ML20126K140
| ML20126K140 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Millstone  |
| Issue date: | 04/02/1987 |
| From: | Walsh R, Charlotte White NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20126J928 | List: |
| References | |
| FOIA-92-163 Q1-86-016, Q1-86-16, NUDOCS 9301070042 | |
| Download: ML20126K140 (5) | |
Text
._
Title:
MILLST0f 1,141T 1:
AtLEGED EVPLOYLE DISCRIMINATICN Liretisee:
Case flurber: Q1-00-016 t.'ortheast Nuclear Energy Cortpany Report Date: April 2, 1987 P.O. Pop 770 Hartford, Conrecticut 0(101 Control Office: OI:RI Docket No.:
50-TG Status:
Closed Inquiry Reported F3:
Approved By:
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i DETAILS OF INQUIRY Purpose of Inquiry This Inquiry was initiated on December 9,1986, upon receipt of a written request, Exhibit 1, from the Regional Administrator (RA), Region 1 (includes copy of RA's request to the Investigation R3 erral Board).
f The Office of Investications (01) was asked to interviewL'rroundinik denial oIem'p' loin ~ent
~ ' ~ ~ ~ ~
~ - " " "
- )and ascertain the circumstances su
~
[in June 1986 by Nuclear Energy Consultants (NEC), a contractor to N rtheast J
Nuclear Energy Company (NNECO), an NRC licensee. Theinterviewoff
....i]
would "... aid the Allegation Panel in deciding how best to address thelharges that this termination violated 10 CFR 50." (NOTE: This request for 01 investigative assistance was first discussed with the Director of 01.
It was then decided that Ol:R1 would comply with the request.)
Background
NNECO is a subsidiary of Northeast Stilitie which operates Millstone Nuclear PowerStation/ Units 1,2,and3.J has claimed f was discriminated against by NEC and NNECO because L. had repo'rted safety concerns to the NRC when working at Millstone til in 1985 fnr Butler Services Group under the tutelage of a Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation (SWEC) supervisor.
Files maintained by Alan SHR0pSHIRE, Allegation C ordinator,,, Region I, were 3
. telephonically examined on December 12, 1986, and indicate that t contacted T. A. REBELOWSKI, NRC Resident inspector, Millstone Ill, at 3:15 p.m. on Tuesday, March 19, 1985. (
' disclosed to REBELOWSK!
approximately eight technical concerns pertaining to Millstone 111.
Between March 1985 and March 1986, Region I staff personnel sought Answers from Nnrtheast Utilities' officjals and perso ally conducted inspections of the various items reported byl and (co-worker (the latter requested confidentiality), t laforement oned technical concerns were dispositioned acceptably and no safety significances were noted by either NRC or Northeast Utilities.
) telephonicJ ly contacted Ebe HCCAPE, OnMonday, July 7,1986,(
l Chief, Reactor Projects, Section 3B tostate[ /was fired from a position--
with NEC in June 1986 because of(',7 985 disclosures to the NRC.
MCCABE's 1
Allegatio, Receipt R_pport, dated Jul'y 7,1986, is Exhibit 2, anj the follow-up n
l letter tol
~ from MCCABE, dated July 17, 1986, telling (
to l
contact the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to obtain redress of any discrimi-l nation against him is Exhibit 3.
Because NRC received no_ response, a second letterfromMCCABE,Ex.hibit4,wasforwardedto[
,JonOctober 22, 1986.
letter and reiterated thatl _/was fired in June 1986 by NEC because[sber 22 On November 4, 1986, L _
' called MCCABE in response to the Oct
, ha d made disclosures to the NRC in 1985. MCCABE's Allegation Receipj Report dated November 4, 1986 Exhibit 5. reports a claim byl
_ _.l that( 3 contacted DOL on three occasions but D0L refused to hear lease calling it a "whistleblower issue." Subsequently, Ol's assistance was sought (see Exhibit 1).
l
l
]
Interview of;
... 9 w
.i..
f advised thatl
' began work at Millstone !!! in February lib'4 and worked there for 13' months, until While at Hillstone.( y,(,
March 1985.
InitiaU wa( a level 11 Inspactor of electrical equipment.
_ actually worked for Butler Services Group of Sreentree Massachusetts but was supervised by Gerald TURNER of SWEC.
(L helaimedthatTURNERhadinvalidatedseveralNonconformance
& Deviation Reports (NCDRs) that f 'had initiated.' ~
, refused to accept TURNER's explanation for the invalidations, was subsequentlytoldbyTURNERthatitwaspermisjibleto(ontacttheNRCif[__
NRC in February 19P5 (j~~'l recollection.)~~_
first c tacted the so desired.
To the bes of
' advised that on March 77, 1985,'~ was laid pff from Millstone ill by the Butler Services Group because of "I ck of wnrk."
(
,said received nn, severance pay but believes that the lay off was betweenMarch[1985andJune1986,atwhichtime('waslaidofffroma.iobat
)said(
worked at three,other jobs around the country
" justified."
the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station.
b ~ ) went on to say that the NRC provided C with, copies of the m
inspectionreportswhichwerepreparedasaresultof(
allegations.I saidtheNRCreportswerefurnishedto(E ' by letters on April 15, 1985, and March 13, 1986. I
stated that still disagrees with the NRC
~
inspection reports and cite'd specific reasons.
After(,
layofffromSeabrookinJune1986,[
. mailed a resume to NEC of Piverside, New Jersey and later talked via telephone wifh an)EC employee identified as Paul, FAROM.
FAROM later informedi.
_.that\\
had a job fort,
'with NNECO in Perlin, Connecticut. However, the position
( pended upon the approval of the client (NNECO) and a satisfactory interview.s de a progran on environmental qualifications for NNECO.
indicated that NNECO was seeking a person wijh a college,d_egree.' However, since did not have a degree,
' told NEC would work for $50,000 per uyear instead of the $100,000 per y~ ear NNECO was willino to pay.
(
I~
said went to Berlin, Connecticut on Monday, June 30, 1986, and had an interview'with,a,NNECO manager identified as John NECOSI.
said that Nh;EC0 knew' did not have a college degree before t,he interview was
- arranged, believed that NECOSI was impressed wjthi,
' credentials even without the college degree, s
. said that if had been hired,;
would have worked with the NEC Site Lead at NNECO identified as Charlie ALLEN.
That night, ALLEN telephonically contacted (
and said that NNECO was
~
going to hire land that an employment contract between himself and NNECO would be signed as early as the fo,) lowing Monday, July 7,1986.
However.
ALLEN indicated that NNECO wanted, to attegd an imptomptu eaeting at
'said(.
Millstone III the next day, Tuesda,y, July 1, 1986. ( loyee (nTi) at the main subsequently met ALLEN, NECOSI, and a third NNECO emp gate at Millstone III at 8:00 a.m. on July 1.
7 (u 1c fn W
went on to say that while waiting in the Security Building for
( learance to enter Millstone 111 at approximatel _8;30_a.m, a SWEC employee c
t identified as Paul.RAMOND1 walked b jpi_dnnwordswere exchangedbetween(111andaftended(ythegroup.
'and RAMOND1.
in leated that subsequtntly entered Millstone a meeting until 2:00 p.m.,
lsaid that after RAMONDI passed,t remembered,that RAMONDI was thelead Electrical Engineer for tWEC at Unit 111 in 1985. I said that RAMONDI, who was TURNER',5 boss,hadsupportedTURNER'sinvalidationsoftheNCDRswhichf had prepared when working at Hillstone 111 in 1985.
~
At approximately 7:00 p.m. that night, Tuesday, July 1,\\[gnt a call et home from ALLEN. He thinks ALLEN was calling from the NNECO offjce_ in Bergn.
ALLENsaidsomethingtotheeffect"Whatthehelldidyoul do to aggravate Northeast Utilities? Fif teen lawyers and the head of the corporation were waiting for me when I returned to Berlin.said)ty'rescaredyouaregoing T
theSWECleadElectricalEngineer,said(somethingtoNNECOpersonnel What did you do?" L can only assume that to sue them.
RAMONDJ,ipast contacts with the NRC.
about\\
b- _
_...,acknowledgedthat(,_IneversignedawrittencontractwithNNECOor NEC to work for T_he contract was to be signed the following Monday, July 1,1986.(,NNECO.
said that ALLEN told (.'that someone from s
Millstone 111 (nfi) had caljed NNECO tieadquarters anitold Al(EN and the NNECO people (nfi) not to permitt back onsite \\,
advised that ALLEN would not provide the'name JLf the perJon who demanded th~atC,~ be refused future access to Hillstone 111. /
stated that during the next couple of days,i ' has unsuccessful in{,
attempts to gather more infomation about "the obvious discrimination against me."
L professed that beforeL was laid off from Millstone 11.1 in March 1985,i called the D0L "in passachusetts" to indicate that( 1may be laid off for contacting the NRC. (
'did not know the identity of the 00L and was not positive of the location of the
)sonke,kontacted " DOL in Massa,chusetts" a second representativa with whom 00L office. (. lindicated that tine but could not proyide proof of this contact,unless
, released g
' telephone bills, indicated thatt. subsequently rTeeived a letter fror NEC indica' ting thatt was not qualified for the job at NNECO.
) definitely believes ',
was discrjminated against when trying to
( btain employment with NNECO through NEC (
1 reiterated that
'was onever offjcially employed by JQC and that no written contract had been signed.
linsistedi was qualified for the job and identified two However,(hocouldvouchfor credentials in the environmental quality persons w field.
Referring to this proposed investigation of( )discriminationcomplaint,
(
. stated "I'd rather see the NRC pursue the concerns and disagreements I have with their inspection reports rather than pursue any discrimination complaint I may have. What's done is done.
I still believe there are concerns at Hillstone 111." !
l
4 Closure Information A copy of the Report of Interview withf ~~~ 'f Reactor Proiects, Ren
~
was subsaquartly providad to 6'illiam KANE, Director, Division o On February 17, 1987, anAllegatin)PanelMe_etingwasheldwhereatitwas{.
decided that MCCABE would contact 4 to nail down the spacifics of technical concerns,recarding, Millstone III., Durina, MCCABE's _ telephone C, conversation with i nn February 17, 1987,
_ Jtold MCCABE tha+.
investigate it. (grimination.cl(aim with the DO fshed not pursue Jemploynentdis not wish the NRC t
,Yemaining technical concerns will be addressed by the Recin istaff.d~CCABEsubseauentlysentanother M
our discu{ssion, I understand that you ('the Departme letter to
'~~~f_
wherein stated the following:
" Based on
.]havenotpursuedyour employment discrimination concern with this aspect to be pursued any further.
Therefore, this matter is being closed." Considering the aforementioned information, it was agreed there is no need for further investicatire effort by 01: RI.
If new inforrnation is ever received by 01 or the Peoion I staff regarding this matter, this inquiry can be reopened. _
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