ML20086N877

Requests Payment for Info & Cooperation Re Quality of Const at Facility

ML20086N877
Person / Time
Site:	Surry
Issue date:	07/11/1974
From:	Houston C AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:	Ray D US ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION (AEC)
Shared Package
ML20083L038	List: ML20086N877 ML20086N898
References
NUDOCS 8402230316
Download: ML20086N877 (6)

Text

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h Phone (615) 928-4112 CARL W. IIOUSTON, A.S.M.E.

Post Office Box 734 Johnson City, Tennessee 37601 4c-Q July 11, 1974 5

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__. cn O Dr. Dixie lee Ray, Chaiman iii O

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United States Atomic Energy Commission p -

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Dear Dr. Ray:

-< 9 First, allow me to introduce myself, therefore I shall not confuse the issue from the very start. -

I am the Carl W. Houston that upon being assigned Welding Superintendent, over the Surry Nuclear Power Station, Unit 1 and Unit 2, Surry, Virginia, y7.ic, by the Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation, M S; almost immediately detected several welded joints with visual deficiencies. From that very moment on, &$

f.N doctor, my authority started decznasing. My. very first W.5H$

day was hideous and I carried much verbal abuse from 3.D..g my immediate superior, the General Construetion Super- u,qgf intendent. He would admit that he was not qualified to j.4, :.;

evaluate any part of welding but he did have employed MC an old employe of Stone & Webater, in service, but he knew very little about any required quality of welding. =k:43.?

Yet, this same individual had disregarded the possible .-

qualified Welding Procedure . Specifications- sent him Y%"J

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from engineering, Stone & Webster, Boston, Mass. He not only disregartibd the qualified Procedures but he either made changes therein or had authorized if-G

A; danagable changes. bl%

%g.'g.5 Dr. Ray, one of the greater argumentative and resist-o@$ ive points extended me, by those unqualified was the 3:

pga. manner the ABC Compliance men had also gone e,ither ##a; oo unqualified or had become dangerously careless with b 2

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R@ 5 o all of their past inspection and/or audits. As it stood, upon my arrival, welding construction had been perfozued M.:

D" a from June 8 1968, my arrival was Febzuary 16, 1970.

@ During this, period, Compliance had performed eleven (11) gg cv Inspections and eleven (11) Audits without reporting Sg the verydeficiencies.

serious first error within welding, especially very ma.o Yes, my authority was removed,, even the very first day but for reasons of other I wss allowed to stay employed with the freedom of the plant. You could say doctor, I become a very lonely and lonesome individual being ridi-

ec'd Off N cf 4 g 7/pQ at the will of any employe and that became culed ve,ryo um

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CARL W. HOUSTON, A.S.M.E.

pos Office Box 734 M;L.,?g".

]hq Johnson City, Tennessee 37601 g@l.j t- -,Q

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July 11, 1974

.f LETTER TO: Dr. Lee Ray, Chaiman, U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, D. C.

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allowed to linger on for little over two months. As w g .. w_

it was I couldn't resign immediately upon being as- y.f.e S signed to a p uject. In the meantime I was waiting for > ;j. :c.q;;;,,

some company cfficial from Boston to arzive, whereas g.pn_; ,

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I couldeconverse with and he would possible understand.

Also, all thzuughout my stay I kept very vigilant for (g. ;.g .

any arrival, of any Atomic Energy Commission employes, ,. y e .y; regardless to their employment status. Doctor Ray, there g. 1 w' .

$;7 never arrived an official nor an employe from the Atomic 3R p,;4 .Fj v'3 Energy allowable stay of two months. It did occur to me to write either my home office, Boston or even possible  %,qgn.

the Atomic Energy Commission, while being allowed to g(ge.g.p atay but even there could have been two contInversive

..y .1. h points; I could be dismissed for insu) ordination a pp.q- .,, [4 g charge I had always despised and most certainly did y;,-n not desire gny part of one. Second, even after writing g h ;' .;

I could have been dismissed before the arrival of any one.  %}.

g.9.g It did eventually happened, I was told the 13th of April g.p g% y L. ?

that I had.until the 27th to locate other employment.

Now doctor please listen, the charges against me were A

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badly lacking in experience and qualifications. Even being d , '~. .%R as burdened as I was it just had to become somewhat comical.

Upon being verbally released I request that I get some written form of release, whereas my professional obligation would .be 1tlieved also. This honorable request was zufused me on the 13th of April, so I visited the inain office the next dgy and.once again made~ an humble request for my professional release and once again was refused.

The following week came and I became ill, definitely un-able for work but during my stay at home it became my decision to write the home office. After all I had been locally released and for Isasons most distasteful, after all doctor, I had performed entirely too many years and either for, with or by those well qualified themselves.

I knew that they couldn't make their acuusations stay honorably intact but it had become much distasteful. So while sick at my home I did venture one letter to the home witnessed since modern construction, to the home offica with th certain tact and honor not caring to actually scaz hell of out them. I wrote the home office on a Tuesday went back to the projact on the following Friday. The

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C ARL W. IlOUSTON, A.S.M.E. 2 Post Office Ikn 734 Johnwn City, Tennence 37601 3 g

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July ll, 1974 9

LETTER TO: Dr, Lee Ray, Chai rman, U. S. Atomia Ene rgy g Commission, Washington, D. C.

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ofricials from the home office of the Stone and Webster in Bosten never did mply to my letter but believe me, ]

word of my letter had retumed back to Surry. Within an j -

hour of reporting to work I was called in and told to leave  ;

the project immediately or I would be fomefully taken out.

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By not being re) eased professionally, although I had not " -

been employed in that capacity. I mmained very scamd and besides, ethically I couldn't just by-pass any phase of 3 m

construction or product with very serious deficiencies,  ;

whereas possible lethal conditions could exist and not make reasonable efforts to have them made safe. At first a -

I habbored no fear that the home office would assume the E necessary authority and make all defective and deficient y areas safe but I soon found this negative. j So with the very serious p.tuhlems still existing and the 3 contractor no t aseuming his maponsibilities, I was still 3 w

greatly burdened. It then became my duty and professional

responsibility to make honorable efforts in,first locating some responsive party to assume correction,of all defective j parts and areas and to obtain from that party that I would .:

be re31eved of them entimly. With this remaining my burdeh, 4 I remained near the project fo r an additional two months. ,

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During this period I believe everyone being with any re- 1 sponsibility, at the project, was contacted, the full ser- j iousness related , with him being mquested to assume the "'

maponsibili11es over those areas whom lethal conditions definitely appeared. =

There wen as a few; Virginia Electric E_

and The Powe r Company, the Utility Company and Owner, no reply. [

no Westinghouse Corporation, manufacturers of the Reactors, m Laboreply. I then carried the case before the Department of r, State of Virginia, no reply and then the Governor 4 of Virginia who eventually replied but mfused responsibility. a q _

Arend the first of July 1970 we moved back to our own house M here at Johnson City, Tennessee. Upon my arrival it became A my decision to go di metly to the United States Atomic Energy Commission.

July 12, 1970.My letter to AEC went fInm July 3,1970 to around =

now, g I waited no longer, I immediately got two letters offHaving bec 5 onebytotelephone, up each of my United States Senators. By following the$1 $"

ceived I found that the Honoable Albert Gon re-1 his fJcopy on the 14th and Howard Baker received hi y.a Albert responded immediately and Howard re was set under Region TT mu> -

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h n4n Phone (615) 928-4112 CARL W. HOUSTON, A.S.M.E.

Post Office Box 734 Johnson City. Tennessee 37601 July 11, 1974 LETTER T0: Dr. Dixie Lee Bay, Chairuan, U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, D C.

Compliance, Atomic Energy Commission, Atlanta, Georgia. Just which Senator gets credit for personally pishing for some type of immediate conference with me on the Surry plant. Any way a John Davis, Director telephoned me on July 17, 1970 and was offering to send two representatibes to my home July 20, 1970. I did meet with the two representatives, one legal and one compliance. Truthfully, our discussions netted exactly nothing. The' Iepresentatives were cout-teous but they either knew of the existing deficiencies and weze segred or there were complete mistrust in my ability. ,

Instead of just one -day for conference there turned out to be g; g,;,,

two, July 20, 21, 1970. The only end results were they ( ABC) i;} q: 4 .

wozu to take the ten most serious accuations, and that was all they would ever allow,' go directly to Surry and review (;,f..a .g

.l all reported areas and points of deficiencies. They did go T.

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to Surry and did find' serious deficiencies and did require p.E;7 some corrections. The foremost point of corrective improve- y;W.4 ment was in finding no Welding PIncedure Specification quali- s . :, Y /

fled, thereby no welding operator qualified. AEC did require (A y these corrections immediately.

M..c. .y pg Now even with the pant most highly respected individuals for [.s$

all safe performance, presently playing like young boys but still exceedingly better then what I had found. Mr. Davis s u.c.g C. .4 0 ,

did keep me abreast for sometime and I knew there would always remain extremely dangerous deficiencies remaining regardless y{??j .; W to the amount of project visits made by the Division of Com-plianca men. At this point I had to start insisting that an in- gg'(:

W-dependent be brought onto the project. I did so keep this in-uistance going so hard and strong until the Southwest Research Qf}-)7

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Institute was assigned a complete Quality review. In so doing ffp with instruments, equipment and all necessary accessories j%4 actually they came forward with about what I had found and 9th reported appItzimately one year previously. Aw D.'.y M Dr. Ray, in the most sincerity and honorabic intentions all my d : ~. L insistance with everyone on the Surry project, including you v :.W c Compliance.and Uv cause isRegulation Divisions were deserving and justi- S M.-

fied.iallythatpabroven.Allneedbedoneisreviewthecase' espec where the hearing was conducted at the U

Surry Courthouse. There could have been no doubts great troubles Vk?

would were. have derived had conditions be allow to proceed as the D$

One thing for certain doctor,- I donot believe say of the E

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O esene.<6>s> 928-4ii2 i G

CARL W. HOUSTON, A.S.M.E.

h iEE Post Office Box 734 M

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Johnson City, Tennessee 37601

, g i7 July 11,1974 g

LETTER T0: Dr. Dixie Lee Ray, Chaiman, U. S. Atomic Energy 5 Commission, Washington, D. C. 4

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • g legal staff or the compliance or Begulation would ever {

cmdit any individual with accomplishments, except that which they may steal for themselves. From all my long, hard and enduring efforts, plus spending thousands of dollars, 2;

I was only credited when they were forced to credit, at the g hearing and then just as small as possible. To be most honest _;

with you, I never cared for credit, glory, publicity or any 7 other fom of recognition. My main purpose was to get those y possible lethal areas corrected and naturally trusting to at i least be reimbursed for my necessary expenditums. -

Things did purposely let go unattended, there wasn't a n ad-E mittance of such but facts lay as plain as day before you. My .=

mports, suggestions and pleas went so extremely long until ,

I was forced to bring in the press. Actually doctor, the news -

media obtained more corzuctive results then I could have ever 4 gained.Even then doctor Ray, I didn.'t reveal anymore then was 2 necessary for some action, cornctions and updated Criteria.

g From the start it was my intention to obtain some party v'111- -

ing to assume the corrective responsibility and with the re-  %

quired qualifications, training and experience whereas, my =

own reputation would have been exonerated, with the accusation -7 that was bestowed upon me reversed. If this had been success- i ful from the start or even before we motred back here to our C home, I would have lost but a small amount of money, possible b

$800.00 to $1,000,00. This I would have absorbed ahd wrote it 5 off as bad experience. As it so turned there were no one  !

willing to assume anything, including the Atomic Energy Com- A mission. It then caused me approximately three years work and Y the underground method of black-balling an individual, where- 5 as he find it impossible to locate good employment. Then as 8 of July 1973 I had an expenditure of $9,670.00 with all Y parties refusing even the reimbursements. 2 Now may I doctor; I have most all my life been an ardent sup- g porter of Nuclear Power. I worked at the very first one,com- J mercial plant, Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Honestly I have stood up for nuclear power numerous time, even against colleagues C of mine. It was my knowledge also to realize our urgent demand 5 3g for-electrical energy and just how greatly a few good, well op erating nuclear plants would have assisted. But regardless to _f what urgencies, a poorly constructed plant with no or very few l-accepted qauality contzul allowed during construction just a -

few of these out would have blacked marked nuclear pow,er much "

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l-CARL W. HOUSTON, A.S.M.E. L Post Office Box 734 . 1 Johnson City, Tennessee 37601 -

July 11, 1974 -i c'-

LETTER TO: Dr. Dixie Lee Ray, Chairman, U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, D. C. F more then they already have and so much of these could have ,-

been prevented without loosing but very little man-hours over all. _

Just by realizing my worldly experience and knowledge, it becomes facts, I could never turn against nuclear power just because of certain difficults, eveniif I didn't re- -

ceive acknowledgement or my most honorable and trial & error proven requirenents were not completed. When I started with "._

the Atomic Energy Commission there were numerous individuals employed then that viere either released or retired somewhere '

along the line. There were two Chalmen and four divisional -

heads. This would appear that something was wrong and possible had been for sometime. [ -

7 Regardless doctor Ray, I have actually followed your activities "t every since assuming the Chair, do believe me you have organized ,-

and executed some of the gItater achievements that have been ,

within the United States Atomic Energy Commission for over fifteen --

years. Now truthfully I am most .proud of your progress and am -

most joyful and happy for such achievements because we have I needed such advancements for years. Now please doctor with these ;__

compliments I am bestowing upon you as one proud private Citizen, -

donot think I am soJcalled buttering you up for favors. You only need to converse with my friends, they would definitely confirm my honest, straight forward frankness regardless to whom or where, i but never in a deceiving manner or intention. -

Tzue, Dr. Ray, I would appreciate an accompahtion but by all e rules of justice a much deserving one. I did become very de-termined and became completely surrounded with determinations for safety corrections, until I had a person 1 expenditure into -

several thousands of dollars before I caught it. Really it did appear that Compliance were somewhat appreciative for my assist- ~

ance but when I rendered Mr. Davis, Director, Region II, Divisich -

of Compliance a statement amounting into $7,000.00 'it was re- ~_

fused completely. Since it has increased to ~ $9,670.00 and I -

definitely would appreciate my reimbursement, at least.

Later when this was taken up with my U. S. Congressman Hon. '

James H.

amount ofQuillen

$37,006.00.he introduced a bill into Congress, In the J Regardless Dr. Ray the It whole is still which beforereally the Judicial C6mmittee.

I most deserve any part thereof wo,uld be greatly appreciated. I have a wifeorand three small children depending on me for support.

Sincerely yours,

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