Saturday, November 09, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NRC probes complaints about Yucca meetings

WASHINGTON -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating allegations by Nevada leaders that state officials were kept out of the loop on Yucca Mountain Project meetings between NRC and Energy Department staff.

The investigation is nearly complete, NRC spokeswoman Sue Gagner said Friday without providing further details. She said the findings of the investigation would be given to agency Chairman Richard Meserve. It was not clear whether the findings would be made public.

Nevada officials said they were contacted by an investigator on staff to NRC Inspector General Hubert Bell several days after Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa sent a complaint to Meserve on Sept. 18.

Del Papa charged that Energy Department and NRC staff members were holding private meetings to discuss the Nevada nuclear waste project without proper notification to state officials and the public.

She questioned whether the practice might violate regulations meant to ensure that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an impartial judge of the Energy Department's efforts to develop a high-level radioactive waste repository at the Yucca Mountain site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Bob Loux, head of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the NRC wanted to discuss the allegation. Subsequently, Charles Fitzpatrick, one of the state's nuclear waste lawyers, said he was interviewed Oct. 4 at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md., by investigator Cheryl Montgomery White.

Neither White nor an investigations supervisor in the inspector general's office replied to phone messages left Friday.

Del Papa sent a similar letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, but the matter has not been referred to Energy Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman, a spokeswoman said.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., raised the same issues in letters to Meserve and Abraham last month.

Del Papa said she made the inquiry after Energy Department officials at a September public meeting in Las Vegas made reference to communications with the NRC that didn't ring a bell with state officials. Loux, his staff and state-hired consultants closely monitor the Yucca project in an effort to expose flaws in the program.

At the meeting, Yucca Mountain Project head Margaret Chu said the Energy Department had made commitments to the NRC on five aspects of the repository program, according to the state's complaint.