Staff members at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are accusing a director of the agency's Texas division of berating inspectors and suppressing information about significant safety problems at an embattled nuclear plant in Nebraska, according to documents Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) released today.

NRC workers sent Markey a letter April 24 that outlined complaints against Troy Pruett, the deputy division director of the Division of Reactor Projects at NRC's office in Arlington, Texas. The division oversees nuclear reactors throughout the western United States.

The employees in the letter allege that Pruett has "actively retaliated against individuals who bring safety concerns to his attention" and that he has downgraded performance appraisals for workers who brought forward inspection findings or flagged regulatory violations he didn't agree with.

The workers also accuse Pruett of intimidating inspectors who raised safety issues and changing or removing safety findings from inspection reports before they were released, according to the letter.

Notably, Pruett disagreed with a staff recommendation to issue a severe safety finding for the Fort Calhoun power plant in Nebraska because it would "result in a 'political environment' that would make his job, as the chairman of the Fort Calhoun Station restart committee, more difficult," according to the letter.

Pruett also told senior managers at the NRC's headquarters in Rockville, Md., that issues at the Fort Calhoun plant were "not significant," a misrepresentation that was later reconciled through investigation, the workers said.

The Fort Calhoun plant, 19 miles north of Omaha, has been closed because of flooding on the Missouri River last year, which was followed by a fire in March that knocked out the cooling system for the used nuclear fuel (Greenwire, March 13).

The letter, signed by "Region IV staff" and sent to all five NRC commissioners, explains that complaints against Pruett have been repeatedly brought to the attention of senior regional staff and that only "token measures" were taken to address the problems.

The workers also expressed concern about a "regional operations plan," a program they said deters staff from pointing out significant safety issues that could face opposition from licensees.

Markey, the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, called on NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko in a separate letter today to investigate the allegations and provide documents surrounding the "red" finding at Fort Calhoun.

Markey, Jaczko's former boss, also expressed concern that mismanagement at the commission could be making its way up to senior NRC management staff at regional offices.

Scott Burnell, a spokesman for the commission, said the agency will review the issues raised in the letter and respond to Congress through its customary process.