Natasha Childs - Image courtesy of NRC

SODDY-DAISY, TN - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has selected Natasha Childs as resident inspector at the Sequoyah nuclear power plant near Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., about 16 miles northeast of Chattanooga. The two-unit plant is operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Childs joined the NRC in October 2008 as a project engineer in the Resident Inspector Development Program in the NRC’s Region II office in Atlanta. She successfully completed the Resident Inspector Qualification Program and was the resident inspector at the Crystal River nuclear power plant in Florida until she was assigned to the Oconee facility in South Carolina in 2013. Prior to joining the NRC, Childs spent eight years working as a design engineer and system engineer at the Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan and the Watts Bar nuclear power plant in Tennessee. She attended the University of Illinois in Champaign, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering.

At least two NRC resident inspectors are assigned to each operating U.S. commercial nuclear power 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 a reactor site for up to seven years.

Childs joins Senior Resident Inspector Dave Hardage at the Sequoyah site.