Since 2002 Yucca Mountain in Nevada has been designated by law as a storage site for the nation's high-level nuclear waste, but construction on it has stalled. Opposition comes from Nevada's congressional delegation, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and the Obama administration. According to the Wall Street Journal, a directive from Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Gregory Jaczko effectively halted work.
At issue is a directive by Mr. Jaczko to agency staffers that effectively halted work on a key NRC report about a proposed waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. The inspector general alleges that Mr. Jaczko wasn't forthcoming with his fellow NRC commissioners about the implications of his directive.
In a June 6 report Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspector General Hubert T. Bell accused Mr. Jaczko "strategically" withholding information.
The dispute stems from a decision Mr. Jaczko made last fall to direct commission staffers to wind down the NRC's technical review of an application in favor of the proposed Yucca repository. A memorandum issued by Mr. Jaczko's office to NRC staffers said that because Congress hadn't passed a budget for fiscal 2011, which began last Oct. 1, the staff should use instead Mr. Obama's budget request, which called for terminating the project.
After Mr. Jaczko's directive was made public, Kenneth Rogers, a former NRC commissioner and Reagan appointee, called on Mr. Bell to investigate Mr. Jaczko's actions to determine "whether any legal or other improprieties have been committed." On Thursday, Mr. Rogers said he hadn't seen the inspector general's report.
Mr. Jaczko has said the directive was legal and was reviewed by the agency's general counsel. Mr. Bell's report, which is based on interviews with Mr. Jaczko and multiple agency staffers, concurs on those points.
But it also says Mr. Jaczko "was not forthcoming with" his fellow commissioners about his intent to use the budget guidance to halt work on the Yucca report.
The safety evaluation would have determined whether Yucca met NRC health and safety regulations. Yucca's supporters have long hoped to see the safety report made public, because they believe it will support the technical and scientific case for the repository.
Curious that the rationale for halting the evaluation was that Congress had not passed a budget. Which leads me to the observation that Senator Reid had a vested interest in not not passing a budget. Also, as the article quoted above notes, Mr. Jaczko was once a science-policy adviser for Senator Reid.
President George W. Bush, after some initial resistance, appointed Mr. Jaczko to a seat on the NRC in 2005 after Mr. Reid blocked Bush nominees for dozens of positions. President Barack Obama elevated Mr. Jaczko to the chairmanship in 2009.
Isn't it fascinating how a plan comes together. Whether by accident or be design, failing to pass a budget has become the means by which a former Reid adviser was able to delay a project that Reid opposes.
Comments