The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday said it had recommended a fine of $232,000 imposed on the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp., after a whistleblower at the Kansas nuclear power plant had been put on paid administrative leave, which the regulator considered an “adverse” response to safety concerns that he raised.
At a “pre-decisional enforcement conference” in September of this year, Wolf Creek claimed that placing the Kan-Seal contracted employee on administrative leave did not constitute a punitive action against the whistleblower, given the forced leave did not include a reduction in pay. The NRC, however, noted troublesome behaviors in Wolf Creek’s response to the incident, pointing out that a subsequent in-house investigation of the matter focused on the whistleblower's behavior and not on his claims of a covered up safety incident and the retaliation suffered for reporting the incident.
The incident occurred on Oct. 31, 2016. At that time, “the contracted employee engaged in protected activity when the employee initiated a condition report for an incident during the 2016 refueling outage,” an NRC report on the incident reads. The employee “communicated related concerns directly to Wolf Creek management,” including concerns of retaliation for his bringing the safety concern to light. The actions allowed for legal protections for the worker under the Safety Conscious Work Environment mandate that protects whistleblowers from management retaliation.
According to KVOE.com, Wolf Creek is considering an appeal of the ruling, which would likely send the case to Cornell University, where a mediation process would be put to use.
In a summary of the case, the NRC said the contracted employee raised concerns about retaliation for his safety concerns and “a chilled work environment and SCWE issues.”
”The contract employee also raised concerns that a Wolf Creek employee had attempted to cover up an incident that occurred in containment.” After several meetings with the employee, management then put the employees badge on “supervisor hold,” which denied his access to the plant.
In a quick response to the fine, a Wolf Creek spokesman Justin Daily said that safety was of the highest priority at the Wolf Creek power plant.