Tue
Feb 1 2011
07:49 pm
TVA firing of Watts Bar nuclear power plant project head raises questions
By: R. Neal

As reported in the Chattanooga Times Free Press on Sunday, TVA abruptly fired the head of the Watts Bar 2 nuclear reactor project last week. TVA gave no reason for his firing, other than saying it was not related to his work on the project.

The TVA executive is an Iranian national with dual citizenship. According to testimony in his recent divorce, in Dec. of 2007 he withdrew $1.5 million from his TVA deferred compensation plan, claiming financial hardship. He then sent $600,000 of the money to his brother-in-law in Iran "to buy some property back in Tehran." He later admitted that his claim of financial hardship was not true. The testimony also says that he has traveled to Iran from time to time, and had been sending money to help his ailing parents.

In addition, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently filed notice to TVA regarding the "timeliness and quality" of various overdue reports on the project.

The guy is dealing with some personal issues, so that's likely what all this is about. It would certainly be in TVA's best interest, though, to clear up any questions about his ties to Tehran.

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closer_1984_than_1776's picture

Watts Bar Unit 1

Submitted by closer_1984_tha... on Tue, 2011/02/01 - 10:32pm.

To further complicate this matter, TVA started placing tritium-producing rods in the Watts Bar Unit 1 reactor a few years ago. Tritium is a key component in nuclear weapons.

R. Neal's picture

Suspect reporting

Submitted by R. Neal on Thu, 2011/02/03 - 8:13am.

KNS: Money, lie cause firing at TVA plant

The media is making stuff up about this story. Are they covering for TVA?

The KNS article linked to above states that the reason for the firing was the guy lying about why he took money out of his deferred compensation account. The only source quoted is the divorce document we linked to above. There is no new statement from TVA about the reason for the firing. They have only said it's a personnel matter and won't comment on it.

The KNS article is sourced from the Times Free Press. The KNS link to the original article is broken, but here it is:

Times Free Press: TVA manager fired for lying

This article has no new information, and is based entirely on the divorce document we linked to on Tuesday. It is unclear how they arrived at the conclusion of the headline. Maybe they got someone at TVA to tell them that off the record. If that's the case they should say so.

And here's the lede:

The head of America's biggest nuclear power plant construction project was fired last week after he lied about having a financial hardship in order to get $1.8 million from a future TVA bonus fund, according to court records.

So according to court records the guy was fired for lying, or according to court records he lied about a withdrawal? It's the latter, of course. The court hearing was in April 2010. The guy was fired last week.

This is sloppy, misleading, and irresponsible reporting. And it's irresponsible for KNS to repeat it like a whisper around the circle party game.

Meanwhile we still don't know why the guy was fired. Maybe it was lying about the withdrawal. I don't see where TVA has said that. Only a reporter apparently making it up and having it spread around by another paper.

And we still don't know why the guy was trying to wire $1 million to Iran by way of Canada, $600K of which got through. Maybe he was trying to keep it away from his wife, as she claims. We really don't know. And we still don't know how a guy with ties to Tehran got to be the head of the nation's largest nuclear reactor project.

The only assurance for the public so far is that there are no reports of the guy being detained by the FBI or Homeland Security. So all of this is likely just a personal situation between the guy and his wife. It would certainly be more reassuring if the other questions were cleared up.

gonzone's picture

Just what we need

Submitted by gonzone on Thu, 2011/02/03 - 11:00am.

Just what we need is another disgruntled Iranian nuclear scientist.

R. Neal's picture

The Tennessean has a much

Submitted by R. Neal on Fri, 2011/02/04 - 11:15am.

The Tennessean has a much better and more accurate report and also reports on a past incident involving a whistleblower.

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