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Nuclear plant ‘whistleblowers’ complain of retaliation
November 17th, 2009, 2:32 pm · 23 Comments · posted by Pat Brennan, green living, environment editor
Two men who say they tried to blow the whistle on unsafe practices at the San Onofre nuclear plant filed complaints this week with the U.S. Department of Labor, contending that managers retaliated against them by attacking their reputations and cutting their responsibilities. 
The two men, who work in an on-site shop making casks used to store spent nuclear fuel rods but who are both now on stress leave, are seeking unspecified damages from Southern California Edison, the owner of the San Onofre plant.
“People are afraid to raise concerns for fear of retaliation,” said Richard Busnardo, of Oceanside, a facilities manager and one of the men who filed complaints.
Edison officials declined to comment on the complaints, saying they considered the matter to be in litigation.
But the plant’s chief nuclear officer, Ross Ridenoure, released a statement Tuesday reinforcing Edison’s commitment to safety.
“We actively promote a safety conscious workplace where employees are encouraged to bring forward safety concerns without fear of retaliation,” his staetment said. “An independent assessment of San Onofre’s safety programs, conducted in July 2009, found that our employees are responding positively to this effort.”
Mike Mason, left, and Richard Busnardo outside the San Onofre nuclear plant. Register photo by H. Lorren Au.
The men’s complaints appear to offer a glimpse into the culture of the troubled nuclear plant, which remains under scrutiny by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission because of questions about procedural violations in recent years, including low-level safety concerns.
The plant has been visited repeatedly by NRC inspectors since problems were reported beginning in 2007.
The troubles began with an improperly soldered joint, prompting the precautionary shutdown of a reactor, as well as a faulty diesel generator. In March 2008, a loose battery connection was found that left some safety systems inoperable for four years.
In public meetings, NRC officials have raised concerns about San Onofre, questioning whether the plant is making sufficient progress in problem-solving and “human performance” issues.
Neither the public nor San Onofre employees have been placed in physical peril because of the problems, NRC officials have said.
Declining performance
“I would say the plant’s performance declined during 2008 and 2009,” said NRC spokesman Victor Dricks. The problems, he said, “are of concern to the NRC, although they are not safety significant.”
He said the agency is aware of the men’s complaints and is following up, but declined to comment further.
The allegations, if true, suggest deteriorating working relationships at the nuclear plant.
The current situation began when Busnardo, 57, and Mike Mason, 55, of Lake Elsinore, supervisor of the fabrication plant for the casks, raised concerns over an employee they contend had knowingly violated plant welding procedures.
The man is identified in their complaints only as ”Mr. Welder” to protect his identity.
The two men say that they recommended firing Mr. Welder after he admitted to an outside auditor that he knew he was welding a piece of equipment incorrectly, but continued with his welding job anyway. Management overruled them, instead temporarily suspending the man.
Mason and Busnardo say they filed a notice of “willful violation” against the man in early October 2008 — the reason, they allege, that plant managers retaliated against them.
Previous violations
San Onofre employees had been accused of a number of “willful violations” by the NRC the previous January, including falsification of records by one contract employee whose job included fire patrols. The employee recorded making hourly patrols for five years, but did not actually make them, and was banned from the plant.
Busnardo alleges that the management at San Onofre did not want any more “willful violation” notices to be filed.
The two contend that the managers accused Mason and Busnardo of running an “out of control” operation with a history of violating procedures.
The men responded with an e-mail to managers calling attention to what they considered management retaliation, and referring to a culture of fear at the San Onofre plant among employees. They say their shop was exemplary and did not violate procedures.
The men said they tried to “hold employees accountable for their actions,” and for that “suffered loss of productivity, loss of reputation, unfair smears…”
“The company has retaliated against two workers whose credibility is difficult to question because they’ve been recognized as loyal and, in fact, leading managers for nearly three decades,” said their attorney, David Marshall.
Public confrontation
At a public meeting on San Onofre’s safety culture earlier this month in Dana Point, Busnardo raised the issue of retaliation.
“We have people in the plant that are afraid to raise concerns for fear of retaliation, and that scares me,” Busnardo recalls saying.
One manager later characterized Busnardo as unhappy with new standards while talking to reporters, his complaint says.
They contend that managers told them they should not have filed the willful violation notice, suggesting that was the reason for actions taken against them.
These included issuing a stop-work order for their shop, barring Mason and Busnardo from management meetings, cutting Mason’s responsibilities as supervisor and giving unfairly negative reviews of the shop as well as Mason’s performance.
Busnardo also accuses San Onofre managers of improperly “excoriating” him for reporting the welding incident, denying him promotion, unfairly denigrating his performance at the public meeting, and denying him a chance to interview for his own position after changing the terms of the position.
“There’s nothing more important than the safety of the workers at the plant,” Busnardo said. “The plant’s got to have an open and collaborative work environment. People have got to be able to raise concerns without fear of retaliation.”
(Register photo of San Onofre nuclear plant by Leonard Ortiz.)
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The plant has been a danger since it opened…
Yea it’s best to shut them all down and while they are at it, shut down all the dirty mercury and carbon spewing coal plants and tear down all the dams and get rid of fish killing hydro plants
And the natural gas plants can be mothballed as well
The welfare baby machines can keep pumping out 10, 15, 20 kids
I’m sure they can put a wind mill and solar panel on every building and every home since the sun shines and wind blows every day
yOU ARE IN THE DARK FOR SURE.
You might consider doing some research before you think that wind and solar energy can solve energy problems. New power plant technology is amazingly efficient and doesn’t pollute anywhere near as much as the vehicles that the legion of maintenance crew for the solar panels will need to drive around to keep up that glitchy technology. Unless you like living in the dark with no electricity, in which case what are you powering your computer with?
I was being sarcastic
The sun doesnt shine nor does the wind blow
And if you follow these Green wackos they would want us all in the dark!
Really?
They have done well there except for that little leak and release of steam in 1968. I was tested for years after. I would rather have the NGS and a small risk than support terrorist oil.
Look for a borderline manager.
very nice article …and it is absolutely true…..they preach safety ,care about their employees and a lot of garbage ..what they really care about is keeping those reactors up and running…..they feel people are replacable those reactors are not
Geez another thing to worry about. What is a muslim jihadi works there?
nice title… how sensationalist!
What a bunch of crap from gold digging whiners.
Probably couldn’t cut the mustard there, if you cant make it in a cushy job where there are 10 people to do the work of 1 then I guess your only option is to cry “victim”.
fnloosers.
I saw Ross Ridenoure this morning and his nose is about 9 inches long. I never saw such a thing!!
What about OJ and racism? What about the children?
SONGS NUKE PLANT
SONGS HAS A LONG ON GOING PROBLEM WITH SAFETY AND WHATS BEHIND IT ALL IS THEY WANT TO SACRIFICE OF MONEY OVER SAFETY !
THAT IS ONE OF THE MAIN PROBLEMS THERE .. THEY TALK SAFTEY TO COVER THERE BUTTS WITH THE NRC BUT FIND MANY WAYS TO GET AROUND THINGS AND USE AMERICAN UNION WORKERS AS THE ESCAPE GOTAS TO THERE PROBLEMS AT SONGS AND RETALIATION IS THERE IN AMNY AREAS WITH NUKE CONCERNS WHICH ENDS UP SHOWING YOU TO THE GATE .
THE NEW STEAM GENERATOR CHANGE OUT WAS FIG. TO BE A 120 DAYS OF WORK FIG BY NATION ENGINEERS AND EDISON CUT THE HRS AFTER TO MAKE MANAGEMENT LOOK GOOD IN THE EYES OF UPPER LEVELS OF EDISON THATS THE WAY EDISON WORKS AND PEOPEL IN CALIFORNIA SHOULD KNOW . THEY CUT THE HRS TO LESS THEN 90 DAYS WITH LESS PEOPLE ON PUT IT ON THE BACKS OF LABOR !
THEY WERE NO ONE IN THE COUNTRY , NOW THERE ON THE BOTTOM .. WHY …. THE WAY THEY DO BUISNESS AT SONGS MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISSION AND FROM THE RANKS OF SUPERVISSION WORKERS AT THE [PLANT AND THEY SHOULD STAND BEHIND THERE WORKERS , BUT DONT FOR FEAR OF THERE JOBS SO THEY STAND WITH EDISON AND LATTER THEY OUR TAKEN CARE OF THE EDISON WAY .
NUKE OUR VERY SAFE AND THERE SHOULD BE MORE OF THEM NO MATTER WHAT PEOPLE SAY AND CALIFORNIA COULD BE ENERGY FREE IF PEOPLE DID NOT NOCK THEM DOWN YEARS AGO LIKE THEY DID WE WOULD BE SO FAR A HEAD OF THE GAME WIT ELECTRICITY IN CALIFORNIA .
What are you talking about?
I hired on with mr. Busnardo,got to work with and for him,and you can take it to the bank what he states is fact.
Some comments made at the meeting need to be taken with a grain of salt. Perhaps all is not as it seems. Stress leave? really. WHO pays for their leave in the long run? The rate payers? If the two were so concerned why did they not bring up “mr. welder” to the NRC back in 2008 would the retaliation really take a year?
What it boils down to is that these guys wanted the welder fired, and management only suspended him.
After that, they tried to up the ante by filing a report of willful violation with the NRC, against management’s desires.
Since the guy was suspended, there no longer was a safety issue.
The Union whiners should support management, who chose not to fire the Union welder.
These guys are part of the “Good old boys” culture that SONGS is trying to clean out. They are part of the reason SONGS has been in trouble these past few years.
Bottom line: protect the public, stay safe, follow the rules, generate electricity or get out! IN THAT ORDER!
to paint the entire nuclear industry as greedy and irresponsible because of the poor behavior of one company. As in all industries, there are good corporate stuards and poor ones. The regulatory, insurance, and public oversite mechanisms which exist in our society work and the process is moving along. I cannot begin to guess who in this issue is right, but I am confident that when the issue is processed through the system, a well researched and thourough answer, along with corrective and retaliatory punative actions will come into being. If the company is guilty of harboring a negative work environment, then the NRC, INPO, the insurance industry, the state PSC, and a host of other forces will come to bear down on the responsible parties. Take it to the bank, the system works.
STEAM GENERATOR REPLACEMENT SHOULD BE POSTPONED UNTIL SCE AND PROVE IT CAN OPERATE TWO QUARTERS WITHOUT PROBLEMS
The SONGS Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility has requested that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission stay cutting 28 foot by 28 foot holes in the containments of its aging reactors. The Alliance also requested that Senators Boxer and Feinstein and Senator Kehoe and Assemblywoman Saldana investigate these concerns.
History
September 2009 - At approximately 1730 PDT, Southern California Edison was notified by a metal recycling vendor that a metal recycle load that was picked up at SONGS had been rejected at Terminal Island (Long Beach, CA) because it set off a radiation portal monitor as it was being processed through. The vendor (Alpert and Alpert) was requested to immediately ship the material back to SONGS. The County of Los Angeles Public Health, Radiation Management Division (Joji Ortego) called to confirm final destination, and a Special DOT Permit was issued to return the shipment to SONGS. (see Feb 2006)
September 2009 - Inspectors in Japan detect “weld defects” inside two massive steam generators being built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for installation at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
August 2009 - Southern California Edison changes maintenance contractors at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, but retains its current maintenance contractor to cut holes in containment for both reactors and complete the steam generator replacement project.
July 2009 – United States Geological Study discloses that the San Onofre Beach is eroding at an average rate of close to 2 meters per year.
July 2009 – California’s State Lands Commission proposes phasing out SONGS use of millions of gallons of sea water per XX by 2020 (two years before its current license expires)
May 2009 – Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility request that the NRC stay the steam generator replacement project until SCE is proven it can operate two quarters without problems identified in March 2009.
March 2009 – NRC issues report citing “substantive cross-cutting issues were identified in human performance and problem identification and resolution. We conducted a public meeting following the Midcycle Assessment to discuss your improvement initiatives in both areas. The effectiveness of your initiatives have not been evident and this annual assessment is the third cycle where substantive cross-cutting issues were identified in human performance and problem performance and problem identification and resolution.
January 2008 – Failure of San Onofre nuclear plant generator probed. Federal inspectors are investigating the failure of an emergency generator at SONGS during the last three tests in late December.
January 2008 – Seven workers SONGS have been disciplined or fired in connection with a rash of safety and security problems uncovered by federal regulators last year.
November 2008 – The California Energy Commission recommends: SCE should review the tsunami hazard at their nuclear plants in light of recent research and improved scientific understanding of tsunamis. SCE should assess SONGS’ tsunami vulnerability after new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the SONGS site and adjacent coastal areas become available. SCE should also assess the relevance of the University of Southern California second‐generation tsunami run‐up maps for the tsunami hazards at their nuclear plant sites.
August 2007 – A man sleeping in a train car slips into the San Onofre nuclear station
February 2006 - A radioactive waste-disposal tanker transporting 4,500 gallons of wastewater from the San Onofre Power Plant leaked in Utah while en route to a disposal site.
November 2006 - Nuclear workers at San Onofre allege that safety data were falsified. The utility will pay millions for abuses designed to draw bonuses.
August 18, 2006 - discovery of tritium-laced water under the San Onofre nuclear plant highlights a widening pollution controversy.
July 2006- A report by the California Public Utilities Commission’s Consumer Protection and Safety Division found that Edison “falsified and manipulated customer satisfaction data and survey results” and that Edison managers “requested doctors not to provide treatment to employees whose treatments would be reportable under the (performance-based program.)”
August 2005 - More than 5 tons of anchovies met an untimely end at the San Onofre nuclear power plant
July 27, 2005 - A maintenance engineer at the San Onofre nuclear power plant will undergo a 30-day alcohol rehabilitation program after recent blood tests confirmed he failed a Breathalyzer test, a plant spokesman said Monday. The incident at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station marked the fifth time in one year that plant supervisors failed blood, urine or alcohol breath tests.
July 2004 - SCE [Southern California Edison] reported that personnel were tightening two seismic restraint bolts on Advanced Horizontal Storage Module (AHSM) Number 10 at the Unit 1 ISFSI [Independent Fuel Storage Installation] when one of the bolts failed.
For these reasons please request that Senator Boxer investigate the NRC’s identified problems and recommend that the steam generator project be held until this issues have been demonstrated to have been resolved. Please copy and paste here: https://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfm
And please support the Alliance efforts by signing up for our newsletters and alerts and making a donation to ensure the public has a voice in oversight proceedings (www.a4nr.org)
And please support the Alliance efforts by signing up for our newsletters and alerts and making a donation to ensure the public has a voice in oversight proceedings (www.a4nr.org)
SCE cut one hole already. Highly radioactive waste continues to sit on site. No speaks of the worst American Nuclear plant melt down was in Simi Valley,CA. Common sense Old nuke technology is not safe or good for anything. California could be energy free,if the $$$would go into Solar & Wind, with no decontamination center necessary.
You won’t find the 1968 leak in any records. Only the report to the DOD and DOE, oh and the non destroyed interrogatory original copy of that report. Very interesting reading. Testing on welfare kids? For shame! That document is gone now, as it should have been originally. The public would —- a brick. I found myself in it though. Now I only worry about a tsunami or a terrorist act. Other wise even with all of it’s risk it’s still the best deal out there.
Unless they start grinding up all the spent rods and selling them to China to use in paint on toys imported to America?
The pink jumpsuits will protect you! Honest!
LOL!
I worked there for years. I had a few harsh words for my supervisors when I saw that they were more into cocaine than doing a good job.
They made life as uncomfortable for me as possible. When that failed to get me to quit they fired me on false grounds. I won the litigation that fallowed but I never returned to work there. Looking back I’d have to say it was the best thing that could have happened to me.