Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey accused the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's inspector general today of failing to investigate retaliation against whistle-blowers who raise concerns about nuclear safety.

Markey, the ranking member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, asked the agency last summer to investigate claims from anonymous NRC workers that top managers were suppressing information and punishing whistle-blowers.

In a letter to NRC Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane, Markey said the agency has not yet looked into the issue, and that he's received more anonymous tips accusing Troy Pruett, the deputy division director of the Division of Reactor Projects at NRC's office in Arlington, Texas, of berating inspectors and suppressing information (Greenwire, June 4).

Inspector General Hubert Bell has not taken up the investigation and is either "unwilling or [not] capable" of looking into the matter, Markey said.

The IG, he said, has failed to investigate "a manager who consistently berates and belittles safety inspectors when they undertake aggressive enforcement actions, bases performance reviews on whether personnel agree with him on safety matters and alters inspectors' safety findings" in the face of technical disagreement.

Markey called on NRC to provide him with phone logs, emails and other exchanges that relate to employee complaints about Pruett. Markey also asked for any communication surrounding security issues at Nebraska's Fort Calhoun power plant, 19 miles north of Omaha.

Anonymous employees accused Pruett of overriding staff concerns about the plant, which was closed because of Missouri River flooding last year. The flood was followed by a fire in March that knocked out the cooling system for the used nuclear fuel.

Pruett, who didn't respond to a request for comment for this story, asked the House Ethics Committee earlier this year to reprimand Markey for damaging his credibility as a nuclear regulator without attempting to verify the validity of the letter and its contents (E&ENews PM, May 17).