TVA fires Watts Bar project manager

[bananas]

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/jan/30/tva-fires-watts-bar-project-manager/

Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011
TVA fires Watts Bar project manager
By: Dave Flessner

The Tennessee Valley Authority fired the head of America's biggest nuclear power plant construction project on Friday with the $2.5 billion program still two years away from completion.

Masoud Bajestani, one of TVA's top nuclear managers in charge of completing the Unit 2 reactor at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, left the Spring City, Tenn., plant Friday afternoon when his five-year contract for the Watts Bar project was terminated after less than four years.

<snip>

Bajestani is a 54-year-old nuclear engineer from Iran who previously helped direct the restart and rebuilding of TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Athens, Ala. He was appointed in 2007 to direct the completion of the unfinished Unit 2 reactor at Watts Bar, which Mould said is on scheduled and on budget.

Bajestani earned $619,000 in income and bonuses, according to testimony in his divorce proceedings last year. He testified in that case that he also was eligible for performance bonuses and at least another year on his contract beyond 2012 if the new reactor is completed as scheduled.

<snip>

A comment someone posted to the article:

I could never understand how he was the head of a Startup of a nuclear power plant and he was allowed to travel home to see his father (in Iran). I have been told his father is a high up official in large construction projects in Iran presently.

It indeed is very interesting that he was so quickly moved out of the way, when this Unit 2 plant is currently in a very important part of construction completion and Startup commencement.

There is a lot more to this story and I hope that the media does its job an find out some of the truths that TVA has not seemed willing to disclose. For TVA to have a very highly compensated and knowledgable person in the resurgence of nuclear power in the area, be swept away is highly unusual for any corporate structure.

Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_Bar_Nuclear_Generating_Station

The Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station is a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) nuclear reactor used for electric power generation and tritium production for nuclear weapons.

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy:

http://www.cleanenergy.org/index.php?/Take-Action.html?form_id=51&item_id=93

Both the existing and proposed nuclear reactors at Watts Bar are ice condenser reactors. This type of reactor, commonly referred to as having “eggshell-like” containment, is considered to have serious design flaws. You can read more about ice condenser reactors in Kenneth Bergeron’s Tritium on Ice, available as a Google Book.

<snip a lot of other problems with this reactor>

[kristopher]

1. I was struck by that situation also...

It is important to make clear that even if this was related to security it need not have been triggered by anything that Bajestani actually did himself. I've worked in that kind of security environment and I've seen it happen that sometimes events in a person's life make them subject to coercion and, therefore, an unacceptable security risk.

That said, it is easy to imagine the worst given the dynamics of global politics and the extreme sensitivity of nuclear power to the possibility of sabotage.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/26/us-iran-nuclear-russia-idUSTRE70P6WS20110126

[bananas]

2. I wonder if we'll ever find out why they fired him

I have a feeling this will just go down the memory hole.
Google still only finds a couple of news articles about it.

[BeFree]

3. bushco strikes again

I can hardly believe that a guy who has interests in Iran and the nukes therein, is hired by bushco to do a nuke here.

bushco damn near bombed Iran because of the nuke plant being built there, and all this time our engineer probably had a hand in it?

Maybe the IEA inspector who is coming to power in Egypt had a chance to inform Obama about this most curious situation?

[TNLib]

4. Just an update to this

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_193558.asp">Link


I suspect he was fired for lieing to TVA and drawing on his deffered account, then sending money to Iran. Most likely this was investigated by IG (Inspector Generals office) after his divorce a year ago. And since it takes an eternity for IG to investigate anything, they have probably just now finished up their investigation, and management was finally able to give him the boot.

I have in the past worked for TVA contracting and perm for about 10 years. This is first person I've ever heard of anyone being fired ever.