The Tennessee Valley Authority recently notified financial regulators that its outgoing chief nuclear officer will be eligible for a bonus, in addition to 2013 annual incentives.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission made public Friday, the federal utility announced Preston Swafford would leave by Oct. 4, and that he would receive a payment of $552,488 "in connection with his resignation." That is in addition to an "executive annual incentive plan" payment and the "executive long-term incentive plan" payment for the period ending Sept. 30. Amounts for the other incentives were not listed in the filing. According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, which first reported the story last week, TVA paid Swafford $2.3 million in fiscal 2012.
Swafford has been TVA's CNO since 2006, overseeing its six-reactor fleet. One of those reactors, Browns Ferry 1, remains under close Nuclear Regulatory Commission oversight after a red finding associated with a faulty valve in a safety-related system discovered in 2010. Longtime Exelon executive Joseph P. Grimes will step in to the CNO position after Swafford's retirement.