For Immediate Release:
November 13, 2000
Contact:
Kyle Rabin – Environmental
Advocates: 518-462-5526 ext. 240
Mark Jacobs – Westchester’s
Peoples Action Coalition: 914-682-0488
Karen Silkwood died on November 13, 1974 in a fatal
one-car crash. Silkwood was a chemical technician at the Kerr-McGee plutonium
fuels production plant in Crescent, Oklahoma and a member of the Oil, Chemical
and Atomic Workers International (OCAW) Union. Her discovery of falsified
quality control data within inspection reports of nuclear fuel rods had vast
implications for the health of the workers in the plant and the public at
large. At the same time, Silkwood was involved in a number of unexplained
exposures to plutonium. The circumstances of her death have been the subject of
great speculation. An independent investigation provided convincing evidence
that Silkwood’s car was struck from the rear and driven off the road causing
her death. Silkwood was on her way to
deliver evidence to a member of the OCAW and an investigative reporter from the
New York Times. Since then, her story has achieved worldwide fame as the
subject of many books, magazine and newspaper articles, and even a major motion
picture.
The saga of Karen Silkwood continued for years after
her death. Her estate filed a civil suit against Kerr-McGee for alleged
inadequate health and safety programs that led to her exposure to plutonium,
one of the most toxic substances known to humankind. Silkwood’s case
illustrated that government views of whistleblower disclosures are often
deficient, compromised, or incomplete. Over these 26 years, some state
governments have tried to increase protections for whistleblowers.
And now, in light of energy deregulation and the
fiscal and structural changes are occurring in the nuclear power industry and
the agency that regulates it, there is an even greater need for whistleblower
protection, especially in New York State which is home to six commercial
nuclear power plants.
According to Stephen M. Kohn – one of the nation's
foremost experts on whistleblower law – New York State has one of the worst records with respect
to providing adequate protection to all whistleblowers. The inadequacies of New
York's “Whistleblower Statute,” which was passed in 1984, have led commentators
to note that whistleblower protection in New York is all but non-existent.
The U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) has always admitted that it can only oversee a
small portion of the industry’s safety issues and relies heavily on nuclear
plant employees to identify potential safety problems to management and, if
necessary, to the NRC. Now, with
deregulation, the NRC depends even more on workers at nuclear plants to be
their “eyes and ears.” The NRC’s budget was slashed by $70 million between the
years 1993 and 2000. This has resulted
in over 500 fewer personnel and a weaker reactor oversight process.
“Employees working at nuclear power plants should
not feel pressured or intimidated by their supervisors in airing concerns about
safety that may be expensive to remedy,” said Kyle Rabin, nuclear energy policy
project director for the Albany-based Environmental Advocates. “Sadly, we have witnessed the harassment of
employees at New York nuclear power plants much too often,” Rabin added. A recent example involved an employee at the
New York Power Authority’s Indian Point 3 plant who had concerns about the
facility’s corrective action process and its effectiveness in identifying
problems and ensuring their timely resolution.
The employee, after raising safety concerns, was treated with such
sustained abuse that she ultimately had to transfer out of her work group
(Operations Review Group).
Nuclear plant employee health has also been
threatened. Last fall, during a push by its
owner, the New York Power Authority (NYPA), to dramatically reduce the length
of a planned shutdown for refueling at the Indian Point 3 plant, worker safety
was compromised. As a result of NYPA’s decision to relax protective clothing
requirements, nearly 200 employees were radioactively contaminated. This
came at a time when NYPA was involved in preliminary talks with Entergy
Nuclear, Inc. over the sale of its two reactors. In an interview with New York
City TV station WABC, a plant whistleblower explained: “There was a rush to get
it done in [a company record of] 40 days and to impress the potential buyer of
the plant.”
Rabin also noted that during the 2000 state
legislative session, New York State Assemblyman Brodsky and Senator Morahan
introduced legislation to create a Nuclear Whistleblower Access and Assistance
Program. This program – housed under
the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority – contains a
number of provisions including: (1) a requirement calling for the evaluation of
nuclear whistleblower protection programs proposed by nuclear power plant
operators, (2) the establishment of a toll-free telephone line available to
employees of nuclear power plants that will offer advice regarding employee
rights and protections pursuant to state and federal laws and present
opportunities for access to senior management for purposes of communicating safety-related
concerns, and (3) a requirement that a preliminary evaluation of any safety
concern identified by an employee be performed within 72 hours. The bill
unanimously passed the Assembly, but was not voted upon in the Senate.
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