Reid won’t block nominee for NRC post

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., will not stand in the way of a new term at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for William Ostendorff, a central figure in the agency's debate over Yucca Mountain, a Reid spokesman said Friday.

Ostendorff was one of the commissioners at the nuclear safety agency who disagreed with the decision by chairman Gregory Jaczko last October to have staff stop working on a license review for the controversial Nevada nuclear waste site.

As such, the engineer and former Navy submarine commander has been seen as a "no" vote if the commissioners ever finalize a decision whether to allow the Obama administration to withdraw the license application and kill the project for good.

Ostendorff's term expires on June 30, and there has been speculation that Reid, the Senate majority leader who wants badly for Yucca Mountain to go away, might allow it to lapse.

But Reid has decided not to block Ostendorff's confirmation to a new five-year term, Reid spokesman Zac Petkanas said.

"Senator Reid has strong concerns about Commissioner Ostendorff’s record on Yucca Mountain, which they discussed during a recent meeting," the spokesman said.

"However, although Senator Reid has concerns about Mr. Ostendorff, he will not block his confirmation."

Petkanas added the NRC is a bipartisan commission, "and this is Senator (Mitch) McConnell's pick," referring to the Senate Republican leader from Kentucky.

Senate officials said this week Ostendorff's confirmation and that of a group of other Obama administration nominees were being "hotlined" with a goal of finalizing them before senators go home on July 1 for a weeklong Independence Day recess.

"Hotline" is Senate jargon for seeing if a piece of legislation is noncontroversial enough to be approved without debate or a recorded vote.

"We always work to confirm every nominee on the calendar prior to a recess, but inevitably some get tripped up by holds," Petkanas said.

"We won’t know the composition until the day of, but NRC commissioner Ostendorff is someone we’re trying to confirm."

Following a confirmation hearing last month, Ostendorff won an 18-0 recommendation by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.