control radio and a (2) meter Races radio which serves as a backup system for command and control. New high power multifrequency scanning base stations'were also purchased to allow communications with surrounding communities emergency response organizations and other agencies that might be sent in to assis't. New

'nultiline telephone systems have also been purchased and additional phone lines will be added to the EOCs to provide adequate telephone communications. Sufficient portables, pagers and mobiles have been purchased to allow the fire and police departments to conduct their routine public safety activities at the same time that communications resources are being utilized for communicating information related to the RERP.

6. The local communications network is engineered to allow the EOC in each local community to coordinate and control the town's emergency response activities and-communicate directly with RCD, the State, surrounding EPZ communities, host' communities and other agencies that may be sent in to assist-(Example: In the case of the beach communities this would include the USCG).

7. In the case of the Towns of Hampton and Seabrook specialized communications systems were designed. In the case of Hampton the sophistication and reliability of their newly installed emergency communications network is without equal anywhere in the Northeast.

8. At Rockingham County Dispatch Center a number of improvements have been made to allow for the additional communications associated with Seabrook Station and the RERP. Special paging encoders have been installed to facilitate the required paging notifications and to simplify the actions required by the dispatcher to achieve them. The transceiver primarily utilized for the paging notifications is being replaced with a new continuous duty rated, high  !

power station. A new phone system has been installed at the dispatch center along with specialized emergency line and call logging recorders. An additional communications console and fire dispatch area have been added to allow greater flexibility for dispatch operations and to j accommodate the status display board and siren activation 4'

equipment.

9. The signal strength from the transmitter sites vtilized by Rockingham County Dispatch to communicate with all EPZ communities is more than adequate for all paging and mobile communications. Numerous channels exist for RERP

. communications to occur on, providing redundancy should a channel become unusable for any reason.

10. Once the State IFO at Newington becomes operational the primary responsibility for providing RERP notifications-i and RERP communications to the local EPZ communities shifts

- to the IFO. The IFO is equipped with a sophisticated communications network that will allow representatives I

" ~ - " e ~+- - e -r- r* e-~ *v - "

r*-'

present at the IFO coordinating response activities the ability-to communicate directly with field personnel.

Should the command and control radio system encounter high traffic the IFO can communicate directly with the local

,- communities on either their own fire, police and highway department local frequencies. Additional radio communications capabilities exist to allow the IFO to

. communicate directly with the state Civil Defense and state police agencies in Maine and Massachusetts, all EMS 4

vehicles, USCG, and the New Hampshire Department of Parks

-and Recreation. As part of the evaluation of the New Hampshire emergency response organizations communications capabilities, improvements were also made to the state police communications systems for both Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

11. Taken together all of these improvements, coupled

. with the installation of an emergency power generator planned for the EOC in each community where a reliable sourceaof AC backup power'does not already exist and the additional telephone communications systems installed, make this a highly reliable, integrated and-effective emergency communications network.

) e -- -

Gary J/. Catapano I

l

)

)

! COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS Suffolk, ss. May 16, 1986 i

Then appeared before me the above-subscribed Gary J.

Catapano and made oath that he had read the foregoing 1

l j affidavit and that the statements set forth therein are true to the best of his knowledge.

1

} Before me, i

(ifl # W // ' lf__

Notary Public My Commission Expires:

! KAREN D. RAMACORTI, Notsar Pub!ic My Commission Expires Dec. 3,1947

I' Professional Qualifications of Gary J. Catapano I President, Allcomm Inc.

My name is Gary J. Catapano and my business address is AllComm Inc., Rt. 32, 381 Old Homestead Highway, North

Swanzey, NH 03431. I am the President of AllComm Inc., a

! company specializing in design of emergency communications systems founded by me in July of 1984.

I I have studied electrical engineering at Suffolk ,

Community College and other related curriculum at Keene State College and Nathaniel Hawthorne College. I am a 1970 graduate of L.A. Wilson Tech where I studied Radio and l

Television Electronic Communications.

I hold a " Lifetime" FCC General Class Radiotelephone Engineering license and I am certified as an R.F.

Engineering. Technician by the National Association of Business and Educational Radio (NABER). I am also a member l l of NABERS Professional Mobile Radio Service Section. l I have additional'special education in the following areas: microwave radio system design, telephone systems, telephone systems traffic theory and network design. I have also participated in 14 special training seminars covering all aspects of the land mobile communications field. I have developed engineering programs to aid in the prediction and f2

i elimination of the harmful interference caused by undesired radio transmissions.

I am certified by the National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers (NARTE) as communications engineer with special skill endorsements in three areas:

land mobile systems, land mobile interference and analysis and suppression, and inside plant telephone engineering. I am also a senior member of NARTE.

Since July of 1985 my company has been employed by New Hampshire Yankee to conduct an evaluation of the communications networks utilized by the communities involved with the Seabrook Station Radiological Emergency Response Plan. I assumed the lead responsibility for this project which consisted of four phases. The objectives of Phase 1 were to study and identify the types of systems currently in place and identify existing problem areas. This first phase involved entensive field work and interviews with public safety officials of the states, counties, and the local municipalities. Phase 2 involved the analysis of this information in order to determine the effect that the additional RERP communications would have on the existing systems and to formulate the engineering changes.

Subsequent meetings were held again with public safety officials to review the recommendations. Phase 3 involved the installation test and debug of all of the equipment; O

l 1

Phase 4 will involve further refinement of these systems, I documentation and training.

Prior to my beginning this project my firm assisted Vermont Yankee in the relocation of their Emergency Operations Facility to its new location. My responsibility was for the design and installation of the radio communications systems for this facility and to minimize and eliminate any interference that resulted from the

. co-location of communications facilities. We also performed this same function for Yankee Atomic Electric Company's emergency operations facility for the Rowe, MA Nuclear Power Plant. As part of this current project I have assisted the utility and the State of New Hampshire with design and installation of the communications networks for the emergency operations facility and the State's Incident Field Office. We are also in the process of providing the same assistance to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Pri'or to my founding AllComm Inc. I was employed as the General Manager of HEW Communications, Inc. as part of my duties while at HEW April of 1981 to the August of 1982 I was the project manager and engineer for the design and installation of the emergency communications systems that form the backbone of the public notification system and emergency communications networks for 34 municipalities and 3 state civil defense agencies involved with the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant and Yankee Atomic Electric o

. Company, Rowe, MA Nuclear Power Plant. This project involved an assessment of the existing communications capabilities, extensive interviews with local public safety officials, the design of new communications systems and integration with existing systems. I had the lead responsibility for the entire project including the training and documentation which included two comprehensive technical manuals which provide the foundation for the utilities FEMA-43 submittals. During the initial phase of this project much of the existing guidance for the design of public notification systems and emergency communications systems did not exist. I provided technical support to Yankee Atomic Electric Company in drafting comments to FEMA's proposed guidance for the acceptance of alert and notification systems.

As part of this project I also designed a special system in cooperation with NOAA (National Weather Service) which links vital information from the National Weather Service offices in Burlington, Vermont to over 8,000 Alert receivers located approximately 100 miles away in some of the residences within the Emergency Planning Zones of both plants. This system operates 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br />, 365 days a year.

My firm currently has the responsibility for the surveillance and maintenance programs for these systems.

Since early 1982 they have.been in operation functioning with a very high percentage of operability (over 99%).

l l

, I have also participated in four full scale federally witnessed emergency exercises and numerous full scale drills providing communications support (troubleshooting, diagnosis and emergency repair) to the utilities and state agencies.

My firm currently provides these emergency communications support services to three nuclear power facilities in New England.

Prior the Seabrook project while at AllComm and HEW I have been called in as an expert to " debug" many types of communications systems that were not functioning as intended. Also during this time I designed and installed many types of electronic communications systems. This work included projects for state agencies, electric utilities, county governments, local public safecy agencies and regional fire mutual aid compacts, business and industrial concerns. With divestiture of the Bell System this work grew to include the design and installation of telephone networks and increasing liaison work with the Bell Operating Company (NYNEX). I currently hold technical certifications for four different manufacturers of telephone systems including two sophisticated PABX systems.

From 1977 to 1979 while at HEW, I was the senior communications technician with the lead responsibility for the maintenance and preventative maintenance and system debug for a public safety communications network that i

-s-  ;

1

6 spanned portions of three states and encompassed three counties and included 52 municipalities.

All of my prior employment dating back to 1965 include positions of increasing responsibility in the electronics field. The study of electronic communications has been a lifelong pursuit for me dating back to early childhood.

-_ - - - - - .