The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Friday that the firing of a quality assurance supervisor and other actions by the Shaw Group could result in a $36,400 fine.
A notice issued Thursday alleged two violations of the NRC's employee protection requirements. One relates to the supervisor fired in 2011 after notifying Shaw and Louisiana Energy Services of potentially faulty rebar that a third-party vendor might have shipped to a uranium enrichment plant in New Mexico, the NRC said in a release. The other violation involves the Shaw Corporate Code of Conduct, which the agency determined discouraged providing information to the NRC.
Although the violations pre-date the merger, Chicago Bridge & Iron now owns the Shaw companies and is ultimately responsible for the fine. The regulator also notified CB&I’s CEO of a "chilled work environment" at a facility formerly known as Shaw Modular Solutions in Lake Charles, La. Despite its being only one of about 600 U.S. nuclear vendors, its employees generated about 35 percent of all vendor-related safety allegations sent to the NRC over the last three years. Although the resulting reviews did not identify quality problems with Shaw parts, the NRC said the volume of reports suggested a poor environment for raising safety concerns with the company directly.