Investigation urged into NRC chairman’s actions on Yucca Mountain project

WASHINGTON -- A former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is calling for an investigation of Chairman Gregory Jaczko's handling of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, according to documents obtained late Wednesday.

Kenneth Rogers alleges that Jaczko acted apart from the other four commissioners in directing agency scientists to halt a review of the nuclear waste plan. Rogers questioned whether the agency's reputation for independence was being compromised.

"I respectfully request that your office initiate a review of Chairman Jaczko's recent unilateral actions to terminate the NRC staff's review of the ... Yucca Mountain application in order to determine whether any legal or other improprieties may have been committed," Rogers said in letter to commission Inspector General Hubert Bell.

Rogers, who was a commissioner at the nuclear safety agency from 1987 to 1997, could not be reached late Wednesday at his Maryland home.

A spokesman for the commission did not comment directly on Rogers' call for an investigation but said Jaczko was aware of his concern.

"The chairman did receive a letter from the former commissioner, appreciates his interest in this matter and looks forward to replying directly to Mr. Rogers on this issue," said Eliot Brenner, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's director of public affairs.

Rogers' letter to the inspector general was dated Oct. 8, following the disclosure that regulatory commission staff had been directed to "begin an orderly closure of high level waste activities."

Commission spokesmen said the guidance originated with the chairman as the agency's principal executive officer.

The disclosure roiled segments of the nuclear industry and officials in states such as Washington and South Carolina, where nuclear waste has accumulated at government-owned reservations. The officials are demanding development of a final resting place.

The call for an investigation pushes into the open tensions at the agency's headquarters in Rockville, Md.

It also is likely to fuel speculation that the commissioners are split on the Yucca project, which the Obama administration has shut down.

The Department of Energy had applied to build a nuclear waste complex 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, but President Barack Obama, at the prodding of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has zeroed out its budget and is seeking to withdraw the application.

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission judicial board ruled this summer the Obama administration did not have the authority to withdraw the project without authorization from Congress. Commissioners have yet to announce a final decision.

Attorneys within the nuclear industry and in affected states argue that if the license application remains active, the regulatory commission must by law continue to evaluate it.

Industry-leaning blogs and reports in the trade press have included speculation that politics might have colored the commission's handling of the Yucca Mountain issue.

Before joining the regulatory commission, Jaczko was science and appropriations adviser to Reid, who is in a tight re-election race.

Jaczko has not commented on the matter.

Reid has said it only makes sense for the commission to halt its work on Yucca Mountain because the project exists now only on paper.

The administration has shut down project offices in Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.

With his request to the inspector general, Rogers sent letters to the five current commissioners, including Jaczko. He also sent letters to Kristine Svinicki, William Ostendorff, William Magwood and George Apostolakis.

In each letter, Rogers said the regulatory commission had five members for a reason.

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency," he wrote. "It is not a department headed by a single administrator who makes decisions single-handedly.

"I am deeply concerned that the independence of the commission and thereby its integrity are under external attack," he wrote.

"Internally the judgments of each of the commissioners on an important policy matter are being circumvented."

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.