Entergy Corporation (Entergy) has promoted Tim Mitchell, vice president (VP) of operations at Arkansas Nuclear One (ANO) to senior vice president, engineering and technical services for Entergy Nuclear. Kevin Walsh, currently site VP at Waterford 3 station near Killona, will take on the role of site VP at ANO. Entergy has also promoted Joe Kowalewski, general manager of plant operations at Waterford 3, to site VP at Waterford 3.
Kowalewski’s replacement as general manager will be determined at a later date, and effective dates for the transition will be established at that time.
In this new role Mitchell will oversee key areas of Entergy’s nuclear operations, including engineering and project management. Prior to moving into his current position at ANO, he served in a variety of capacities within the company, including director of engineering and general manager of plant operations.
A tribute to Mitchell’s leadership is the 15 million hours logged by ANO without a lost time accident, as well as the five consecutive Institute of Nuclear Power Operations excellence awards.
“These moves demonstrate the quality of people we have within our organization,” John Herron, senior vice president, Entergy Nuclear Operations said. “Tim brings a wealth of leadership experience and a keen understanding of how to influence beliefs, values and behaviors to enhance overall organizational effectiveness.”
At this time, Mitchell will report to Herron while Walsh and Kowalewski will report to senior vice president and chief operating officer Jeff Forbes.
“The strong management experience of these leaders makes them ideal candidates to lead our nuclear fleet,” said Forbes. “These are all strong players in their roles today and I’m excited about their future with the company.”
During Walsh’s tenure at Waterford 3, he led the plant through Hurricane Katrina as general manager, gaining Federal Emergency Management Agency approval for restart in a remarkable eight days and returning the plant to full operations within two weeks. He also showed the ability to bring the best out of his employees, helping lead the site to four consecutive INPO excellence awards, a successful power uprate and the achievement of more than 15 million labor hours without a lost-time accident, spanning nearly 12 years.
Walsh received a senior reactor operator license in 1995 and has served in a number of vital roles during his career at Waterford including operations manager, shift manager and outage manager. Walsh joined the company in 1989 following an eight year career in the Navy nuclear program.
Prior to Kowalewski’s appointment as general manager at Waterford, he has built vast experience within Entergy, serving as general manager of plant operations and director of engineering at ANO. He also worked as a plant engineer, system engineering supervisor, electrical maintenance superintendent and system engineering manager. During the six years he served as engineering director, he led the site through implementing significant improvements in plant equipment reliability and major strategic capital improvements to the plant including: the first successful breaker to breaker run on unit 2, a successful power uprate on unit 2, a combined steam generator replacement, and a reactor vessel head and polar crane upgrade setting a world record for this type of outage on a B&W design plant.
Prior to joining the company in 1988 Kowalewski worked with Detroit Edison at the Fermi 2 Nuclear Plant in Monroe, Michigan.
Kowalewski became general manager of Waterford 3 in June 2007. In that capacity, he helped lead the site to its fourth consecutive INPO excellence scores, a successful mitigation strategy for first of a kind degradation mechanism of steam generators, eliminating the need for repetitive mid-cycle outages. Along with Walsh, he led the plant to the completion of a mid-cycle outage and refuel outage with no Occupational Safety and Health Administration recordable accidents, resulting in three consecutive outages with no OSHA recordables and 15 million man-hours with no lost time accidents.