Richard Levernier had 23 years of experience as a nuclear security professional and identified security problems at U.S. nuclear facilities as part of his job. Specifically, after 9/11, he pointed out problems with contingency plans to protect US nuclear plants from terrorist attacks

Nuclear terrorism

Nuclear terrorism denotes the use, or threat of the use, of nuclear weapons or radiological weapons in acts of terrorism, includingattacks against facilities where radioactive materials are present...

, mainly that the plans assumed attackers would both enter and exit from facilities, whereas suicide terrorists would not need to exit. In response, the U.S. Department of Energy withdrew Levernier's security clearance and relegated him to administrative work. Levernier sought the assistance of the United States Office of Special Counsel

United States Office of Special Counsel

The United States Office of Special Counsel is a permanent independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency whose basic legislative authority comes from three federal statutes, the Civil Service Reform Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act and the Hatch Act...

 (OSC), which handles US federal whistleblower

Whistleblower

A whistleblower is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company...

 matters. It took four years for the OSC to vindicate Levernier, ruling that the Department's retaliation was illegal - but the OSC could not reinstate Levernier's security clearance, so he was unable to regain work in nuclear security.

See also

• Nuclear safety
  Nuclear safety
  Nuclear safety covers the actions taken to prevent nuclear and radiation accidents or to limit their consequences. This covers nuclear power plants as well as all other nuclear facilities, the transportation of nuclear materials, and the use and storage of nuclear materials for medical, power,...
  
  
• Gerald W. Brown
  Gerald W. Brown
  Gerald W. "Jerry" Brown is an American whistleblower who concerned himself with deficiencies in passive fire protection systems in US and Canadian nuclear power plants.-Thermo-Lag scandal:...
  
  
• George Galatis
  George Galatis
  George Galatis was a senior nuclear engineer and whistleblower who reported safety problems at the Millstone 1 Nuclear Power Plant, relating to reactor refueling procedures, in 1996...
  
  
• Nuclear power whistleblowers
  Nuclear power whistleblowers
  The GE Three are three nuclear engineers who "blew the whistle" on safety problems at nuclear power plants in the United States in 1976. The three nuclear engineers gained the attention of journalists and the anti-nuclear movement. The GE Three returned to prominence in 2011 during the Fukushima...