This is the second thread posted today regarding retaliation against whistleblowers by big industry. Even though this report is somewhat dated (It appear in a small newspaper on Dec 23,1999 and was picked up by newsreal today 2-5-00), it is highly relevant. In this kind of climate, do you think it's likely we'll see any y2k safety reports?

Nuclear Plant Fine Proposed

Source: Evansville Courier & Press

Publication date: Dec 23, 1999

& The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing an $88,000 fine against operators of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant for retaliating against a manager who raised safety concerns at the facility.

The United States Enrichment Corp., which operates the plant for the Department of Energy, was cited for the 1998 demotion of a manager of quality systems who was not identified in federal papers.

The manager, who was working for Lockheed Martin Utility Services Inc., was demoted to a nonmanagerial job in the training department on Aug. 10, 1998.

The commission's Office of Investigations concluded in May that the shift was due in part to his involvement in safety-related activities and was "an apparent violation" of federal whistle-blower regulations.

USEC said the manager was demoted for job-performance reasons.

The commission has given USEC until Jan. 19 to either pay the fine or challenge it. This is the second time the commission has issued a fine against the company's Paducah operations and represents the location's largest fine to date.

Georgeann Lookofsky, USEC spokeswoman, said the former manager left employment at the plant a few weeks ago. She would not disclose the circumstances.

Lookofsky said the company is reviewing whether to challenge the proposed fine.

Publication date: Dec 23, 1999 ) 2000, NewsReal, Inc.

Link:

http://beta.newsreal.com/cgi-bin/NewsService?osform_template=pages/newsrealStory&ID=newsreal&storypath=News/Story_2000_02_05.NRdb@2@1@3@26&path=News/Category.NRdb@2@7

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 05, 2000