Comments (11) | Add a comment
NRC senior staffers protest Yucca Mountain shutdown
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Three senior staff members at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission signed written dissents to the agency's ongoing shutdown of the Yucca Mountain project, according to documents made public Friday.
The documents show that the controversial directive from NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko last October to halt publication of a license report on the proposed Nevada nuclear waste repository continues to reverberate at the nuclear safety agency.
The staffers in January and early February signed protests to an update prepared by the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards detailing the ongoing termination of the Yucca program.
The status report did not "adequately characterize the confusion, chaos and anguish occasioned by the chairman's unilateral decision to disrupt the orderly process of SER development," wrote King Stablein, a project branch chief in the division of high-level repository safety.
The SER is the safety evaluation report that would have contained staff recommendations on whether a repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, could safely store thousands of tons of high-level nuclear waste. Volumes of the report were made public by the NRC last month, with the recommendations redacted.
Senior project manager Janet Kotra and Aby Mohseni, deputy director for licensing, also signed dissents, which were released by the NRC.
According to Stablein, staff on the high-level waste project recommended to Jaczko at an Oct. 12, 2010, meeting that completing the licensing report would benefit the nation and "would be by far the most efficient and effective use of resources."
Jaczko replied that "it would look more political to publish the SER volumes with findings" than to issue them without the recommendations, according to Stablein.
Jaczko had no comment on the meeting. The staffer's memo could add more logs to a fire surrounding Jaczko, a former science adviser to chief Yucca Mountain foe Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. Critics have accused Jaczko of politicizing the agency's handling of the nuclear waste issue.
The dissents are filed with Jaczko and the four other NRC commissioners, but there has been no indication of further action on them.
Comments
Terms & Conditions
The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The Review-Journal does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please use the Report Abuse button.
Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 24 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Regardless of whether any new nuclear plants ever get built again in this country, or even if we somehow magically come up with solar technology that will allow us to shut down all existing plants (solar technology that simply DOES NOT EXIST right now), we will still have to do SOMETHING with the waste we already have. To blow it off for one hundred or more years, and just HOPE that someone will figure out a better way in that time, is irresponsible at best.
Here we go again!! The lights must be off cause the roaches are starting to come out of the woodwork. But I'm getting the Raid can ready since that's what you do for all these pesky insects.
Don't move forward to 'winning the future' with being possibly the world's leader in nuclear technology, boost the diversity to NV's economy, reduce unemployment, raise the revenue coffers.....yea, don't go there.
"davelv wrote on March 11, 2011 08:28 PM: Once Obama is gone, Jaczko will be prosecuted and jailed for his malfeasance, high crimes, anti-deficieny violations, and misuse of power."
Another paranoid right-winger flat out making $#!+ up.
"Alvinjh wrote on March 11, 2011 07:30 PM: 22 more months--we won't have this kind of nonsense occurring after Jan. 2012."
The last time this right-wing extremist poster predicted something, it was that Dirty Sharry Angle would win her (failed) bid for US Senate. For the months leading up to Dirty Sharry's humiliating loss, this nutcase poster was even obsessive-compulsively counting down the days, every day, until that election, right here on these boards. That's right, FOR MONTHS, EVERY DAY. Does that sound normal?
LESSON: If you're in the market for a crystal ball to foretell the future, better not to buy it from Wal-Mart.
Dingy Harry will have to make a statement about this. Whore houses are out, cowboy poets are out, stinky tourists are out, Gov Gibbons is out, so who is to blame and comment on? Somehow, the blame has to go to Dean Heller! Not sure how Dingy will do it but Heller will be the Demorat fall guy!
Once Obama is gone, Jaczko will be prosecuted and jailed for his malfeasance, high crimes, anti-deficieny violations, and misuse of power.
Jackzo has additionally severely damaged the crediblity of the NRC.
Obama's legacy will be one of Chicago politics gone national.
22 more months--we won't have this kind of nonsense occurring after Jan. 2012.
"what the heck are they still doing there anyway?" --following the law dummy.
Fire 'em, what the heck are they still doing there anyway?