Waterford – Millstone Power Station owner Dominion Resources thoroughly investigated and did not substantiate a contractor’s claim that he was fired for raising safety concerns about a co-worker abusing narcotics on the job, plant spokesman Ken Holt said Wednesday.

Holt was responding to allegations raised Tuesday by Stephen Lavoie of Niantic, a former insulation contractor who addressed Nuclear Regulatory Commission administrators during an annual public meeting about performance of the nuclear power plant. Lavoie urged the NRC to take action to ensure whistleblowers are protected when they raise safety concerns at Millstone and said the record of his case after a U.S. Department of Labor hearing in 2013 validates his claims.

Holt said Wednesday that Lavoie was laid off by the contracting company he worked for, Day & Zimmerman, in January 2011 “because there was not a demand for as many insulators as we had.” The decision had nothing to do with the safety concerns Lavoie had raised in November 2010, he said.

Sue Watts, spokeswoman for Day & Zimmerman, said the company "shares and echoes" Dominion's response. She declined to comment further.

Holt also defended Dominion's handling of safety concerns raised by its workforce.

“We encourage all workers to ask questions and raise concerns,” he said. “We do that without reservation, and all concerns are investigated.”

Holt said Lavoie’s claims were probed by Dominion investigators and by an independent investigator hired by the company, as well as by the NRC, and none of the investigations supported his contention that a co-worker was abusing oxycontin at work.

After Lavoie filed a claim with the Department of Labor claiming he was subjected to retaliation, Holt said, "We entered into a confidential settlement with him that resolved all his issues.”

“Nothing on the settlement imposes any restrictions on his ability to raise concerns,” Holt said.

Dominion considers the matter closed and does not believe any further actions are warranted, he added.

Ho Nieh, director of the division of reactor projects for the NRC’s Region 1, said Wednesday that the NRC would evaluate the concerns raised by Lavoie to determine whether there are any underlying plantwide issues at Millstone that need to be addressed. Once a case goes to the Department of Labor and a settlement is reached, he said, the NRC “wouldn’t get involved in the personal remedy.”

In letters to Lavoie in 2013, the NRC said it would not investigate the matter further and considered the case closed.

Nieh said NRC’s regular inspections include evaluations of the safety culture of the plant.

“We have not seen any indication of degradation of the safety culture at the facility,” he said. “Individuals seem to be free to raise concerns, and it appears to be a healthy, safety-conscious work environment.”

Lavoie said Wednesday that he stands by the allegations he raised Tuesday and that the layoff was orchestrated by Dominion and Day & Zimmerman to get rid of him. Comments by the Administrative Law Judge Jonathan Calianos in the Department of Labor hearing vindicate his claims and demonstrate that the NRC needs to take further action, he said.

“I want to work at Millstone again and I want the people who lied to be charged with misconduct and banned” from the plant, he said. He said that despite the assurances of the NRC and Dominion, contractors and employees at the plant “do not feel confident raising safety issues.”

j.benson@theday.com

Twitter: @BensonJudy