HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Northeast Utilities’ top executive was making no excuses after the company pleaded guilty to 25 violations of federal law, including falsifying the credentials of control room operators. “We failed to live up to what was required of us as a responsible corporate citizen and as a leader in our community,” said Chief Executive Officer Michael G. Morris. “Today we are paying a very steep price for that failure.”
Convicted in U.S. District Court in Hartford, New England’s largest electric utility agreed to pay the largest penalty in the history of the commercial nuclear power industry.
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Northeast Utilities and Northeast Nuclear Energy Co., the subsidiary which runs NU’s nuclear plants, admitted flouting safety and environmental laws between 1992 and 1996.
The Berlin-based NU and the nuclear subsidiary are each contributing $5 million toward a $10 million settlement. The $5 million assessed against the nuclear subsidiary is the largest penalty in industry history, Robinson said.
Just over a third of the penalty — $3.35 million — will be in the form of donations to the University of Connecticut and other organizations. UConn will get $1 million to endow a Business Ethics Chair and $650,000 to endow an environmental clinic at the UConn School of Engineering. Some $650,000 will go to Riverfront Recapture for its youth leadership camps and $1 million will be donated to the state to help towns buy riverfront land to covert to public parks.
The violations occurred at NU’s three Millstone nuclear reactors in Waterford and Devon fossil-fuel plant in Milford.
“This historic plea and sentencing proves that no matter who you are, if you lie to regulators and choose profits over the public, we will come after you,” said U.S. Attorney Stephen Robinson.
The company admitted faking the qualifications of 19 candidates for nuclear operating licenses in documents filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Administrators from the NRC and the federal Environmental Protection Agency said the violations carried the potential for great harm but said the public was not in immediate danger.
The six environmental convictions centered on the discharge of pollutants into Long Island Sound, including the chemical hydrazine, which scientists have linked to cancer. Prosecutors said the company also willfully diluted chlorine test samples with ocean water, rendering those tests invalid.
Some environmentalists welcomed news of the convictions.
“Today’s guilty plea highlights Northeast Utilities’ history of threatening the environment, jeopardizing the health of Connecticut residents, and violating both federal and state environmental laws,” said Merc Pittinos of the Toxics Action Center, an environmental group based in West Hartford.
The investigation also highlighted what many critics call a major weakness of the NRC: the fact that regulators use a sort of honor system to enforce the law.
“Trust is fundamental to NRC’s oversight program,” said NRC regional administrator Hubert J. Miller. “We perform numerous inspections and monitor day-to-day plant operations, but because we can only look at a sampling of plant activities and records, it is important that our license-holders provide complete and accurate information.”
Steven Herman, an EPA administrator, credited “courageous employees” who revealed that the company was breaking the law.
The penalty includes $1 million to endow a chair in business ethics at the University of Connecticut; $650,000 for an environmental engineering clinic at UConn; $1 million to the state’s open space preservation effort; and $650,000 to a youth leadership program.
The company also was placed on probation for three years. NU has announced plans to sell its nuclear plants as part of electric utility deregulation; sale of the plants to an outside buyer could result in an order lifting the probation.
Miller and others involved in the investigation said they have confidence in the current management of NU, including Morris, who appeared in federal court.
The company said the violations had prompted it to crack down on its staff and require stricter compliance with government standards. The utility has hired Daniel Esty, director of the Yale University Center for Environmental Law and Policy, as an outside adviser.
Northeast Utilities serves more than 2.3 million customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
