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NRC NEWS
U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION I
475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 | | CONTACT: |
Diane Screnci (610)337-5330/ e-mail: dps@nrc.gov
Neil A. Sheehan (610)337-5331/e-mail: nas@nrc.gov |
or vld@nrc.gov
I-96-36
Contact: Diane Screnci FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Victor Dricks June 4, 1996
NRC STAFF PROPOSES $100,000 FINE AGAINST NORTHEAST NUCLEAR ENERGY
CO. FOR ALLEGED DISCRIMINATION AGAINST FORMER CONTRACTOR EMPLOYEE
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has cited Northeast
Nuclear Energy Co. (NU) for alleged discrimination against a
former contractor employee at its Millstone Nuclear Power Station
in Waterford, Connecticut. The staff has proposed a fine of
$100,000.
The NRC staff proposed the fine after determining that a
senior health physics technician of Bartlett Nuclear, Inc., an NU
contractor, was discriminated against for raising safety
concerns. The NRC also issued a Notice of Violation to Bartlett,
citing the company for discriminating against an employee engaged
in a protected activity.
In December 1995, a Department of Labor Administrative Law
Judge ruled that NU had discriminated against the individual by
laying him off at the Millstone site in December 1994, after the
worker filed a complaint with DOL and an NRC inspection of
concerns raised by the individual. The worker was subsequently
rehired at the facility in March 1996.
Federal law protects workers who raise safety concerns with
management or with NRC staff about possible violations of NRC
rules and regulations. In a letter to NU officials, NRC Region I
Administrator Thomas T. Martin said NU's acts of discrimination
"are significant because they could have a chilling effect on
other licensee or contractor personnel and deter them from
identifying and/or raising safety concerns. The violation takes
on even more significance because the NRC has issued two civil
penalties to you since May 1993 for violations involving
discrimination against employees who raised safety concerns."
The licensee was fined $100,000 in May 1993 for harassment
and intimidation of a former NU employee, and $100,000 in July
1994 for harassment and intimidation of an NU engineer.
To emphasize the importance of maintaining a work
environment in which employees are free to engage in protected
activities without fear of retaliation, the base civil penalty of
$50,000 was doubled because the violation was not identified by
the licensee and many of the corrective actions were still in the
planning phase.
Since the civil penalty is based on the recommended decision
and order of the DOL Administrative Law Judge, which is still
being reviewed by the Secretary of Labor, NU may delay payment of
the civil penalty until 30 days after the final decision of the
Secretary of Labor. However, the licensee is required, within
30 days, to document the specific actions it has taken and
additional actions it plans to take to prevent recurrence and
counter the perceived "chilling effect" of the discriminatory
actions.
***
NOTE TO EDITORS: The NRC's Inspector General has made
public a report on an investigation into the NRC staff's decision
to withhold Northeast Utilities' internal task force reports on
plant performance at Millstone Station from the Public Document
Room. A copy of the executive summary is available through the
Region I office.
***
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