A public records lawsuit made headlines in Nebraska this week by disclosing severance payments for former executives overseeing the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant.
Fort Calhoun was offline for more than two and half years following flooding on the adjacent Missouri River and a fire that led to a red finding and intensive oversight from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. An extensive improvement program was put in place and Exelon now manages plant operations for the Omaha Public Power District. Shortly after Exelon took over in 2012, OPPD Chief Nuclear Officer David J. Bannister resigned.
The Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1483, which represents about a fourth of OPPD's employees, pursued legal action to compel the release of compensation information for several OPPD managers who left in the last five years. The Omaha World-Herald reported Wednesday that payments to seven former managers totaled nearly $1 million, including $255,600 in severance and $100,000 in unused vacation time paid to Bannister. The paper also reported that OPPD's former site vice president and division managers of nuclear engineering and nuclear performance improvement received severance payments between $100,000 and $144,000.