Hickey named senior resident inspector at Robinson plant

Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials have selected Jim Hickey as the new senior resident inspector at Progress Energy’s Robinson nuclear power plant, located near Hartsville.

Hickey joined the NRC in December 2003 as a project engineer in the Resident Inspector Development Program in the Region II office in Atlanta. He later served as a resident inspector and then-senior resident inspector at Southern Nuclear’s Hatch nuclear power plant near Baxley in south Georgia. Before joining the agency, he was a submarine reactor operator in the U.S. Navy and held a number of positions at FPL’s Turkey Point nuclear plant in south Florida.

Hickey received a Bachelor of Science, specializing in electrical engineering, from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1987. He held a senior reactor operator license at the Turkey Point plant from 1992 until he joined the NRC in 2003.

“Jim Hickey has the experience and commitment to safety to carry out the NRC mission of protecting people and the environment, and to help ensure the safe operation of the Robinson plant,” NRC Region II Administrator Luis Reyes said in a press release.

At least two NRC resident inspectors are assigned to each U.S. commercial nuclear plant. They serve as the agency’s eyes and ears at the facility, conducting inspections, monitoring major work projects and interacting with plant workers and the public. Resident inspectors can serve at one site for up to seven years.

The Robinson resident inspectors can be reached at (843) 383-4571.