ML052440340
| ML052440340 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Salem, Hope Creek  |
| Issue date: | 04/29/2003 |
| From: | Monroe K NRC/OI |
| To: | |
| References | |
| -RFPFR, 1-2003-010, FOIA/PA-2004-0191 | |
| Download: ML052440340 (56) | |
Text
EXHIBIT 15 Information in this record was deleted in accordance withMhO Freedom of Information Act, exemptions 1(
II Case No. 1-2003-010 Exhibit 15
1 1 UNITED STATED OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3
4 OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS 5 INTERVIEW 6
7 IN THE MATTER OF:
8 INTERVIEW OF : Docket No.
9 at: 1 2003-010 10 (CLOSED) 11 _ _ -_
__ _ _ _ __ x 12 Tuesday, April 29, .2003 13 14 TB2 Training Building 15 Conference Room 16 Salem/Hope Creek Generating 17 Stations 18 Artificial Island, New Jersey 19 20 The above-entitled interview was conducted 21 at 9:40 a.m.
22 BEFORE:
23 Special Agent Kristin Monroe 24 EXHIBIT 25 PAGE / OF AG (S)
TA E2 0 0 3 ' ° l °NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
2 2 APPEARANCES:
2 On behalf of the Witness:
3 JEFFRIE KEENAN, ESQ.
4 Assistant General Solicitor 5 PSEG Corporation Nuclear-N21 6 Post Office Box 236 7 Hancocks Bridge, New Jersey 08038 8 t+/---bUu) 232rS-02144 wS4- 337- o27 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
3 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 (9:40 a.m.)
3 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Today is April 4 29th, 2003, and the time is now 9:40 a.m. The 5 interview this morning is with who is 6 employed PSEG Corporation at the Salem Generating 7 Station; is that correct? You are employed at Salem 8 Salem and Hope Creek.
9 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And the location of 10 this interview is actually at Artificial Island, and 11 we are in a conference room of the TB2 -Training 12 Building. My name is Kristin Monroe, and I am a
'13 Special Agent with the NRC Office of Investigations in 14 King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
15 Also present for the interview is Jeffrie 16 Keenan, who is the Assistant General Solicitor for 17 PSEG Corporation.
18 The purpose of the interview concerns an 19 allegation that a senior engineer at 20 the Hope Creek Generating Station, was discriminated 21 against for raising a safety concern on 22 via PSEG's corrective action program.
23 And the issue that raised was 24 concerning procedural non-compliance with the 25 transient assessment response plan, and here from this NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
4 1 out on I will just refer to as the TARP.
2 As a result of raising the concern, n 3 believes that* was relieved of duty and removed from 4 plant access from to August 19th, 2002. In 5 addition, alleges that received threats of 6 a poor performance appraisal and termination on August 7 19th, 2002.
8 Now, i f ore I went on the record, I 9 had indicated that is not making any assertions 10 against you. It involves immediate supervisor, 11 So you are just a factual witness in 12 this matter.
13 The potential violations include 10 CFR 14 50.5, which is entitled, "Deliberate Misconduct." And 15 10 CFR 50.7, which is entitled, "Employed Protection."
16 And as I explained prior to going on the 17 record, I explained that the interview would- be 18 conducted under oath. Do you have any objection to be 19 under oath?
20 o, I don't.
21 (Whereupon, the 22 Interviewee, was worn.)
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And before we went 24 on the record, I showed you my identification?
25 MR Yes, you did. F C..
,l R. GROSS (pC COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
5 1 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. And how 2 did you happen to choose Jeff this morning for this 3 interview?
4 Just volunteered. I asked 5 Jeff to sit down with me.
6 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And you asked him 7 to represent you personally; is that right?
8 _YYes.
9 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And Jeff, would you 10 introduce yourself for the record?
11 MR. KEENAN: Yes. My name is Jeff Keenan, 12 and I am counsel for PSEG Services, and I am here 13 today representing PSEG Nuclear and i n a 14 dual capacity. I have reviewed this matter through an 15 ECP investigation, and I am not aware of any conflict 16 that is present at this time.
17 However, in the event that a conflict does 18 arise in the interview process, we will take a break 19 and figure out how to best handle that. We appreciate 20 participating in this. We would like the ability to 21 review the transcript at some point at a time suitable 22 from the NRC investigator.
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Sure. Okay. And, 24 you understand that Jeff is representing both you 25 and the company? PC NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS ITs inns 1l Anon AVFv N W
6 1 Yes.
2 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Will the presence 3 of Jeff hinder your testimony in any way today?
4 No.
5 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And you do 6 understand that if you refuse to do so that you can 7 meet with me privately and at your convenience?
8 I understand.
9 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. With that, 10 we will move on. All right. could you please 11 state your full name and spell your last name?
12 My full name is 13 14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Could you spell 15 your middle name, please?
16 17 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: An 18 That is correct.
19 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And what is your 20 date and place of birth?
21 and I was born in 22 -
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. And what is 24 your social security number?
25 V__A NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
7 1 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: 4nd you are 2
3 Yes.
4 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
5 6
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And what is your 8 current home address?
9 10 11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And your home 12 telephone number?
13 It is 14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: All right. And, is What is your educational background?
I 16 - I have my engineering degree, 17 Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, and I 18 did not finish my Masters, but I studied for my 19 Masters degree for a few years.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: All right. And 21 where did you receive your BS degree?
22 23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Do you hold 24 any licenses or certifications?
25 f
)a Yes, I have an SRO NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 4" DUrn 1 Amn AvrANmW
8 1 certification from Palo Verde Generating Station.
2 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Do you have any 3 military service?
4 5 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay 6
7 8 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: All right. What is 9 your current position title?
10 - My current position is 11 principal engineer.
12 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And what department 13 or organization?
14
- Reliability engineering.
15 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. And who do 16 you report to directly?
17 Gene Nagy.
18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And can you spell 19 Nagy?
20 3 N-A-G-Y.
21 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. And Gene's 22 title would be?
23 Manager of the Reliability 24 and Analysis.
25 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And what was your NEAL R. GROSS 9 I-+ 1c5 COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1VARHnE ISLAND AVE. N.W.
9 1 position in August of 2002?
2 SWI 3
4 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. And how long 5 were you in that position?
6 7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And who did you 8 report directly to?
9 John Carlin.
10 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: C-O-L-L-I-N-S?
11 C-A-R-L-I-N.
12 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Oh. And who 13 reported to you when you were the 14 15 f, Pt, I had 16 (phonetic), and at the time also 17 _ I ha 18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And just backing 19 up. When did you become a principal engineer?
20 About five months ago.
21 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So January of this 22 year?
23 December.
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: We are not in May 25 yet. Okay. And how long have you been employed bt NEAL R. GROSS ufqA5 COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
10 1 PSEG?
2 _U Since March of 1996.
3 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And prior to your 4 employment: with PSEG who were you employed by 5 With the Palo Verde Nuclear 6 GeneratingI Station 7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And how long were 8 you there?
9 About 11 years.
10 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. You 11 obviously kno n 12 Yes.
13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And I need to ask 14 you that anyway, and what is the nature of your 15 association with~jjj~ And keeping, now back to the 16 events that we are talking about, which are in the 17 July and August 2002 time frame, and what would have 18 been your association w then?
19 was one of our program 20 managers, and we have different engineering programs, 21 and -was taking care of the maintenance -rule 22 program.
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: What is the 24 maintenance rule program?
25 The maintenance rule program NEAL R. GROSS '], <IdR COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS ImAmn AVflAPW 42o2 Lawrn1c
1 is a 5065, Reg. 5065, which is basically making sure 2 that th&~e! perate at a certain target, as far 3 as demands, and their availability and reliability, 4 and he basically managed that program, and working 5 with everybody in the station, and making sure that 6 they meet that criteria.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And who would have 8 been 4 immediate supervisor out of those people 9 that you named?
10' 11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And how would you 12 describe the quality of work?
13 Fine.
14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Fine?
15 Yes.
16 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Now, what got us 17 here today is the TARP program, and if you could 18 briefly explain to me what it is and what is the 19 purpose, and how you are selected to be on the TARP?
20 The TARP program is post-21 transient or transient -- it is a procedure that 22 basically that when you meet certain thresholds, you 23 would call a TARP team, and that could be anything 24 from plans for SCRAM to maybe the operation director, 25 or operation director, or the OS will call TARP at any NEAL R. GROSS I ale COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS l
- 12,2 aurim r iCi Amn AVF N W.
12 1 time they feel that it is a necessity to have a TARP, 2 and it could be for any incident.
3 And maybe we have a spill on the ground, 4 and we want to call TARP, and they have less than 72 5 hours5.787037e-5 days <br />0.00139 hours <br />8.267196e-6 weeks <br />1.9025e-6 months <br /> action statement, and we decide to call the 6 TARP, and they basically are a group of people who get 7 together, and basically there are I Alpha, Bravo, a.nd
~4 TCAM 8 Charlie Teams, and the teams are selected by 9 management.
10 And the TARP team lead is selected by 11 management, and the members are from different 12 organizations. They are from operations, and from 13 chemistry, and from engineering, and from maintenance, 14 and from RP, and emergency planning, and so on and so 15 forth.
16 You basically have members that are 17 already assigned to all four teams, and the TARP team 18 leader will make a decision on who he needs for that 19 situation. He basically comes in and finds out what 20 the issue is through the STA, and then he makes a 21 decision of who he wants to have here to support that 22 event.
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. What does 24 the TARP team actually do? I mean, they can be 25 brought in for various reasons, but what do they NEAL R. GROSS ti COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS FAN- nur~rc moc Awn AVE.. N.W.
13 1 actually brought in to do?
2 What the TARP team does 3 basically is that they come in and they do some data 4 collection, some fact finding, and basically helping 5 the OS, as the OS is involved in many activities in 6 the plants, and saying that this is what happened, and 7 this is what our recommendation is.
8 And then the OS, with the operation 9 manager, and operation director, will make a decision 10 on what the next step is.
11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And the OS would be 12 the Operations Supervisor?
13 Operations Superintendent, 14 yes.
15 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Superintendent.
16 Now, what qualifications would a person need to --
17 well, backing up, would represent what, 18 the engineering organization?
19 That is correct.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: What qualifications 21 would Ahave needed to have to have selected as 22 a member of that team?
23 - For the engineering 24 organization, basically we want to have -- normally we 25 put the supervisor or somebody that is a senior NEAL R.GROSS )t <T5 COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS outv=
4'2,2 DflC An AI NW
14 1 engineer or higher level capability, because the 2 questions are -- well, as long as you are qualified as 3 a senior engineer, or supervisor, or somewhere in 4 between, you will go and be part of the TARP team.
5 But if it comes to a specific area of 6 expertise, then that person will call the right 7 individual to come in. So s like a general 8 engineer if you want to call i s their point of 9 contact, and decides i wants to bring-somebody 10 from reactor engineering, or somebody from stress 11 analysis, or somebody from reliability engineering, 12 and then makes that decision., '(q.z, 13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay.
14 That is basically wha o 15 does.
16 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So in case, 17 ^ js not expected to fill a variety of engineering 18 functions. Ais there to collect data, analyze the 19 data, and find out what appropriate discipline within 20 engineering may be needed to be called in?
21 Right. Yes,ftcan ask, and 22 then at the same time we did have *a talk with the 23 reactor engineering and licensing is.always there. So 24 }D asically is collecting data and-helping the TARP 25 team leader.t NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 4 FAnnF II ANnrAvEs. N.W.
15 1 And feels that we need to bring 2 somebody else in, i ask for somebody else, and 3 if the TARP team feels that they need to bring someone 4 in, anyone on the TARP team may want to bring someone 5 D else in, and they bring in that person.
6 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. All right.
7 Is it ia voluntary position or are you mandated to it?
8 No, basically this position 9 is an assignment that, the management makes for an 10 assignment, and the managers and supervisors look at 11 who they want to put on the TARP team, and that is a 12 rotational assignment for somebody who has been there 13 for 3 or 4 years, and whatever area you are in.
14 And they will just put somebody else in 15 there, and it is good opportunity for growth and 16 development, and at the same time it really helps the 17 organization.
18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Is there a specific 19 time? For example, if I am asked to be on the TARP 20 team, am I told how long the duration of my assignment 21 is going to be up front, or do I know, or does --
22 There is usually no specific 23 amount of time that you are going to be there. The 24 only requirement is that if you are a TARP person and 25 you are not an ERO person,- that you need to be NEAL R.GROSS 'Q _jdj 1 COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS Vers fnlU'C 0A&If A& IC d UAI
16 1 available in 90 minutes if that is your week, and it 2 is basically from Tuesday to Tuesday, from 11:00 a.m.
3 on Tuesday, to 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday.
4 That is basically it for that week, and 5 then if you are the Alpha Team, or the Bravo Team, or 6 C Team, et cetera.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: You mentioned ERO.
8 What is ERO?
9 Emergency Response 10 Organization, which is taking care of the *emergency 11 issues, and sometimes the TARP members are also 12 members of the Emergency Response Organization, and 13 then need to be responding for the ERO in 60 minutes, 14 unless they are off-site, and in those two areas then 15 90 minutes is acceptable. That's why I mentioned 16 that.
17 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So you have two 18 separate functions. You have TARP and then the 19 Emergency Response Organization?
20 Yes, the Emergency Response 21 Organization, and a TARP member may be a member of the 22 ERO, and so when you say 90 minutes, it may be 60 23 minutes for the ERO personnel, and I wanted to make 24 sure that is clear.
25 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And what is the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRAN9CRIBERS j ft'.C4 , i s A%1n 1 V*L
17 1 difference between the two organizations, between the 2 TARP and the ERO?
3 The ERO responsibility is 4 taking care of the emergency response. TARP is a 5 separate organization that makes recommendations to 6 the OS, and it is like a group that comes in to help 7 the OS, and the operation manager, and operation 8 director, to make a decision.
9 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And the ERO is 10 actually responding to a specific incident or a 11 specific event?
12 That's correct, and if that 13 comes in, that is what it is. It then follows its own 14 procedures, and program, you know.
15 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: To your 16 recollection was a member of the ERO, or was he 17 only a TARP member, if you know?
18 -I don't think
- was an ERO 19 member.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. And as a 21 member of TARP do you receive any extra compensation 22 or overtime money, or --
23 ; No.
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: It is viewed as a 25 good developmental assignment to help you advance in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 4111 DUEr ICI Afn All N W
18 1 the organization?
2 Yes, for advancement, and you 3 normally try to pick up the people that have potential 4 for later on and moving up in the organization is a 5 good step that can help them out for promotion and 6 other things.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay.
8 It helps out basically just 9 to be diversifying. It is a good thing.
10 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: That is what I was 11 going to say, that it is a good thing, as opposed to 12 punitive.
13 No, it is a good thing.
14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Have you 15 been on a TARP?
16 Yes, I used to be a TARP team 17 leader a few years ago, and I have been also a TARP 18 team member, and I used to be an ERO member. So, yes, 19 I have done all of that.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And if an 21 individual refused to be a TARP member, is there some 22 consequences? I mean, if you turned it down, would 23 you suffer some adverse consequence?
24 Well, just that a TARP 25 assignment, just like any other assignment, you need NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 4i<2 l m Ag= IJW aoUm ICI AJ
19 1 to take that assignment, and it is just like any other 2 assignment.
3 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: It is just like you 4 go and review this and --
5 Yes, review this calculation, 6 and/or drawing.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So it is just 8 another assignment?
9 It is just another 10 assignment. As a matter of fact, it is work that is 11 assigned, and ERO is an assignment, and TARP is an 12 assignment.
13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: It is all part of 14 the job description?
15 Part of the job, yes.
.16 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Can you describe 17 how frequently a TARP would be brought to the site 18 during normal working hours? Is there any way to 19 quantify that? How much time for it impacts your 20 personal life or your time off?
21 Is there any way to say how frequently you 22 are required to respond to something?
23 You know, I have not been 24 involved in TARP for the last -- almost year or so, 25 but during the time in my experience with it, I was on.
NEAL R. GROSS V t7 ii COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1aV3 RMODE ISLAND AVE. N.W.
20 1 top for maybe a couple of years if I am not mistaken, 2 and I would say maybe 6 or 7 times.
3 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: In a 2 year period?
4 Yes, I think that's right, 5 but it could be different now, and a different time, 6 you know.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: It just depends on 8 what develops, and --
9 Right. There are three units 10 here, and you may have months where you have TARPs, 11 and you may have months where there are no TARPs.
12 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: It just depends on 13 the luck of the draw, huh?
14 Yes, on what comes up.
15 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Now, on June 16 4th, 2002, and I an pulling my dates from documents 17 that I reviewed in the ECP program, and it is easily 18 to talk on a specific date, rather than trying to go 19 back. But evidently there was something called the 20 Engineering Manager's Meeting, and these meetings take 21 place twice a month.
22 So if you could just describe for me what 23 a Engineering Manager's Meeting is and who attends, 24 and what is their purpose for holding them?
25 Okay. Basically a NEAL R. GROSS %
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21 1 Engineering Manager's Meeting is a meeting where the 2 engineering managers get together, and they discuss or 3 they look at like a business plan, and we have got 4 certain things that they have to get done, and every 5 time is something different, okay?
6 The issue is usually different and they 7 may talk about the outage schedule, or they may talk 8 about a program, or they may talk about assignments of 9 the people, or talk about the people. Every one is 10 different.
11 Basically it is the managers' time for 12 getting together and making sure that they are all 13 working together consistently and making decisions on 14 whatever the issue is.
15 There may be an issue on a process, 16 people, or a program. So that is what happens, and 17 every time it is something different.
18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Are you told what 19 the agenda is and what the discussion topic will be in 20 advance before you go that will be discussed?
21 Well, when I would go, and 22 obviously I have not been in one of those meetings for 23 almost 5 or 6 months, but sometimes you have an 24 agenda, and sometimes you didn't have an agenda, you 25 know.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS fl^ fl*.nfl*, art*rw t s **ttD
22 1 And sometimes you would just get to the 2 meeting or have it canceled in a couple of weeks.
3 MS. WIDNER: Well, there was one on June 4th, 4 and Steve Mannon evidently attended for you.
5 Right.
6 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: What is Steve's 7 title?
8 Steve's title at the time 9 used to be reliability engineering rnnager, and now he 10 is a project manager of the surface water, and Steve 11 also was reporting to John Carlin, and me and Steve 12 both reported to Carlin.
13 There were other managers, of course, who 14 reported to John Carlin, and sometimes we would just 15 ask each other you attend for me because I have 16 something else, and for that day, I asked Steve to 17 attend for me. So that is what he did.
18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. When did you 19 first become aware tha was selected to 20 become a member of the TARP? Kind of walk me through 21 who, what, and when, or why, or how you became aware 22 of that?
23 I don't remember i i 24 told me, o told me. One of those two 25 ld me tha s become a member, and thza-NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
.__.an_ r.^ ...................... *sl 4% *S
23 1 when I did some checking, I found out in a meeting 2 that Steve and other managers had picked some, because 3 we had changed the TARP procedures and combing the 4 response team, and building that evolution, they were 5 going back and looking at the people that were on the 6 TARP, and making sure that we had the right coverage 7 for engineering.
8 So at the meeting that Steve attended for 9 me, and also for himself, in that meeting they had a 10 discussion and if I am not mistaken, they were short 11 on some people, and were just looking at who were the 12 right candidates.
13 And I think that used to work for 14 Steve, or Steve knew and he felt that this was a 15 good opportunity. name came up, and I don't know 16 who brought- E nam up in that meeting, but they felt 17 that this was a good opportunity fo for personal 18 growth, and that is how was selected.
19 But *was supposed to tell me that for my 20 information so that I can tell who can pass it 21 on t o didn't or whatever, or whether it was 22 not timely enough, and with e-mails and mail being so 23 fast and so quick, and it got to before it went 24 from me through t 25 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: For notification?
Is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 4-21 (fl IncE lei hU Aft U w
24 1 _ Yes, and when I found that 2 out, then obviously as I said, I don't remember if 3 or _ to ld me, but I talked to s and then 4 to N, anda apologized on how got the 5 message.
6 And then after that, I thinkma talked 7 to me and said that had some issues and some 8 resistance as far as taking the assignment and I told 9 t that just to work with *and see whattissues 10 are, and let's try to resolve those issues.
11 And if¶iwants to come and see me, then 12 A + come and see me. An made an appointment 13 with Ian4
- d came and just sat down with me and 14 said tha had an issue with the TARP procedure.
15 old me thatqj. issue was that 16 not qualified to do the tasks that are in that 17 procedure, andWwas not sure if that TARP procedure 18 was even correct, and what I toldft at the time was 19 that I said if you write a notification of correction 20 action, because that is basically what we do.
21 obviously if some item is real and urgent, 22 we take care of it, and at the same time we will write 23 a notification, asking if you have written one, and.
24 said, no, but I will go and do that.
25 So you will do a notification, and we will NEAL R. GROSS en T
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25 1 do follow-up on that and fix the problem, and then I 2 asked fwhat is your issue, and felt that because 3 of some lack of training tha cannot make a 4 decision, operational decisions, and I told that 5 all you have to do is to gather data, data collection, 6 and somebody else makes the decision, and as far as 7 any decision that would make as to corrective 8 actions, that would go through someone else, and go 9 through the team.
10 And you just do the data collection, and 11 obviously if you need nay help, you call other people, 12 and then after that, I also toldausthat if* needed 13 any additional training that we could go through that.
14 And I told' I used to be a TARP Team leader, and 15 that is how the process works, and then *brought up 16 the issue that A really had some problem wit w 17 and didn't have a 18 19 And so for- to come at all hours was 20 really going to be hard fo4 because of ids, 21 and I mentioned t *ave you talked to 22 about this, anno. I said why don't you 23 talk to and what we will do is try to 24 assign somebody temporary for that position until you 25 basically'work out your situation at home:
NEAL R.GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS wjt 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVER N.W.
26 1 But we would do that, and that is how we 2 left it, and again before E left, I told*& to make 3 sure that wrote a notification and wanted to make 4 sure that the notification was in the box. And then 5 I talked to , and tol that I would like to 6 just assign a temporary person for right now because 7 of the situation that.1%is in, or untilo resolved 8 that situation.
9 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Because of 1 10 personal situation?
11 Because of personal 12 situation, and so fix that personal situation, 13 and then we can assign kback again.
14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And who was the 15 temporary person that was selected?
16 17 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Backing up, 18 which issue did present to you as beingaw 19 concern first; that idn't have the training to 20 make operations decisions, or was it the personal 21 issue that came first? Which diqw bring up first?
22 first brought up the issue 23 with the procedures.
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So that was the 25 first issue?
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27 1 That is when* brought up 2 the issue and the personal thing came up later in the 3 evening.
4 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: okay. Is there 5 something, some procedure, and if I have to refer to 6 it, where _ is making the assessment thatftneeds 7 to make operations decisions. Is that outlined in the 8 procedures?
9 Well, in the procedures, it 10 says that -- and as a matter of fact, it says here 11 that the TARP team members really are all the fact ECG 12 classification to ensure that the station is not. It 13 says TARP members, but it doesn't specifically say who 14 in the TARP team.
15 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So collectively?
16 Collectively, and everybody 17 has different expertise, background, qualification, 18 and collectively -- and obviously when it comes to the 19 ECG question, an operations person makes that 20 decision, because that is what they are qualified to 21 do.
22 SoA* felt that was the person to make
/,
23 that decision, and I said, no, you just give me the 24 input, and if you need to pull a drawing out, like a 25 PI&D, or a single line, or an elementary, then you NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS ANDTRANSCRIBERS
28 1 pull that information out, and that will help out the 2 rest of the team to make the right decision, and 3 obviously the decision depends on what the function 4 is that that person is there to make that type of 5 decision.
6 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Is(W misreading 7 then the intent or the wording of the procedure, or 8 confused, or 9 In my mind, I felt tha l
- 10. misunderstood what the procedure said, but at the same 11 time,
- mentioned SQR qualified, and SQR qualified 12 are basically they do the procedures for comment. And 13 says it says that and that is how I read that 14 procedure.
15 And that is not how we are reading it or 16 how we are implementing it, and if you write a 17 notification, we will go and we will do that, and we 18 will get the subject matter expert involved, and we 19 will check it and making sure that we have the right 20 decision in place.
21 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Has anyone 22 in your experience, either the lead or a member of the 23 TARP, interpreted this with respect to TARP team 24 members, or has anyone looked at it the same or 25 interpreted it the same way th at did, that NEAL R. GROSS at Jand COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
29 1 they as an individual has to make that decision?
2 : , this is the first time in 3 my experience, yes.
4 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. And the L 5 brought up this personal issue, and you made the 6 recommendation and to have it followed up to have 7 someone temporarily fill in for on the TARP team 8 until
- could address ft personal issues; is that 9 right?
10 : Yes, that is correct.
11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And this person, 12 how was he approached to fill in 13 temporarily?
14 He is also a program manager, 15 and he is a senior engineer like and he is a 16 program manager for the 8913 Program, and basically I 17 talked t c and maybe if I am not mistaken that it 18 was me and that talked to him. Both of us got 19 him on a conference call, and we both did it together.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Was it clear to 21 that the reason that there was going to be a 22 temporary replacement for was because of his 23 personal issue, versus the problems that Xhad with 24 the procedure? Was that clear to in your mind 25 when sleft?
NEAL R. GROSS / <3)e COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
30 1_ I thought it was clear, but
- 2. later on soice mail, and I specifically 3 recall the voice mail that this is only a temporary 4 assignment for w until he resolved this issue.
5 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. How close to 6 the meeting did you receive the voice mail froml 7 and to the best of your recollection what did that 8 voice mail say? That is, if you can remember.
9 I don't remember. I don't 10 remember the details of it.
11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: But something 12 caused you to follow up?
13 Basically, if I am not 14 mistaken,. ,said was thanking me for this 15 situation, and then I had to respond and say, you 16 know, I want you to know that this is temporary.
17 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: I see.
18 I think that is what it was, 19 but I don't remember.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So something ir s 21 voice mail to you, you felt that you needed to follow 22 up and reinforce that this was only temporary, only a 23 temporary replacement for him?
24 Yes.
25 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Now, this is a NEAL R.GROSS jIJ Rd mil COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
31 1 several paged document, and I will just identify it.
2 It is a notification, and what is the difference 3 between the number here and I saw a couple of numbers.
4 Is this the actual notification number? 7002 --
5 The notification number is --
6 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: That?
7 Yes, 8 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: What does that 9 number up there mean if you know? That is not the 10 notification number?
11 No.
I I
12< SPECIAL AGENT.MONROE: Okay II 13 ,That is an order number. You II i
14 have different orders, like for corrective 15 maintenance, or preventive maintenance, and so that is 16 the number. If you go in the machine, you can pull 17 this number, and you can also pull the difference 18 between this number and this number.
19 They both -- if you go back to the same 20 machine are talking *about this AP and this AP, you 2i will be able to go back and that is the notification.
22 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And before we move 23 on to what you do with the notification 1 is there 24 anything that you want to clarify or elaborate on with
'V.
25 respect to the June 4th meeting, and the discussions NEAL R.GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
32 1 that you had up front with _ about
- being 2 temporarily replaced? Did we cover that to your 3 satisfaction there?
4 Yes.
5 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Nowl- writes 6 the notification, and what is the process, and just 7 walk me through, on what the notification is, and how 8 did this end up with you?
9 Basically, the written 10 notification process works that anyone in the station 11 can write a notification, and there is a meeting every 12 morning with both operations representatives and other 13 representatives, and they make a decision of who 14 should have that notification to answer it based on 15 the function and.responsib~ility.
16 And in this case, they assigned it to me 17 since ^ was working for me, and I was the manager 18 of the department, and as soon as I got the 19 notification, I called and said, I would 20 like for this notification, I want to have a subject 21 matter expert, and in this case I specifically 22 mentioned Ken Moore's name.
23 Ken Moore was the procedure owner for the 24 TARP, and so I want him involved. I also told I 25 that I want you to have the operation directors NEAL R. GROSS 17 COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBER4
33 1 involved, if you need to, just to get his input, 2 because in these procedures, many times they reference 3 his name.
4 And so I wanted to make sure that
- also 5 understands, because s also like a subject matter 6 expert. And I told that after you talk t 7 and you talk to hat *7can get help from other 8 managers or supervisors, and also talk to the quality 9 organization, and make sure that the answer describes 10 the question that asked, and after you get done, 11 we will sit down and we will review it, and that is 12 basically what n did.
13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So Ken Moore was 14 actually assigned to review the notification, or --
15 I gave it to and 16 was really the one doing all the research for me. But 17 if I am not mistaken, did talk to Ken and others 18 before k came to me. As a matter of fact,* talked 19 to another manager and making sure that we are 20 answering it right, and that we are seeing and looking 21 at everything in there and that it is accurate. We 22 want to make sure the response is accurate.
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Backing up, 24 I just thought of another discussion on there with 25 Did A indicate that the procedure was NEAL R. GROSS t'I' COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBE
34 1 not being followed with you? Did' indicate that 2 there was also a non-compliance aspect to his concern?
3 Yes, I could have mentioned 4 that there was a non-compliance aspect, and that is 5 why I tol about the notification was just because 6 of that, bu never mentioned non-compliance during 7
- discussions.
8 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And what happens 9 next as far as your -- well, let me back up. What 10 does it mean, significance level three? Is that high 11 or low?
12 Basically, notifications are 13 -- again, when I assign a notification, I was telling 14 you earlier that in the morning when they make a 15 decision, there already is a corrective action 16 procedure that says what level you have. You have 17 level one, and level two, and you have level three, or 18 you have level. X.
19 And basically that is what the different 20 levels of notification are. Level 1 is where you do 21 a complete root cause, and level 2 is where you do an 22 apparent cause, and that is all the causes.
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And for a level 3 24 what would you do?
25 You basically review and you NEAL R. GROSStE'&
COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
35 1 do trendings for level 3, and for level X, that is 2 basically a non-quality issue, and that is level X.
3 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Did you prepare the 4 response to the notification or did someone else 5 prepare that actually?
6 No, 1 N with the help from 7 others, that is correct.
8 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: For some reason I 9 had it that you completed your response?
10 _ Yes, basically what that was 11 is if it is a no ification, after it is completed, 12 it will go to tepartment manager for the final 13 signature.
14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay.
15 - And they do all the work and 16 the supervisor signs it, but if it is a level two, 17 then the department manager also signs it.
18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So this was a level 19 three. Did you have to sign, or --
20 If I am not mistakeni I 21 reviewed it, and according to this I did sign it.
22 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. And then 23 there is Ken Moore?
24 Yes.
25 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. All right.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBE n.J^n8%0 f-fl ,. Al. AS$e usAN .
36 1 What happened next?
2 Basically it shows here that 3 I signed it, and Ken Moore signed it, who is the 4 manager of Ops Support, and which owns the procedure, 5 and also the manager of the performance engineering, 6 which is Steve Mannon. He signs it.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So the individual 8 that would *be most familiar in your assessment with 9 the review process would be Ken Moore?
10 That is correct. He is the 11 subject matter expert, because that is his procedure.
12 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Great. Now,
.13 what do you know of the events between and 14 August 19th, 2002 with respect to -- there was some 15 sort of interaction between and 16 What do you know about the series of events 17 that happened once was notified tha* needs to 18 make a decision on whether or not is going to be a 19 TARP member or not?
20 I will try to summarize it to 21 the best of my knowledge of what I remember and 22 recollect. c came to me, and told me that 23 still was resisting accepting the assignment, and 24 what I told was that I wanted to make sure tha j 25 gets ECP involved, and gets the Human Resource NEAL R. GROSS . pJ COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIB l
37 1 Department, and quality assurance department, and get 2 them involved, and making sure tha gets help from 3 them in addressing this issue.
4 And4 did that, an was reporting to 5 me that what had developed so far, and basically the 6 outcome was that a got to the point that 4 still 7 was not accepting it, and so ' told that because 8 Human Resources had already addressed Xconcern, and 9 is not still accepting the assignment, maybe we 10 need to sit down and have a meeting with and have 11 a decision made, and have a couple of meetings with 12 in 13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. -
14 <JJjJj'f And so JjJ said he isgoing to 15 do that. Of course, that happened, and is.
.16 supposed to come back that Monday to work, and I think 17 like this happen on a Friday afternoon, and had 18 to come back to work on Monday, but came to me 19 and said that _ called and said was sick.
20 And then I asked he next day and so 21 on until Friday, and basicall did not come back 22 to work if I am not mistaken until the following 23 Monday.
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay.
25 And then at that time NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBE 00 g
_ - . _ .-- _. ._.. _ - - *- - I
38 I accepted the assignment, but told me that w ent 2 to a doctor, andW had some medical issues, some 3 medication or something, and is not sure that 4 can respond as far as the assignment.
5 And this is of course coming from to 6 me, and what I am understanding, and as manager of the 7 department, I want to make sure that I am getting the 8 help that ^ needs to make sure that5.gets all the 9 resources thatn eeds.
10 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Sure.
11 And again at that time, I 12 told ] that you need to work with Dave.B=,w- who is 13 the Human Resources Manager, and I told to work 14 wit s making sure that we are following through 15 with the medical department just to see exactly what 16 it is, and how the situation is, and that is what 17 did, what did, and that is basically ail I 18 remember.
19 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Backing up 20 and wher ~came to you, and the notification has 21 been completed, did in indicate why was still 22 resisting the assignment? Di communicate to you.
23 what that issue was? Was no satisfied with the 24 notification outcome or was it the personal issues 25 that were still involved?
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS an. fLI A% .I..
Li
39 1 I don't know. I don't 2 remember.
3 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And you suggested 4 that _ get ECP, HR, and QA involved. Why did you 5 make that suggestion to get those respective functions 6 involved, starting with ECP?
7 Obviously it is the process 8 that we have here, that any time that you are a 9 supervisor or a manager, sometimes you are maybe so 10 involved in the decisions and it is good to have 11 someone else's involvement, and the Employee Concerns 12 Program is one of those places that you can go and ask 13 for help, and is --
14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: We are on Side B, 15 and it is about 10:30 a.m. I was just -- before 16 we got interrupted by the tape, you were indicating 17 bringing Human Resources in to get involved.
18 Y and we canask es, also 19 Human Resources, because they can help us out with 20 that, you know, on the issue, because again they are 21 involved in several things, and they have a lot of 22 experience, and they can give you input in making sure 23 that you are not -- that you are looking at all the 24 aspects of this and that you are not missing anything 25 in addressing the question.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
40 1 And as far as Quality Assurance Department 2 goes, I already knew we had the subject matter expert 3 involved, that being Ken Moore, with the procedure, 4 but I thought we would call the overview organizations 5 and if they look at it, they may see something that we 6 are not seeing. So I wanted him to talk to them.
7 As a matter of fact, I did tell to 8 ask V if
- wanted to go and see the Quality 9 Assurance Manager, and i f anted to go see somebody 10 else, and
- is welcome to do that and to helpcW 11 resolve this issue.
12 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Sure. Okay. And 13 you mentioned decision making leave in the context 14 that that Friday afternoon that L 1TZ"was going' 15 to be offered decision making leave, and what does 16 that mean, and why was it used?
17 Decision making leave to me 18 is just a program that they use, and is one of the 19 -processes that we have, 'and for many different reasons 20 we use them,'and not taking an assignment, it is not 21 following the processes that we have, and he made that 22 decision with the support.of the Human Resources, and 23 I don't know if I did tell that that Friday 24 afternoon or not, but as I remember, he did.
25 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Was it like kind of NEAL R. GROSS Rq y COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
41 1 a cooling off period for the employee to go back and 2 go home, and think about it, before you make a drastic 3 decision that could impact your career, I guess?
4 Yes. That is a good way or 5 a nice way of putting it. Yes, just basically looking 6 at the assignment and coming to work to do an 7 assignment, and this is an assignment we would like 8 you to take and to think about it, yes.
9 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Were you involved 10 in any of the meetings oncll came back to work on 11 Monday, August 19th? Did you have any more meetings 12 with he and after that fact?
13 I don't remember if I did 14 have a meeting withgo but of cours Xl was my 15 supervisor, and so come talk to me and give me 16 the feedback.
17 SPECIAL -AGENT MONROE: Okay. Now, I have 18 interviewed and so all I am doing is 19 putting forth what assertions are, and 20 characterizing what aid, and said tha w as 21 escorted off-site. Do you know if that was in fact 22 true on physically escorted off?
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: I was not there, 24 but Stold me that Ike outside, which is 25 basically just walkin outside. If you want to NEAL R.GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
42 1 call it escort, t as escorted.
2 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And is that 3 basically part of the process?
4 Yes, basically it is a part 5 of it. It could be anybody basically, and if a 6 supervisor feels that you need to walk that person 7 out, you know.
8 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And do they take 9 their badge, or --
10 - This again depends, but I 11 don't remember in this case if the badge was taken, 12 but that is also normal. That if you look at it, that 13 is also normal, and you take a person's badge and so 14 when you come back, we will give you the badge.
15 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And as I stated 16 earlier on the statement,, is believing that f is 17 suspended. Now, w is using the terminology of 18 suspended, and you used the term, decision making 19 leave. Is decision making leave considered to be a 20 suspension? I mean, is it a negative thing?
21 No, basically this was where 22 old h going to be doing and making 23 decisions, and we are going to paya_ for that 24 relation, and that is all. We are not touching 25 pay, but we just want to make a decision.
NEAL R. GROSS 10e1 COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 4'i2 DUfM ICI MAdmn A\M= P W
43 1 Suspension is --
2 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Well, used the 3 word suspension.
4 That is not --
5 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So 3 is not 6 suspended. m basically goes home with pay?
7 is going home with pay and 8 as a matter of fact, we have times when a person may 9 go home without pay, and in the case of w ent 10 home with pay, and that is what we done.
11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Would there be any 12 record that had been gone -- would there be any 13 permanent record that had been sent home on 14 decision making leave? Does that become a permanent 15 part of his personnel file, or is it more informal 16 between a manager or supervisor and an employee? That 17 is, if you know.
18 don't know. I don't know 19 what is keeping with record.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Do you know 21 anything of an assertion by that- *eceived the 22 threat of a poor performance appraisal and termination 23 in an August 19th, 2002 meeting that iShad? Do you 24 -know any knowledge of that?
25 Not that, but I remember that NEAL R. GROSS t1/ L4 COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS Aneft lLlUrC len A&flr Ahen KI AlA
44 1 asked me about -- I think it was in the same 2 meeting that we had, an sked me about performance 3 appraisals, and that may have told that it 4 may impact Performance appraisal, and I explained 5 to # that with the performance appraisal, that you 6 have the technical things, and you have the cultural 7 things, and a combination of both.
8 I don't think tha t meant it that way, 9 but just-that this was one of the assignments that you 10 are going to have.
11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay.
12 that is all" neant, and 13 I think I mentioned o too, that to make sure 14 that this is just one of the assignment 4Ehas got, 15 and in Jujjerformance appraisal, you have a cultural 16 thing and a technical thing, and behavior, and you 17 look at a lot of things from an appraisal standpoint, 18 and this is only one item.
19 And you have targets that you have to 20 meet, and --
21 SPECIAL AGENT-MONROE: Just to put it in 22 context?
23 Yes, that's right.
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: If there was any 25 discussion about terminating would you NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS /L) LE
.' DUnna n Ic1 M AAfn AV= FJ W
45 1 have been involved in those discussions?
2 Yes, the manager of the 3 department gets involved in termination of any 4 employee, and since I have been there, yes.
5 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And was there any 6 discussion in the August 2002 time frame about 7 terminating_ either for refusal on the 8 TARP, or for any reason? Were there any discussions 9 about possibly terminating 10 I don't remember if there was 11 a discussion about termination. It may have happened, 12 but I don't remember if it did.
13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Well, there --
14 Because 4 had talked about is those couple of things, and it may have come up and 16 what is the next step. ay have talked about it, 17 but I don't remember.
18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: This may help your 19 memory a little bit. Is termination something that 20 happens frequently at the Hope Creek/Salem site? When 21 you terminate an employee, does that happen a lot, or 22 is it very rare?
23 J What is rare?
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Once a year, 10 25 times a year? I am just trying to get - f eels NEAL R. GROSS q COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBIRS li 5
46 1 that he was being threatened with termination, and I 2 just want to find out i or anyone came 3 to you to have that discussion? You could not 4 specifically recall if it had or had not happened, and 5 so is there any way I can jar your memory by saying, 6 yeah, that is something that happens a lot, or it 7 doesn't happen very often?.
8 a I can only speak about my own 9 experience, because I know about there has been about 10 3 or 4 terminations since I have been here that I know 11 of.
12 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Any way that you 13 remember if someone, meaning came to you 14 and discussed what we need to do to start the 15 termination process for 16 Yes, ay have talked to me 17 about termination, and to make sure that Human 18 Resources was involved, and follow the process after 19 the decision making leave, and if v oesn't accept, 20 then what is the next step. Termination obviously is 21 there, and the next step coming up --
22 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And if still 23 refuses to accept the --
24 And if refuses, then you 25 talk about the next step, and what is the next step, NEAL R. GROSS '7C COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
47 1 which is termination will come.
2 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: My kind of 3 assessment at this point is that there maybe has been 4 some communication problems here, starting with when 5 you were not notified by Steve Mannon that was 6 selected, and he finds out in an e-mail. You are a 7 very good communicator, and I am following you and 8 what you are telling me.
9 Is a good communicator, or is 10 it possible that there could have been some 11 communication problem between and 12 : From my experience with 13
- as my best supervisor, and as a matter of fact, 14 when I was leaving the department for like a trip to 15 IO (phonetic), or other places, I put in charge 16 of the department because of experience and 17 expertise.
18 And very knowledgeable, and from my 19 experience with is a good communicator.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Good. What 21 w lationship, if you can comment on it, with 22 efore this TARP membership became an 23 issue? Did they have a good relationship, or was it 24 rocky, or how would you just describe it?
25 When we talk about employee COURT NEAL R. GROSS REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS R 1 1
r is * %. S4%* %. .. ..
..... r An.U*................
9.s /*6
48 1 issues, my supervisor will come to me and we will talk 2 about it, but nothing really. Maybe a dry 3 relationship, but nothing to really get to this point.
4 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Not 5 confrontational, or --
6 I don't recall. I don't 7 recall.
8 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Do you have 9 any reason to believe belief that e was 10 suspended and ultimately threatened with a poor 11 performance appraisal and termination was in any way 12 related to the fact that. raised this safety 13 concern?
14 Do you see a connection between wha 15 views as his adverse action, meaning was suspended, 16 threatened with a poor performance appraisal, and 17 termination, and linking those potential acts in 18 mind to the fact that 1 aised a concern about 19 qualifications to be on TARP and the non-compliance 20 with the procedures. Do you see a connection between 21 those two?
22 MR. KEENAN: Is the question for 23 opinion of 24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Well, let me 25 restate it. t thinks that ) as suspended, and NEAL R. GROSS 0J COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
49 1 t hinks*was threatened with a poor performance 2 appraisal, and thinks that fwas threatened with 3 termination becausk+ aised a safety concern. That 4 is his viewpoint.
5 Or is it the f a as suspended, 6 possibly threatened with a poo perce appraisal,
.7 and termination; because*jrefused to comply with the 8 assignment to be on the TARP team? Does that make it 9 a little more clearer?
10 t The second basically, and 11 that was not accepting an assignment, a regular 12 assignment, just like any other assignment.
13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay.
14 And that is basically it, and 15 that if you don't accept this assignment, then your 16 performance --
17 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: There are going to 18 be consequences for it?
19 Yes, that your performance 20 appraisal is going to read that you didn't meet one of 21 the targets.
22 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Now, this is 23 something that I would like you to respond to.
24 has made these statements that are floating around out 25 there, and I would like to get a reaction from you.
NEAL R. GROSS c ALa e
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50 1 PSEG Nuclear has created a hostile work 2 environment, and nuclear safety issues cannot be 3 properly resolved. How would you respond to U 4 assertion or belief that there is a hostile work 5 environment here?
6 I think that is silly. I 7 don't think that. As a matter of fact, if you look at 8 -- and I think for the last 6 years or 7 years since 9 I have been here, if you look at what we have in our 10 business plan, and the type of meetings we conduct, 11 and the type of safety, safety is always number one.
12 It doesn't matter what kind of safety; radiologic, 13 industrial, nuclear, any type of safety.
14 It is the number one thing.
15 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. So you would 16 disagree that :there is a hostile work environment 17 here?
'C1"-
18 k ANNE Yes.
19 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And how do you 20 think or why do you think tha has that feeling?
21 Can you think of anything?
22 - Not really. I really don't 23 know.
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So you feel free to 25 write safety concerns, and write notifications? You L... dey<
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS nulr%c lot Aklrn A,%= kI W
51 1 don't have any problem with that yourself?
2 Yes. Yes.
3 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: AndL 5feels that 4 management has a lack of sensitivity to nuclear 5 safety, and that there is an excessive focus on short 6 term production goals. Do you have any response or 7 comment on those beliefs?
8 No, I don't understand.
9 is mainly a program manager for the maintenance group, 10 and I don't understand where
- s coming from and 11 relates to that production. is a maintenance 12 program manager.
13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: I don't know.
14 just states that.
15 So I don't know.
16 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: It does not connect 17 then with what job does, because is not in a 18 production oriented part?
19 Yes, 'is just a program 20 manager, and so I don't know.
21 .SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Do you all 22 need a moment? Let's go off the record. It is 10:45.
23 (Brief recess.)
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Back on the record 25 at about 10 of 11:00. We just took a. couple of NEAL R. GROSS CYI)
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.man n.....
^_A... ... .b.._...
- 1~
52 1 minutes sA W and Jeff could talk to make sure all 2 the information was covered. I just had a quick 3 question. There is vehicle called a DPO, a Different 4 Profession Opinion?
5 YYes.
6 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And what is that 7 for?
8 Basically it is just a 9 process where an individual agrees to disagree on an 10 item, and then that individual, or any of the two, can 11 take that through this process, and then have someone 12 else make that decision on whether it is okay.
13 And when I mentioned it earlier where 14 could go to or call the quality organization, that was 15 really what I was trying to get at.
16 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: To do a DPO.
17 To do a DPO process and have 18 somebody else looking at it, and that is what I meant.
19 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Sure. Do you know 20 ifUA .n fact did that?
21 I do not know.
22 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And Jeff, you 23 indicated that you had a clarifying question.
24 MR. KEENAN: Yes.
- regarding the 25 termination process at PSEG, does HR develop a package NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIETRASC flPtvBET
_ - . .. 4'A' 0Lu C lei Akirt Snc hi %AAl
53 1 for termination?
.A 2 Yes. As a matter of fact, 3 the last few times that I have been involved, HR 4 delivered a package for me to review on the issues.
5 MR. KEENAN: Okay. And was any package 6 initiated or started with respect to_
7 _L No, it was not.
8 MR. KEENAN: That's all.
9 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. And is there 10 anything that you would like to clarify or add for the 11 record at this time?
12 @NNo.
13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. There are
-14 three questions that I am required to ask you. Did is you provide your information voluntarily this morning?
16 ~Yes.
17 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And were you 18 threatened for your information?
19 No.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And did I or anyone 21 from the NRC offer you any reward for your
., . 22 information?
23 No.
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: All right. And we
.S. - 4 .
- a- t 25 will go off the record at 10:51 a.m. Thanks.
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54 1 (Whereupon, at 10:51 a.m. the interview 2 was coi icluded.)
3 4
5
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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 I24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 4121 OURA ICI hMAn AV= MW
CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of:
Name of Proceeding: Interview of Docket Number: 1-2003-010 Location: Artificial Island, NJ 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 as recorded on tape(s) provided by the NRC.
Francesta Zook Official Transcriber Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
NEAL R.GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.