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Show AlO The Salt Lake Tribune NATION Sunday, January 31, 1999 Broken Screws Turned Worker Into Whistle-Blower He’s been harassedsince voicing concernsat nuclearplant BY DUNCAN MANSFIELD THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Curtis Overall looks at the small broken sheet-metal screws in his hand Westinghouse screwssoas to per- mit it to pass a [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] (NRC) inspec- and considers the impact of their discovery in the bowels of the Watts Bar NuclearPlant. “It doesn’t have to be big,” he says, “to be big.” Overall’s life hasn't been the samesincehe foundthe screwsin 1995 The 47-year-old Cleveland, Tenn., residentlost his job and his security clearance. He endured an escalating series ofthreats cul- yond Watts Bar. The Union of Concerned Scientists used it to help convince the NRC in January issue in 1995 waslost time and the NRCregionalofficein Illinois found extensive problems with money. Watts Bar was a $1 million-a-day drain on TVAbeforeit started generating electricity. “Had a proper ... inspection broken screws andother debris in D.C. Cook’s ice condensers, and proposed a $500,000 fine against owners Indiana/Michigan Elec- easily have been shut down for a period of six to 12 months,” the judge said. Kenningtonnoted, too, that sixfigure bonuses for TVA nuclear executives were riding on the out- with a heart condition and nowis under a psychologist’s care for depression. He didn’t ask for all this. He didn't set out to becomea whistle- plant near Spring City would Thereare three others: TVA’s Se- quoyah plant near Chattanooga; $147,000. TVA and the NRC dispute the judge’s conclusions. TVA is appealing Kennington’s decision monitored boron-treated ice in ing any really cuitanding problems.” However, because of Overall’s complaint, the NRC inspector general is investigating how the lion reactor after two decades of pressurized water reactors designed by WestinghouseElectric. Duke Power’s Catawba Nuclear Plant near Clover, S.C.; and TVA nuclear chief John Scalice said. “Wedon't perceive us hav- But Overall’s discovery of 171 broken screws at the bottom of Watts Bar's massive ice-condenser systemwas badlytimed. It was April 12, 1995, and TVA was pushing hard to start the $7 bil- tric Co. D.C. Cook and Watts Bar are Duke’s McGuire Nuclear Plant and the NRCsays it won't take wasfired upin 1996 The resulting investigation by Oliver Kingsley’s reward for get- any action against TVA until the outcome is known “We've done very well with the ice condenser here at Watts Bar,” work properly when the reactor to delay the restart of the D.C. Cook Nuclear Plant in Michigan. come. Former TVA nuclear chief ting Watts Bar licensed was blower at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), his employer of nearly 20 years. An engineering specialist, Overall thought he wasjust oe Meantime, the impact of Overall's screw complainthas gone be- tion and prevent a shutdown of the Watts Bar facility,’ Judge Clement Kennington wrote. Testimony suggested a more thorough review might have found other problems with the ice-condenser system. But the big been conducted, Watts Bar could minating with a fake bombplanted in his pickup truck at a shopping mall in September. Overall landed in the hospital nuclear-bombmaterialtritium. construction delays. I didn’t feel like I had anything to worry about,” Overall agency's Atlanta office handled the matter, and Luis Reyes, the said. “I didn’t realize thatthis is- Atlanta, said another sue with screws was that big a of Watts Bar will be madein the spring. near Charlotte, N.C. Ice condensers are hugerefrigerated systems that hold 3 million poundsof carefully weighed and 1,944 baskets stacked in 48-foothigh towers arrangedin a semicir- cle around a reactorcore. When a pipe ruptures, steam would be channeled through the basket assemblies. Missing or bro- ken screws could affect the opening of various doors in the condenser system, diminishing its effectiveness and potentially turning some baskets or their piecesinto missiles that would fly about the reactor room. Overall transferred to Watts Bar in 1984 whentheice baskets in charge of the condensers by 1994, when he convinced superiors to melt the ice and clean up the system. The move was prompted by ice-condenser prob- lems at Sequoyahin 1993. Fortheice reloading operation the following April, Overall devised a melt tank to capture ice that spilled from the baskets. “We didn’t think anything would bein there but water,” he said. “But when we went in and found these basket screws with the heads crackedoff, I knew exactly what they were.” Overall suggested several explanationsfor the brokenscrews, including that they were overtightened during installation. The metallurgists didn’t rule that out, but they also found microscopic cracks in several of the new and This would lower the temperature, relieve pressure and avert a used-but-unbroken screws. Two months after finding the breakin the reactor containment room. screw investigation in July and the case was transferred to another TVA department, which quietly closed it a month later. broken screwsand on the eve of startup, Overall, who baby-sat the condenser at the inactive plant for 11 years, was told a full-time check stamped “paidrest. State and local police agencies say the TVAinspector general has taken chargeof the investigation into who has been harassing Overall. “I would love to find out who did that and intend to do all we can to find that out,” TVA Inspector General George Prossersaid. “If somebody at TVAis involved, TVA removed information aboutthe defective screws from this agencywill take the strongest the report and relied on a Wes- possibleaction.” tinghouse study that said the system could operate safely even if someofthe screws were missing. Overall wanted to conduct a were first loaded andthe plant's startup seemed imminent. He was ice and condense backinto water. There are 186,624 sheet-metal screws holding together the ice- ice condenserspecialist no longer was needed. He was taken off the broken- turned by mutual agreementwith TVA, but continues toer apay- Overall has lived for months with threats from middle-of-thenightcallers, letters at work and notesleft on the windshieldofhis truck or the front door of his video inspectionof about 300 baskets before the plant was irradiat- house. came fromandif any others were missing. He says it would have taken a week. The inspection nev- “Stop It Now,” “Did You Get The Message Yet!”, “Leave Watts Bar, There Is No Room For ed to see where the broken screws er was done. Reyes said the NRCis investigating the changes in the TVA metallurgical report and will inspect the Watts Bar ice condensers again when theplant is down for refueling in March. Meantime, the NRC inspector general is investigating allegations that Reyes’ office failed ‘‘to do enough” in response to Overall’s initial report in 1995, NRC inspector general spokesman George Mulley said. More than a dozen broken screws have been found at Watts The missives havesaid: “Boo!”, Whistleblowers Here or Else!” and “Silkwood,” a reference to Karen Silkwood, who died weeks after blowing the whistle on safety violations at a nuclearplant in Oklahomain 1974. A few days after the fake bomb was found, Overall got another anonymousnote athis house. It was written on a page taken from a Watts Bar engineer's log book. Some screws were attached. The tone wasdifferent. “Watch your backside,” it said “You are being set up.” The note, the last he has re- Bar since Overall’s first report, but Sealice said he believes they are debris left from original construction. Overall won back his job and briefly returned to Watts Bar this ceived, was signed, found in his truck. He hasn't re- me,” Overall said. summer. Then the fake bomb was friend.” NRC'sregional administratorin deal. And what wasreally going on. Watts Bar, located on the Tennessee River 50 miles south of Watts Bar had suffered a number of whistle-blower-driven setbacks since construction began in 1973. TVA was forced to rework everything from welds to paperwork because of the complaints. Knoxville, has operated without incident since going online May 27, 1996. The plant nowis being considered by the Energy Depart- ment as a production site for the By 1995, the plant was the last pending reactor project in the country. Then came Overall’s screws, his layoff and the lawsuit hefiled to try to get back his job. A Department of Labor judge sided with him in May, ruling Thinking About Make money, not ulcers. Ericsson688 or Siemens $12 List Price $69.95 Yours Absolutely TVA discriminated and schemed against Overall. 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