And the fact that the whole nuclear industry has dramatically cut staff brings critics little solace.
"All that says is that it's an industry-wide problem," Garcia says. "It simply says that the whole industry may be profit-crazy. And that means we're all heading in the wrong direction."
Palo Verde nuclear power plant, the largest plant of its kind in the country, sits 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix.
Silvario Garcia has been concerned with Palo Verde's "hostile work environment" for more than a decade.
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Garcia has been complaining to management about the "failed work environment" and building stress levels in front-line Palo Verde departments since the early 1990s.
His concerns, he says, have also been met with words, not any substantial actions to make things better.
Through the late 1990s and early 2000s, Garcia was a relatively lonely voice of dissent at the plant.
But particularly in 2002, others started coming to him stating their frustrations, complaining that management was brushing off safety and other concerns, that the work environment had grown hostile. He became a sort of point man for an increasingly large group of plant employees.
By late 2002, that group had finally had enough of being ignored by plant management. They went to the NRC in January 2003 and since then have continued to file complaints.
"It seemed like the only way to alert the public of what was happening here and to get a serious discussion of how we can make things better and safer," Garcia says.
Garcia's complaints appear to have generated the most concern from NRC officials. While Palo Verde has been directed to fix some of the technical concerns raised by Misbeek and others, it was Garcia's evidence regarding Palo Verde's work environment, particularly in the I&C department, that prompted an NRC investigation in December of 2003.
"We concluded there is a problem within the department that requires additional management attention and NRC review," the NRC's Dricks says.
Two months ago, NRC Region IV called Palo Verde officials to their offices in Arlington, Texas, to explain the plant's programs for promoting a safety-conscious work environment. Although NRC officials say they were satisfied that Palo Verde management is working diligently to promote safety, they will pay a visit in May to inspect the plant's ability to identify and resolve problems. NRC officials say that, as part of that inspection, they plan to interview a cross section of plant employees to "determine whether there is a problem with the safety-conscious work environment."
Overbeck, the Palo Verde manager, says he plans another thorough review of plant operations next year to see if the additional measures put in place by APS have been effective.
The push by Overbeck to get his managers talking to front-line employees has already created some laughable situations.
Last Thursday, for example, APS's head of employee concerns visited the I&C department's regular weekly planning meeting.
The manager told the group he had been overseeing the employee concerns department for 20 years.
Garcia, who has worked at Palo Verde for 18 years, says he had never met the guy before.
"The meeting got really contentious," he says. "We were like: ÔYou've been here how long and you've never once come and talked to us? Do you realize how pathetic this is?'"
But the fact that the guy finally showed up after that long tells Misbeek and Garcia that APS finally may be taking the concerns of front-line employees seriously.
Still, he and other engineers and technicians have doubts that the people who own and run Palo Verde will address the core issue behind the allegations.
"What really concerns us is this idea of priorities," Garcia says. "All the communication in the world doesn't answer the question the public should be asking: What is our top priority? Safety or profits?
"Our fear is that we're just beginning to see the early problems that you see when safety and people are no longer the absolute top priorities. It's a dangerous path for a nuclear power plant to take. And if we're indeed following that path as it appears, the public needs to be vigilant to make sure we don't follow that path very far."
E-mail robert.nelson@newtimes.com, or call 602-744-6549.Safety Meltdown
