ML052440442
| ML052440442 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Salem, Hope Creek  |
| Issue date: | 05/05/2003 |
| From: | Monroe K NRC/OI |
| To: | |
| References | |
| 1-2003-010, FOIA/PA-2004-0191 | |
| Download: ML052440442 (23) | |
Text
EXHIBIT 18 Information in this record was deleted in accordance with Freedom of Information Act, extmptions
_ Case No. 1-20034J10 QJ Exhibit 18
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6 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS INTERVIEW
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 IN THE MATTER OF:
INTERVIEW OF JAMES A. MELCHIONNA (CLOSED)
Docket No.
1-2003-010 x
Monday, May 5, 2003 Salem Hope Creek Generating Station Artificial Island, NJ The above-entitled interview was conducted at 11:10 a.m.
BEFORE:
Special Agent Kristin Monroe EXHIBIT/16 tJ PAGE
'Fz._PAGE(c toT F 2 0 03 - (
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 On Behalf of the Witness, JEFFRIE KEENAN, ESQ.
Assistant General Solicitor PSE&G Corporation Nuclear-N21 P.O. Box 236 Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 1-800-232-0244 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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P R O C E E D I N G S 2
11:10 a.m.
3 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Today is
- Monday, 4
May 5, 2003 and the time is now approximately 11:10 5
a.m.
6 The interview this morning is with t
7 who is a senior engineer, employed by PSE&G 8
Corporation and the Salem Hope Creek Generating 9
Station, Artificial Island in New Jersey.
10 you want to pronounce properly --
11 12 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Melchionna.
13 MR.
- Yes.
14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
My name is Kristin 15 Monroe.
I'm a Special Agent with-the NRC, Office of 16 Investigations in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
17 Also present this morning is Jeff Keenan, 18 Assistant General Solicitor for PSE&G Corporation.
19 Jeff is here to representAW personally for the 20 purposes of this morning's interview.
21 And the subject of the interview concerns 22 an allegation tha who's also a senior 23 engineer at the Salem Hope Creek was discriminated 24 against for raising a safety concern.
Specifically, 25
(
believes that because t aised a concern o NEAL R. GROSS' COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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regarding procedural noncompliance with the 2
TARP procedure, with 4non-qualifications to be on 3
that team, a as relieved of duty and removed from 4
plant access from to August 19, 2002.
5 fIlso believes thatij received threats 6
of a poor performance appraisal and/or termination of 7
employment, also on August 19, 2002.
8 The potential violations would be 10 CFR 9
50.5 which is entitled Deliberate Misconduct and 10 10 CFR 50.7 which is entitled Employee Protection.
11 And before we turned on the tape recorder, 12 I indicated that you're just a factual witness here 13 for the purposes of today's interview.
14 I conduct the interviews under oath.
Do 15 you have any objection to being interviewed under 16 oath?
17 No.
18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Please raise 19 your right hand?
20 Do you solemnly swear that the information 21 you're about the provide is true and complete to the 22 best of your knowledge and beliefs, so help you God?
23 I do.
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: IWW if you would 25 state your full name and spell your last?
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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1 M
nrm ir 2
3 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
And is Jeff 4
representing you personally for the purposes of this 5
morning's interview?
6 Yes, as I understand it.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
And how did you 8
come to select Jeff to represent you?
9 MR. MELCHIONNA: Actually, Jeff, as I know 10 the attorney for the company at the site and called me 11 and asked me that you wanted to interview me and he 12 recommended that I can either be represented or not 13 and I didn't have any disagreement either way.
14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:.
And just your 15 purpose here today?
16 MR.
KEENAN: My name is Jeff Keenan.
I'm 17 an attorney for PSE&G Services.
- Today, I'm 18 representing PSE&G Nuclear and in a dual capacity.
19 I have reviewed the substance of this general issue 20 through our Employee Concern Programs and I don't 21 believe there's a conflict at this point with 22 representingAW Should a conflict arise, we'll take 23 a break and figure out how to best handle it.
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Okay.
25 MR. KEENAN: We would also like to be able NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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to review the transcript when that's available.
2 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Okay, and we can 3
make that happen.
4
- A, you do understand that Jeff's going 5
to represent both you and the company?
6 Correct.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Will his presence 8
in any way hinder what you have to provide as 9
testimony this morning?
10 No.
11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
what's your 12 date and place of birth?
13 14 15 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: What's your Social 16 Security Number?
17 18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: What's your current 19 home mailing address?
20 21 22 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And your home phone 23 number?
24 25 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
What's your NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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educational background?
2
- High school, Bachelor of 3
Science degree, majored in Engineering Technology.
4 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: From what school or 5
university did you receive your B.S. degree?
6 Edison.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Thomas Edison?
8 Yes.
9 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Any military 10 service?
11 I -_
12 13 14 15 17r SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
do you hold 20 any certifications or licenses, an NRC license or an 21 SRO license?
22 No.
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
How long have you 24 been employed by PSE&G?
25 Eleven years.
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
current supervisor?
And who i s your SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
And who doesl report to?
(Phonetic).
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And obviously, you know Correct.
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
How would you describe your association with Is it professional, personal?
It's a little bit of
- both, but as a
co-worker and as a
friendly acquaintance.
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: What we're here to discuss is that was on the TARP team.
are you currently a member of the TARP team?
- Yes, I am.
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
And how long have you-been on that?
Probably close to a year now.
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
And are you on A, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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B, d or D team?
2 Delta team.
3 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Okay, and briefly 4
what is the TARP team, what is it supposed to do and 5
its function?
6 It's a Transient Response 7
Team that gets called out whenever a transient, in 8
accordance to the guidelines of the TARP are 9
activated, so there's a transient at the plant, the 10 TARP team leader gets called and he calls individuals 11 out who he feels need to support the team.
Not 12 everybody always supports the team. It's whatever his 13 discretion is and he makes phone calls and you report 14 and support as necessary.
15 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
And you as a senior 16 engineer, what is your --
how do you interact or what 17 do you on the TARP team? -
18 Usually, I act like an 19 engineering coordinator, so he'll ask --
the TARP team 20 leader usually will ask me to coordinate engineers or 21 coordinate actions that are within the engineering 22 realm.
I haven't seen any special clause for the 23 TARP.
It's just a matter --
and he'll gauge his usage 24 of an individual based on his judgment of what they 25 can bring to the table, so to speak.
So he won't ask NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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you to do things that are reasonable, if you tell him, 2
let's put it that way.
3 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
So if you didn't 4
feel comfortable with doing something --
5 You could probably tell 6
him and say I'm not comfortable with doing that and 7
can we get somebody else to do that?
8 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Okay.
And who is 9
the leader of the --
10 Pat Walsh, there's two 11 leads.
Pat Walsh is one leader and Jim Reed is the 12 other lead.
13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Do you have to have 14 any training on emergency response to be a member of 15 the TARP?
16 Not that I'm aware of.
17 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Are you on the 18 emergency response team as well?
19
- No, I am not.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
What's your 21 understanding of how you came to be selected to be a 22 TARP member?
23 walked up to me one 24 day last year and sat down in my office and said we're 25 looking for another member of the TARP team, delta NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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team and said it would probably be good for your 2
resume or good for your future potential in the 3
company to take on a role like that.
And it's a one 4
year rotational assignment, would you want to do it 5
and think about it and let me know.
6 I thought about it for about a minute and 7
told sure, that wouldn't be a problem. A 8
explained it.
It's a one-year rotation.
It's on a 9
specific team.
Once every four weeks, your duty 10 weeks, you're not allowed to --
you kind of obey the 11 same rules as an ERO responder would so you don't --
12 you have to be within a certain range of the plant.
13 It's recommended.
You try to mimic the ERO 14 responsibilities, but they don't hold hard and fast to 15 them, so --
16 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Okay.
17 So that was how that 18 went.
19 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Were you replacing 20 anybody on the team?
21 I knew of an issue that 22 was either on the team or was -
ay be having 23 difficulty accepting responsibility.
I can't recall 24 exactly what jwas doing, but I knew --
I had some 25 interest --
not interest, I had, some awareness, I NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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should say that there was a difficulty filling the 2
spot or keeping it filled and that's why I was being 3
asked to fill it.
Let's put it that way.
4 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
You were being 5
asked.
Could you have turned down the assignment?
6 Yes.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
You could have 8
refused it?
9 Yes.
10 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Without any adverse 11 consequences?
12 As far as I know, yeah.
13 It was totally voluntary.
14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And your assignment 15 was just a one-year rotational?
16 Yes, that' s how it was 17 presented to me.
18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
So you'll be 19 rotating off of it?
20 As I understand it 21 because I was approached b two or three weeks 22 ago and said yes, your time is coming to get off of 23 it, so we'll be looking to replace you.
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Do all the members, 25 is it a one-year rotational for all TARP team members NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 just a decision your particular supervisor
- I'm not totally sure if it's in granite, this is the way it shall be, but that's the way it was presented to me.
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. And why did you accept the assignment, rather than turn it down?
Probably based on what" said, based on the fact that it's an exposure tool for a person, plus it's exposure.
You gain some experiences in things you're not used to.
You do get put in a --
I'm not going to say awkward --
I'm going to say you get put in a situation where you have to adapt to change a little bit sometime and you need to learn things, so that's probably --
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: You viewed it as a developmental assignment?
That's probably the better word to use, yes.
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: How does it impact your personal life?
- Lately, it hasn't. Over the course of the year it hasn't been too bad.
I may have been called out three times.
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Over the course of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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your--
2 If that.
3 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Okay, that's not 4
too bad then.
How long doe sit take you to get down 5
from
?
6 About an hour.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
So you're an hour 8
out?
9 I'm aboutf fmiles away.
10 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Before we went on, 11 I elaborated to you wha issues were. Prior to 12 being contacted by me for an interview, were you aware 13 that Chad raised any concerns with respect to 14 number one,_W ersonal qualifications to be on TARP 15 and number two, that4 had raised an issue with 16 respect to noncompliance with the TARP procedure?
17 No, neither issue.
18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: As I explained and 19 point of view, believes that was 20 suspended; mployment was suspended. 4believes 21 that a
access was suspended and that 4 was 22 threatened with a poor performance appraisal and/or 23 termination becaus e3 aised these concerns.
24 Had you been aware that
- had these 25 adverse actions, what I perceives to be adverse NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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actions taken against*
2? Have you heard anything 2
like this before?
3 No, not at all.
4 SP iAL AGENT MONROE:A* -- you work in 5
the same organization as
- 6 Same organization, but 7
different locations.
8 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Okay.
9 Totally different 10 locations.
11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Where is 12 location?
1-,-is at the material 14 center which is near the river and my location is in 15 the B building which is probably a quarter to a half 16 a mile away.
17 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
- Okay, so how
- 18 frequently would you se W
19 s
aNo very.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: No very.
So have 21 you had any discussions with w about* --
the 22 discrimination concern? Were you awareft had even 23 come to the NRC prior to my contactinC jk 24 I had no idea this was 25 even happening.
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16 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Okay.
also threw out something and I'll just get your reaction to it.
This is a statement that s provided the NRC.
"PSE&G Nuclear has created a hostile work environment in which nuclear safety issues cannot be properly resolved."
What would be your reaction or response to that statement of 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 time.
Just read it one more SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: "PSE&G Nuclear has created a hostile work environment in which nuclear safety issues cannot be properly resolved." Meaning,
- 'u ses the word resolve.
My take on that would be, you know, you can't raise a safety concern because there's a hostile work environment here. Have you encountered a hostile work environment?
No, not the way.
Q presenting it, no.
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
The way presenting it, have you encountered it in any kind of a way?
Me, personally, I have never felt that I couldn't say what I wanted to say.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay, so you feel free to 2
raise a safety concern then.
And you also indicated 3
that management has a lack of sensitivity to nuclear 4
safety and that they have an excessive focus on short-5 term production goals.
Any response or reaction to 6
that?
7 That's a pretty heavy 8
statement from an individual who's far removed from 9
the mainstream process, so I feel, I thin kind 10 of --
it's kind of heavy handed becausex's a staff 11 position member, so I don't know what +
basis for --
12 that's odd.
I think that's odd.
13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Do you have 14 any reason.to believe or any knowledge that C has 15 suffered any kind of discriminatory act because you 16 raised a safety concern?
17
- No.
None whatsoever.
18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Do you all need
- 19.
some time?
20 MR.
KEENAN:
Yes, we could take a break 21 from the record.
22 (Off the record.)
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: We're on the record 24 at 11:36 a.m. an just had -- we were talking and 25 you indicated that there was a call you made to
^
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
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7 to request
+
hep support the outage last 2
fall, leading up to the outage and what wa so 3
response to you when you requested assistance?
4 It was a full outage and 5
we had put a roster out of who we wanted to support 6
the outage and it came designated from supervisors.
7 So **was very adamant about not working the outage 8
because he had normal, regular duties to do and 9
certain times of the month it's very busy and 10 rather not support the outage and I told 11 everybody should support the outage.
It's on 12 everybody's performance partnerships and W really 13 wasn't supporting a team player type of attitude and 14 cI eally -- g idn't want to hear that.
- wanted 15 to deal directly with L
16 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Okay.
Did you 17 ultimately --
di ultimately --
18
- ltimately did support 19 the outage. I don't think it was as -- I did do a lot 20 of -- I won't say team building, but I did do a lot of 21 how do I say, almost coaching with4Wand makin l 22 giving
~
a warm, fuzzy as to what the job was and 23 how could help.
4 worked outages with me "24 before, so I think I warme c up to it and then that 25 kind of got n the team a little bit easier.
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10 11 12 13 14 (15 16 17 3.8 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 t41 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Okay.
So then*
was okay.
I think a vwas okay with it because I didn't see any issues after that.
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Doeof) have any more work that any other senior engineer, in the reliability organization?
That would have to be a question fo If you asked be able to tell you everyone's type of workload per se.
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Just your observation though, do you feel your work loads are equal or does it vary depending on the assignment or what' 9going on at the site?
I think my workload is a little bit higher thanQ, but that's my opinion.
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Okay, yeah, sure.
The TARP, did that become part of your performance partnership, your participation?
TARP has impacted me the smallest of any additional or collateral duty I've ever had.
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Is that collateral duty part of your performance appraisal?
Is it a bullet on there? Does it fall under --
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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I believe it is.
It's a 2
generic performance partnership bullet, if you would 3
say, to support outages, support TARP.
It's like one 4
of those catch-all type things.
5 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Okay.
6 It's like an expectation 7
I would say.
8 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Okay.
9 No late work, no late 10 corrective actions, no overdues.
It falls --
11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Sort of a
12 miscellaneous kind of category.
13 Miscellaneous, but 14 important.
15 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay, great.
16 is there something I may not have asked you 17 specifically'that you'd like to add or clarify, the 18 record at this time?
19 No.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
There are three 21 questions that I'm required to ask you.
Did you 22 provide your information voluntarily?
23 Correct, yes, I did.
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Did I threatened 25 you for you information?
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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 21 No.
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
Did I or anyone from the NRC offer you any reward for your information?
No.
SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
And we'll go off the record at 11:40.
Thanks.
(Whereupon, at 11:40 a.m., the interview was concluded.)
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
I 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.
FrancescatooS Official Transcriber Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.