IA-98-183, Partially Deleted Transcript of 970109 Interview of L Khandelwal in Dana Point,Ca.Pp 1-232
| ML20237C656 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 01/09/1997 |
| From: | NRC OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS (OI) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20237C626 | List: |
| References | |
| FOIA-98-183 NUDOCS 9808240046 | |
| Download: ML20237C656 (141) | |
Text
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EXHIBIT 6 4
I 9808240046 980813 '
PDR FOIA KNUDSON90-183 PDR Information i.1 thls riccrd v.::s d:'c!ed
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1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1
2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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3 4 OFFICE OF IPNESTIGATION INTERVIEW 5 -.
- ------ -- ------- - ---- -X -
6 7 IN THE MATTER OF 8 INTERVIEW OF: : Docket No. ,
9 LAXMI KHANDELWAL 4-96-056 10
- ---------- ------X 11 12 Thursday, January 9, 1997 13 14 Dana Point Hilton )
15 34402 Pacific Coast Highway Room 450 16
)
Dana Point, California 17 l l l I 18 19 The above-entitled interview was conducted at 20 3:19 p.m.
I 21 22 BEFORE:
23 PHILIP V. JOUKOFF, Senior Investigator 24 EXHIBIT _d
'( 25 CASENO. 4-96-056 we__/_ot222_neses NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234 4433 (202) 234-4433 ) , s '..&
2 1 CONTENTS 2 WITNESS EXAMINATION 3 Laxmi Khandelwal 5 f 1
4 5 EXHIBITS _
PAGE 6 1 Khandelwal Letter to Department of Labor . 14 '
7 2 Attachment 1 to Letter 25 8 3 Attachment 2 to Letter 30 9 4 Attachment 3 to Letter . 34 10 5 E-Mail from Khandelwal to Carlisle 39 j
{
11 6 Attachment 5 to Letter 70 12 7 At t.achme nt 7 to Letter 75 13 8 Attachment 8 to Letter 76 14 9 Attachment 9 to Letter 81 l
15 10 Attachment 6 to Letter 89 16 11 Significant Nuclear Achievement Award 91 l
17 12 Attachment 10 to Letter 98 18 13 Attachment 11 to Letter 104 19 14 7/15/95 Letter from Khandelwal to Kaneko 118 20 l
21 j l
22 l
23 )
24 i l
( 25 l
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3 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2
(3:19 p.m.)
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: We'11 be going on the 4 record now. Today's date is January the 9th, 1997. The 1 1
5 time now is approximately 3:20 p.m. )
6 This is an interview with Laxmi Khandelwal, a 7 former employee of the Southern California Edison Company
]
8 who was employed at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating 9 Station.
10 My name is Philip Joukoff and I'm a special 11 agent employed by the Office of Investigations of the U.S.
12 Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
13 For the record, Mr. Khandelwal, could you 14 please state and spell your full name?
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: First name is Laxmi, spelled 16 L-A-X-M-I, middle name Narain, N-A-R-A-I-N, last name 17 Khandelwal, K-H-A-N-D-E-L-W-A-L.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: What is your home 19 address, please?
20 MR. KHANDELWAL:
3 -
21 i I
.)
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: What is your telephone i
l l 23 number at your residence?
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: Area code 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: For the record, could NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON. O C 20005-3701 (202) 2344433
- ~ -
4 l
1 you please state your Social Security number? l
- 0/
2 ,
MR. KHANDELWAL: ,
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: What is your date of l
)
4 birth?
5 MR. KHANDELWAL:
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Prior to starti,g n this l f
7 record and going on the record we discussed a few items i
8 that I'd like to review on the record with you to make {
' )
9 sure that we both understand exactly what is transpiring. j 1
10 I showed you the NRC advisement on identity protection and 1
I 11 you read that and signed that; is that correct? i 12 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. sir.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And you understood all 1 14 of the information that was in that document before 15 signing it; is that correct?
1 16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir 17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And you signed it of 18 your own free will; is that correct? j l
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. l 20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And are you giving this 21 statement voluntarily and of your own free will today?
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You understand that you 24 can terminate this interview at any time and you are under 25 no obligation to provide information to the NRC at this NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHoDE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON. D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433
l'
5 1 time?
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Do you have any 4 questions for me at this time?
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And do you understand 7 that you can stop this interview at any time if you would 8 like to take a break or a recess?
l 9 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. l l
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Thank you. If you l l
11 could please stand and raise your right hand.
12 Whereupon, t
13 LAXMI KHANDELWAL 14 was called as a witness and, having been first duly sworn, 15 was examined and testified as follows:
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Thank you.
l 17 EXAMINATION I 18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Briefly, could you )
i 19 explain your educational background after graduation from 20 high school, please?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: I had inter-science, then I 22 had BSC Part 1 and then four years of engineering. I have 23 BS in electrical engineering.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: A Bachelor of Science k.
% 25 degree in engineering?
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6 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
2 , INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- And which university 3 did you attend?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: That is Agra University in 5 India. ..
6 IlWESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Could you spel'l.,that 7 for us, please?
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: A-G-R-A.
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Thank you. And in what 10 year did you receive your Bachelor of Science degree?
11 MR. KHANDELWAL: f(,
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And are you a 13 registered professional engineer in any state or the 14 United States?
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: In California.
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And are you registered 17 in electrical engineering?
18 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir. f I
l 19 I?NESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Could you please give l l
I 20 me a brief description of your employment history in the (
1 I
21 nuclear industry?
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: I joined Southern California 23 Edison in 1972 and I started working at San Onofre in i
24 1974.
25 IlWESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So from 1974 until NEAL R. GROSS )
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% A . .s
7 1 approximately the middle of 1995 you were employed at San 2 Onofre; is that correct?
3 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And could you give us a 5 brief description of what your various job capacities were 6 there during those years, to the best of your ,
7 recollection.
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: Can I see my resume?
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Certainly, if you'd 10 like.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: I think we'11 go off 12 the record while Mr. Khandelwal gets his resume out.
4 13 (Off the record.)
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Back on the record.
15 Mr. Khandelwal has retrieved his resume from his briefcase 4
16 and he's going to give us his job history at San Onofre.
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: I was Engineer II in 1972, 18 from 1972 to 1974, worked as lead electrical engineer on 19 various non-nuclear projects, so you can take it out from 20 1972/1974.
21 From 1974 to 1979 I was Engineer II, 22 responsible engineer SONGS 1, managed stand-by power 23 additional project which included preparation of diesel I
f 24 generator, 4 KV switengear and 480 volt motor control
{
25 center specification, engineering of one line/ elementary NEAL R. GROSS l COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS I 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W l (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234 4433 l
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8' )
1 1 diagrams, short circuit and voltage drop calculations.
2 From 1979 to 1981 I was Group Leader, C 3 Electrical. As Group Leader for SONGS 1 managed back-fit 4 projects, systematic evaluation, electrical separation, j l
5 system voltage degradation, auxiliary system study, 6 switchyard cutover project, SONGS I electrical drawings j l
7 inspection update.
l 8 From 1981 to 1985 I was Responsible Engineer )1 l
9 SONGS 2 and 3; prepared and reviewed design change 1
'O packages for the improvement of plant operations and 1
11 compliance with Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations, i 12 performed system analysis and calculation, coordinated j i
13 with internal departments and vendors, provided i
14 engineering support during construction of SONGS 2 and 3. J
)
15 Lead Electrical Engineer from 1985 to 1988; j 1
16 managed various projects including Kpaton insulation study )
17 and modifications, single failure modifications, closed 18 circuit TV monitoring, battery. sizing calculations, diesel 19 generator slow start modifications, et cetera.
20 Engineer I, 1988 to 1990; system design 21 engineer for emergency diesel generators and main power 22 systems, electrical lead providing engineering support for 1 23 single failure analysis project. I 1
24 From 1990 to 1993, Equipment Group Supervisor; 25 identified qualified life issues for MDR and Agastat l NEAL R. GROSS I
COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHoDE ISMND AVE . N W WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234 4433 l (2C2) 23u433
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L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___
9 1 relays, resolved non-conformance report on EGP relay's 2 qualified life, provided technical support to generation l 3 operations, prepared a specification for load center I
4 transformers and provided technical support to the system 5 group and procurement engineering, supervised preparation 6 of safety related relay master list for SONGS. ,
r 7 Senior Engineer II, 1993 to 1995; performed 8 engineering and independent reviews of various design 9 change packages and field change notices, prepared revenue 10 metering report for San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, 11 reviewed relay qualification reports and test plans to 12 assure the proper relays are used in the safety systems.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Very good, tha k you.
14 My understanding is that in approximately July 15 of 1995 you separated from Southern California Edison; is 16 that correct?
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And what was your 19 reasons for your separation from the company?
20 MR. KRANDELWAL: In my opinion, the way I look 21 back, that some time in 1993, approximately May 1993, I 22 had some safety concern about the MDR and the Agastat 23 relays which I brought to the attention of the management i
24 and I pursued it consistently; May and then September of k,. 25 '93 and January of '94, June of '94.
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10 1 That has caused some problem like they were 2 retaliating against me. They harassed me for quite 3 awhile, for about one and a half year before this July 4 termination.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And we're going to go l 6 into all of that area here shortly but just for the 7 record, were you terminated by Southern California Edison, 8 did you quit or did you retire from the company?
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: It was involuntary 10 termination.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Involuntary --
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: Involuntary retirement.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Involuntary retirement.
(1 14 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And if you had not 16 taken the retirement what would have happened?
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: My job was terminated.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So you would have not 19 had a job; is that correct?
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: Job was terminated. The only 21 thing that since I was eligible for retirement so I opted 22 for retirement.
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, very good. At q 24 the time that you took this retirement were you required
%. 25 to sign any documents with Southern California Edison?
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11 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: For the severance package, is 2 I would have not signed the release, then they were paying 3 me about 10 weeks of salary.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Ten weeks, excuse me?
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Ten weeks of salary, like 10 6 weeks pay.
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay.
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: If I would have signed then I 9 got at least 41 weeks for signing the release.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, which release are 11 you talking about? What did the release say? I don't 12 have one here.
MR. KHANDELWAL: A copy of the release was in
(
13 14 the original document. I can give it to you if you want 15 it. The release was attached to the Department of Labor 16 complaint.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Thank you. Can I have 18 this copy?
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: I think -- I can make a copy 20 and I can send it to you. )
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so you will send 22 me a copy of this?
l 23 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF Okay. Just for the j 25 record, the document we're referring to is " Severance
)
.i NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
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1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234 4433 l c
12 j 1 Agreement and Release for Employees Eligible for Early 2 Retirement", and it's a five-page document and on the last 3 page it's signed by a representative of Southern 4 California Edison Company and also by I presume that's I 5 your signature, Mr. Khandelwal? ..
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes. .
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And it's dated July the 8 26th, 1995. So let me see if I understand this severance 9 situation correctly. Your job that you had was eliminated 10 by Southern California Edison Company. The job no longer 11 existed; is that correct?
12 MR. KRANDELWAL: That is what they told me.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, doyoubblieve 14 that that wasn't true?
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
16 INVES11 GATOR JOUKOFF: So 'f^u believe it was 17 not true.
18 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: I don't understand, 20 what does no mean? It is true or it's not true?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, I do not believe that 22 what they were saying was true. ;
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay.
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: The job was not eliminated.
. 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay.
l NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W CO2) 234 4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433
13 l 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Because the contractor l 2 employees were still working and I could do the job what l
\
3 other people, the contractor employees were doing. So l l
4 they laid off the permanent employee, kept the temporary 5 employee.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: How many temporary 7 employees did they keep? {!
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: At that time to the best of 9 my recollection --
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: I'm talking about only 11 in your specific area, not overall in the company.
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, I'm talking electrical --
4 13 in the electrical -- in my group.
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay.
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: There were about four to five 16 people there.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So they kept four to 18 five contractors --
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- but they released 21 you.
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
l l 23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Did they release any
- 24 other engineers like you that were Edison employees?
km, 25 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
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14 1 IPNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: They did.
2 . MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
3 I?NESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: How many others?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: In the electrical group there ,
l 5 were two more people. l
)
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So a total of three j 7 were released.
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. ,
1 9 I?NESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And these were also at 10 the same grade you were? You were an engineer -- Senior 11 Engineer II; is that correct?
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, no other gentleman was 13 --hewasEngineerIandtheothercandidatewashenior 14 Engineer II, just like me.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And did he have 16 approximately the same many years of service with the 17 company as you did or did he have more or less? Do you 18 know?
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: He had I think two years more 20 than me.
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And do you remember his 22 name?
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, j 24 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: 6' NEAL R. GROSS i COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS l 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 - (202) 234-4433
15 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Thank you. So you're 3 telling me that you were released, two other engineers 4 were released but some contractor people were kept --
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- kept on. Afld were 7 you offered any other jobs in the company?
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, sir.
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Were you told that this 10 was part of an overall downsizing? What were you told 11 other than the fact that your job was eliminated?
12 MR, KHANDELWAL: Well, the sudden news --
?
13 about a week ago there was a memo from Mr. Harold Ray.
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: A week ago --
15 MR. KRANDELWAL: About a week ago, I don't 16 know the exact date but about a week ago there was a memo 17 from the senior vice president that 54 positions they want 18 to eliminate or something of that nature.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And this letter came 20 out in 1995?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: In 1995.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, and then l 23 approximately a week later is when you were told that your 24 job was going to be eliminated?
%. 25 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
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16 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. As a result of 2 your being terminated by the company or retired from the 3 company, whichever terminology you prefer to use, my 4 understanding is that on September the 21st of 1995 you 5 filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor; is 6 that correct?
7 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, I have a copy of 9 your letter here to the Dopartment of Labor and if you 10 could just confirm for me that that is the letter that you 11 wrote to the Department of Labor.
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir, this is the letter.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: I'd like to mark that 14 as Exhibit 1 to today's transcript.
15 (The document referred to was marked 16 for identificatier. as Exhibit Number 17 1.)
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Thank you.
19 Okay, referring now to Exhibit 1 which is your 20 letter, my understanding in reviewing this letter is that 21 in 1992 you were working for the Southern California 22 Edison Company and you were an equipment group supervisor; l
! 23 is that correct?
! 24 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
%. 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: In what division did l
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1 17 l l
1 you work? l 1
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: In the electrical discipline, 3 in the Nuclear Engineering Design Organization.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: What's commonly 5 referred to as NEDO; is that correct? .
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Thank you. And in 1992 8 who was your immediate supervisor?
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: In 1992 Mr. Kaneko, Alan 10 Kaneko, A.T. Kaneko was my immediate supervisor.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And that's K-A-N-E-K-O?
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Thank you. Now, my 14 understanding is is that in 1992 there was a decision made 15 to prepare a relay master list; is that correct?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Do you remember when in 18 1992 this occurred; early in the year, middle of the year, 19 end of the year?
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: It was early in the year.
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: That's fine. And how 22 was it that you came to know about the decision to make 23 this relay master list or RML?
l 24 MR. KHANDELWAL: I was told by Mr. Kaneko that 25 he would like me to start on this relay master list.
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18 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So he in the early part 2 of 1992 contacted you, said that a decision had been made 3 to create this list.
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And he wanted you to 6 start working on it; is that correct? -
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: If you need more specifics, I 8 can take it out, like all the data on this one, log number 9 if you want.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: I believe we have the 11 log number in the letter here. I'm just getting your 12 general background as to who told you and what they told 13 you to do.
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: Okay.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, in the 1992 time 16 frame what else transpired after Kaneko told you about the 17 relay master list?
18 MR. KHANDELWAL: Once the job was given, we 19 started working on it and before working on the relay 20 master list we had to finalize that information the 21 column-wise, what information will go on that relay master 22 list so that everybody feels comfortable that nothing has l 23 been left out.
24 So we started preparing the columns like the
%_ 25 coil voltage, the coil rating, what is the qualified life f
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1 19 1 of the relay, whether the relay is mounted vertically, 2 horizontally. Like there's a whole chart which is in the 3 document.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So you started creating 5 basically a table or a series of tables.
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: The first thing was to decide 7 the information which will be given into this document.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, and you were 9 involved in doing that; is that correct?
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Myself and the people, those 11 who were working with me.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And who were those 13 individuals?
14 MR. KRANDELWAL: John Oh was one of the 15 contract engineer and Roberto Cruz. There were two people 16 who were helping me.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so John Oh, 0-H 18 is his name --
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: 0-H.
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- and the second 21 individual was?
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Roberto, last name is Cruz, 23 C-R-U-Z.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Thank you. And he also
- k. 25 worked for you?
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I 20 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
I l 2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And was he a i
l 3 contractor?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: He was a contractor.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF; Okay, so you and the 6 two contractors started creating these series of tables 7 that had columns and every column had various technical 8 data --
9 MR. KHANDELWAT. - Yes.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- coil voltage and the 11 manufacturer and application and all kinds of technical 12 data.
4 13 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, thank you.
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: And that relay table is 16 attached in these documents.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so we're going to 18 come to it as we go through the letter; is that correct?
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay, thank you. In 21 the 1992 time frame were there any meetings held about all 22 of this? In other words, the reason I'm asking you is l 23 your letter starts talking about -- this Exhibit 1 starts i
I, 24 talking about the relay master list in 1993. And what I'm i
25 trying to elicit from you is what transpired in 1992 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS l 1323 RHODE ISt.AND AVE . N W WASHINGTON. D C. 20005 3701 (202) 234-4433 (202) 234-4433
21 1 before we got to 1993.
I r 2 MR. KRANDELWAL: In 1992 we were -- once we
( 3 got the signal from the discipline manager who was Mr.
4 Kaneko, we started working. We were collecting the data.
5 We were reviewing the drawing and we were putting the 6 information on this data base, what we decided that this 7 was the final table.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: This was a computer 9 data base that you were usina?
10 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yes.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And was this a full 12 time job for you and the two contractors?
13 MR. KRANDELWAL: It was full time for those 14 two contractors, but I had lot of other assignments.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And this continued 16 through 1992; is that correct?
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: In 1992 it was full blown, 18 yes.
i '- INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay, now do you know j i
1 20 who decided to prepare the relay master list? Do you know {
21 who made the decision that one was to be created?
22 MR. KHAFDELWAL: That was Mr. Kaneko. )
)
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: He didn't have anybody )
l I 24 higher than him saying that one needed to be made?
l %. 25 MR. KHANDELWAL: He was the discipline l
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22 1 manager, electrical discipline manager and I think this 2 assignment came from upper management. I don't know who 3 it is at this time.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Somebody in upper 5 management.
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You're not certain who; 8 is that correct?
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: The log -- because of my 10 write-up I have given the ATK log because that was the way 11 they were keeping track of all this work. So I simply had 12 ATK log but from whom Kaneko got the information, I don't 13 know that.
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You don't know. Now, 15 this log that you're talking about, what kind of log is 16 that again? Is that ATR log?
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: This is ATK log.
l 18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Oh, ATK log.
l l
MR. KRANDELWAL: ATK.
19 20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay, thank you, i That's a NEDO tracking document; is that correct? l 21 22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay, thank you. So to 24 the best of your knowledge somebcdy higher up in Southern
. 25 California Edison management than Kaneko made this l NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISuND AVE N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433
23 1 decision but you don't know who it is; is that correct?
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Do you know why it was 4 decided to start a relay master list?
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, I know what was 6 happening that a lot of NRC notices, any time an NR,C 7 notice comes, any notice that a particular relay has 8 failed in some other plant then immediately you are 9 supposed to investigate whether the identical component we 10 have it or not. Okay, replacement intervals, some relays 11 they were decided like there was a notice that Agastat 12 relays were qualified for 4.5 years. So how they would 13 decide that when a certain relay has to be replac$d unless 14 you have a data base that okay, these panels, these relays 15 have been used for two years or three years.
16 So management felt that it -- it will be very 17 useful. It will save a lot of time for the engineers in 18 future if we have some data base.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so that was the 20 reason for --
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
72 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- a relay master list.
23 Amongst others was the NRC had issued various bulletins; 24 is that correct?
25 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
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24 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, moving -- this I
! 2 work continued through 1992, the two contractors working i l
3 on it.
i 4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And then how about 1
6 1993, they were still working on it; is that corr'e.c.t? l 1
i 7 MR. KHANDELWAL: In the first quarter of 1993 1
8 they were still working on it. j 9 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So the two contractors 10 were working on it. You were working on it part of the 11 time.
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: I was supervising and part 13 time. l 14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. Now, my !
l 15 understanding from Exhibit 1, your letter, is that in 1993 16 in May of 1993, management requested what -- to see a 1
17 justification for preparing the RML; is that correct? i 18 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
19 ' INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And wnen you refer to 20 management making this request, hcw is management?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: In -- okay, Mr. Kaneko was no 22 longer discipline manager. Mr. Bernie Carlisle in 1993, 23 he became electrical DM, discipline manager.
24 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : And do you remember 25 when in '93 he became the discipline manager?
i NEAL R. GROSS COURT RCPoRTERS AND TRAN!CRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234-4433
25 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, off-hand I don't remember 2 the dates unless I have to go to --
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: No, you don't have to 4 do that. I'm just -- so you wculd say some time in the 5 beginning of 1993? _
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, yeah. .
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF. Okay.
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: And there was some concern 9 about the funding so they wanted to know that whether this
.. l 10 relay master list -- how difficult it is, whether it 11 should continue or it should be abandoned. So they wanted 12 me to provide a justification that why the relay master 13 list is necessary. l 14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And when you say "they i l
15 wanted you to do that", that's carlisle wanted you to do i
16 that?
17 MR KHANDELWAL: Carlisle was told by his boss 18 or whatever transpired. His conversations with upper 19 management I don't have knowledge but I was told by him 20 that --
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, do you have any -
22 - did he tell you that his boss told him to do this or as l 23 far as you know it started at Car 31e but you suspect it 24 maybe went higher.
25 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, that part I don't know.
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26 1 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : You don't know.
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
3 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: All you know is that 4 Carlisle came and talked to you about it.
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, because my reporting 6 relationship, I don't question. .
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Oh, I know, I 8 understand you don't question but sometimes -- I'm just 9 trying to elicit from you if perhaps Carlisle came to you 10 and said, "Mr. So and So, my boss, told me that we should 11 find out". 1 12 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, he didn't.
)
13 IPNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: He didn't say anything i 14 like that. So to your knowledge Carlisle is the one that 15 wanted the justification; is that correct?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes, sir.
1 17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, thank you. Why l 18 do you thinK this occurred in 1993 and not before? I 19 mean, my understanding is it occurred in May of 1993. Is l 20 there any reason why it didn't happen earlier than that, 21 this justification request?
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Not to the best of my l 23 recollection because the change of management, like Mr.
24 Kaneko was not longer discipline manager.
25 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : Did he -- why did he NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234 s 433
{
27 1 leave, do you know?
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: It was management decision.
3 He didn't leave. He was removed.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So he was removed from 5 his position? _
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: He was -- yeah, he was 7 transferred to some other department.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Do you feel he left in 9 good grace or in bad grace?
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: In -- no, in bad grace.
11 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : In bad grace?
12 MR. KHI.NDELWAL: Yes.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So he was not in 14 management's good graces and he was moved to a different 15 position.
16 M R' . KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And Mr. Carlisle took !
18 over.
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, I understand. So 21 you feel that the reason that the justification request 22 was made was because of the management change from Kaneko 1
23 to Carlisle; is that correct?
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: That is my understanding.
l 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: That's your NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON. D C 20005 3701 (202) 234-4433
28 1 understanding. That's fine. Other than Mr. Carlisle 2 talking to you about this, did he send you an E-mail or 3 write you any document in which he stated that he wanted 4 you to create the justification for continuing the RML 5 work? l
_ _ . I 6 MR. KHANDELWAL: I don't recall at this time.
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: I'm just trying to ;
8 elicit from you is there any documentation other than your 9 memory of this situation, that he sent you an E-mail and 10 said, " Create, you know, a justification for me" 11 MR. KHANDELWAL: I don't think that there were I 12 any written E-mail or anything. I was told verbally --
4 13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Verbally?
i 14 MR. KHANDELWAL: -- because I'm referring to 15 my attachment 1 and if there was any E-mail, I would have l 16 referred it.
( 17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Let's introduce 18 attachment 1 to the record, so we'll have it, okay?
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
l 20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- What we're going to do 21 is we're going to introduce Exhibit Number 2 into the 22 record and this is attachment 1 to Mr. Khandelwal's 23 September 21st, 1995 letter which has already been 24 introduced as Exhibit 1. Attachment 1 consists of six 25 pages, typewritten including the cover page which just NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON. D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433
29 1
1 says " Attachment 1". If we can mark that as Exhibit 2, 2 please.
3 (The document referred to was marked 4 for identification as Exhibit Number 5 2.)
6 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Thank you. ,
7 Okay, we now have Exhibit 2 marked and I noted 8 that on May the 4th, 1993 you wrote an E-mail to Carlisle, 9 ycur supervisor, giving the reasons for the relay master 10 list to continue to be complied; is that correct?
11 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
12 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : In this E-mail you 13 stated that, perceived safety issues involved - dere 14 involved in this; is that correct?
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now these perceived 17 safety issues are these safety issues -- what are they 1
18 briefly? Are they the fact that the NRC has issued 19 bulletins requiring compliance or what do you see as the 20 perceived safety issues?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: On the third page of this E-22 mail --
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Wait a minute. That's 24 going to be on the fourth page of this exhibit.
25 MR. KHANDELWAL: -- in the last paragraph on NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 i
30 1 the bottom of the page it says that, "While investigation 2 of replacement life of safety related relays in general we 3 noted that Agastat's E-7000 relays have a qualified life 4 of 10 years original manufacturers supplied. This 10-5 years replacement requirement have been incorporated in 6 plant maintenance and however, the manufacturer,'MS 7 Corporation did not specifically indicate whether the life 8 was based on energized or de-energized relays. When we 9 approached MS they confirmed that there's no qualified 10 life for energized relays assigned by them. There are 11 many energized Agustat E-7000 relays".
12 There was one problem which was identified in 13 this paragraph, that the manuf acturer indicated irk one of (1 14 the letters that he doesn't have any data about the 15 qualified life of the relays which are continuously 16 energized.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: In the energized state.
18 Now, just for the record let me confirm, the energized 19 state means that the coil has a voltage on it and the 20 relay is closed in normal operation. Is that --
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, the coil is energized 22 all the time.
! 23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKGFF: Yeah, the coil is i
24 continuously energized which means the arm is thrown on
- 25 the relay.
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31 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And then it serves its 3 function when the coil becomes de-energized --
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: De-energized, then --
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- so the relay falls 6 out.
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: -- then it changes this.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Right, okay, so that's l
9 what you're defining as energized state; is that correct?
f 10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, energized state is it is 11 continuous voltage.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Right, it's a 13 continuous voltage on the coil.
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, just like with bulb is 15 continuously lighted.
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, thank you. Okay, 17 so you're basically reading from the exhibit, you're i
i 18 reading from Exhibit 2. And these were the perceived 19 safety issues. And the next paragraph you mention an NRC 20 Notice 92-64.
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: In the preceding paragraph we 22 just indicated like in the second paragraph on the same 23 page, we indicated that the qualified life of the 1
24 energized relay was 1.5 years.
25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, this again is on NEAL R. GROSS i COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
! 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W f (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON. D C 20005 3701 (202) 234-4433 l
t - ____.._____________________o
32 l l
1 page 4 of Exhibit 2.
2 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yes.
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay, so these are the )
l 4 safety issues you're talking about. They are captured in 5 Exhibit 2; is that correct?
6 MR. KRANDELWAL: Exactly, exactly. ,
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay.
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: And do you want me to go 9 farther on this one or this will be --
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: This is going to be 11 part of the record, so you don't have to read into the 12 record if it's here. We've got it. Okay, that's why we 4
13 make it an exhibit.
14 MR. KRANDELWAL: Okay.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Are there any others 16 that you know of now that are not included in Exhibit 2?
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, everything is there.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Everything is there.
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
zu 1NVEb11GATUM JUUKUFF Okay, thank you. In 21 your letter shown in Exhibit 1, on page 2 it says that, j 22 "On May the 28th, 1993 RML justification report was l
23 presented by me to Bernie Carlisle, K.L. Johnson and A.T.
24 Kaneko" So Kaneko was still working in the area; is that k_
% 25 correct?
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l 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Kaneko at that time was 2 reporting to Mr. Johnson. l
\
C 3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So he had been demoted !
l 4 and Mr. Johnson took his place; is that correct?
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Mr. Johnson was in a 6 different department. He was in the nuclear control data 7 base at that time.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKCFF: Okay, so that's where 9 Mr. Kaneko was moved to.
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, thank you. Okay, 12 now, Mr. Johnson, let's get him down here. His name is 4
13 Kenneth Johnson; is that correct --
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- or Ken Johnson. And 16 at that time he was the manager of nuclear control - -
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: Data base.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- data base?
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
20 ItNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : And that is in the NECO 21 organization, again or is that in a different 1
J i
22 organization?
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: It was in NEDO organization, 24 under the same manager.
25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. Now, in this I NEAL R. GROSS i l
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34 1 meeting Mr. Johnson made a threatening comment after 2 reading the safety and compliance issues stated on page 5
( 3 of the report. And the report is shown -- is a document 4 that we have not gotten to yet; is that correct?
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: It's attachment,2, 7 right?
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: It's attachment 2.
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so let's I
10 introduce attachment 2 of your letter is going to become
{
1 11 Exhibit 3 of today's transcript. Do you follow me, Mr. l 12 Khandelwal? l t
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
14 (The docunient referred to was marked 15 for identification as Exhibit Number 16 3.)
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, Exhibit 3 has 18 been marked and it is attachment 2 to the letter that Mr. l 19 Khandelwal wrote to the Department of Labor and this 20 document is entitlec " Relay Master List Justification".
21 And on page 5 of this document, this document isn't 22 numbered at the bottom, apparently Mr. Johnson reviewed 23 page 5 of the report and made a statement that certain 24 issues should not have been stated the way that they were
. 25 described by you.
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35 1 So you wrote this document that's shown as 2 Exhibit 3; is that correct?
3 MR. KHANDELWAL: This input was provided to me 4 by one of the engineers who was working with me.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so one of your 6 contractor -- '
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, one of the full time 8 Ecison employees.
9 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so he gave you 10 this input.
11 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah. Before the meeting I 12 asked the group to provide me necessary reasoning, like 13 what are the compliance issues and one guy was involved 14 with the compliance issues. So he prepared the compliance 15 issues. Other gentleman he who was preparing 16 productivity, he prepared productivity. So compliance 17 issues were prepared by Mr. A. Biswas, B-I-S-W-A-S.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Thank you. So he gave 19 you this input that is shown on page 5; is that correct?
l 20 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. !
1 J
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: But you're the one that 22 compiled this report --
l 23 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
24 I!NESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- -- that's shown in 25 Exhibit 3; 1s that correct?
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m----- .
36 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
l 2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Ol:ay, you were 3 compiling the report.
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. l 5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so what part of 6 this page 5 was Mr. Johnson referring to when he ma,de the ;
7 statement that, quote, "My supervisor will go to jail"?
8 MR. KRANDELWAL: The second paragraph on the 9 bottom --
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay.
11 MR. KHANDELWAL: -- "In fact we have no idea 12 why Agastat relays only have a specific qualified life 13 whereas others do not. Our position is this issue of 14 relay replacement is inconsistent. Why should we replace 15 Agastat only and not the others? Recently Agastat 16 informed us that the 10-year replacement period is only 17 applicable to de-energized relays and not for energized 18 relays. They have no recommendation about energized 19 relays. SONGS has many energized Agastat relays used in 20 safety applications" 21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So that's the paragraph 22 that Johnson took exception to.
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: After reading that page, I i
74 think this was the paragraph which was very strong in his
- 25 opinion that pointed out in a very clear direction that we NEAL R. GROSS CoVRT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1.23 RHQDE ISMND AVE . N W l
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37 1 have a problem.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, when he says, "My l l
3 supervisor will go to jail", who is that? I 4 MR. KHANDELWAL: My supervisor, that is -- I l
5 am the one who is presenting so he says, "My supervisor 6 will go to jail", like Bernie Carlisle. ,
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: That Bernie Carlisle 8 would go to jail?
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so he felt that l
11 Bernie Carlisle had some responsibility for this possible i 12 non-compliance with regulations or bulletins; is that I 13 correct?
( 14 MR. KHANDELWAL: The impression which I got 15 from his comment that these compliance issues which have 16 been presented here are very open, very pointed. It i
17 should have been in a round about manner or something. He l
l 18 said if this goes to NRC or somebody reads it, it is very l
19 damaging. '
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So.if you would let me 21 -- would you agree that he was intimating that it should 22 have been presented in softer terms. Is that -- would j 23 that be a fair statem;nt?
I 24 MR. KHANDELWAL: That is the impression which 25 I -- l 1
l NEAL R. GROSS l COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W j l (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234 4 33 I
l l
38 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: That's the impression 2 that you received.
C 3 MR. KHANDELWAL: This is the impression which 4 I received.
1 5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. Thank you. In I 6 June 1993 the relay master list work was stopped by l l
7 management. Now, that's my understanding in reading from 8 page 2 of Exhibit 1 which is your letter under bullet 5.
9 It says, "After the above meeting on management direction 10 in June 1993 all the work on RML was stopped" 11 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. Who 4.s 13 management in this case?
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: I got an E-mail from Bernie 15 Carlisle. That E-mail has not been referred. If you want 16 I can dig it out from my papers.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so it's not 18 listed in the letter?
19 MR. KRANDELWAL: In this letter it is not 20 listed.
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, but you received 22 an E-mail from Bernie Carlisle.
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, and which ever way you l 24 want, I can send it to you or --
k_ 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Yeah, if you could send NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHoDE ISLAND AVE . N W l (202) 2 % 4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 l
i
49 1 that to me I'd appreciate it. We'll just -- right now 2 we'll just take it that it was an E-mail and in the E-mail
( 3 Carlisle told you to stop RML work; is that correct?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And why was it that 6 that occurred? ,
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: Now, all those details are in 8 the E-mail. There was E-mail from Ken Johnson to Carlisle 9 indicating that this work will be folded under the nuclear 10 control data base some time later. Then Carlisle told 11 that he will send one of the guys, like Roberto Cruz who 12 was working with me so the real reasons I don't know but I 13 was directed, I got an E-mail, that the work is not going 14 to go on.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: The work should stop.
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Do you know if -- other 18 than Johnson and Carlisle do you know if anybody else in l
19 management was involved with this decision? Do you have 20 any information about that? j i
21 MR. KHA'NDELWAL: I think between Carlisle and 22 Johnson, nobody else was involved.
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, thank you. Now, I !
24 I notice in your letter here under bullet number 6 it ]
1 km 25 says, "By E-mail dated June 30th, '93 from you to Carlisle 1
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t i
40 1 compliance issues regarding MDR relays were sent for 2 management briefing and further direction. No action was 3 taken". And that is Exhibit Number -- I mean, ar.tachment 4 number 3 to your letter.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: We're going to mark 6 that now as Exhibit Number 4 to this interview. ,
7 (The document referred to was marked 8 for identification as Exhibit Number 9 4.)
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: That's been marked as 11 Exhibit Number 4.
12 Okay, in this E-mail you're telling Mr.
13 Carlisle that there are compliance issues regarding the 14 relays; is that correct?
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir. In this E-mail the 16 main thing which I pointed out that the tester bolt on the 17 MDR relays indicated that some of the relays which are 18 used in the safety related application, they are 19 seismically qualified for five years only.
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And at this point in 21 time had some of them been installed longer than five 22 years?
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: And at this time some of the 24 relays were used for more than five years and that note 25 from the report where it says that the relays are NEAL R. GROSS i COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
! 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234 4433 WASH lNGTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234-4433
41 1 qualified for five years was not properly noted or there 2 was no action on it. So that was the question we were --
3 that was the thing which I raised to the management that 4 we had to do something.
l 5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And how did you become l 6 aware of this information? ,
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: We were working on some other 8 problem as I indicated here, that once we were working on 1
9 this master list, so our purpose was to document the 10 qualified life for each relay, because all of this was 11 planned. So we were planning to collect all of the 12 qualification data of the relays from the CD (ph.) and we 13 review it and then we refer to the report and indicated 14 what is the qualified life.
15 So while we were working on this relay master 16 list we discovered that.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So you made the 18 discovery, you or the people working for you --
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: The people working with me.
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF -
.made the discovery 21 while you were working on developing the relay master list 22 that some relays in the plant that were nuclear safety 23 related had been in the plant longer than their qualified 24 seismic lifetime; is that correct?
/
\- 25 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes, sir.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON D C 20C05 3701 (202) 234-4433 l
42 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- And this is what you're j 1
2 telling Carlisle when you were writing to him in Exhibit
{
C 3 4; is that correct?
l 4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir. l 5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And specifically can
)
l 6 you just point to which paragraph that's in? ,
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: Under the background, the l
8 third paragraph, "According to summary conclusion given in l 9 the test reports, the following relay models.in the Ever 10 (:ph.) panels are qualified for a service life of five 11 years".
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, that's fine. And 13 so that's on Exhibit 4, page 2 and so the information that 14 you had at that time was that some of these relays listed 15 here had been in service for longer than five years; is 16 that correct?
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: That's the matter that 19 you were bringing to the attention of Carlisle; is that 20 correct?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: That was one concern.
22 Another concern that the unit outage was coming and we 23 were concerned that in the case of these relays not 24 qualified, we should change them and I'm reading the last
- k. 25 paragraph. "In the absence of any additional data with NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISI.AND AVE , N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON. D C 20005 3701 (202) 234 4433
43 1 respect to relay qualification, the relays are not tested 2 as applicable and service life should be limited to five 1
3 years based on the original test. Considering the relays 4 were replace during 1989, the service life of the relays 5 will expire in 1994 which will fall in between this outage 6 and the next refueling outage for Unit 2". ,
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And you were reading 8 there from Exhibit 4, pages 2 and 3.
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so that was 11 another line of concerns; is that correct?
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So there were some 14 relays that were in the plant. The plant was in service 15 and it came to your attention because of your work on the 16 relay master list that these relays were beyond their 17 qualified life; is that correct?
18 MR. KHAND2LWAL: That is true. That point was 19 clarified in the other E-mail but --
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Which other E-mail?
21 MR. KRANDELWAL: That will ccmc in that other 22 attachment.
- 23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF
- That we're going to l
24 ' introduce later?
_ 25 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON D C 200C5-3701 (202) 234-4433
[
441 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so you gave this 2 information to Carlisle; is that correct?
l 3 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And no -- what you're 5 saying is that no action was taken by Carlisle; is that 6 correct? -
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, did he talk to 9 you about it or was there just absolutely no. conversation, 10 no action, no E-mails, no telephone calls? Just nothing 11 happened, is that what you're telling me?
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: After I sent the E-mail, I 13 did not hear anything from Mr. Carlisle and then he 14 received my further description that I sent and a reminder 15 under item 7 of my letter on the same subject.
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, but I'm talking 17 just about this point in time.
18 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: At this point in time 20 we're basically back to June the 30th,. 1993, you sent this 21 E-mail which is Exhibit 4 and made Carlisle aware of these 22 potential non-compliance items, item's where relays were, 23 you know, in the plant beyond their service life, their l
24 qualified life and at this point in time nothing happened.
J _
25 You didn't hear from Carlisle about this issue.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W
> ?n?) ?M MM WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234 443")
45 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Is that correct?
3 MR. KHAN,DELWAL: Yes.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, now I r.nderstand 5 from your letter, bullet number 7, that on September tbc 6 8th of 1993 you sent another E-mail to Carlisle; is that 7 correct?
8 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yes.
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay, we have that E-10 mail here and we're going to make it Exhibit Number 5 to 11 today's transcript.
12 (The document referred to was marked 13 for identification as Exhibit Number 14 5.)
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: It's noted that that's 16 been marked as Exhibit Number 5. The time is 4:15 and 17 we're going to go off the record to take a short break.
18 (Whereupon, a short recess was taken.)
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: The time is 20 approximately 4:26 p.m. We're going to go back on the 21 record. While we were off the record for a short break 22 Mr. Khandelwal noted that he would like to make a I
23 correction on part of the testimony regarding Exhibit 24 Number 4, and the qualification of the relay.s.
{
- 25 Is that correct, Mr. Khandelwal? )
l 1
I NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS l 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W
! e 70% Md_ dan W ASHINf hTON OC 20005 3701 (202) 234 4433 i
46 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, and what is the 3 correction that you would like to make?
4 MR. KRANDELWAL: At this time when this E-mail 5 was sent to Mr. Carlisle on June 30th --
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Of 1993. .
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: -- of '93, the MDR relays in 8 the plant, they were not already beyond their qualified 9 life. As I indicated in the paragraph that in 1994 before 10 the outage for Unit 2 would have started that was a 11 concern I raised.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And bow about in the 13 late 1980's, there was -- was there a period in time when 14 there was a potential that the relays were out of 15 qualification?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: The Unit 2 started in 1982.
17 If this information was available or we were aware of this 18 information then the relays should have been changed in 19 1987. So the only concern which I had expressed in my 20 future and further document that between '87 and '89 for 21 Unit 2, the plant operated in an unreviewed safety 22 condition.
1 23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay, thank you. Well, i l
24 we've got that for the record now. Before we went off the
_ 25 record for the recess, we just introduced Exhibit Number 5 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHoDE ISLAND AVE , N W l
007) 234 4 33 WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234-4433 l
l
47 1 which is an E-mail frcm you to Carlisle dated September 2 the 8th, 1993. And part of this E-mail pertains to again 3 your concerns regarding relays; is that correct?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And could you read into 6 the record from Exhibit 5 what were the concerns you htd 7 at that point in time regarding the relays?
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: In this E-mail letter 9/8/93 9 to Bernie Carlisle, item number 2, I reminded him that, 10 "MDR relays seismic qualification deficiencies were 11 discussed in my E-mail to you dated 6/30/93. You were 12 planning to meet with Mr. Wharton, need teedback" 13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And how did you know 14 that he was going to meet with Mr. Wharton about this?
15 Did he tell you that?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: I was talking to Bernie 17 Carlisle after my previous E-mail which I sent in June.
18 Between the conversation, some time after I sent the E-19 mail he told me that he's going to meet with Mr. Wharton 20 and discuss the issue.
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And for the record 22 could you state who Mr. Wharton was at that point in time?
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: Mr. Wharton was the manager 24 of Nuclear Engineering Design Organization and he was boss 25 of Mr. Bernie Carlisle.
NEAL R. GROSS i COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RhDDE ISLAND AVE , N W anu 714.44% WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234 4433 t __.___________.___m
l 48 l
1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So isn't it true that i
2 Mr. Wharton was in charge of all of the NEDO organization? j l
'\
3 Is that correct?
i 4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes. l l
5 IlWESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, and did you ever 6 receive any information that Carlisle discussed this 7 matter with Wharton?
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
9 IlWESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So you don't know 10 whether he ever discussed it with Wharton or not; is that 11 correct?
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: I didn't get any response 13 from Mr. Carlisle about his meeting, whether he had a 14 chance to talk to Mr. Wharton or whether he ever talked to 15 Mr. Wharton.
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so you don't --
17 all you know is that he told you that he was going to talk 18 to Wharton but you don't know if he ever did talk to 19 Wharton, if Carlisle ever talked to Wharton? You don't 20 know if that ever happened?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir, because I did not 22 get any feedback and that was the basis E-mail. I just 23 wanted to remind him.
l 24 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : Thank you. Now, based
(
25 upon this E-mail shown in Exhibit 5 which you sent on NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234 4433 WAShlNGTON. O C 20005 3701 (202) 234 4 33
49 1 September 8th, 1993, what actions were taken by Carlisle 2 or anybody else about your concern about the relays?
3 MR. KHANDELWAL: There was no action taken.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: No action taken.
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Did you meet with 7 Carlisle because I notice that in the E-mail shown in 8 Exhibit 5 you state, "The following items I would like to 9 discuss with you in today's meeting". Do yot,t recall there 10 being a meeting?
11 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You don't --
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: The meeting was not held.
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Oh, the meeting was not 15 held.
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: That's right.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so basically the l
18 meeting wasn't held and you got no feedback from Carlisle l 19 at all about your MDR relay seismic qualification 20 concerns; is that correct --
l l
i 21 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir. I 22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: - at that point in 23 time?
MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
24 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay. And my i
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1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W
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50 1 understanding is at the end of 1993 Carlisle left Southern {
- Edison Company is /
C 3 that correct?
\
{l l
l 4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir. l l
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, between September 6 the 8th and the end of October did you have any other 7 . discussions with Carlisle or anybody else about the MDR l
8 relays, anybody else in management about the MDR relays? ,
j 9 Do you remember? ,
1 MR. KHANDELWAL: After the September meeting )
10 !
l 11 with Mr. Carlisle --
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: I thought you said the 13 meeting didn't occur.
( 14 MR. KHANDELWAL: Sorry, not after the meeting, l i
l 15 after the E-mail --
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay.
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: -- there was one incident 18 that I went to his office and this letter which we got 19 from Agastat about the qualification -- qualified life of 20 the energized relay I give him a copy.and he put it in his l 21 in basket and he told me that I have not seen that letter.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Who hadn't seen it, 22 23 Carlisle hadn't seen it?
MR. KHANDELWAL: No, like, I have not seen the 24 25 letter.
t NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W de W 44% WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 jg p (202pM4-4433
~
51 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You mean Khandelwal has 2 not seen the letter.
3 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And --
4 MR. KRANDELWAL: And that was kind of very 5
6 disturbing to me at that time. .
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Well, how did you take 7
8 that statement? What did that statement mean to you?
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: That statement meant that I 10 just pretend that that letter didn't exist.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So you were to ignore 12 the information in that letter --
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- because you did not 14 15 know it; is that what Carlisle was telling you?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, and that was at that 17 time very puzzling and disturbing. I did not know what to 18 do.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And the information in 20 that letter again was what?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: The letter stated that 22 Agastat relays are qualified for 10 years in the de-23 energized mode and they don't have any information for the l I
24 energized relays.
l INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: As far as how long they
%. 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W WASHINGTON. O C 20005 3701 (202) 234-1433 C0h 234 4433
u 1 were --
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: How long they will last.
3 IiWESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- In service.
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: In service.
5 I?NESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, was that in 6 nuclear service, in nuclear qualified service? ,
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: In the nuclear qualified 8 service.
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So basically what you 10 were -- and the information contained in the letter was 11 that for the Agastat relays that were in SONGS plant in 2 12 and 3 that the manufacturer, which is Agastat, quoted a 13 10-year in service life if the relay coil was not j 14 energized.
1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir. )
15 16 ITNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And that they had no 17 information how long the life would be if the coil was 18 energized --
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- for nuclear related i
I 21 safety applications. l 22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
23 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : And did you take it l 24 that the energized coil would have a shorter lifetime than 25 10 years?
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 CHODE ISLAND AVE . N W l WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234-4433 (202) 234-4433 1
0; 1 M '1. KHANDELWAL: Yes, that was my main concern 2 because on the previous relays which I guess to us is 3 provided by EGP, G did some studies and the NCR and you 4 will notice that the EGP relays in the energized mode will 5 be replaced in 4.5 years. So with that background I was 6 concerned that Agastat E-7000 series relays in the .
7 energized mode may not be good for 10 years.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So they'd have some 9 life shorter than 10 years.
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And your experienced 12 from previous similar s_tuations was that the life may be 13 actually in the neighborhood of four and a half to five 14 years.
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: That was based on the other 16 model of the Agastat which was SWA's and --
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- That's exactly what I 18 said, from your previous experience, that's what you knew.
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. l l
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. Now, so Carlisle 21 basically -- you correct me if I'm wrong, Carlisle l 22 basically wanted to ignore this information; is that 23 correct? Is that what you're testifying to?
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: That was the impression I had 25 at that time because of my repeatedly reminding him where NEAL R. GROSS COUNT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE N W l j WASHINGTON L C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 l (202) 234 4433 l \
54 1 he just felt that I'm kind of pushing my point.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. So that was the 3 only other thing that transpired between September the 8th 4 and the time that Carlisle left the company at the end of 5 October of 1993; is that correct --
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
7 ItNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : -- on this issue; is 8 that correct?* -
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, you said in your 11 letter Mr. Carlisle left the company 12 Do you know why he left the company?
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: A letter came from Mr.
i 14 Carlisle after he left 15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF:
)
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
l 17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Do you know his current 18 whereabouts?
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: He expired.
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF Mr. Carlisle diea?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, thank you. On 23 November the 1st, 1993 Ken Johnson took over Carlisle's 24 job; is that correct?
25 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
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. ,, , ya((>3 o -
55 l 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, in your letter to 1
lg 2 the Department of Labor which was Exhibit i to this I( transcript, you wrote under bullet 10 that, effective 3
l 1
4 November 9th, 1993 your supervisory position, Khandelwal's 5 supervisory position was eliminated, "and my group was I
6 abolished"; is that correct? .
l 7 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF Why was that done?
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: I have no idea.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Were other groups 11 consolidated at the same time or was only your group l
12 abolished? l
/
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: Only my group in electrical.
I 14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Did Mr. Johnson ever l 15 discuss this with you?
No, sir. l 16 MR. KHANDELWAL:
1 17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: How did you come to 18 know about it then?
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: There was an all hands 20 meeting by the manager of the department, Mr. Wharton and 21 at that meeting I came to know.
l 22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So Johnson didn't tell 23 you before that?
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: Fo, sir 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And no reasoning was l NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE N W WASHINGTON DC 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 (202) 234 4433 L _- ________________
56 1 ever given to you as to why this was done; is that <
2 correct?
3 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, sir.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: By anybody. Nobody 5 ever talked to you.
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: Nobody told me what did I do 7 wrong.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Do no other people were 9 treated this same way at this same point in time; is that 10 correct?
11 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, sir.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Did you receive a loss 13 in pay because of this situation? Was you pay decreased?
d 14 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, because equipment !
l supervisory person and Senior Engineer II was the same, so j 15 l 1
16 at that time there was no reduction in cay.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So you continued as a 18 Senior Engineer II, 19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And prior to this 21 reorganization that occurred in November of '93 you were 22 called an equipment group supervisor; is that correct?
l I 23 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: But the pay scale for 25 the equipment group supervisor and a Senior Engineer II is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234 4433 (202) 234 4433
57 1 the same.
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, how about your 4 working conditions, did they change your working 5 conditions at all?
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, working condition since 7 the group was abolished at that time there was no 8 meaningful work.
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Well, by working 10 conditions I mean did you get moved to a worse office?
11 Did they stick you in a broom closet somewhere?
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: Office space remained the 13 same. I was in the same cubicle.
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And were you working 15 the same hours of the day?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: With the same days off?
18 You weren't put on back sbifts or - some people view 19 working back shifts as poor working conditions.
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: My work remained the same, my 21 cubicle the same.
- 22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay. But you were l
23 just now not supervising the contractors any more; is that 24 correct?
25 MR. KHANDELWAL: I had two full time Edison NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE NW (202i 234-4433 WASHING TON DC 20005 3701 (202) 234 4433 l
L__
58 1 employees and two contractors.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Oh, okay, so you were 3 not -- so you didn't have the two contractors to supervise 4 and the two full time Edison employees; is that correct?
5 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yes.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So what work wer.e you 7 given to do? After your group was eliminated, did John;on 8 tell you -- was he your direct supervisor at that time?
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, then I was put under A.P.
10 Grande which is in bullet 11.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: I see that, now, but 12 prior to this reorganization, who was your supervisor? It 13 was Carlisle. Carlisle left, Johnson took over. So 14 Johnson was your supervisor, but due to your position 15 being abolished --
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- then Grande was in 18 the chain of command between you and Johnson; is that 19 correct?
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so what did 22 Grande, you know, tell you as far as your work? I mean, i
l 23 did they assign you something to do?
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: Okay, from one month I had 25 vacaticn, I think, a couple of weeks. I went to India.
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59 l l
1 When I came back then Mr. Grande was my supervisor and the 2 work -- the same work which I was doing before, especially 3 on the relay qualification thing. So I brought it to the 4 attention of Mr. Grande that these are the concerns and i
5 then he said that since he doesn't know, so let's go and )
l 6 see Mr. Johnson. l l
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay, so then you, 8 Grande and Johnson all met about tne MDR compliance 1
9 issues; is that correct?
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF; And wha". information 12 did you give them at that time?
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: When I met Ken Johnson with 14 Mr. Grande the E-mail which I had sent to Bernie which was 15 stated earlier --
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, there's two of 17 them, one in June and one in September, those two E-mails?
18 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, the June E-mail was 19 described the MDR problem in detail.
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay.
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: I gave to Mr. Johnson -- f
{
l 22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- So that's exhibit --
l i
l 23 excuse me, that's Exhibit -- you gave him Exhibit 4.
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah.
25 INVESTIGATOR JCUKOFF- Okay, which is the June 1
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i I
60 1 30th, '
93 E-mail.
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
3 INVESTIGATOR JOOKOFF: You gave that to Grande 4 and Johnson; is that correct?
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, thank you'.'
I 7 MR. KHANDELWAL: And I told Mr. Johnson that j l
8 in my opinion something should be done to address the J l
9 issues of Agastat and MDR relays. And I was.very much i
10 concerned about the MDR relays as~I have indicated in my 11 E-mail because of the plant coming refueling outage.
i 1
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: The 1994 refueling i
13 outage. i 14 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. j
)
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so you conveyed 16 all the same information to Grande and t.0 Johnson that you 17 had previously conveyed to Carlisle. You gave them the E-18 mails that outlined the situation and what did Johnson 19 have to say about it all?
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: He got a.little up tight 21 during my E-mail.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, what do you mean
, 23 by up tight? Do you mean he got upset?
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah.
25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: As in --
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1 61 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, upset is a good word.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Well, was he visibly 3 shaken? Did he raise his voice?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: His voice raised. He was '
5 k nd of upset because some statement in my E-mail which I 6 made about some SPEER, like at that time -- -
l 1
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: About what? Excuse me.
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: There's word SPEER in the E-l 9 mail which is related to the commercial dedication of the 10 relays. So in '89 when the relays were replaced the plant 11 replaced the MDR relays in '89 and they used -- for the l
12 commercial dedication purposes they said that original j l
13 report in the ILS will be applicable. Nobody saw the 14 recommendations of the original report and they simply i 15 stated in the document that the original qualification l
16 report will apply.
17 So I pointed out that if you take the original 18 report, the original report says that only five year 19 qualified life and we are approaching. So he was kind of 20 upset and that I'm pointing out something which is hurting 21 the -- it's hard to guess what was going through his mind 22 but --
l 23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- But he was upset.
24 MR KHANDELWAL: Visibly he was upset from his
. 25 facial expression and from his tone, NEAL R, GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W i202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234-4433
l 62 !
1 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, when you talk 2 about the original qualifications, my understanding is (E 3 that these -- originally the relays when they were 4 installed new were qualified by a Torrey Pines report.
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, that is the original J 6 report I'm talking.
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, and in 1989 what 8 was done was commercial grade relays were dedicated to 9 nuclear service; is that correct?
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: In '89 when they purchased 11 there is not commercial dedication. Now, these relays 12 were specifically made by Potter Blumfield. However for 13 the seismic qualification or other qualification they took 14 the credit of the previous reports and I think in detail I 15 have discussed in the E-mail 16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay.
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: If you want we can go to the 18 specific paragraph.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Yes, if I could get the 20 exhibit. Okay, now reviewing Exhibit. Number 4; is that 21 correct?
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And what page are you 24 cn?
25 MR. KHANDELWAL: I'm on the first page that is k_
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63 1 second paragraph on the bottom. " Based on our discussion 2 with the station" --
3 INVESTIGATOR JCUKOFF: Okay, excuse me. This 4 is on page 2 of Exhibit 4 of today's transcript. Go 5 ahead, I'm sorry.
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: -- "we found presently.
7 there's no replacement requirement for these relays as 8 specified in maintenance activities. However, most of the 9- MDR relays in the plant have been replaced during 1989 10 with modified relays modeled after plant experienced 11 excessive failures. These modified P and B relays were 12 manufactured as commercial grade items and dedicated for 13 use in the safety related application. The dedication 14 documentation is SPEER 890031 did not justify the relay 15 service life but indicated that the codes and standards 16 applied to the manufacture of those relays will continue 17 to be applied.
18 In short, the dedication document was found to 19 be inadequate without sufficient justification for 20 qualification and modification of these relays were 21 extensive. However the modified relays were not subjected 22 to testing similar to the original testing". So Mr.
23 Johnson was upset on the statement made in this.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- And again, my
(, 25 understanding is is that a commercial grade relay was l
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64 I l
1 dedicated --
2 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yes.
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- from reading this.
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
I 5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, I thought you 6 said that it wasn't when I asked you the question. earlier.
7 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yeah, that's what I thought I 8 would read it. ,
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so basically what 10 San Onofre did in 1989,they took a commercial grade Potter 11 and Blumfield relay and the dedicated it to nuclear safety }
12 application; is that correct?
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And what you're saying 15 is that the report used to do that SPEER 890031 did not 16 correctly justify the dedication; is that correct?
- 7. 7 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Because not sufficient 19 testing was completed; is that correct?
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, now I recall in 22 reviewing this documentation somewhere, you correct me if i
23 I'm wrong, you also had some concerns about high energy 24 line break conditions. Do you recall that? In other 25 words, what I'm thinking about high steam environment with i NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 G02) 234 4433
65 1 high temperature.
2 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yeah, under the safety 3 issues, like under --
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Under safety issues 5 which is, yeah, page 3 of Exhibit 4, go ahead.
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: " Relays in panels MS4705 and
'7 MS4706 and MS4716 located in the AWX room have not been 8 accounted for maintenance of plant safety in HELP 9 condition inside the AWX room when the temperature reaches 10 up to about 100 degree fahrenheit.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, when you're 12 talking about HELP are you talking about high energy line 13 break accident; is that correct?
14 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, thank you. So 16 was that another concern that you had that this 17 environmental qualification had not done?
18 MR. KRANDELWAL: What I indicated here in the 19 following sentence, " Safety related functions of these 20 relays during other scenarios have not been evaluated".
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- What does that mean?
22 Basically to me that sentence means that the relay 23 operating under high energy line break accident conditions 24 is an unevaluated condition. Am I correct in what I'm
_ 25 reading?
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66 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: I'm trying to recollect. It 2 wa c; in the preceding paragraph where I expressed concerns.
3 "There a;e about 62 MDR relays in the 1E AWX panels which 4 are effected by this five-year service life limitations.
5 This excludes relays in panels MS4705" So what I was 6 trying to say that about these panels I'm not sure whether 7 the application is Class 1E or not, because other panels 8 which I indicated 62 MDR that was the statement verified 9 to that 1E relays which are factored by this.five-year lo qualified life.
11 IfMESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So you were questioning 12 whether the relays were ever qualified for high energy 13 line break accident conditions.
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You were questioning 16 it. You didn't know.
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: I didn't know.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You did not know.
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
l 20 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : Okay, all right, thank 21 you. So that was an unknown at that point in time for 22 you.
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF So you gave these 25 issues to Grande, you gave them to Johnson. Johnson NEAL R. GROSS l COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS l
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67 1 became visibly upset in your presence about the 2 information that you had supplied to him which was the E-3 mails from June and September of '93. And what did 4 Johnson do about all of this?
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Nothing.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Nothing. And again 7 this meeting occurred in January '94; is that correct?
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So at that particular 10 point in time, January '94, Johnson took no action; is 11 that correct?
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: How about Grande, did
( 14 he take any action?
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: Grande was a supervisor.
16 Unless he was told by his boss, he was not in a position 17 to do anything.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so Grande took no 19 action; is that correct?
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah.
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so continuing on 22 reading from Exhibit 1 at bullet 12; "On January 17th, of i
23 1994 Mr. Doug Stickney became my supervisor", is that l
[ 24 correct?
25 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir. i I
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68 l
1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And you brought these 2 same relay issues to his attention; is that correct?
3 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And how did you do 5 that?
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: I went to his cubicle.- I 7 discussed with him and then he asked me that since he's 8 very busy at the time, I submit all the documents, saying 9 do accordion folders, in one MDR, in the other Agastat. I 10 compiled all the necessary documents.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And did that inc2ude 12 the previous E-mails from June and September of 1993 that 13 you wrote to Carlisle?
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, all connected -- all the 15 related documents I submitted to him.
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Do yc'2 remember, now 17 did that occur in approximately January of '94?
18 MR. KHANDELWAL: January '94, like January 17 19 he became supervisor and third or fourth week, I don't 20 remember the exact date, I did it.
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And what did he say 22 when you gave him these documents?
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: He took the folders and he j 24 didn't say anything at that time.
k, 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Did he say he'd review ;
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69 1 them or that he was going to throw them away or did -- do 2 you remember him making eny comment at all?
3 MR. KHANDELWAL: Just he said -- he told me, 4 "Give me the documents", that's all. So I gave him the 5 two packages.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And he didn't make any 7 commitment that he was going to do anything.
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: One the yellow stick note I 9 wrote my comments that, "I am waiting for your feedback.
10 What do you want me to do? Do you want to take it to the 11 management"?
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And he didn't give you 13 any commitment he would do anything?
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: There was nothing, no.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. And my 16 understanding is is that during March of 1994 17 d you weren't at work; is that correct?
18 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And on April the 5th, 20 1994 you returned to work; is that correct --
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- and found that l
l 23 Stickney was no longer your supervisor, right?
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. l l
25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And Mr. Ambrose Mationg NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W 12021 234 4433 WA SH:NGTON DC 20005 3701 (202) 234-4433 !
w__-_-______-_--_________.
70 1 --
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. .
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- had become your 3
4 supervisor; is that correct?
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And some time in this 7 time frame Mr. Stickney returned the two accordion files 8 to you.
MR. KHANDELWAL: Mr. Mationg.
9 10 IFiESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Oh, so Stickney turned 11 them over t3 Mationg. How do you know that?
MR. KHANDELWAL: Because Mr. Mationg returned 12 a
13 back to me.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. But nobody -- at 14 15 the time that the handoff was made from Stickney to 16 Mationg, you weren't involved in any conversation with 17 him. Like Stickney didn't tell you, "I'm going to give 18 them to Mationg".
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFFi Nothing happened.
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So after you gave them
! 23 to Stickney he never again discussed this issue with you;
)
24 is that correct?
25 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
1
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l 71 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so Mationg now 2 has the accordion files; is that correct?
3 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And how long did he 5 have them before he gave them to you, back to you? Do you 6 remember? .
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: Now, when I came back on 8 April 5th I don't know when he received the from Doug 9 Stickney.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay.
11 MR. KRANDELWAL: Only thing when I came back 12 he gave those folders to me.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Within a couple of days 14 or a couple of weeks? If you came back to work on April 15 the 5th, would it be safe to say that it happened some 16 time in April?
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: I think some time second week 18 of April or something.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So shortly within a 20 couple -- a few weeks after you returned 21 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And when he gave them
! 23 back to you, what did he say?
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: Nothing.
%. 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: He didn't say anything?
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72 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: He just said, "Here 3 they are"?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, he just returned those 5 two folders to me that Douglas Stickney gave to him and he 6 brought back to me.
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Did he indicate that he 8 had any knowledge of what the information was that was in 9 those folders?
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: I don't think that he even 11 read what was there in those folders.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So you don't even know 13 if he even knew what was in there.
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, did you ever 16 raise the concern -- the relay concerns to Mationg?
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: I discuss with him but I 18 didn't get any feedback.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And when you say you 20 discussed with him, you verbally discussed with him?
MR. KHANDELWAL: Verbally. I verbally told 21 22 these ECU's I brought to these previous people and just 23 like I talked to him, that's all.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And did he -
he didn't 24 25 express any interest in any of the issues?
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73 il 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: He didn't tell you to 3 bring them to him?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: On, so Mationg 6 basically didn't want to know about it and you didn't tell 7 him about it.
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, I did tell. In those 9 folders I expressed to him that what has happened in the 10 past and I said there was no feedback.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So he just was --
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: No feedback.
t 13 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- no feedback'.
C 14 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You mean, you actually 16 had a conversation. You told him about all this. He said 17 nothing; is that correct?
18 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, no feedback. I just told 19 him these were the concerns which I brought to Bernie and 20 Ken and Tony and Doug.
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And he didn't say 22 anything?
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- He said, "I don't 25 care"?
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74 No, he didn't say, "No, I 1 MR. KHANDELWAL:
2 don't" - - there was no feedback. .
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Nothing.
3 4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Nothing.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. So Mationg then 6 became your supervisor and you continued working; is that 7 correct?
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so my 10 understanding is now the next important point was that,in 11 May on the 16th of May in 1994 you received your 1993 is 12 performance appraisal which was prepared by Johnson; 13 that correct?
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And he rated you in 15 16 this performance appraisal as what you refer to as M 17 ,
18 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, what does that 20 mean, 21 MR. KHANDELWAL: In the performance evaluation 22 we have three. categories; below standard, standard met, 23 and standard exceeded. So he gave me k 24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And was there some 25 numerical score assigned?
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1323 RHoDE ISLAND AVE , N W an +,4 **13 WARHINGTON O r. 70005 3701 (202) 234 4433
[
l 7sl l I
MR, KHANDELWAL: yes, yes, number -- they gave } (' , ]
1 2 me 3 INVESTIGATOR JOOKOFF:
r h j
- out of a '
/
4 possible of 50; is that correct?
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Fifty, yes.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And.is that -- that is is that 'O 7 -- falls under the category of 8 correct?
MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, 9'
10 11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF:
is 12 '
.I .-
13 that correct?
MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
f 14 1
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And how did you do 15 16 this?
MR. KHANDELWAL: Since Mr. Mationg was the 17
- 18 supervisor, he gave me my appraisal.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Did he participate in
\
20 the preparation of your appraisal?
l
, 21 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, that is what he told me 22 because all other people had received their appraisal earlier since I was out So when I came back, I got 7C 23 I was very l 24 the appraisal. When I saw upset and he told me that he has got no input. So on the 25 NEAL R. GROSS ^ d f
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I
, 76 I don't agree. I 1 performance appraisal I made a note that 2 want to talk to upper management.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: To the best of your 3
4 knowledge was the appraisal completely prepared by Johnson 5 or was it prepared by Johnson and .somebody else?
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: My thinking is that Johnson 7 might have -- might have discussed with Douglas Stickney.
8 That is my guess. I really don't know.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You really don't know.
9 10 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Did you ever discuss 12 this with Stickney, this matter, your appraisal with 4
13 Stickney at all?
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: No. Okay, let me correct.
15 Before the final appraisal, they were asking the 16 individual to give their own self-assessment.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So you were asked by 18 whom?
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: By Doug Stickney. l l
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Stickney to write your 20 21 own self-assessment of your performance.
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Write my self-assessment.
l 23 Performance.
Okay. l INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF-24 MR. KHANDELWAL: Which I gave to Doug. And 25 l
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77 1 afterward I didn't hear until I got my final score.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: When do you think that you were asked to do this self-assessment? Was it in the 3
4 beginning of 1994, do you remember just approximately?
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: I have in my file, if you 6 want I can give it.
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Well, it's not that 8 important. Okay, but were you asked to give yourself a 9 numerical rating or were you asked just to meet standards, 10 exceeds standards?
11 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, numerical number for each 12 category, the various categories of the evaluation. So 13 each category you score what you think and I gave my input C 14 to them.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, do you recall 16 what kind of numerical score you gave yourself?
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: I rated myself above standard 18 based on the work which I finished and based on the 19 agreement I had with Bernie Carlisle. Bernie Carlisle set i 20 some goals. If I complete those things I will get 21 standard exceeded. And in my assessment and based on the f 1
22 documented evidence which I had, that I accomplished all 23 the work which I was supposed to.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So you felt you i
l f, exceeded standards; is that correct?
f k_ 25 I
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1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 enh 234.4433
78 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, the time is 2
3 approximately 5:00 o' clock. We're going to go of the 4 record now for a short break.
5 (Whereupon , a short recess was taken.)
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: The time now is.
7 approximately 5:09 p.m. We're going to be going back on 8 th~ record.
9 So after you discussed this matter with 10 Mationg did you go and discuss the matter with Johnson?
11 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And I understand that 13 there were a series of documents that went back and forth
( 14 between you and Mr. Johnson regarding the appraisal; is 15 that correct?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And why do you think 18 Johnson your appraisal or M your yr What's 19 appraisal or 20 your feeling as to why he did that?
MR. KRANDELWAL: What I sensed starting from 21 May '93 meeting when Bernie and Kaneko, myself, the 22 23 justification of the relay master list --
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF. Now, was Johnson at 24
. 1 k 25 that meeting?
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)
79 1 MR. KRANDELWAL: Johnson was there at that 2 meeting. He was the one who made this comment that your 3 supervisory will go to jail.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Right.
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: And then I kept on pursuing 6 my concern. .
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: But not with Johnson.
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: With Bernie and as soon as 9 Johnson became the manager, the first thing in January of 10 '94, I brought to his attention. So Johnson knew like 11 starting from May of '93 when that one place he saw the 12 Agastat concern and then January of '94 I brought the same 13 issues.
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: To Johnson.
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: To Johnson, when Mr. Grande 16 was my supervisor. Then I gave the folder to Doug 17 Stickney. So Doug also knew my concern because I was not 18 giving up.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Do you think he -- do 20 you have any information that he discussed it with 21 Johnson, Stickney discussed it with Johnson that you were 22 still pursuing -
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: Doug and Johnson were 24 operating very closely so most probably my thinking is 25 that Doug and Ken did discuss.
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I 80 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So you suspect but you 2 don't know.
( 3 MR. KRANDELWAL: I don't know. I don't.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Thank you.
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: And that is the only basis 6 which I can think of that retaliation, my perception, 7 because as I indicated in my write-up that in my entire 8 Edison career, this was the first performance appraical 9 which was 71-10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOF'F- Okay, now I'd like to 11 introduce some exhibits just for the record because they 12 are part of your letter that you wrote the Department of 13 Laborandtheseexhibitspertaintotheappealthhtyou 14 filed or the request for review that you filed because of 15 your job performance appraisal; is that correct?
16 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yes.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, the first one is 18 attachment 5 to your letter and this is a rather lengthy 19 document. It's called " Request for Review Level 2". It's 20 dated August lith, 1994 and it's signed by you. I presume 21 that's your signature there; is that correct --
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- on the document.
24 Okay, we would like to take this request for review which
%. 25 is attachment 5 of your letter and we're going to mark it NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHoDE ISLAND AVE . N W
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81 1 as Exhibit 6 to today's transcript. Thank you. That's 2 been marked as Exhibit 6. And I noted that this was dated 3 by you on August the lith of 1994 and you received your 4 appraisal on May 16th, 1994; is that correct?
5 (The document referred to was marked 6 for identification as Exhibit. Number 7 6.)
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir. l
)
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Was there another j 9
I 10 review that occurred between these two dates because -- l 11 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yes, sir. This particular 12 bullet here, 15, after I read again, I tried to 13 consolidate a couple of things in one paragraph. That is 14 why it is a little bit out of place and I will provide 15 some clarification. June 14, 1994 I wrote memorandum to 16 Johnson about my appraisal. June 14th, myself and my 17 immediate supervisor, Ambrose Mationg had a meeting with 18 Mr. Johnson about my memorandum.
19 In that meeting that memorandum is attached j 20 with this memo, this letter.
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So that memorandum is l 22 in Exhibit 6.
)
23 MR KHANDELWAL: It is in Exhibit 6 which is 24 starting on page 4.
25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Right, it starts on r
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82 1 page 4, okay.
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: Now, I was hoping because all 3 the charges which were made in my original appraisal item 4 by item I pointed out that those charges are false and I 5 was hoping that Mr. Johnson will kind of see through my 6 eyes and be considerate enough and consider to do .
7 something revising the appraisal. But the tone in which 8 he was talking in that meeting, he brought some different 9 named people that were not involved with that kind of work 10 and brought somebody's name in there, Mr. So and So told 11 that he was not happy.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, you're talking 13 about other Southern California Edison employees 5nd he 14 alleged were not happy with your job performance?
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, so I told him that that 16 guy has got nothing to do of what I was doing. So whether 17 he's happy or unhappy doesn't make any sense to me. I was 18 taking interest -- protecting the interest of the company.
l 19 And to further like mental posture to me was that he was
- 20 telling me that no one -- no supervisor wants me in their i I;
21 group, which Mr. Mationg later on told me that it was not l l
I 22 the right thing for him to say. {
I l
23 And since he was bringing all fabricated 24 charges one after another that, the relay master list was 25 not complete, this column was missing, that column was
! NEAL R. GROSS I COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE. N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234 4433 j
83 1 missing. So I sent him further documentation, further E-2 mail trying to clarify. And when I sensed that no matter 3 how much I explained and tried to give my side of the 4 story, it ic not accepted at all, then I gave up and then 5 I was told that there's a procedure that request for 6 review Level 1. .
7 So I initiated a request for review Level 1 on 8 June 24th, '94. That request for review for Level 1 goes 9 to your immediate supervisor which was Mr. Johnson at that 10 time.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So you wrote that to 12 Johnson.
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And is that in the 15 package we have as Exhibit 6?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: It is included in that.
17 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : Okay, and what is in 1
18 there, in this exhibit for that Level 1 review, is that 19 complete and accurate?
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. Okay, the cover form of 21 that Level 1 is not there, but the reply which was 22 received from Mr. Johnson on July 29th, that is part of 23 this thing.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- So Johnson's reply is 25 part of Exhibit 6 but your actual letter is not, is that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHoOE ISLAND AVE . N W a I
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84 1 what you're saying?
l 2 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, my letter, my memorandum C 3 which I wrote on June 14th, that's part of this thing and 4 the cover letter, the request for review Level 1, that is 5 not there, just like the request for review Level 2. So i 6 there was a similar form for request for review for. Level 7 1.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so just the one 9 page is not here.
Yes, that is not there. I 10 MR. KHANDELWAL:
11 IfNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: But the actual -- what 12 you actually wrote to Johnson on June the 24th --
l 13 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
14 ItWESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- is contained in 15 here; is that correct?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: That was the memorandum which i l
17 I sent to Johnson. This memorandum was part of the Level 18 1 review, the June 14th memo, 19 ItWESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Oh, the June 14th memo 20 was part of it?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
l 22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so on June the 23 24th all you did was fill out a -- what did you do, fill 24 out a form?
25 MR. KHANDELWAL: The company form, request - -
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__-______________a
85 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: The company form, this l
l
' 2 request for review Level 1 and you made some attachments 3 to it --
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- and sent it to 5
6 Johnson. .
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And he then responded 8
9 to that; is that correct?
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: He responded on July 29th.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And is that response 11 12 also shcwn in Exhibit 6?
MR. KHANDELWAL: His response is in Exhibit 6, 13 14 yes -
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay.
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: -- which is -- do you want 16 17 the page number?
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: No, as long as you know 18 I I
19 that it's there, that's fine. l 1
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, and is that 21 everything that we have in attachment 5? Is there 22 23 anything that you would like to testify to about l 24 attachment number 5 that I haven't asked you?
MR. KHANDELWAL: Okay, after I got Johnson's 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W WASHiNdTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234 4 33 (202) 234-4433
)
86 1 reply on July 29th, he did not agree to any of the documents and the arguments which were in my favor. He ,
2 came up with his own arguments as to why he didn't want to 3
4 change the appraisal. So at that time I realized that I 5 have to do something more than just talking to him because 6 I was not getting anywhere.
7 After I got his response then in August '94, 8 the company internal procedure is that from Level 1 you go 9 to Level 2.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And that's why on 11 August the lith of '94 you submitted a request for review 12 Level 2.
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: And that went to Mr. Wharton, 14 who is the manager of NEDO.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay and that request 16 for review Level 2 is shown as page 2 of Exhibit 6.
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, and did Mr.
19 Wharton respond to you?
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, Mr..Wharton conducted 21 his independent investigation and I think I would like --
22 to before Mr Wharton's investigation result I would like 23 to discuss the other items, 16, 17. I told you that item l
24 15 I have combined the entire review process which is kind 25 of out of place. It should have been in systematic order i NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS l l
1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W (202) 234-4433 WASHIN8 TON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234 4433
87 l 1 like date-wise.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Very good. So now 3 you'd like to move to item 16 of your letter?
4 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so on that it 6 says that on June the 24th you sent an E-mail to Johnson 7 regarding the above compliance issues.
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: On this E-mail you 10 received a response'from Johnson on June the 27th, 1994 11 that he has assigned Mr. Rice Berkshire to investigate 12 these qualification issues and you refer to attachment 7 i 13 and 8 of your letter; is that correct? !
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So let's take 16 attachment 7 to your letter to the Department of Labor.
17 We will mark that as our next exhibit, which is going to l l
18 become Exhibit Number 7.
19 (The document referred to was marked 20 for identification as Exhibit Number 21 7.)
22 And attachment 7 is a series of E-mails and 23 what are you telling Mr. Johnson in these series of E-24 mails?
25 MR. KHANDELWAL: On June 24, '94 E-mail from NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISMND AVE . N W WASH lNGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234 4433 t202) 234-4433
88 1 me to Mr. Johnson, copy to Ambrose Mationg, I addressed 2 those compliance issues which I brought to his attention 3 in January of '94. And I attached the copies of the 4 previous E-mail which were sent to Mr. Carlisle in 1993.
5 IfNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: 1993.
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. .
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So you sent this E-mail 8 to Johnson and you noted the MDR issues were the same that 9 you had brought up previously; is that corregt?
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, and one thing which is -
11 - which I added in this one under item 3, page 2 of your 12 exhibit, "In summary MDR issues are as follows", item 3 13 I'm reading, "Five-year qualified life for Unit 2 should 14 have expired in 1985. Unit 2 operated for approximately 1 15 two years on the relays whose qualified life had expired. l 16 Is this reportable"?
17 ItNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And by - you mean 18 reportable, you mean is this reportable to the NRC.
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And did you receive a 20 21 response to this E-mail that you sent to Johnson?
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. In attachment 8 --
I INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Of your letter?
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay, let's introduce 25 NEAL R. GROSS l
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1 l
1 attachment 8 of your letter to the Department of Labor. l 1
l
/
2 That's going to become Exhibit 8.
3 (The document referred to was marked i
4 for identification as Exhibit Number 5 8.)
1 6 Exhibit 8 has been marked and it is three 7 pages in total and it's an E-mail from Ken Johnson to you 8 on June the 27th, 1994. So what did Johnson tell you in l
9 this E-mail? ,
10 MR. KlWJDELWAL: Mr. Johnson sent this E-mail j 11 on June 27th and he said that, "I have assigned Rice 12 Berkshire to investigate these qualification issues".
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And who is Rice f
C 14 Berkshire?
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: Rice Berkshire was supervisor 16 of equipment qualification group at that time.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: In NEDO?
18 MP. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
19 ItNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, thank you.
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: And then further stated that 21 "NEDO track log pages94-135 has been issued to track this 22 assignment which is due 7/11/94. NCR's will be generated 23 should any non-conforming conditions be found. The result {
24 of this assignment will be discussed with you with it is 25 complete. I told Rice that you said you would make other I
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W WASHINdToN D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 1202) 234 4433 I
90 4
1 documents in your files related to these issues available 2 upon request".
IfWESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And did that response 3
4 satisfy.you at that time that he was going to take some 5 action? What was your feeling when you received this E-6 mail? .
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: I was not too sure whether --
8 how seriously they are taking based on my past experiences 9 with previous supervisors and managers.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: With Johnson and 11 Carlisle.
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Is that correct?
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. So then you'11 see ;
1 15 further what action I took. l I
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so we've got I
\
17 Johnson saying that he's assigned somebody to look at it 18 and that there's a response due in July; is that correct? l 19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay. And what 21 transpired next? What area would you like to go into 22 next?
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: Okay, item 17, I thought you 24 were going to discuss that. Within the company like since 25 a lot of time elapsed from the time I raised the issues, NEAL R. GROSS l
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91 1 so there's a group within the comp :ny, nuclear safety 2 concern group. So I felt my moral obligation now that I 3 bring these issues to the nuclear safety concern group.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFc'- So you went to the 5 nuclear safety concerns group and filed a concern with 6 them; is that correct? .
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
8 IfMESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And is that in one of 9 your attachments here?
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And which attachment is 12 that?
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: Okay, that attachment I am 14 not -- this was a meeting I had with them. I don't have 15 the attachment.
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, it's just on 17 November 14th you had a meeting with nuclear safety -- l 18 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- group supervisor but 20 that's appreciably after the due date.that Johnson i 1
21 assigned for Berkshire to complete his review, isn't it?
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Item -- which item were you 23 concerned with?
24 I!NESTIGATOR JOUKOFF - Well, I'm referring 25 back to Exhibit Number 8. In Exhibit Number 8 when !
1 l
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~ _ - _ - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - _ _
92 1 Johnson made the assignment for Berkshire to investigate 2 the qualification issues, he put an assignment due date on 3 it --
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- of July 11th, 1994.
5 6 So my question is, was that work completed? What hcppened 7 with Berkshire and his investigation?
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: That is discussed later in 9 the item.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: It's discussed later in 11 your letter?
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay.
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: I was pointing out on item 15 17.
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so in June of 17 1994 you also contacted the nuclear safety concerns group, 18 correct?
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: That was your first 20 21 contact with them, in June?
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKO1F: And do you remember who I
l 24 it was that you' spoke with at that time?
l I called Mr. Willis Frick, F-25 MR. KHANDELWAL:
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W WASHINdTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234-4433 (202) 234 4433
93 1 R-I-C-K. He's the supervisor, was the supervisor of the l l
2 nuclear safety group.
)
C 3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And what did you tell l 4 Mr. Frick? l 5 MR. KHANDELWAL: I told him over the phone 6 that these are the concerns I had. That I raised some 7 safety issues and I feel that I've been retaliated for that and my concerns have not been addressed so far. And 8
9 he said that one of his guys would come and meet with me 10 and get all the details.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And did somebody come 12 and meet with you and get the details?
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And do you remember who 15 that individual was?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: I have in my files somewhere 17 a name. I don't know at this time.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: That's not that 19 important. We can find that out. So the -- did the 20 nuclear safely concerns group, to the best of your 21 knowledge, initiate their own investigation?
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. And another thing which 23 I did on July 6th, that I sent an E-mail to Mr. Mike 24 Wharton.
25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And what did you tell NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS f 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W l
WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234 4433 l (202) 2344433
94 1 Mr. Wharton?
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: That is in attachment 9.
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. So attachment 9 4 to your letter to the Department of Labor is going to 5 become Exhibit Number 9 to today's transcript.
6 MR. KRANDELWAL: I think we are one number ,
7 ahead, so it will be Exhibit 10, I guess.
8 (The document referred to was marked 9 for identification as Exhibit Number 10 9.)
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: No, we skipped out of 12 order a few exhibits back between your numbering and this 13 numbering. Okay, ro attachment number 9 to your letter is 14 now Exhibit N'imber 9 and this is the information that you 15 provided to Mr. Wharton; is that correct?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir. Now, at this point 17 I was so frustrated and mentally tortured that I did not 18 know what to do. So I felt that I had to bring it to the 19 attention of the management. So that's what I started to 20 Mike. "I am being victimized for bringing the compliance 21 and safety issues to the attention of previous and present 22 electrical DM's, Bernie Carlisle and Ken Johnson, who were l
23 responsible for my 1993 evaluation. Considering the 24 seriousness of the matter and the involvement of the first 25 level of supervision, I am directly approaching you, i NEAL R. GROSS {
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1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234 4433 l
r i
95 1 My objective is not to by-pass the cha:;n of 2 command" And then I went en and in the third paragraph I i
3 pointed out, "As you knew NRC regulation 10 CFR 50.7 4 prohibits any kind of retaliation or discrimination 5 against an employee for expressing safety concerns. In 6 one of the enforcement action NRC has stated the NRC views 7 employee discrimination as a very serious matter and 8 accordingly the NRC enforcement policy provide for citing 9 discrimination violation at severity level 3.or higher".
10 And then in the chronological order I 11 described item by item that what has happened.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And what transpired?
13 Did you receive word back from Mr. Wharton that he was 14 going to review this matter? Did he interview you? Did 15 he call you or what happened?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: I met with Mr. Wharton and he 17 told me that he has forwarded my E-mail to nuclear safety.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: To the nuclear safety 19 concerns group.
20 MR. KRANDELWAL: Nuclear safety concerns 21 group.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- And what did he say --
23 why did he say that that was done? What was your impression as to why he would do that? You had already 24
%. 25 gone to nuclear safety concerns yourself; is that correct?
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96 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: My going to nuclear safety 2 concern was confidential. At that time when I met Mr.
3 Wharton he did not know that I had contacted nuclear 4 safety concerns.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: But the issue that you 6 took to them was timeliness of resolution of safety, 7 issues.
8 MR. KRANDELWAL: Nuclear safety concern group, 9 I had two concerns which I told them, same 10 CFR 50.7, 10 that I strongly felt that I had been retaliated for 11 bringing the safety concerns and then the safety concern 12 itself. So nuclear safety concern, in my judgment, I 13 think they were trying to evaluate but I don't know what 14 was their charter, whether they were concerned only safety 15 issues or the retaliation issue also.
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: But you gave them both 17 the issues. )
I 18 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yes. j
\
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You gave them the 4
20 retaliation issue.
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And you also gave them 23 the technical issue of lack of action --
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
%. 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- -- lack of timely l NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433
97 1 action on the relay situation.
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
3 ItNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You gave both of those; 4 is that correct?
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So why did Wharton tell 7 you that he was giving your issue to nuclear safety 8 concerns?
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: He didn't t. ell me the reason 10 why. I think because of this compliance issues. I don't 11 know.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So did you just accept 13 him at his face value that he said, "I've given it to 14 nuclear safety concerns that they're going to handle it"?
15 Is that what he told you?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And that was acceptable 18 to you?
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, nothing I could do 20 because he's the manager.
21 ItWESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You didn't protest, did 22 you?
! 23 MR. KHANDELWAL: No. !
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You didn't protest what 25 he did?
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- t. _ _ _ _ . . - _ _ . . _ . _ I
98 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, I didn't.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You didn't. So can one 3 assume from your not protesting that it was all right with 4 you for that to occur or did you decide that it wasn't 5 worth protesting?
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, at that point I did not 7 know what to do. After expressing my concern to him and 8 whatever action he has taken, nothing -- how could I 9 change the decision of the management, what he felt 10 appropriate.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: How did you feel about 12 the decision? Independent of his being the manager, what 13 did you think about the decision?
14 MR. KRANDELWAL: My thought process was that 15 since I was not getting anywhere with Johnson, I have to l
16 bring it to the next level of management, which I did 17 because I've gone through every detail of this scenario 18 what exactly happened from May 1993 to my last meeting 19 with Ken and Ambrose. So I was thinking that management j 20 will see the implication that something is there, l
21 something is not right. j l
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And by management you mean Wharton?
23 1
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: Wharton and Wharton will take
. 25 to his management.
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99 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And who is Wharton's
( 2 3
management?
MR. KHANDELWAL: Jim -- Jim Riley was the l
4 manager at that time. Now, I think he moved out.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. But getting back 6 to my question, I don't think you ever answered it;,when 7 Wharton told you that he was going to give this to nuclear 8 safety concerns, you didn't protest it.
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, I didn't say anything.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You didn't say anything 11 but what was your opinion of Wharton doing that? Did you 12 think that that was appropriate? Did you think it was 13 inappropriate? Did you think that Wharton should have 14 handled this himself? What did you think about Wharton's 15 saying, "I'm going to give it to nuclear safety concerns"?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: I did not think anything. It 17 was his decision and I did not know why he gave to nuclear 18 safety concerns. I do not know.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And you didn't ask him 20 either?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, I did not.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Did he say that he was l
l 23 going to accept the decision of nuclear safety concerns on 24 the matter or he was going to have them investigate it or 25 what did he say they were going to do?
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l 100 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: There was no discussion. I 2 simply went and asked him that like, "Do you have anything 3 to discuss" And he told that he has forward it and he 4 will wait for the investigation.
ItNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So he basically told 5
6 you that he was going to have nuclear safety concerns 7 investigate it and then he would get back to you.
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
IPNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : Is that basically what 9
10 occurred?
11 MR. KhANDELWAL: Yes.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. So after that 4
13 occurred --
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: Now, let me correct it.
15 Whether he got back to me, I don't know. The only thing 16 that he told me that he has given to nuclear safety 17 concerns.
18 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You don't remember if 19 he said he was going to get back to you?
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Did he ever get back to 21 22 you about this matter, Wharton?
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, not on this E-mail. I I
l l
24 did not hear from Wharton on this E-mail.
25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: But the E-mail was NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234 4433 (202) 234-4433
101 1 about your concerns about retaliation and --
2 ,
MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- -- that your job 4 performance appraisal had been lowered 5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
6 INVESTIGATOR-JOUKOFF: -- because you were ,
7 involved in raising nuclear safety concerns. That's the 8 issue you brought to Wharton. Wharton never responded to 9 you on that?
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Wharton responded on the 11 request for review Level 2, but not on this E-mail.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. Who did respond i
13 on the alleged discrimination E-mail? Did nuclear safety
( 14 concerns ever discuss this matter with you? l i
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: Nuclear safety concerns, yes.
i 16 That you will see --
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Later? 1 1
I' 18 MR. KHANDELWAL: -- later, yes.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. All right. You j 20 have your next step that you want to testify to?
l 21 MR. KHANDELWAL: Okay, July I sent this E-mail 22 to Mr. Wharton and then in August '94, 8/11/94, I 23 submitted request for review Level 2.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And that is from an 25 exhibit that we've previously introduced. And that's NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON. D C 20005 3701 # (207 234 4433 f f 's- / , /
L_-_-______
f 102 1 Exhibit Number 6 is that request for review, Level 2.
! 2 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. And this was 4 also sent to Wharton, correct?
5 MR KHANDELWAL: Yes.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so two dif,ferent 7 matters went to Wharton. The first one was the E-mail in 8 which you were telling Wharton that you felt you were the 9 victim of employment discrimination and that.was done in 10 E-mail and then subsequently you sent the request for 11 review on August lith, and this was for a request for him 12 to review and re-evaluate your job performance appraisal.
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Very good. And what 15 happened next after August lith, 1994?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Now, as you will notice that 17 this request for review Level 2 is very detailed and I 18 challenge each and every false charge --
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Made by Johnson.
20 MR. KRANDELWAL: -- which was made in my 21 previous appraisal.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: By Johnson.
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. And instead of 24 referring that see E-mail lettered such and such, I l
_ 25 extracted all the relevant information so that it was easy NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 l
I 103 1 for you to see my point.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay, I understand 3 that. So then what happened next?
4 MR. KRANDELWAL: Then I indicated under item 5 15 on October 21 the May 16, 1994 appraisal was removed 6 from my file and a new appraisal was given on October 21, 7 1994.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And that was shown in 9 attachment number 6 --
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- to your letter to 12 the Department of Labor. So we're going to take 13 attachment number 6 and we'll make that Exhibit Number 10 14 to this transcript. Okay, so that has been marked.
15 (The document referred to was marked 16 for identification as Exhibit Number 17 10.)
18 And this letter is dated October the 25th, 19 1994 and it is to you and it is from Wharton and it says 20 what? Wnat is Wnarton telling you.'
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: "In defense I indicated that 22 your 1993/1994 performance would be re-evaluated on 23 October 21, 1994. The results of that re-ealuation was l
24 discussed with you. The evaluation dated May 16th, 1994
(, 25 will be removed from your personnel file and will be NEAL R. GROSS i
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1323 RHODE IS!.AND AVE , N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON. D C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-1433 l
t ,
l I
104 1 replaced by the evaluation signed and dated by you on
)
2 October 21,.1994" Okay, so what f 3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF:
transpired on October 21, 1994? You had a meeting with ;
4 l someone; is that correct? l 5 \
MR. KHANDELWAL: I had meeting with Mr..
6 I 7 Wharton regarding his finding on that request for review 8 Level 2.
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And was anybody else at 9
I 10 the meeting or just you and Wharton?
11 MR. KHANDELWAL: Doug Stickney and there was a 12 lady. I forgot her name.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: But Mr. Johnson wasn't C 14 there.
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: cAnd what were you told 17 during that meeting?
18 MR. KHANDELWAL: During the meeting Mr.
19 Wharton told me that he has conducted his independent 20 investigation and he's removing my pre.vious evaluation and 7
](b l 21 my score is improving 6 t
)
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And what does a score 23 of mean?
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: That now I .; ' I expressed my 7'i 25 .
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[
1 dissatisfaction with his finding because in one area he 2 downgraded me was team effort and I asked him that what is i
C 3 his basis. He said he talked to 10 people. And I said it 4 is all subjective unless you tell me who are those people 5 or unless you hear my side of the story.
6 So what exactly happened in the technical area 7 or the work area where I gave him volumes and voluies of 8 paperwork which I completed the assignment, he could not 9 downgrade me. Then later on I found out that the people, 10 those who were my subordinate, they were interviewed for 11 my supervisory skill, whether I was providing them enough 12 guidance and all those things were positive. So there 13 also they could not downgrade me.
14 So only area which was I couldn't challenge 15 them because they would not tell me who are those people 16 who are saying that I was not team member, because just a 17 couple of months before that I got award for excellent 18 teamwork. So it was kind of amazing thing.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, when did you 20 receive the award for excellent teamwork?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: In May 1993.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- In May of 1993.
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: I got a copy for you if you 1
J 24 want.
m 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Can I have this copy?
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r 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. ,
l 2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Thank you. We'll make l
3 this our next exhibit which is going to be Exhibit 10 4 (sic) to the transcript and it is a Significant Nuclear 5 Achievement Program award and it says, "In recognition of 6 your contribution to the nuclear priority of adherence to 7 budget and exemplary teamwork, you are hereby honored with 8 this significant nuclear achievement award", and it was 9 signed by James Riley, manager of nuclear engineering and 10 construction dated 5/7, 1993.
11 (The document referred to was marked 12 for identification as Exhibit Number 13 11.)
14 Now, when you mentioned -- you were just 15 testifying, you said that he downgraded you. What do you 16 mean by downgrade? Did he lower any of the numerical 17 values that Johnson put on here? Did he lower any of 18 them?
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Which one?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: In the teamwork, the number 22 in the teamwork was higher in the previous appraisal 23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: In Johnson's appraisal?
l 24 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
f (%.
I 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- So Johnson gave you a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHoDE ISLAND AVE.. N W (202) 234-4433 WASMINGTON D C 20005-37')1 (202) 234 4433
1 higher teamwork score than Wharton did.
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Is that correct?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: .Yes.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: However, how about the 6 other scores, ct.her than teamwork?
7 MR. KRANDELWAL: Other scores were better by 8 Mr. Wharten, the evaluation what he did.
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, very good. So 10 you told Mr. Wharton that you did not agree with him; is 11 that correct?
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, I told that based on 13 the amount of work I perform, based on the complexity, 14 based on the variety of the technical work, I deserved a 15 standard exceeded and he said that his findings are 16 different and if I disagree with it, then I have to go and 17 challenge it further. And at that time I wasn't -- my 18 health was bad, so I said, no.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So during this time 20 frame, so you're talking about October of '94 your health 21 wasn't very good?
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: The stress was getting to me.
23 By blood pressure was high.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF Your blood pressure was
,, 25 high?
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1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, it was day in and day
- 2 out, you know, in that kind of hostile environment.
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And what do you mean by 4 hostile environment?
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Because once you are 6 challenging your boss, you feel that it is not good 7 environment because you want to be --
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Just because the 9 challenge with your supervisor is ongoing --
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- it creates stress.
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: But were people being 14 hostile towards you? I mean, were you --
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: Hostile n.aybe not the right 16 word. Hostile means that I felt I was totally ignored, I 17 didn't exist.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Being ignored by whom?
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: By the management, by like my 20 managers, like there was no meaningful work.
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So what did they have 22 you doing all day long?
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: It was not challenging 24 assignments, just like to my level like a Senior Engineer (s. 25 II, to my level the work was not up to my position.
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1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So you feel that after l
2 you raised nuclear safety concerns that the work that was f
i (
3 assigned to you was no longer meaningful engineering work; 4 is that correct?
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: But as far as hostile 7 work environment people weren't openly hostile to you, t
8 were thav?
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: No. .
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Were they calling you 11 names or were they threatening you?
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, no, none of those things.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: None of those things.
14 So you would say it was a stressful situation between you 15 and your supervisors.
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, my wording hostile 17 maybe not the correct word. It's a stressful situation.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Thank you. And so you 19 decided not to pursue this matter any further; is that 20 correct?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. I 22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Okay, so that we're 1
23 talking occurred in October of 1994. Now, in the meantime l 24 was nuclear safety concerns working on your situation that 25 you were, you know, being discriminated against?
2 I
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__.._________._J
1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. ,
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And what was going on
,C 3 with nuclear safety concerns program?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Okay, item 20 of my letter to 5 the DOL, I indicated on November 14th, 1994 I had a 6 meeting with the nuclear safety supervisor and the 7 investigator who worked on my case. I particularly asked 8 Mr. David Askey who was the key investigator.
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, was he the 10 investigator the whole time?
11 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, thank you.
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: That what was the outcome of 14 the investigation. And he told me that approximately 30 15 people he interviewed and people had a lot of positive 16 feedback about me based on the interview. And then I 17 asked him that all this thing what you are telling me in 18 the meeting, official letter that you are going to write, 19 are you going to include this thing that you interviewed 20 so many people and everybody's positively or very highly 21 and he said yes.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, why did you want 23 that documented?
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: So that I have got something 25 to show to my management that, "Look, you interviewed NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHQDE ISLAND AVE.. N W (202} 234-4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433
1 people, you downgraded me on my team effort. That group 2 interviewed people and they did not find any negative".
3 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : Okay, so it was 4 basically your point in that was the interviews done by 5 nuclear safety concerns regarding teamwork came up with a 6 different idea or a different --
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: Not particularly teamwork, 8 overall, everything was included and David Askey told me 9 that nobody told negative.
10 IlWESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Negative comments?
11 MR. KHANDELWAL: Negative. Everybody had very 12 positive and highly positive comments about my technical 13 skill, about the way I resolve -- there was one issue on 14 the RSPT report which was in that previous document.
15 ItNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : That's RSPT?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah.
17 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : What does that stand 18 for?
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Read Switch Position 20 Transmitters, j 21 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : Read Switch Position l l
l 22 Transmitters, okay. Okay, so anyway so you're saying that 23 you were looking that there was a potential or that there t
24 were two different ideas had been reached, one by Mr. l 25 Wharton and one by nuclear safety concerns --
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1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- about your overall 3 interaction with people. Is that what you're telling us?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: About my overall -- not only 5 of interaction with people, over all evaluation, my 6 technical capabilities and my interaction.
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, and --
8 MR. KHANDELWAL: Then I asked them -- let me 9 elaborate on that. I asked David particularly about this 10 comment which Mr. Johnson made in May 1993 meeting about l l
11 my supervisor going to jail because it is like my word l
12 against somebody else's word because there were three 13 other guys present at the meeting; Bernie, Mr. Kaneko and 14 Roberto Cruz. So I asked him, "Did you talk to those 15 people"? He said, "Yes" "What was their input"?
16 "Everybody confirmed, yes, he made that statement" 17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now why did you key in 18 on that statement? Why do you view that statement as l 19 being so important?
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: Because that was a 21 threatening comment. That was a threatening comment 22 because in the official meeting I did not expect any 1
i 23 manager to make that statement that your supervisor is 1
24 going to jail, 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Because of your NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234 4433 f
i . - _ _ - - - _ - - - - _ _ _ _ _ _-
1 actions?
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so you found it 4 to be threatening that Johnson would make a statement like 5 that --
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah.
7 IINESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- that your 8 supervisor, Carlisle, was going to be going to jail 9 because Khandelwal did something.
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Because I'm bringing those 11 issues.
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, because you're 13 bringing forth these issues.
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, yeah.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And you felt that -
16 Johnson was -- that was a threatening statement towards 17 you; is that correct?
18 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah. No, I felt it was an 19 inappropriate statement by a manager in an official 20 meeting.
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay.
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Because off the record we can 23 talk like that but that kind of statement, I felt was 24 inappropriate.
25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- And the fact that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND 1 TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON. D C 20005-3701 (2C2) 234-4433 t
i
1 Johnson made that statement was confirmed by Askey during -
)
2 the nuclear safety concerns investigation; is that C 3 correct?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And this meeting that 6 you had on November the 14th, 1994 with the nuclear safety 7 concerns group was documented in an E-mail; is that 8 correct? I believe that's attachment 10 of your letter to 9 the Department of Labor. So we'll take attachment 10 to 10 the Department of Labor letter is going to become Exhibit i 11 11 (sic) to the transcript today.
l l
12 THE REPORTER: Isn't the achievement award 11? !
i 1
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: I'm sorry, it will j 14 become Exhibit 12. Thank you.
15 (The document referred to was marked ,
I l 16 for identification as Exhibit Number 17 12.)
l 18 And that's now been marked and my l
l 19 understanding of this E-mail is that this is a -- like l
l 20 minutes of the meetina that occurred between you and the l
21 NSC organization on November 14th, 1994 and that you were 22 the one that prepared the minutes; is that correct?
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And did anybody else
_ 25 agree that this was the correct conversation that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCR!BERS 1323 RHQDE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005 370t (202) 234-4433
1 occurred?
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, the only thing I got an 3 E-mail back from Willis Frick to whom I sent this thing on 4 1/3/95 and he simply said, "Let me thank you for the 5 information" 6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF. So the nuclear safety 7 concerns group, to the best of your knowledge, never 8 agreed with these minutes. They just acknowledged that 9 they had them; is that correct?
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, I don't know whether 11 that thank you is that they agree with it exactly. That 12 is left open but in this meeting minutes one thing that I 13 pointed out which was important in the last -- third page 14 --
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Page 3 of Exhibit 12, !
1 16 yes.
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: -- in the bottom of the page 18 I said in the third paragraph at the bottom, aIf 19 retaliation was not the root cause of downgrading my 20 original appraisal why did it take more than one year for 21 NEDO's management to take action on the issues raised 1
22 about MRD and Agastat relays? Had I not pursued the !
i I
23 issues, what would have happened? Mr. Frick told me that l
24 this is a valid question and his group will further 25 investigate this matter" NEAL R. GROSS l COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W l
l (202) 234 4433 WASH'NGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 l t )
l l 1 (6:00 p.m.)
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And did they further C 3 investigate the matter?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. l l
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And what did they {
6 determine?
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: It is coming in the n'e'xt one.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Would you like to move 9 onto that now?
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And that's going to 12 become attachment 11; is that correct?
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. The one more comment I 14 would like to make on this thing --
15 IlWESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: On which?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: The meeting minutes were sent 17 to Mr. Willis Frick.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You mean Exhibit 12; is 19 that correct? Okay, go ahead.
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: I asked the question to Mr. j 21 Frick because they told -- their investigation indicated 22 that there was no retaliation.
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So did they tell you 24 during this meeting that they had investigated and 25 determined there was no retaliation?
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1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, in this meeting, so I 2 asked this question that if there was no retaliation what C 3 was the basis why they made false charges and downgraded 4 my appraisal because that is very like admitting guilt, )
5 why they did it. And their resporse was it is not NSC's 6 group charter to find out why the original appraisal was 7 downgraded. He mentioned that I have to get this answer l
8 from NEDO's management.
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And that is on which 10 page of --
11 MR. KHANDELWAL: On the third page in the 12 middle, third paragraph on the top, "Mr. Frick gave the 13 following responses to that" 14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, when you were told 15 during the meeting by the nuclear safety concerns group 16 that retaliation was not the case here, did you disagree 17 with that?
18 MP. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You did?
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And you told Mr. Frick 22 that you disagreed with that finding.
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: That's why I asked this 24 question, that why the retaliation was not the issue then
_ 25 I'm curious of working with a company 20 years on nuclear NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISMND AVE . N W l (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433
1 job, never had any below standard rating and when I was -
2 expecting standard exceeded, I got below standard. So all 3 the evidence lead me to believe that it was retaliation.
4 And he said their finding are different, so then I raised 5 this question. And he said he has not answer.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Very good. But you did 7 not agree with them. You disagreed with nuclear safety 8 concerns.
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You said that that was 11 not true, that you still felt that you were the victim of 12 discrimination or retaliation; is that correct?
13 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yes, yes. )
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, thank you. Now, ,
15 after your meeting with nuclear safety concerns group in 16 November of 1994 on bullet 21 of your letter to the 17 Department of Labor you discuss that you received a letter 18 in December of 1994 from the manager of the nuclear 19 oversight division and that is shown -- do we have that as l 20 one of our attachments this evening?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: I don't have Mr. Slagle 22 letter. I quoted from -- okay, not that is not attached 23 here. That is a letter which I received. If you want, I 24 can send you a copy.
k, 25 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- I think we can get it NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS )
1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE N W (202) 234 4 33 WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234-4433 I
l l
1 from the licensee but that's fine, thank you. So then the 2 next attachment you have is you sent an E-mail to Ken 3 Slagle, the manager of nuclear oversight division on 4 January the lith, 1995; is that correct /
5 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, I did not send. This was 6 draft message.
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Oh, you never se'nt 8 this?
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: No. I had my concern. I 10 wrote down and or the fear of further retaliation, I did 11 not send officially. And in further paragraph I have 12 discussed that this concern I discussed with the people in 13 the meeting. I told in this meeting in January to the 14 staff who was working on this problem.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, but attachment 11 16 which -- to your letter to the Department of Labor which 17 is a draft E-mail from you to Slagle was never sent to 18 Slagle.
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, I didn't send it.
20 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, so this -- we're 21 going to mark this for today's exhibit (sic) 22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- I just want to 24 characterize it correctly that this is a draft of what k_ 25 your opinion was.
3 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHQDE ISUAND AVE , N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234-4433 I ..
1 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yes.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: But it was never 3 provided to anybody?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: I did not forward.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: I mean, it was never 6 provided to anybody at that point in time. You've now 7 provided it to the Department of Labor and we have'it, but 8 at the time it was not provided to Slagle.
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: And I made it an attachment 10 to the Department of Labor just to expressing my 11 dissatisfaction which I verbally told the staff members 12 but I didn't --
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: By staff members you 14 mean nuclear safety concern staff members --
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- in November 1994?
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: In January 1995.
18 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Oh, so you had .nother 19 meeting --
20 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- in January '95 --
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- with nuclear safety j
24 concerns.
I
_ 25 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
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1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, let's mark 2 attachment 11 here which is a draft E-mail, it shows a 3 date of 1/11/95, as Exhibit 13, please.
l 1
4 Thank you. l 5 (The document referred to was marked 6 for identification as Exhibit Number 13.)
7 8 Is there anything in particular in Exhibit 13 9 that you'd like to read into the record, any.nighlights, 10 or can we just read it as it is?
11 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, I wrote something which 12 I would like to point out in this, on the second page, 13 last paragraph, "NSC program team findings were discussed 14 in the November 14th, 1994 meeting which did not 15 substantiate Mr. Wharton's findings regarding my team 16 performance. This team had interviewed approximately 30
.17 people as per Mr. Askey. Based on these interviews, he 18 mentioned that the adverse charge made in my original 19 appraisal was not substantiated and found to be incorrect.
20 He further mentioned that most of people he 21 interviewed spoke very favorably about my technical 22 competency and that I stuck to my gun and protect.ed the 23 company's interest on the RSPT and design standard issues.
24 Please see attached meeting minutes for details. Mr.
I k.
% 25 Askey was supposed to document his findings in the final NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHQDE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433
1 memo from you to me. However in the 12/7/94 memo all the .
I 2 key points important to my case have been omitted. I do 3 not think it is an oversight.
4 In the several prior meetings with your staff l
5 I was given this understanding that NSC program is
{
6 unbiased and totally independent. Facts are proving !
7 otherwise. The whole investigation appears to be
]
I 8 superficial and raising many questions. Why all the key 9 points which were presented by Mr. Askey in the November 10 14th, 1994 meeting were omitted from your memo off 11 12/7/94. NSC group investigation supposedly should be l
12 confidential and independent. Why then everything was l
(
1 13 synchronized with NEDO's investigation?
14 Why NSC program waited for the request for l l
1 15 Level 2 results before issuing their letter? It is j l
16 obvious that full justice has not been done to my case.
17 At present I am not pursuing this any further hoping that 18 it will not be repeated in the future" 19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Very good, and my 20 understanding is did you meet with nuclear safety concerns 21 again after November of '94?
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: When did you meet with 1
! 24 them? It looks like January the 19th, 1995 is what I'm k 25 reading; is that correct, under bullet 21?
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l L I
.a 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: Just in a subsequent meeting 2 on January 19th, 1995 with the staff I did express my 3 concerns about the investigation.
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And those concerns are 5 the ones that you just read to us from Exhibit 13; is that 6 correct?
7 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And that meeting that 9 you had again was with nuclear safety concerns staff?
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Do you remember who was 12 there?
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: I know Mr. Askey, and there 14 was another gentleman. I don't remember the name.
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And subsequent to 16 January of 1995 did you -- you did not pursue this issue 17 any further?
18 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay. However, you 20 wara notified -- am ynn roar i fi ed earli er ebic avoning, l
21 you were notified in approximately July 1995 that you job j
\
22 had been abolished.
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And that this was done
- k. % 25 in a meeting; is that correct?
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1
1 MR. KHANDELWAL: No.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: No? How did you first 1
C 3 come to find out that your job was abolished?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: I was called in a room.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: I beg your pardon?
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: I was called in a room by the 7 supervisor that Mr. Johnson wants to see me and in the j l
\
8 room there was a lady from personnel and Ken Johnson and I I i
9 was given the package.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And that's the first 11 you heard or it.
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: The first time.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, you didn't hear C 14 about anything before that?
i 15 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, sir.
16 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So the tirst time that l t
17 you heard about your job being done away with was you were 18 called into a room with Ken Johnson and a lady from 19 personnel and what did Ken -- did Ken Johnson say l l
20 something to you? He talked?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, he told that, "You're 22 severed. Your job, your position -- you have been l
23 severed". That's what he called severed, S-E-V-E-R-E-D.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And he didn't tell you
- k. % 25 that you could seek other jobs in the company or that l NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS i 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINdTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234-4433
1 you'd been -- you know, the they had tried to find other 9 2 jobs for you in the company or that you --
1 I
m 3 MR. KHANDELWAL: No. ]
l 4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: He just told you that j 5 you were done --
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: -- that was it. There 8 was no other conversation other than that?
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: Conversation that I pack my 10 stuff by evening.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: The same day? {
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: Same day and I turn over my 13 badge, the site badge, and I go to health physics to get
' 14 the total whole body count, all those things.
I l
15 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And that was it?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And then when you were 18 approached about a retirement package? l l
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Oh, the lady from the 20 perconnel had all thoce documente, foldere that that is if 21 you select for retirement then --
l 22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So they told you that
, 23 you were going to get a retirement from the company, or i
24 did they tell you you were just fired and that was it?
L 25 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, no, retirement because I NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHQDE ISLAND AVE , N W.
(202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON. D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433
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R___._______._____..___._..____.___. _ _ _ _
so 1 knew that after age 55 -- like at the time I was severed I 2 was So I knew that I'm eligible for retirement.
3 ItWESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, and they also 4 confirmed that with you, that you were eligible for 5 retirement.
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
7 ItWESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : Is that what they told 8 you?
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. .
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And they told you you 11 were going to get an early retirement; is that correct?
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: Early retirement means that 13 since I did not complete whatever number of years for 14 getting the full retirement, so my retirement will be at a 15 much lower rate, the reduction will be quite a bit 16 substance.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Yeah, there is some 18 reduction in your annuity that is paid to you. I i
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yeah, and the reduction is 20 quitC CubCtantial 11 yCU arO DC10w 60 and yOU N3VC nOt 21 completed 25 years and all that.
22 ItWESTIGATOR JOUKOFF : Did you tell Johnson at i 23 that time that you thought that this was retaliation from l
24 your whistle -- because of your whistle blowing in the
, 25 past?
l NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W 4202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON. D C 20005 N01 (202) 234-44'
% ' ,, Irrr
127 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: I did not say anything.
2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You didn't say anything 3 like that?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, because that lady from 5 the personnel told that I had got so many days if I seek 6 legal counsel or if I don't sign the severance package and 7 I want to take legal action or something.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now, did you -- were 9 you asked to sign the severance package at that same time?
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, no, severance package was 11 given to me. They said, "Take your own time" There was 12 time to decide what I want to do.
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And so you had some 14 period of time that you could review the severance package 15 and as you testified earlier today, there were two 16 different options. If you signed a release that you would 17 not litigate with the company further, you got some much 18 longer period of full salary --
19 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
20 INVEST 1GATuk JuuKuiF: - .after you left; is 21 that correct?
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Not salary, they were giving 23 a lump sum package.
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, lump sum package.
25 MR. KHANDELWAL: The package was divided like NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRle{ IRS l 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON. D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 L
edw l i
1 1 if you don't sign the release then say I'll give you an 2 example, you only get eight weeks. Based on my length of C 3 service, 23 years with the company, for each year there j
j l
4 was one week, plus some extra weeks. So I will -- I was j l
5 qualified to get a totel of 51 weeks salary if I signed l l
6 the release. ;
7 If I don't sign the release then I get eight 8 or 10 weeks. And signing the release was like age 9 discrimination. What I saw mainly was age discrimination 10 and color, creed or whatever discrimination, but it just 11 meant --
12 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So basically you 13 decided that you should sign that because it was worth 14 more money; is that correct?
15 MR. KHANDELWAL: I decided to sign because it 16 was worth more money but at that same time I felt that 17 there is a clause in that agreement about nuclear safety 18 which was I was not surrendering my rights under that 19 clause.
20 I:TVESTIGATOR JCUKOFF I understand. Did Mr.
21 Johnson or anybody else from Southern California Edison 22 management evar tell you why you were the one that got 23 selected to be severed?
l 24 MR. KHANDELWAL: Nobody told anything. How
- k. 25 the selection process worked, ncbody knew.
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129 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Nobody knew.
2 MR. KHANDELWAL: How they picked A over B or 3 what they did, that was all -- do you want to go on item 4 22?
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Yes, you can go onto 6 item 22 of the letter to the Department of Labor.
7 MR. KRANDELWAL: Item 22 describes that the 8 previous question which I asked Mr. Willis Frick that why 9 NEDO, Nuclear Engineering nesign organization, took one 10 year to address my concern and he said that it is a valid 11 question and he will investigate and send a response.
12 And the response came from Mr. Slagle in a 13 letter dated January 27th, 1995 and I quoted from his 14 letter. "The NSC program investigation determined that 15 when your concerns regarding relays were raised, the 16 issues were reviewed by NEDO management and it was J 17 concluded that no conditions of non-conformances or 18 operating problems existed.
i 19 Thus, no immediate actions such as writing l
20 non-cunfuimance repurts ut licensee reports were required.
1 J
Such a conclusion is validated by the final analysis which )
21 22 did not generate any non-conforming conditions or 23 reporting questions" 24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Do you agree with that
,_ 25 statement?
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l l _ _ ________________D
. l 1 MR. KHANDELWAL: I did not agree and in my l 1
i 2 letter to the Department of Labor I have made my ,
3 statement. J i
4 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And that is on page 4 !
I l
5 of Exhibit 1. !
I i
6 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, do you want me to read !
7 that? i 8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: No , we can read it.
9 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Is there anything that 11 you'd like to add to it that's not written there?
12 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, that is --
13 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: But you still feel that 14 there were non-conformances that occurred in the late 15 '80's time frame; is that correct?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: When I see from the NRC 17 regulation point of view, as I described in this la paragraph, that when the safety and compliance issues were 19 raised in May 1993 and then I continued to pursue, 20 something had to be donc immediately to make mule that the 21 plants were not operating in an unsafe condition.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Do you mean unsafe 23 condition or in a unknown condition?
i 24 MR. KHANDELWAL: I think you can modify 25 unknown because we don't know.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 l
l.
1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF- Quality indeterminate 2 condition?
3 MR. KHANDELWAL: Indeterminate condition 4 because we did not know because what would have happened 5 if that analysis would have indicated that the Agastat 6 relays were really qualified for two years? Well, it was 7 by chance that those relays based on the analysis they 8 said that they are good for more than seven years.
9 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: But your point is that 10 the analysis was done after the fact, the analysis was 11 done later, not at the time that you were raising the 12 concerns.
13 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, yes.
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: That's your point; is 15 that correct?
16 MR. KHANDEL'.lAL : Yes.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: That just as well that 18 the analysis was done after the fact could have also shown 19 the relays were only good for one or two years.
70 MR. KHANDFT WAT. Vos 21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Is that your point?
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: Exactly.
23 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, thank you.
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: And that would have caused
,, 25 really a big problem because then we were -- we operated NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 234-4433 %ASHINGTON. D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433
1 the plant in the unsafe condition.
l 2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: I undercs"and. Now, j 3 getting back to your actual termination, I want to make {
l 4 sure that it's very clear to me that you were -- it was 5 never explained to you by Johnson or anybody else why you 6 were picked, you and the other senior engineer, why you 7 were picked to be the ones that were going to be severed i 8 or released from the company. Nobody ever discussed that 9 with you. ,
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, and your feeling 12 is is that if your job performance appraisal for 1993 13 which was given to you in 1994, if that or,i inally was a
/}(/
14 l my understanding it was changed to a is that 15 correct?
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And that had it been 18 higher than /hich would have been whatever exceeds 19 is, is exceeds in the thirties somewhere?
20 MR. ICIANDCLUAL . Thirty fivc.
1 21 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: If it had been a 35 22 that you would have not been severed from the company; is 1
23 that what your contention is?
24 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir, and if I had not 90 25 through challenging the management appraisal, I strongly NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234 4433 m/ hy '
123 1 feel that I would not have been one of the ones.
- 2 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF
- So you f eel-that there 3 is multiple reasons that you were severed. The first is 4 potentially that you were a or a epending upon the 5 point in time instead of what you thought you should be, 6 mid-thirties somewhere, and also that you challenged the r
7 matter to the point that management decided that you were l
8 going to be one of the people that was let go on the next i
9 severance; is that what you're saying? ,
1 10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: What other evidence can 12 you give me or give our agency that would support that l 13 contention? Do you have any other evidence other than l l 1 1 14 what you've given us?
l 15 MR. KHANDELWAL: The only logical conclusion l
)
16 in my mind that there was no reason for any manager to I I
1 17 fabricate, make false charges against an employee unless !
i .1 18 they had some hidden agenda of their own.
l 19 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And when you're talking 20 abuut the hidden agenda and the false. charge , y u'rc 21 talking about the job performance appraisal prepared by 22 Johnson.
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes. )
24 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: That's what you're 25 talking about?
! NEAL R. GROSS l COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N W (102) 234-4433 WASHINGTON. D C 20005 3701 (202) 234-44 3 l l A? 0/h / l u------------------- J
134
. 1 1 MR. KRANDELWAL: Yeah, based on the false 2 charges, the appraisal was downgraded and I searched in my j 3 mind and my soul that why.it happened and the only reason 4 which I could think of is the trail of paperwork and the 5 history that started from May 1993 the first time I I
6 brought those safety and compliance issues and the I l
I 7 reaction of Johnson in the meeting, then he became my 8 immediate supervisor. So I felt that it follows on this 9 where it exactly comes from.
10 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Now do you have any 11 feelings that anybody else assisted Johnson or directed 12 Johnson to do what he did?
I 13 MR. KHANDELWAL: That I have no idea.
14 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So to the best of your 15 knowledge it was Johnson and you have no idea if anybody 16 else --
17 MR. KHANDELWAL: Johnson and upper management 18 because the first appraisal which was prepared was signed 19 'by Mike Wharton also because on the appraisal there are 20 two level of signatures, the immediate supervisor and the 21 next supervisor.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: But do you have any 23 information that Wharton did anything more than just 24 signed it off as a formality as the second level, that he
. 25 had any independent knowledge of what he was signing?
NEAL R. GROSS l
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135 l
l 1 MR. KRANDELWAL: I have no idea. i
( 2 3
INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF:
MR. KHANDELWAL:
You don't know.
I can simply make a guess l
j l
l l
1 4 that i f I am in his position and somebody's character is j i
5 being ruined, I would question if I am the manager but I l
6 don't know what he did. I 7 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Do you think that Mr.
8 Wharton signs as the second level on numerous job 9 appraisal performances every year?
10 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes, sir.
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So having that in mind, 12 all you know is that he signed it and that it was in the 4
13 below standards area but you don't have any independent 14 knowledge that he conspired with Johnson or directed i
15 Johnson to do it.
16 MR. KHANDELWAL: I have no knowledge.
17 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: You have no knowledge 18 of that. So your suspicions basically surrounding -- are 19 surrounding Johnson and you feel that Johnson is the one 20 that did it and yvu feel that it mLatted back in May - vf 21 1993 at the meeting?
22 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, I had a suspicion that 1
23 even Bernie, before he left -- Bernie gave a mid-term j l
24 evaluation just before he left. And he did not indicate )
%. 25 below standard but he made two negative commente and those NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS l 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W (202) 234 4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234 4433 I
L m _ _ _ _ _____________________J
..n 1 both negative comments were taken by Johnson also. He 2 added two more of his own and took two of Bernie.
3 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, I understand.
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: And Bernie, when he gave me 5 the mid-term appraisal I challenged those -- his negative 6 statement in the mid-term. I said, "Bernie, I disagree",
7 but now when I see what exactly was going on, because just 8 after two days he was gone. So he was not in the frame of 9 mind to get my side of tha cenry or anything. He simply 10 said, "This is the way".
11 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: I understand. Is there 12 anything else that you would like to tell us this evening 13 before we conclude your interview, Mr. Khandelwal?
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: There was one thing which I 15 think I would like to give to you. Just before the 16 severance date, July lith, I was approached by Mr. Kaneko 1
17 and I have that -- wait a minute, I will give it to you. I 18 INVESTIGATOR JOUXOFF: Why don't we go off the 19 record a minute for a break, it's approximately 6:30 p.m.,
20 while Mr. Khandelwal lockc for thct document? ,
l 21 (Whereupon, a short recess was taken.)
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: We'll go back on the 23 record now. The time is approximately 6:35 p.m. While we t
24 were off the record, Mr. Khandelwal went through his
%. 25 records that he brought with him this evening and he came l
l NEAL R. GROSS l COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W CO2) 2344433 WASH!NGTON D C 20005 3701 (202) 234 4433
1 across another document that he would like to introduce as 2 part of the transcript and this is going to be marked as 3 Exhibit 13?
4 THE REPORTER: 14.
5 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: 14, as Exhibit 14, and 6 this is a July 19th, 1995 letter from Mr. Khandelwal to f 7 Mr. A.T. Kaneko of the Southern California Edison Company.
8 We're going to have that marked as Exhibit 14.
9 (The document referred to was marked 10 for identification as Exhibit Number 11 14.)
12 It's been marked as Exhibit 14 and I'll give i
13 it to you, Mr. Khandelwal and you can read into the record 14 what the significance is of that letter.
15 MR. KRANDELWAL: This memo is written to 16 document the highlights of two informal meetings I had j I
17 with Mr Kaneko on July 7th, 1995 and July 10, 1995. The {
l 18 highlights of the meeting, Mr. Kaneko came and talked to 19 me that he's trying to get my feeling about the severance ;
20 package what I am volunteering and management is anxicus l
21 to know my feelings. .Tnd I told Mr. Kaneko that I'm not i
22 volunteering for the severance and if I have a choice, I 23 would like to work two more years so that I qualify for i
24 the full retirement benefit.
- k. 25 And then he went into more details that it NEAL R. GROSS COUR r REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS l 1323 RHODE ISMND AVE . N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON. D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 L__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ _
136 1 will be beneficial and I disagreed and then I asked him 2 that why management is so much concerned about me and not 3 the rest of the people in the group. And he knew about my 4 past appraisal situation so he mentioned that management 5 is concerned because of my past action I have taken about 6 my performance appraisal and my concern on safety and 7 compliance issues which I raised to the safety concern 8 group.
9 And then he trant i nnad that, "Would you not be 10 concerned if you had this"? I documented this on July 19, 11 1995 so that once it was fresh in my mind. I had all the 12 points noted down and I sent certified mail to Mr. Kaneko 4
13 and to the manager of hinan resources.
14 ItNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Thank you. Now, this 15 contact that you had from Mr. Kaneko to have this 16 conversation, this was done after you had been told about 17 the severance; is that correct?
18 MR. KHANDELWAL: No, it was before the 19 severance, July 7th.
20 IINESTIGATOR JCUKOFF . Ch, it was before?
21 MR. KHANDELWAL: Yes.
22 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: And when were you l 23 called in by Johnson and told of the severance?
24 MR. KHAtJDELWAL : July lith.
25 ItNESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So your indication is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRlBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE , N W I
(202) 234 4433 WASHINGiON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234 4433
1 is that Kaneko had been told that you were being selected 2 for severance; is that what you're saying? -
C 3 MR. KHANDELWAL: Kaneko told me that the 4 management is -- management is in the process of making a 5 decision. So I asked him if I'ra not prepared. He said 6 management will make their call. He's just a middle man.
7 He would convey my message to management.
8 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: So there's a potential 9 that they had already picked you or there was a potential .
10 that they were looking for somebody to pick who really 11 wanted to leave the company in the event that there was 12 sort.ebody who wanted to leave . That could be read a number 13 of different ways or are you reading it only one way?
14 MR. KHANDELWAL: My personal feeling that they 15 were also trying to have a feeling of comfort. That if 16 I'm jumping that, " Hey, I got the severance package and I 17 get out", they would have felt more comfortable. But 18 because of my early age and I told that I was not 19 volunteering and that I'm not happy if it happens to me.
20 T WF AT T r,: Tr.F Tr.nF0F F - I'.. . y ._ u
. t.u_. _f any 21 people that went out on this severance that were happy to 22 take it and leave?
23 MR. KHANDELWAL: I understand that 24 < whose name was mentioned, he was happy to get 25 it.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISt.AND AVE , N W (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4413 7 (Y. Y? 1 L'
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~
v,w 1 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: Okay, thank you. Is 2 there anything else you'd like to add for the interview 3 this evening?
4 MR. KHANDELWAL: I think if you have any more 5 questions.
6 INVESTIGATOR JOUKOFF: If I have any more 7 questions, I'll be sure and contact you. I'd like tc 8 thank you for taking the time today to come and do this 9 interview. The Nuclear Ragniatory Commission appreciates 10 the time that you've taken in driving and meeting with us 11 on this issue.
12 And the time now is approximately 6: 45. We'll 13 be going off the record.
14 (Whereupon, at 6:45 p.m. the above-entitled 15 matter concluded.)
16 17 18 19
?n 21 22 i 23 l
24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE . N W (202) 2?44433 WASHINGTCN D C 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433 l
CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the attached ,
proceedings before the United States Nuclear <
l Regulatory Commission in the matter of: 1 Name of Proceeding: INTERVIEW OF LAXMI KHANDELWAL !
Docket Number: 4-96-056 Place of Proceeding: DANA ~ POINT, CALIFORNIA were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the court reporting company, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.
l
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f
& MMf f/Ar%#
LOjFRANCISCO official Reporter Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.
i l
t L
EXHlBIT 5 page /4 / of $32,,ges
(