FirstEnergy, Owner of JCP&L Which Forced IBEW Members to Strike, Fined in Coverup

FirstEnergy fined after whistleblowers lost jobs

By John Funk, Plain Dealer Reporter, Tuesday, March 01, 2005
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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has fined FirstEnergy Corp.'s nuclear operations unit $55,000 for a safety culture-related incident five years ago.

The agency also named Georgia-based contractor Williams Power Corp. for violating federal regulations. The company employed three painters at Perry who immediately lost their jobs in March 2000 after pointing out a potential safety violation.

Williams Power has not been fined -- though its site superintendent involved in the incident has already pleaded guilty to a federal felony for lying to the NRC about his actions. Williams Power will now be required to show the NRC what it has done to prevent similar incidents.

The contractor's site superintendent at Perry forced two of the painters to take a voluntary layoff and fired the third after he learned that they had complained to Perry's maintenance supervisor and then to the plant's ombudsman that they had been instructed to ignore proper procedures when painting the interior of Perry's nuclear fuel handling building.

By NRC regulation, workers may not be harassed or fired for bringing up safety-related problems. The NRC noted that after the painters lost their jobs, Perry's ombudsman told the FirstEnergy vice president in charge of Perry about them - but the company took no action against Williams Power.

After the NRC investigation began, Perry's managers surveyed workers and managers to measure the "safety-conscious work environment" at the plant, conducted in-house training on the issue and changed bid specifications to notify contractors that safety rules had to be obeyed.

Also, in 2001, the FirstEnergy nuclear operating company pulled Williams Power's contract at sister plant Davis-Besse near Toledo. That plant is working on its own safety environment, which, though adequate, has not shown improvement over the last year.

And in 2002, the utility replaced the ombudsmen at all of its plants with an entirely new department - with the mission to establish a confidential "employee concerns program" to handle the kinds of complaints the painters had voiced.

The NRC two months ago began a separate investigation into Perry's commitment to a safety-conscious work environment. That report is expected by the end of this month.

FirstEnergy has until March 28 to dispute the new finding or pay the fine, according to NRC rules. "We have not yet made that decision," said spokesman Todd Schneider.

Neither Dan Daniels, president of the Williams Power Corp., nor a spokesman returned phone calls seeking comment.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138












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