ML20235W311

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Partially Withheld Transcript of 850423 Closed Meeting in Washington,Dc Re Discussion of Pending Investigations. Pp 2-8
ML20235W311
Person / Time
Site: Diablo Canyon  Pacific Gas & Electric icon.png
Issue date: 04/23/1985
From:
NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
To:
Shared Package
ML20235W266 List:
References
FOIA-88-229, REF-10CFR9.7 NUDOCS 8903100590
Download: ML20235W311 (8)
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Text

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- ; r, . . 3 i -UNITED STATES OF AMERICA I' 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION L 3 --

1 '

4 DISCUSSION OF PENDING INVESTIGATIONS t' 5 6 CLOSED MEETING -~ EXEMPTIONS 5 & 7

! 7 Room 1130 1717 H Street, N.W.

8 Washington, D.C. ,

9 Tuesday, April 23, 1985-10 The Commission met, pursuant to recess, at-10:31 a.m..

11 COMMISSIONERS.PRESENT:

12 NUNZIO PALLADINO,. Chairman of the Commission.

THOMAS ROBERTS, Commissioner 13 JAMES ASSELSTINE, Commissioner FREDERICK BERNTHAL, Commissioner

14 LANDO ZECH, Commissioner 15 STAFF AND PRESENTERS SEATED AT COMMISSION TABLE:

16 J. HOYLE S. CONNELLY 17 H. PLAINE 18 19 20 21 Inictmetion in this record was deleted 22 in accuidaiics with th' f aedom of Inictmation ACE, CXefilpliODS - llth fol5A 23 F0IA- @ M 24 Ac> Federal Reporters, Inc.

25 l l

B903100590 PDR FOIA 890301 PDRg t[ v SCHNIEG88-229 ,

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I EESSEEE1Ngg 2 CHAIRMAN PALLADINO: Sharon, why don't you go ahead?

3 MS. CONNELLY: Thank you, Mr. Chairmar..

4 In September 1984, wrote Commissioner l

5 Zech alleging that Region V failed to follow up with allegers J

6 to obtain new information or to keep allegers infored .

7 M }also stated that Region V disclosed the i 8 identity of confidential sources after confidentiality was 9 promised. said that the allegers' confidentiality was 10 disclosed when Region V provided the allegers' affidavits to 11 the utility company instead of conducting independent inspectior s )

12 said that the alaagers' names were blocked 13 out in the affid vit=, but the details in the. affidavits led 14 back to the allegers.

15 At the time we received allegations, we were 16 engaged in an audit at the NRC's agency-wide allegation manageme n 17 system. We incorporated M concern into our overall 18 review to determine whether there are systemic problems which 19 might lead to the situations alleged by 20 Our auditors found that improvements are needed to 21 protect the confidentiality of allegers and to provide feedback 22 to allegers regarding follow-up of their concerns.

23 We then turned our attention specifically to the 24 processing of allegations at Diablo Canyon. Region V implemente d Acofederal Reporters, Inc.

25 a special program to process Diablo Canyon allegations. The

1 Progrcm is commonly known as DCAMP. Undar DCAMP, proc duras 2 were established for reviewing documents, identifying allegations i 3 COMMISSIONER BERNTHAL: An unfortunate choice, terrible.1 l

4 (Laughter)  ;

i 5 COMMISSIONER ROBERTS: It's a terrible choice.  !

6 COMMISSIONER BERNTHAL: Excuse me.  !

7 MS. CONNELLY: -- developing an action plan for 8 allegation follow-up, and entering information into an automated ,

9 allegation tracking system.

10 Our auditors found that Region V generally followed 11 the procedures provided for by the DCAMP program. .However, the 1 12 DCAMP procedures are flexible wi,th respect to contacting and 13 Providing feedback to allegers. DCAMP only provides for i

14 contact with allegers when it is "possible and appropriate."

15 As a result, allegers were contacted only when the Region 16 believed contact was necessary to clarify an issae.

1 17 Also, we found that when allegations were made to 18 the allegers' legal counsel -- such as Tom Devine with GAP --

19 Region V assumed that its feedback to legal counsel constituted 20 sufficient feedback to the allegers. If allegations were made 21 directly to the Region by the alleger and not through legal 22 counsel, our audit showed that the Region generally contacted 23 the alleger directly.

24 We are continuing to review the adequacy of Region v's i Ace-Federal Reporters. Inc.

follow-up on allegations. Also, our review of allegatior s s 25 L_ _________ 1

.. 4 I regarding Region V's broach of Gllegors' confid ntiality is 2 still on-going.

3 We have learned that it is,true that Region V 4 provided allegers' affidavits to PG&E for follow-up. We also identified at least one instance where, although the name was 5

6 omitted, identifying information about an alleger was left in a 7

document released by NRC.

8 We contacted last November for I p specifics regarding his allegations about Region V, but he 10 wasn't responsive to our request. We then proceeded to review all available documents which might contain allegations that i 11 12 NRC staff improperly handled complaints from the allegers.

13 To date, we have attained more than 300 documents and identified 14 more than 200 potential allegations against tfie NRC staff's 15 Performance, including questionable conduct by NRC employees.

The allegations that we identified fall into twelve 16 37 major categories, including inadequate NRC follow-up; breach 18 f confidentiality; non-cooperation or lack of good faith; jp false statements; favoritism; inadequate inspection reports, 20 and inspector misconduct.

S that we are not misleading here, I should point 21 ut that many of those 200 allegations are duplicative --

22 CHAIRMAN PALLADINO: Are what?

23 MS. CONNELLY: Duplicative, they are very broad, and 24 Ace-Fed;rol Reporters, Inc.

. 25 we fully expect that they will boil down to a much smaller number

i f

I of allegations.

2 In addition ~, Tom Devine has agreed to make some of i

3 the'allegers available.to us for interview around May 1st. We !

i' 4 expect to have our review completed prior to the Commission's 5 action on the full power license.

6 I will be pleased to answer any questions.that you 7 have.

8 CHAIRMAN PALLADINO: Have you found anything --

i 9 maybe you can't' answer this, but let me ask it anyhow. Have i

10 you found so far anything that would lead you to believe that

' 11 NRC act, ion could impair the quality of this plant? l l

12 MS. CONNELLY: At this point, we haven't. And again, 13 we have done a systems review. It appears that Region V was 14 following the procedures established under DCAMP -- generally 15 following. There were some exceptions, but for the most 16 part we felt they were following the procedures adequately.

i 17 Until we go back and specifically identify from the .

l 18 allegers specific items that might not have been handled  ;

l 19 properly, we have to assume that Region V's actions were I 20 proper. The system itself was working, but there may be  ;

21 individual instances which showed that the system broke down, j 22 and that's what we are trying to show right now.

23 COMMISSIONER ROBERTS: At this point, do you see 24 anything that would preclude our being able to issue a low l Ace-Fed:rsl Reporiers, Inc.

25 power license?

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1 MS. CONNELLY: Not at all.

2 COMMISSIONER ROBERTS: Thank you.

3 COMMISSIONER BERNTHAL: You have had no specifics, is I l

4 that it, at this point, you have only broad allegations? i 1

5 MS. CONNELLY: The allegations are very broad. I 6 was not cooperative with us. We were not able to talk He was serving primarily as a con'duit for 7 to the allegers.

8 the allegers. I 1

9 Now Tom Devine has agreed to make the allegers 10 , available to us, and we, I think, will be able to narrow some 11 of these allegations down. But they are extremely broad right 12 now. .

13 COMMISSIONER ZECH: Why do you say was 14 not responsive, can you elaborate just a little bit?

15 MS. CONNELLY: We contacted and asked to meet 16 with us, and refused to do so.

17 COMMISSIONER ZECH: I see, didn't elaborate at 18 all on what you are interested in?

19 MS. CONNELLY: No. only referred us to audit 20 reports that were prepared by another individual. Bu would 21 not give us any details.

22 COMMISSIONER ZECH: I see. Thank you.

23 CHAIRMAN PALLADINO: How much longer do you think 24 your efforts will extend to complete what you think needs to be Aco Fedtrol Reporters, Inc.

25 done here?

y =_ _ _ .

'l .MS._CONNELLYs ~I think wa should have,it'complet$d-

s. 2 casily.within'45 to.60 days.

3 CHAIRMAN PALLADINO: Within? >

L 4 'MS. CONNELLY: Forty-five to sixty _' days.

b ~{

'5 CHAIRMAN PALLADINO: Other questions?- j

( '

6 ' COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Sharon, have.you had.a 7 . chance to ' talk prior to this scheduled 'May 1st set'of interviews ,1 .

8 .a chance to talk directly with any of the allegers yet?

9 MS. CONNELLY: No, we have not.

10 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Okay. Do you know how 11 many there are? k

\

12 MS. CONNELLY: Around,22 people are inv$1ved, although.

13 !I'm not sure all of those 22 have allegations,that we are

14. interested in.

15 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Okay. And Devine said

'16 that you are going to get a chance to talk to all those people?

17 RMS. CONNELLY: That's right.

18 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Okay.

19 MS. CONNELLY: The same allegers, the same 13 that 20 were referred to earlier this morning are included in our 21 group.

22 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Yes. But then there is 23 another --

24 MS. CONNELLY: There are some others.

Ace FWeni n.ponen. ine, j 25 CHAIRMAN PALLADINO: Any other questions?

l

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8 1 COMMISSIONER ZECH:- No, thcnk you.

2 COMMISSIONER ROBERTS: No.

3 CHAIRMAN PALLADINO: Okay, thank you very much, Sharor. .

4 Anything more that should come before us with regard to the 5 investigations?

6 MR. PLAINE: Mr. Chairman, just a footnote on this 7 Diablo Canyon Allega. tion Management Program. The same 8 organization has filed a law suit in the District Court here, 9 asking that the court in effect issue a writ of mandamus to 10 compel and indeed supervise the action of the Commission in 11 following up on the so-called DCAMP project.

12 We have replied to that, and we will argue this 13 afternoon in court for a dismissal of the suit, basically on 14 the ground that it is not the subject of any' District Court 15 action that can be brought, properly.

16 I would imagine or. the merits, we can also deal with 17 the problem if we had to, but I don't think we will have to 18 deal with it on the merits.

19 CHAIRMAN PALLADINO: Okay. Any other comments or 20 questions?

21 MS. CONNELLY: I would like to add that we are 22 following up on the allegations that were made in that law suit, 23 and they have cited some statistics that we just had no idea 24 where they came from. But we will follow through on it.

ActFedwol Reporters, irg.

25 CHAIRMAN PALLADINO: Okay, if there is nothing more l

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