February 11, 2008

Allegations - approx 1 in 10 of the 500-600 in a typical year result in enforcement action

... our agency gets between 500 and 600 allegations every year, and only about 1 in 10 is serius enough to warrant an enforcement action of some kind against a plant.

[Source: Dale E. Klein (chairman - US Nuclear Regulatory Commission), "Statement .. at Peach Bottom ...", Speech 08-004, February 8, 2008]

September 12, 2006

* Byron - mechanic's allegation re: retaliation not substantiated by NRC

September 6, 2006

* Beaver Valley - NRC concludes that allegation was not true (contract engineer on diesel generator project had alleged retaliation)

March 23, 2006

* UK: Court Considers Whistleblower Lawsuuits
Toni Locy, Guardian

March 13, 2004

* Safety Conscious Work Environment initiatives - innovative approaches to old issues

October 15, 2003

With friends like NEI, who needs enemies?

Amongst the documents released by NRC's public document room today was a friend of the court brief filed by Nuclear Energy Institute in a case where TVA was found to have engaged in prohibited adverse action against an employee engaged in protected activity. NEI's lawyers wrote that they were going to address aspects of the ASLB decision which "have important implications for the entire nuclear energy industry."

Your humble nuclear.com editor was somewhat disappointed to find NEI arguing that the actions against the employee might not have been due to discrimination; but rather a combination of other motives and characteristics, like "inappropriate as well as possible inept management practices and actions, personality clashes, personal dislike and hostility, and related grounds." Sheesh. I'm used to the antinuclear pros painting the entire nuclear industry like this. But NEI?

[Ref: Robert W. Bishop et al., "Brief Amicus Curiae of the Nuclear Energy Institute Supporting Reversal of the Atomic Safety Licensing Board's Initial Decision in LBP-03-10", October 2, 2003 (ACN ML032810136)]

June 1, 2003

* Yucca Mountain - DOE QA whistleblowers were no-shows at Senate hearing

* Yucca Mountain - even if science was applied and work was to be top notch, too much risk to proceed

* Yucca Mountain - GAO sees recurring problems that DOE seems unable to correct

* Yucca Mountain - even independent scientists fear DOE retaliation if they challenge Yucca findings

* Yucca Mountain inadequately analyzed issue: effects of water seeping into casks

* Yucca Mountain - cask corrosion could be faster due to combined effect of temperature, radiation and groundwater

* Yucca Mountain - retired NRC official confirms DOE retaliation

* Yucca Mountain - DOE's latest quality/employee concerns initiative is hardly comforting

May 22, 2003