Vote timing nettles repository backers

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday defended his handling of Yucca Mountain, saying he did not delay his vote on the contentious nuclear waste site this fall to avoid affecting the hotly contested Senate race in Nevada.

Gregory Jaczko confirmed he withdrew his vote on the Nevada repository until late October but said it was not done to avoid complicating re-election for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a former boss whose campaign was based in part on his efforts to kill the plan.

"The commission process is a deliberative process that involves the work of all commissioners," Jaczko said. "No one commissioner had any preferential vote in the matter. We all have equal votes. If or when the commission has an order ready, it will move forward with an order."

Jaczko declined to discuss further the status of the Yucca Mountain case or the timing of his vote, saying he could not comment on a matter still under commission consideration.

Jaczko commented after the release of documents this week that prompted speculation among lobbyists, pro-nuclear bloggers and in the energy industry trade press that the commission's handling of Yucca Mountain has been colored by politics.

Jaczko was criticized earlier this fall after he authorized a budget directive that advised commission staff to transition away from a safety evaluation of the Yucca Mountain site.

The regulatory commission's inspector general has confirmed he is looking into the chairman's actions at the request of Republican lawmakers and a former commissioner, Kenneth Rogers, who requested the examination last month.

Jaczko declined to comment on the investigation but has said previously his decision to close out Yucca research was supported by commission counsel.

President Barack Obama's administration, encouraged by Reid, has zeroed out the Department of Energy budget for Yucca Mountain, shuttering the site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas and closing offices in Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.

The administration has asked the regulatory commission for permission to withdraw a 2-year-old license application to build a nuclear waste handling and burial site at Yucca Mountain. The four commissioners taking part in the case are said to be split, with Jaczko, who opposes the Yucca site, either on the short end of a 3-1 vote or in a 2-2 tie that would keep the license application active.

Letters made public Monday from Jaczko and the three other commissioners to Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., indicated they had cast votes in August and September, but a final ruling has yet to be announced.

Jaczko told Inhofe he cast his vote on Aug. 25, but then withdrew it "and continued active consultation with my colleagues" before he re-voted on Oct. 29.

Of the other commissioners, Kristine Svinicki said she voted on Aug. 25. William Ostendorff voted on Aug. 26. William Magwood said he voted on Sept. 15.

A fifth commissioner, George Apostolakis, has recused himself after disclosing that as an engineering professor at MIT, he took part in a Yucca program review in 2007 and 2008.

While disclosing they had cast votes, the commissioners did not say how they had voted. Under agency procedures, commissioners share initial votes and their reasoning as the basis for discussion, but a final tally is not disclosed until the commissioners can agree on an order to carry out their wishes.

There is no signal that such an order is forthcoming on Yucca.

Inhofe is disappointed in the commission's delay on the Yucca Mountain case, spokesman Matt Dempsey said. The Oklahoma senator, the lead Republican on the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, inquired where the issue stood after the agency told its staff to start wrapping up its nuclear waste research.

"Jaczko had told us before our committee he would have an open and transparent process," Dempsey said. "We certainly wanted to see a more transparent and open process at the NRC, and what we found is that this was delayed probably much longer than it probably should have been."

In letters last week to Reps. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Doc Hastings, R-Wash., Svinicki said she disagreed with the directive for commission staff to stop the license evaluation, which has the effect of shelving a report that was due this month.

Ostendorff echoed that sentiment in an Oct. 27 letter to Hastings. Former commission Chairman Dale Klein told the Platts energy news service on Monday taht Jaczko should have consulted Congress before shutting down the license review.

Jaczko, a senior adviser to Reid who handled Yucca Mountain matters before Reid lobbied to have him placed on the commission in 2005, said the agency is not in turmoil.

"If Congress wanted a commission that agreed with each other, they would not have a commission at all, they would have a single administrator for the NRC," he said.

"I am actually quite proud of the way the agency has handled this, quite proud of the culture we have that allows people to express their views fully, including the staff, and that they can do so without any fear of retribution."

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