Roger Wensil

Roger Wensil was America’s first nationally-recognized whistleblower at a nuclear weapons facility. The DuPont contractor BF Shaw Company fired Mr. Wensil after blowing the whistle on illegal drug sales, safety violations, and the systemic quality failures taking place at the Savannah River Nuclear Weapons Facility that provided weapons-grade plutonium for U.S. government. His case exposed the fact that whistleblowers at nuclear plants had no legal protection from retaliation. Mr. Wensil’s case was the impetus for Congress to enact nuclear weapons whistleblower protection in 1992.

Fighting to protect Mr. Wensil, the lawyers at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto were the first law firm to win a nuclear weapons whistleblower case. The Inspector General issued an order for Roger Wensil to be reinstated to Savannah River Nuclear Weapons Facility finding he had been wrongfully discharged. His case was the first of other successful efforts to protect atomic weapon whistleblowers under federal law.