Resident Inspectors Chosen for New Vogtle Units
Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials in Atlanta recently announced the selection of Kenya Carrington and Patrick Heher as resident inspectors for the construction of Vogtle Units 3 and 4, new units being built near Waynesboro, Ga.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials in Atlanta recently announced the selection of Kenya Carrington and Patrick Heher as resident inspectors for the construction of Vogtle Units 3 and 4, new units being built near Waynesboro, Ga., about 26 miles southeast of Augusta. The two new units are licensed to Southern Nuclear Operating Co., which operates the two existing Vogtle nuclear units at the same site. NRC announced this Feb. 28, along with the selection of Chris Safouri as its resident inspector at Southern Nuclear Operating Co.'s Vogtle Units 1 and 2. Safouri joins Senior Resident Inspector Matt Endress as the NRC inspectors for the two operating units.
Safouri joined the agency in 2015 as a reactor engineer in the Division of Reactor Projects under the Nuclear Safety Professional Development Program in NRC's Region I Office in King of Prussia, Pa. He served as an acting resident inspector at the Indian Point plant in New York and the Limerick plant in Pennsylvania. He has bachelor's and master's degrees in Nuclear and Radiological Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
NRC's announcement said the agency has separate resident inspectors assigned to the construction units.
Carrington was the resident inspector at the Quad Cities plant in Illinois before accepting the position at the Vogtle site. She joined the agency in 2010 and qualified as a reactor operations inspector in NRC's Region III Office in Illinois, and during her NRC career she has also served as an acting senior resident inspector and a member of an NRC special inspection team. She received her bachelor of electrical engineering from Wilberforce University.
Heher began his NRC career in 2006 as a technical reviewer in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation at NRC's headquarters in Rockville, Md. He was the NRC’s construction project manager for the Summer site in South Carolina before those units were canceled. He is both a qualified construction inspector and an operating reactor inspector. Heher received his bachelor of mechanical engineering degree from the University of South Carolina in Columbia and also received a master of nuclear engineering degree from the University of South Carolina.
Each operating U.S. commercial nuclear power plant site has at least two NRC resident inspectors. They conduct regular inspections, monitor significant work projects, and interact with plant workers and the public. Inspectors can serve for up to seven years at any one site.