TVA whistle-blower says NRC trying to intimidate her for reporting lax security

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Fired TVA whistle-blower faces investigation
Gail Richards says NRC trying to intimidate her for reporting lax security

By Anne Paine • THE TENNESSEAN • September 26, 2009

Gail Richards thought her nightmare was over.

In April, the Tennessee Valley Authority whistle-blower reached a settlement over her firing, which came after she reported security lapses in the power producer's nuclear energy program.

But now the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission — the group that oversees TVA's nuclear facilities — has started its own investigation of Richards for potential infractions, including whether she improperly took private documents that she used to defend herself in a series of workplace allegations.

Richards said NRC investigators grilled her for several hours this month in a Washington, D.C., hotel, threatening to get the Department of Justice involved in her case — a prospect that the wife and grandmother worries could lead to prison. She and her lawyer say the NRC is guilty of the same intimidating retaliation tactics that it's supposed to protect whistle-blowers from.

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"If the NRC is going to go after the same people TVA is wrongly going after, who is worrying about the safety of the plants?" said Ann Harris, who reported safety concerns in the 1980s and 1990s at TVA's Watts Bar Nuclear Plant.

Harris settled several harassment cases with TVA and now heads a group called We the People, a nuclear workers support group.

"The NRC is complicit with TVA in abusing employees," she said. "They're trying to cover their own tracks. They're trying to make Gail back down."

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Bernabei, who has represented many TVA whistle-blowers, said that NRC seems bent on stirring up a criminal case and that the agency has been far from evenhanded.

"The NRC is essentially by its action telling all employees that they can't invoke a grievance because they could be prosecuted," Bernabei said.

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