BRATTLEBORO — A squad of top-level Entergy and Entergy Nuclear executives have been appointed to a new management team to restore the trust of Vermonters, Entergy Nuclear announced late Wednesday.

The team will be headed by a top-level Entergy executive, Curtis L. Hebert Jr., a former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, who has worked for Entergy since 2001.

Hebert's appointment comes one day after the company announced it had removed Jay Thayer, vice president of operations, from his position in Vermont.

Hebert is Entergy Corp.'s executive vice president for external affairs and is based in New Orleans.

Thayer was placed on administrative leave pending the results of an investigation into allegations that Thayer and other Entergy Nuclear executives misled Vermont utility regulators over the existence of underground pipes carrying radioactivity at Vermont Yankee.

Thayer has since apologized for his statements, but didn't explain why he made them.

The misinformation came to light after the company announced Jan. 7 there was a radioactive leak at the plant, and that the radioactive isotope tritium was showing up in a monitoring well on the banks of the Connecticut River.

In the past month, the levels in that monitoring well have climbed steadily, and a new monitoring well drilled last week has shown even higher levels of tritium – four times the safe drinking water standard.

On Wednesday, the company said the level of tritium in the first contaminated well climbed higher, while the level in the other well declined slightly.

Hebert was first appointed to the federal energy panel by President Bill Clinton and made chairman of the agency by President George W. Bush in 2001.

Hebert is a former Mississippi utility regulator who, according to published reports, is viewed as a protégé of former Senate Majority leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.

Other members of the team include Arthur Wiese, Entergy Corp.'s vice president for corporate communications; Kenneth Theobalds, vice president for government relations for Entergy's Northeast Nuclear division; Donald Vinci, vice president for business development for Entergy Nuclear; James Steets, vice president for communications at Entergy Nuclear Northeast, as well as Allison Graves, director for federal energy policy.

Two Vermonters who work for Entergy Nuclear were also named to the team, Brian Cosgrove and Larry Smith. Cosgrove will manage relations with state government and Smith will coordinate communications and media relations. Both men are longtime members of the public relations staff of Entergy Nuclear, dating back to before Entergy bought Vermont Yankee in 2002.

Cosgrove is a former executive director of the Vermont Republican Party, and Smith, before he worked for Entergy Nuclear, was a longtime radio newsman in Brattleboro.

"This situation needs to be fixed, and through Curt's leadership and direct engagement with Vermont leaders, I have every confidence it will be fixed as quickly as possible," said J. Wayne Leonard, Entergy's chairman and chief executive officer, via a prepared statement.

Entergy Nuclear officials Wednesday refused to confirm Hebert's appointment until after 6:30 p.m., and declined to answer direct questions about the goals of the committee.

In a press release, Hebert said the company was "placing the highest priority on finding the cause of the tritium and remediating any contamination."

"At the same time, we must reconcile the conflicting statements made to the Department of Public Service," he said, noting Entergy Nuclear had hired an outside, independent law firm to "fully investigate" the matter. "And most importantly, to make sure it does not happen again," Hebert said in the statement.

Thayer has apologized for making statements that turned out to be untrue about the existence of underground pipes carrying radioactive materials at Vermont Yankee. Thayer was not the only top-level Entergy official to make such statements about the underground pipes, which were of concern to investigators because they had often been a source of leaking and contamination at other aging nuclear reactors.

Entergy officials had denied such pipes existed, although the company submitted reports it now says detailed the existence of such underground systems. The company never corrected the record until the tritium leak surfaced last month.

"Entergy has unequivocally acknowledged its responsibility for the controversy," the company concluded in its Wednesday press release.

Hebert reports directly to J. Wayne Leonard, Entergy Corp.'s top executive.

The news of a top-level Entergy executive coming to Vermont to restore Vermonters' faith in the company drew a biting retort from one veteran Statehouse observer, former Rep. Bob Stannard, who now is a lobbyist for the anti-nuclear group Citizens Awareness Network.

"When a snake sheds its skin, it's still a snake," Stannard said.