Three Mile Island company accused

Press, 10 November 1983, Page 11

Three Mile Island company accused

NZPA Harrisburg A Federal grand jury has returned an 11-count indictment against the former operators of Three Mile Island for alleged criminal misconduct before the 1979 nuclear accident. An attorney, Mr David Queen, who announced the action this week, said the indictment charged Metropolitan Edison Company with a pattern of criminal violations beginning some time before October 18, 1978, and continuing through the March, 1979, accident at the Unit 2 reactor.

The indictment charges the company with five counts of violating provisions of its licence to run a nuclear power plant, five counts of violating Nuclear

Regulatory Commission regulations, and one count of violating the Federal False Statement Statute. The company is accused of systematically destroying test records and covering up from the commission that the tests did not accurately measure leaks in the Unit 2 cooling system from unknown sources. In addition, the indictments accuse the company of operating the reactor although leak tests were not accurate, of intentionally manipulating leak results by adding water and hydrogen, and failing to take the required steps once it had found leakage exceeded one gallon a minute.

The maximum total fines for all violations is

SUSBS,OOO and costs of prosecution. Officials of G.P.U. Nuclear Corporation, which now runs the plant, said they had not had an opportunity to study the indictments, and refused to deny or confirm the allegations. “Given the limitations imposed on us by the restrictions of the grand jury procedure, we have been unable fully to investigate the matter thus far,” said a company spokesman, Mr Douglas Bedell. “However, the policy of the Metropolitan Edison Company has always been to operate in accordance with the conditions of its licence and applicable regulations.”