ML052440339
| ML052440339 | |
| 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: ML052440339 (34) | |
Text
EXHIBIT 14 information in this record was deleted in accordance with Q Freedom of InformatiOn Act,e __S_
i1 Case No. 1-2003-010 Exhibit 14 I: .r > .'
1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3
4 OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS 5 INTERVIEW 6 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ -x 7 IN THE MATTER OF:
8 INTERVIEW OF : Docket No.
9 STEVEN MANNON : 1-2003-010 10 (CLOSED) 11 _ _-_ _ _ _ _ _ __ x 12 Tuesday, April 29, 2003 13 TB2 Building, Conference Room 14 Salem/Hope Creek Generating 15 Stations 16 Artificial Island, NJ 17 18 19 20 The above-entitled interview was conducted 21 at 11:10 a.m.
22 23 BEFORE:
24 Special Agent Kristin Monroe 25 T EXHIBITJ 5 2O2 003 1 0 NEAL R. GROSS t PAGE L/OFo 3 2 FAGE(S)
COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
2 1 On Behalf of the Witness. RubetL Sett'e:
2 JEFFRIE KEENAN, ESQ.
3 Assistant General Solicitor 4 PSEG Corporation Nuclear-N21 5 P.O. Box 236 6 Hancocks, Bridge, NJ 08038 7 1-800-232-0244 8
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 11:10 a.m.
3 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: We're going on the 4 record. Today is Tuesday, April 29, 2003 and the time 5 is now approximately 11:10 a.m.
6 The interview this morning is with Steve 7 Mannon who is employed by PSEG Corporation as a 8 Project Manager for Salem Circ. and Service Water 9 Projects here in Artificial Island in New Jersey.
10 The location of the interview is the TB2 11 Building at Artificial Island. We're in a conference 12 room here.
13 My name is Kristin Monroe. I'm a Special 14 Agent with the NRC, Office of Investigations in King 15 of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
16 Also present for the interview is Jeffrie 17 Keenan, Assistant General Solicitor for PSEG 18 Corporation.
19 The subject of the interview concerns an 20 allegation that who's a senior 21 engineer at the Hope Creek Generating Station, was 22 discriminated against for raising a safety concern on 23 via PSEG's corrective action program, 24 specifically( raised an issue about procedural 25 noncompliance with the Transient Assessment Response NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS laet 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., NXW.
4 1 Plan that we'll refer to as TARP from now on. And as 2 a result of raising the concern, (10 believes that 3
- was relieved of duty when was suspended and 4 removed from plant access from to August 19, 5
6 2002.
In addition, alleges that a 7 received a threat of a poor performance appraisal and 8 termination on August 19, 2002.
9 So that's what I'm investigating. As I 10 indicated before, you're just a fact witness and a 11 very small portion of this, unless you know something 12 else that you feel is germane and we'll cover that at 13 the end.
14 This is a potential violation of 10 CFR is 50.5 which is entitled Deliberate Misconduct and 10 16 CFR 50.7 which is entitled Employee Protection.
17 And prior to going on the record I 18 indicated you would be interviewed under oath. Do you 19 have any objection to being interviewed under oath?
20 MR. MANNON: No, I don't.
21 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Could you raise 22 your right hand? Do you solemnly swear that the 23 information you're about the provide is true and 24 complete to the best of your knowledge and belief, so 25 help you God? }I NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS F t 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
5 1 MR. MANNON: I do.
2 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And how did you 3 happen to have Jeff represent you for the purpose of 4 this morning's interview?
5 MR. MANNON: I had inquired just to see on 6 the proceedings, since he is the company lawyer, as to 7 whether or not I can review. Because I had gotten 8 reviewed prior to this by our internally, so I just 9 wanted to make sure that it was okay if I could review 10 -- review those notes.
11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: You mean like the.
12 ECP?
13 MR. MANNON: Correct.
14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: I don't know if I 15 have your statement. I didn't take your statement 16 with me, but Jeff may have it, if you need to refer to 17 it.
18 I'm not going to go down your statement 19 line by line. I'm just going to --
20 MR. MANNON: That's fine.
21 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: -- ask for your 22 recollection of it. If it's easier for you to recount 23 it from there, that's certainly an option.
24 Jeff, just a briefly explanation of your 25 purpose?
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS -
1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
6 1 MR. KEENAN: My name is Jeff Keenan. I'm 2 counsel for PSGE Services. I'm representing PSGE 3 Nuclear and Steve Mannon today in a dual capacity. I 4 have reviewed this matter in detail through our 5 Employee Concerns process. I'm not aware of any 6 conflict of interest. Should there be a conflict, 7 then we'll take a break and figure'out how to best 8 resolve it.
9 We'd also appreciate the chance of 10 reviewing the transcript when it's available at NRC's 11 convenience.
12 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay, sure. And 13 you understand, Steve, that Jeff is going to represent 14 you and the company.
15 MR. MANNON: I do understand.
16 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Will the presence 17 of Jeff hinder your testimony in any way today?
18 MR. MANNON: Not at all.
19 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay, and you know 20 if you chose to do so, you could meet with me any time 21 privately for an interview?
22 MR. MANNON: Okay.
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: All right. Steve, 24 state your full name and spell your last.
25 MR. MANNON: Steven Robert Mannon. The NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
7 1 spelling is M-A-N-N-O-N.
2 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: What is your date 3 and place of birth?
4 MR. MANNON: I was born 5 inv 6 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: At least we're not 7 interviewing you on your birthday.
8 (Laughter.)
9 Okay, and your Social Security Number?
10 MR. MANNON:
11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: What is your 12 current home address?
13 MR. MANNON:
14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
15 MR. MANNON-: That is correct.
16 -mm SPECIAL AGENT MONROE:
17 And Zip?
18 MR. MANNON:
19 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE+,, _ . And what's 20 your home telephone number?
21 MR. MANNON:
22 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And Steve, 23 what's your educational background?
24 MR. MANNON: I have a Bachelor of Science 25 degree.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W. II
8 1 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: What what field?
2 MR. MANNON: Nuclear engineering.
3 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And from what 4 college or university?
5 MR. MANNON: *PennState University 6 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Do you have one of 7 those little paws on the back of your truck?
8 MR. MANNON: I don't. Well,. I have 9 actually a logo, maybe.
10 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: I saw one car has 11 these little paws going right up across the back of 12 it.
13 Okay,do you hold any licenses or 14 certifications?
15 MR. MANNON: I held the Senior Reactor 16 Operator's license on Salem.
17 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay, do you 18 currently have that license?
19 MR. MANNON: It is not active.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So it's inactive, 21 you have an inactive SOR license?
22 MR. MANNON: It's expired..
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Expired. Do you 24 have any history of military service?
25 MR. MANNON: I do not.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W..
_ -b..t.& BflVR LS nAl TIC n §..7fl
9 1 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: What' s your current 2 position as of today?
3 MR. MANNON: Project Manager.
4 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: You indicated that 5 was in the Salem Cir. and Service Water Projects.
6 MR. MANNON: That is correct.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And how long have 8 you been-in that position?
9 MR. MANNON: It has been probably about.
10 four months now.
11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And who do you 12 report to?
13 MR. MANNON:. I report to Dave Hughes.
14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: How do you spell' 15 that, H-U?
16 MR. MANNON:. H-U-G-H-E-S.
17 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And what's his 18 title?
19 MR. MANNON: Manager of Projects.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And who does Dave 21 report to?
22 MR. MANNON: He reports to Dave Garchow.
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: You'll have to 24 spell that for me.
25 MR. MANNON: G-A-R-C-H-O-W.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
10 1 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And Dave's title?
2 MR. MANNON: Vice President of Projects 3 and (Inaudible).
C0S ki C- a iz- Ado 4 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And Steve, what was 5 your position and the events we're talking about were 6 in the June, July, August 2000 time frame. What was 7 your position then?
8 MR. MANNON: I was the manager of 9 Reliability Engineering.
10 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And who did you 11 report to?
12 MR. MANNON: I reported to John Carlin.
13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And John's title?
14 MR. MANNON: Vice President of I believe 15 it was Engineering.
16 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And how long have 17 you been employed by PSEG?
18 MR. MANNON: This June it will be 18 19 years.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Whoa. Good for 21 you. Obviously, did you know f t
22 MR. MANNON: I did.
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And what was the 24 nature of your association with j but let's just 25 focus on the June to August 2002 ,time frame?
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
11 1 MR. MANNON: l was an engineer that had 2 provided some training in maintenance rule that I had 3 attended and I also interfaced wit w along with 4 some of our engineers on maintenance rule issues that 5 came up from time to time.
6 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Didi have any 7 reporting responsibility to you?
8 MR. MANNON: No.
9 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Just generally, 10 what is the TARP program? What's it for? Who is on 11 it? How do you get selected to be on it?
12 MR. MANNON: At the time, in June when we 13 were making the transformation, I was actually one of 14 the TARP team leads as well, so I had been on the TARP 15 teams from its inception, probably back in 1999. What 16 it was actually developed to do was if the plant had 17 any kind of issues that we felt needed extra 18 management or engineering or any kind of attention 19 from various groups that there would be a group of 20 people that would be on call that could come and help 21 facilitate and solve problems and take the burden off 22 of the shift, kind of provide a little bit of 23 oversight to make sure all of the equipment operated 24 the way it should and to make sure that the issue was 25 going on towards resolution, rather than have the NEAL R. GROSS x god COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
12 1 operations crew deal with it all themselves.
2 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And you had 3 indicated that you had been on it since its inception 4 in 1999?
5 MR. MANNON: Correct. Not entirely as the 6 lead. I was probably on the lead for two years. The 7 first year I was the engineering lead.
8 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. What 9 percentage of your time on let's say a yearly basis 10 would be devoted to TARP activities and of that, how 11 much would it impact your personal off-site hours?
12 MR. MANNON: Percentage of time, let's 13 see, we were on duty once every fourth week and during 14 that week, the average was probably you may get called 15 in I would say on average one time. Obviously, 16 sometimes it may have been more frequent, other times 17 sometimes not at all.
18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: It just depends on 19 what's going on at the site?
20 MR. MANNON: Correct.
21 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And you said one 22 time, would that be once a week?
23 MR. MANNON: So it would be once during 24 that week for an average of I would say each time 25 would take four to six hours duration that you would NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
13 1 spend on the issue.
2 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Is it disruptive to 3 the family life to be on a TARP team as either a 4 member or a lead? Your opinion.
5 MR. MANNON: No more than any other time.
6 I would say there are other instances, regardless of 7 a TARP team that I'd have to come in to take care of 8 certain situations anyway. The amount of overtime and 9 that, it was no more so an impact on the family than 10 other requirements.
11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Did you receive 12 more compensation by being on the TARP team, either 13 bonuses or overtime?
14 MR. MANNON: No.
15 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: It was just 16 considered to be another assignment that --
17 MR. MANNON: That is correct. That is 18 correct.
19 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Is it voluntary to 20 be on the TARP or if you're designated, Steve, you're 21 on it, can you turn the assignment down?
22 MR. MANNON: Not necessarily unless 23 there's some other reasons. I mean some people will 24 get into a little bit on the selection criteria that 25 we established during the meeting, but there are some NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
14 1 instances that people may have a medical reason where 2 they're not allowed inside the fence or you know, 3 can't be put under a pressure situation and in those 4 types, we try to compensate and try to take that into 5 account.
6 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Would there be some 7 adverse consequence if an individual turned down a 8 TARP assignment?
9 MR. MANNON: No.
10 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So if I didn't want 11 to do it, other than let's put it into more context.
12 If you couldn't do it because of a medical reason or 13 a stress issue and if you didn't want to do it because 14 it impacted your time at home or you had some personal 15 reasons, could you turn down an assignment based on 16 that?
17 MR. MANNON: You could turn down the 18 assignment. Again, I think it was felt to be an 19 expectation of the job so you know, it's like any 20 assignment that you would turn down. It would be felt 21 that there would still be a requirement for the 22 position if.you held it.
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Sure. And would 24 you consider being a TARP member, is that a 25 developmental assignment in that it could help you for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
15 1 promotional purposes?
2 MR. MANNON: I would say so. That's the 3 way I figured it. For those people that. can do that, 4 actually they can handle -- usually you take the 5 people that can handle themselves well. They can deal 6 with the situations at hand. They can deal interface 7 well with other people. The people and one of the 8 things that I looked at when I was selecting people 9 was those people that could actually progress up 10 through the organization and you get some kind of 11 notoriety in doing that because they can handle the 12 situations well and come up with good technical basis 13 and you're relied upon in certain situations.
14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: All right, now on 15 June 4, 2002, I pulled this date from a review of the 16 ECP file so it's a specific date to talk about, but I 17 also understand that there are engineering meetings 18 that take place twice a month. And if you could just 19 describe what those meetings are and what their 20 purpose and who typically would attend those meetings?
21 MR. MANNON: .I think for this particular 22 meeting, we actually held it after we had a staff 23 meeting and we have staff meetings a couple times a 24 month or so. And one of the things that we wanted to 25 do was try to establish the next group of people to go NEAL R.GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
16 1 through TARP. The people who had been on TARP have 2 been there for quite some time. I personally have 3 been on it for about three years and so we wanted to 4 have a rotation of people that could experience and 5 could help out.
6 So we had a special meeting, my 7 recollection was right after the staff meeting to go 8 and decide what are the people and how we wanted to 9 comprise the different teams. The TARP procedure was 10 being revised at the time and there was a -- we had 11 separate TARP teams for Salem and Hope Creek and with 12 the revision they wanted to have a common TARP team 13 that would have multiple people on it that could 14 rotate, so if the first one was a Salem issue, one 15 member of that TARP group would take the Salem one and 16 the next one, maybe the Hope Creek and the next person 17 on that.
18 So there's like three engineering people, 19 three maintenance people, three operations people, a 20 couple of leads. So they could rotate through that 21 week. Because what we were finding was that there 22 were some weeks where maybe we had three Salem issues 23 during that week, but no Hope Creek issues or vice 24 versa, three Hope Creek issues and no Salem issues.
25 So those same people that were dedicated to those NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
17 1 units were called a little bit more frequently.
2 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay.
3 MR. MANNON: So we wanted to try to even 4 that out. So they revised the TARP procedure to kind 5 of reflect that and that's how we were staffing the 6 team.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay, and what' s 8 the process, how many people are on the TARP team, let 9 me back up. Can you estimate?
10 MR. MANNON: Normally, there's probably 11 about seven people that are designated on a TARP team, 12 seven different departments are represented on the 13 TARP team.
14 Not in all instances do you need to have 15 all seven people there. For instance, if there was
- 16. nothing that had to do'with emergency response, you 17 don't necessarily need to call that person. If there 18 was a licensing -- or if there was a broken pipe and 19 there was no licensing issue, you don't necessarily 20 need to call that person.-
21 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay.
22 MR. MANNON: But usually there are seven 23 different departments that are-delegated. Some of the 24 departments, like I-said, when we revised it, we were 25 trying to staff multiple people, so in our instance we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
18 1 were trying to staff three engineers per TARP team for 2 any given week. So it would have been a total of 12 3 engineers that we were looking for, either supervisors 4 or senior level engineer type.
5 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Was the 6 whole team being rotated out or were there some 7 members that were going to stay through for just --
8 MR. MANNON: We were going to rotate out.
9 We were making some transition. Some people we had 10 rotated just, my recollection was had just been on for 11 the past three, four, five months that were going to 12 stay on.
13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: They weren't ready 14 to go yet.
15 MR. MANNON: Correct.
16 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Who, if you 17 can recall, attended this meeting on June 4th? Who 18 were the managers that were present at this particular 19 meeting where the TARP became a discussion topic?
20 MR. MANNON: I was there. John O'Connor 21 was there. (Inaudible) was not there. It was -- I 22 believe John Morrison was there, coordinating, Gene 23 Nagy was there for part of it, one of the managers we 24 had at the time. Dick Frionese (Phonetic), I believe 25 was there. VilF3 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
19 1 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Did they keep 2 minutes? Would there have been someone taking notes 3 and making formal minutes on this meeting?
4 MR. MANNON: I don't think there was, 5 Kris. I don't think it was a formal meeting like 6 that, where we would have kept specifically who was 7 there.
8 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay, was any other 9 topic discussed besides the TARP transition or was 10 that the --
11 MR. MANNON: My recollection that was the 12 only thing that we had discussed.
13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Describe for me, 14 you know how it came tha was suggested as q 15 a team member and why and what credentials or 16 qualifications were?
17 MR. MANNON: Sure. We had -- we had met 18 one time before and had come up with -- oh, actually, 19 I think Dave Hughes was there as well. And at. one 20 time previous to that and the structure that they 21 wanted to have was to have one supervisor and two 22 senior engineers comprising the three people on each 23 week's team.
24 Excuse me, so they were concentrating on 25 more or less the format and not necessarily who it NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
20 1 should be. So this one was to really go over to 2 approve the format and then assign the people.
3 At the beginning of the meeting, we've got 4 over -- and I felt that we should have two supervisors 5 and one senior level engineer to transition from what 6 we had before, just before we actually had manager 7 level people in some of the positions. So we felt, 8 thought that we did need to have a good level of 9 understanding the plan* and accountability, so we 10 approved that and we went through the supervisors.
11 And essentially what we did is we put all the 12 supervisors' names that was in the engineering 13 department, both reliability engineering and design 14 engineering and just put all the names up *on the 15 board.
16 From that, we went down each one and 17 looked at things such as are they a current emergency 18 response team. member which is also one of the 19 criterions that you have to be available one week out 20 of every four for emergency response team duties.
21 Have they served on the TARP before, currently served 22 on the TARP?
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay.
24 MR. MANNON: Or another thing that we 25 staff is outages as well, some of the people that were NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
.. . _._ _ RHF ISLAND AVt2 N.W.
21 1 on the board, because of their positions spend a lot 2 of time here anyway, so they put maybe 65 hours7.523148e-4 days <br />0.0181 hours <br />1.074735e-4 weeks <br />2.47325e-5 months <br /> in on 3 a normal week dealing with valve issues or pump 4 issues, so there were certain specific positions that 5 we felt increasing that over and above what they were 6 putting in would be -- so we went down all the 7 supervisors and determined the people that were left 8 over and then looked at whether or not we felt they 9 could handle it. Most people we felt could handle the 10 situation. I don't think it was anybody that we 11 excluded because of didn't feel they were the right 12 person in doing it.
13 And came up with a schedule where people 14 would be on and then came out with the rotation 2 unit 15 after that and said okay, these are the people that 16 were left over. We'll try to filter them in after a 17 year or two and can have a succession plan.
18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Who were the other 19 senior engineers in the reliability organization? Is 20 that the same organization as that were 21 suggested for the team?
22 MR. MANNON: What we then went through, 23 those were all supervisors.
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay.
25 MR. MANNON: We filled for the two NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
__ _ _ -- _ . 1323 RHODE'ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
22 1 supervisors. Then we went through the same kind of 2 thing for the senior level engineers. So in this case 3 we only needed one. So we went through all of the 4 departments and we listed everybody that was in our --
5 who was a grade level 13 which is a senior level 6 engineer or a grade level 14, senior level person and 7 we listed those on a board and did the same kind of 8 reviews.
9 The types of people that we had by name 10 specifically, let's see in my department we would have 11 had Fernando Richard. We would have had -- let's see 12 who are some of my other grade level 13s that I had.
13 It was the INC and Electrical. I think he was one of
.'Cat-M</iJ 14 the few 13s. In the mechanical group for Hope Creek, 15 we'd have -- I have to look at some of the 13s. If I 16 had the chart in front of me I could probably go down 17 to the 13s.
18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: We can pull that.
19 MR. MANNON: George Daves was -- no, he 20 actually didn't report to me though. He was one of 21 the ones that were up on the board.
22 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: How about if I make 23 it easier. How about were there any other senior 24 engineers, department that could have 25 been proposed members of the TARP team? That might NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
23 1 make it -- does that make it any easier?
2 MR. MANNON: I know we had them listed up 3 on the board because of all of the supervisors that 4 went up on the board, we actually looked at each 5 supervisor who had grade level 13s underneath each 6 one.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay.
8 MR. MANNON: So if there was another grade 9 level 13 that reported up throughw he was up on IL 10 the board as well.
11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Can you recall if 12 any grade level 13 that reported up through _ was 13 not selected for the TARP?
14 MR. MANNON: I can't recall. If I looked 15 at the name, I could tell you.
16 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay, who -- it 17 wasn't really a nominating process. You're putting up 18 everyone who is eligible on the board?
19 MR. MANNON: That's right.
20 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And then based on 21 the criteria that you just previously explained to me, 22 decided, determined if they would be a match or not 23 for the team?
24 MR. MANNON: Correct.
25 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE- It was determined NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
24 1 that was--
2 MR. MANNON: I actually suggested 3 because as I was going on down through, I had a lot of 4 respect for and I )apabilities and years 5 before, I knew worked in the valve group. A knew 6 the plants. worked in 8913 which was kind of a tie 7 in for our department during outages. dj>4as well 8 respected in 1 ability to solve problems and 9 technical expertise. Ando always communicated well 10 whenfkdid presentations in front of management, when 11 I was at management, like SORCs (Phonetic) those types 12 of things.
13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: What's the process 14 once the managers' meeting is concluded. What's the 15 process to notify a senior engineer that they're going 16 to be a member of the TARP team? Is there a formal 17 process?
18 MR. MANNON: No, usually the manager would 19 then say hey, this is what we have selected, so we'd 20 like to you participate on the TARP team.
21 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Do you know how it 22 came to be that found out via an e-mail 23 about a TARP meeting that was on the team without 24 being notified by anyone in his management structure?
25 MR. MANNON: The only part that I have --
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
25 1 I have part of that duty to take back to and say 2 j because M wasn't there, that we had selected 3 to do that. And it took me a couple of days to 4 get to f I think the e-mail came out before I S actually was to get to( that ; ould disseminate 6 that information downward.
7 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Why did it take a 8 couple of days to -- was there like a weekend in 9 between or something?
10 MR. MANNON: There may have been, Kris.
11 I can't recall. Probably not though because I think 12 that was actually on a Monday.
13 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Let me check. June 14 4, 2002 was a Tuesday.
15 MR. MANNON: Tuesday.
16 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Right.
17 MR. MANNON: I think it was just -- it was 18 late in the day and one of those things that I forgot 19 to leave the voice mail withW that evening on my 20 'way home and then the next day just got in and saw the 21 e-mail and it's like oh, I was supposed to tell 22 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: It wasn't -- nobody 23 deliberately didn't tell thatl was going 24 to be on the team?
25 MR. MANNON: No.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
26 1 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: It was just a slip.
2 Did you become aware that -- go ahead, did you have 3 something to add?
4 MR. MANNON: The thing that we were going 5 to do in that meeting because what kicked that out of 6 my head was we were actually going to provide the 7 training to the people that we selected.
8 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay.
9 MR. MANNON: So having been on it for a 10 couple of years, myself and Gene, actually offered to 11 provide the training to the people as to hey, here's 12 what's expected. Here's the protocols of what you 13 want to do and kind of go. through that.
14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: So you're not just 15 thrown on the team. You're going to have some sort of 16 overview what it is and what you're expected to do.
17 MR. MANNON: Right.
18 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: As a team member, 19 as an engineer, would Ibe expected to make 20 any kind of operations types decision?
21 MR. MANNON: No, not operation, just 22 technical.
23 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: To gather data?
24 MR. MANNON: Right.
25 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And ifr )hadn't NEAL R.GROSS .
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27 1 been qualified to do that,U4 would not have been 2 selected to be a member, is that right? I mean if the 3 managers didn't think could --
4 MR. MANNON: Correct.
5 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Fulfill that 6 function --
7 MR. MANNON: Correct, and even being the 8 grade position that 7 is, I mean that's almost a 9 requirement of being a grade level 13 engineer, 10 capable of fulfilling that -- not just the TARP, but 11 just what actual specific duties you do at the TARP, 12 perform drawings, understand (Inaudible), do technical 13 issue resolution.
14 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Before I 15 move on to the next area of questioning, do you have 16 anything you'd like to add or elaborate on with 17 respect to ho was selected to be on TARP 18 or have we adequately covered that?.
19 MR; MANNON: No, I think we adequately 20 covered it.
21 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Did you ever become 22 aware that had a problem with selection to 23 TARP and if you did when and how did you find out 24 about that?
25 MR. MANNON: Not until after.
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28 1 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: After being --
- 2 .MR. MANNON: Not until some time after 3 thatX felt that j4houldn't belong on TARP which 4 kind of surprised me and time frame-wise probably a 5 couple of weeks, up to a month, probably after that.
6 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Did you learn 7 directly from _ that0 had concerns or did you 8 learn --
- 9. MR. MANNON: No. I think it was through 10 11 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Did tell you 12 what the nature of concerns were with respect 13 to being a member?
14 MR. MANNON: No,4fmidn't.
15 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Do you know if 16 oday is a member of the TARP?
17 MR. MANNON: I actually don't know. I'm 18 not sure.
19 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Is there 20 anything else that you have first hand knowledge of 21 with respect to i ssues about j concern about 22 not being on TARP, I mean not being qualified to be on 23 the TARP or procedural compliance issues thattahas?
24 Anything that you have first hand knowledge of?
25 MR. MANNON: No, I don't.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
29 1 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: In meetings or 2 discussions or conversations with t 3 MR. MANNON: No.
4 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Let's go throw this 5 out here becauseW I interviewedtf and S made 6 some assertions that I'd just kind of like to get a 7 response to. It's kind of aside from the 8 discrimination issue.
9 has a believe that PSEG Nuclear has 10 created a hostile work environment in which nuclear 11 safety issues cannot be properly resolved. What would 12 be your reaction or comment to that and what's your 13 experience with raising nuclear safety concerns here?
14 MR. MANNON: I would disagree with that.
15 My experience is that the environment is very 16 conducive to bringing up concerns and that actually in 17 light of a lot of the things occurred probably back in 18 the early 1990s, even more so now, but then before 19 where people will stop, people will listen and will 20 take those actions, especially in managers.
21 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. So you 22 disagree with that.
23 MR. MANNON: Yes.
24 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: AndW also made a 25 statement, management has a lack of sensitivity of NEAL R. GROSS A.
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30 1 nuclear safety and there's an excessive focus on short 2 term production goals. Any response or reaction?
3 MR. MANNON: No, I don't think that's true 4 either. I would say, I mean we are looking at a lot 5 of the longer term issues and a lot of things that we 6 do are not generated from just the production. We'll 7 take down powers. Take the units off line. You know, 8 it's been instructed and instilled in everybody. And 9 at pretty well every meeting that I've been to, that's 10 always stressed and said, the safety of the units is i1 number one.
12 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Any opinion or 13 speculation on how J could come up with this belief 14 that there is a hostile work environment?
15 MR. MANNON: No. I'd be surprised at 16 that.
17 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. Do you all 18 need a couple of minutes to recap? Let's just go off 19 the record at 11:39 a.m.
20 (Off the record.)
21 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: It's now 11:46 a.m.
22 and we just want to clarify that there's no 23 qualification to be an ERO member to be on the TARP, 24 is that right?
25 MR. MANNON: That's correct.
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31 1 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And taking into 2 consideration that was my point -- you don't have to 3 be an ERO member to be on TARP, but it doesn't 4 disqualify you from being on TARP?
.5 MR. MANNON: That's right. When we first 6 went through and manned the TARP organization, the ERO 7 members were already on call one week out of the four, 8 so we felt that was an obvious choice to take the 9 initial people from, if you were on ERO. So most of 10 the people that you'll see that were transitioning off 11 were ERO members because of that.
12 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay.
13 MR. MANNON: But there's no requirement 14 that you had to be on ERO.
15 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Steve, is there 16 some question I may not have asked you specifically or 17 any point you'd like to clarify?
18 MR. MANNON: I don't think so, Kris. You 19 just about hit everything as far as my participation, 20 so I don't think there's anything that I --
21 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Okay. And let me 22 note for the record that Steven is spelled S-T-E-V-E-23 N.
24 MR. MANNON: That's correct.
25 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Three questions NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE.. N.W.
32 1 that I'm required to ask you at the end of an 2 interview.
3 Were you threatened for your information 4 this morning?
5 MR. MANNON: No.
6 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Were you offered 7 any reward for your information?
8 MR. MANNON: No.
9 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: And did you provide 10 your information voluntarily?
11 MR. MANNON: Yes, I did.
12 SPECIAL AGENT MONROE: Thanks and we' ll go 13 off at 11:48 a.m.
14 (Whereupon, at 11:48 a.m., the interview 15 was concluded.)
16 17 18t i 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE. N.W.
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 Steve Mannon 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.
Frances Official Transcriber Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.