Former Worker Says AmerenUE, NRC Dropped Inquiry

ALAN SCHER ZAGIER

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A former AmerenUE engineer is accusing the utility and the federal agency that regulates nuclear power of failing to adequately investigate a 2003 incident that led to a two-hour unplanned shutdown at the Callaway reactor.

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission investigation found that control room operators delayed a move to insert control rods — equipment required to keep the reactor shut down — since the error occurred just before a scheduled shutdown for maintenance. The NRC called the delay "not prudent," but noted it did not threaten human safety.

After discovering the problem four years after it occurred during a routine review and alerting plant managers, nuclear engineer Lawrence Criscione claimed retaliation by his supervisors, including a negative performance review and the loss of his operators' license.

Criscione was paid more than $500,000 in a confidential settlement in exchange for his resignation in 2008 and an agreement to not pursue any future legal claims against the St. Louis-based utility, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.

But he continues to push his discrimination claim with members of Congress, state lawmakers and the NRC, which ended its investigation after the settlement. While his complaint spurred the NRC review, Criscione argues in the documents that had he known the agency would drop its investigation, he wouldn't have accepted the company's payment.