ML20117G230

Discusses Activities That Occurred at Neely Nuclear Research Ctr During Winter of 1995 & Lists Unsatisfactory Conditions Witnessed Re Facility Operations.Related Correspondence

ML20117G230
Person / Time
Site:	Neely Research Reactor
Issue date:	05/13/1996
From:	Galloway J Neely Research Reactor, ATLANTA, GA
To:	NRC
References
CON-#296-17625 REN, NUDOCS 9605210066
Download: ML20117G230 (5)

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UTlRC To the Justices of the Hearing involving the Neely Research facility and all persons )

involved:  :

95 W 13 P4 :40 Please accept my sincere apologies on the tardiness of this document. I understand that in such a legal process, there is a need for deadlines and timetables. I am curren prking ,

i through the difficulties of enrollment in school and full-time employment, si appreciate v your understanding and wish that you accept this written testimony and my continued panicipation in this hearing.

I have attached my resume as required, which should give you an idea of who I am and some summary of my profession and education. I am an enrolled student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and currently reside on campus. My concem with the Neely facility is spawned from the quantity of time I spend in p .ity to it;I live and work within 1/2 mile ofit, and when I am taking classes I am n untly in its presence. While research reactors have contributed much to our understanding of nucle ~ physics, and  !

have uncovered wondrous mysteries about the nature of matter, they do at belong in the j middle of a densely-populated metropolitan area. As my personal belieh dState, this l particular one does not belong on our doorstep, especially not with the conditions I have 1

witnessed surrounding its operation.

I first became aware of the activities that went on behind the shadowy doors of the Neely Nuclear Research Center in Winter of 1995, when Glenn Carroll of GANE and Pamela Blockey-O'Brien spoke to The Environmental Forum, a student organization at Georgia Tech. I proceeded to examine portions of Neely's Safety Analysis Report, finding some of the " precautions" (lack thereof, actually) designed to protect me, my property, and my fellow students grossly inadequate.

My next exposure to Neely's " problems" came at an odd time; I was roaming around the area around Neely trying to find a suitable angle from which to take a picture of the building. There was an open gate in front of what I presume to be a Facilities Department building, so I went in to get a great picture. A GT police officer pulled up and asked me what I was doing. Apparently, this area was normally locked, so he questioned how I arrived here. On discussing the Neely facility, he proceeded to inform me that on one (unspecified and undetailed) occasion he and another officer were called to the facility to investigate an incident. On reaching the front door, he said they were greeted by two men in white radiation suits. He told me that they (officers) inquired whether they would receive one, to which the men inside the building said, "No, it's okay, you won't need one." The officer told me that he and his partner refused to enter without being given a suit, and radioed back that they could not enter the building. The officer's name was Sergeant Kemp, though I do not know his first name or if he is even still with the GTPD.

Some time shortly before our Fall break in 1995, on my way home from class, I stopp-d by the Georgia Tech police station to obtain a copy of the police incident report from the March 23,1995 dropping of the Co-60 pool level. My initial discussion was with a female officer on duty at the window, of whom I asked their procedure for handling alarm 9605210066 960513 PDR ADOCK 05000160 0 PDR

l calls at Neely. The officer informed me that no action was taken (i.e. officers would not go into the building) until Dr. Ratib Karam was reached. He wouk: sen advise the course of action. Depending on the nature of the alarm call, according to this officer (whose name I had no need ofobtaining at the time ofconversation), Dr. Karam would make judgement on how to react, oftenjust waiting until the following morning to " fill out the paperwork" (presumably file the incident report). At this point I seriously began to question the procedure - what if Dr. Karam could not be reached? How easy it would be for him to cover up the actions inside the facility! I asked then to converse with Amber

. Burris, the Records Manager of the GTPD, who provided me with a copy of the incident report. This report was entered as my Deposition Exhibit, and will be entered again during my testimony as an exhibit. Ms. Burris concuned with the first officer that Dr.

Karam was the sole decider ofaction during an alarm call. She assured me that the situation with the Cobalt pool was not critical; based on my leamings, I agreed, but this pointed out in bold letters how single-pointed the management structure of the facility really is, and how Dr. Karam holds a frightening autonomy over Neely's activities.

My next conversation with Ms. Burris occurred following Thanksgiving of 1995, at which time I inquired as to other incidents involving the facility (alann calls, etc.) She enumerated a list, which I will also be entering as an exhibit (see Deposition exhibits). I took an interested note that there was no emergency drill for 1994. I am also amazed that, given the high-enriched uranium, Cesium-137, and Cobalt-60 that the facility is charged with, that neither the 11/4/93 nor 11/2/95 drills were known to the campus, and no evidence of them was detected by anyone with whom I have spoken. Is the Institute so blind as to think that an accident there would not affect our campus, our faculty and staff, our students, our classroom buildings...?

I was looking to find from Ms. Burris some information regarding the strange incident which Sgt. Kemp described to me, though she provided no details of an alarm serious enough to warrant men ir radiation suits greeting the responding officers.

On January 3,1996, I met in the front conference room of the Neely facility with Rob Johnson, Glenn Carroll, and Joan King to review the minutes of the Nuclear Safeguards Committee. The minutes are very bri,:f and often misleading, but I fcund some interesting points that furthered my doubt of the ability of Neely management to safely operate and protect the general public from its effects. Such examples are the leaking bismuth sh,ield, labs being closed due to contamination, the elusive Crenshaw's Mountain, the "MARTA bus incident" involving contamination by a custodian, very short-lived terms of faculty, etc. The contents of the minutes will no doubt be explored in the hearing, and are not the focus of my testimony.

Following my investigation of the minutes, on 2/14/96, I contacted police Chief Jack Vickery regarding the removal of the high-enriched uranium. Not knowing anything about me or who I was, he did not volunteer much information, except that the GTPD would be involved in the removal. I checked up on him, and made sure that the GTPD kept the facility under watch around the clock during the fuel removal. However, Vickery q'

i I said that they (GTPD) would " provide security as requested by Dr. Karam." Vickery, when questioned about the safety of the facility and capability of those in charge, kept saying that we all must have " faith in their [ facility management's] ability to run things."

He would not comment on the management structure at Neely, though from his liberal I

use of"having faith" as being our (Tech's) best solace against fear of catastrophe, I felt like he was asking me to have blindfaith in Dr. Karam, Rodney Ice (whose name he cited), and others, all of whom 1 distrust after reading the NSC minutes.

Most recently, The Environmental Forum requested a tour of the reactor facilities for its members. The tour, originally scheduled to be led by a graduate student, was taken over by Dr. Karam, who said that he and he alone would lead the tour. After having to cancel the April 25,1996 date due to miscommunication, Dr. Karam (as of this week) has cancelled all tours (without plans of rescheduling TEF's).

Feel free to contact me if anything further is required of me before the date of my appearance. Thank you.

Sincerely, ,

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John H. Galloway Junior, ECE, Georgia Tech (404)206-9678 325685 GT Station Atlanta, GA 30332-1070 1

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John Harding Galloway Obiective: To secure a unique position in an electronics, communications, or similar high-technology field that will allow me to creatively utilize my electronics and computing backgrounds to make a worthwhile contribution to the operation of the company.

Present address: 325685 Georgia Tech Station Atlanto, GA 30332-1070 Telephone: 404-2069678 Education: Georgia Institute of Technology - Enrolled junior.

Electrical Engineering major. Current undergraduate grade point overage: 3.7 on 4.0 scale Bowling Green High School, Bowling Green, KY.

Graduated May 23,1993, grade point average: 4.0 on 4.0 scale,98.25 cumulative. Achieved comprehensive l honors diploma. Class Salutatorian. l Clarksville High School, Clarksville, TN.

l Academic Awards and Honars:

Eta Kappa Nu Electrical Engineering Honor Society, Golden Key Honor Society, Gamma Beta Phi Honor Society, Briarean Society (Co-Op Honor) Phi Eta Sigma Freshman Honor Society, Louise M. Fitten Scholarship, current Deans List standing, National Merit Commended Student Extracurricular Activities:

Omicron Delta Kappa leadership society; President's Council Governing Board, Georgia Tech Gay and Lesblan Alliance - President, 1995-96; The Environmental Forum - Speaker Coordinator 1994; DromoTech Theatre,1994 production of " Baby with the Bothwater,"

Lead Role,1994 and 1996 Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership i

Conference; Theta Chi Fraternity - Secretary / Treasurer of Pledge Class,

! Volunteer Usher at Fox Theater, Roxy Theater, Chastain Park, Center Stage, & Alliance Theater, Volunteer with Project Open Hand Atlanta:

Network installation, development, and maintenance for Atlanto-based health center.

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Past Work Exoerience:

• SuperSofe Computers, Inc., Clarksville, TN - 6/89 through 1/90 Sales, technical repair, installations, programming, data entry, mail-outs, inventory a Camping World, Inc., Corporate Headquarters, l

Bowling Green, KY - 5/18/93 through 9/15/93 l Order entry, customer service, bulk mallings, order fulfillment Bellsouth Telecommunications Planning and Engineering: Co-operative employment. Completed work quarters: 3/94 through 12/95. PC Support, Computer programming in Windows environment using Visual Basic, extensive Microsoft Access, Novell network troubleshooting, moderate LAN ,

administration in Novell 4.x environment, maintenance and support of specific infrastructural applications (e.g. IrmoLAN, mainframes, cc: Mall, Access-based clients), some end-user training.

l l Information Technology: Electronic Messaging Services.

3/96-Present. Administrative support of company-wide electronic l

messaging systems in UNIX platform (HP-UX 9.0), client support (PC, j Motif, X environments), WWW server administration (Intranet).

Computer Eauipment Familiar With:

! IBM PCs in MS-DOS and Windows (3.1x and Win 95) environmenis, IBM ,

peripherals, hardware and software installation, physical network design l . (Ethernet, IP routing, connectivity), Novell 3.x and 4.x platforms, some ,

experience with UNIX platform (scripting, administration in HP-UX 9.0), i

( Windows-based TCP/IP stack and utilities (Trumpet, Chameleon, I i

l Netscape), any Apple computers and peripherals. Software: business l

and "home-office" applications (Wordperfect 6.0, Microsoft Office i i applications, HP OpenMall, cc: Mail, etc.), programming languages (C, Pascal, Visual and Access Basic), scripting and hypertext languages (UNIX scripts, HTML 3.0), World Wide Web page design (compus groups and for-profit), telecommunications operations, others.

References will be furnished upon request.

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