Senators Meet With Nominee for NRC

May 25 - Las Vegas Review - Journal

Nevada's senators met Tuesday with the official nominated to become chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but said little as to whether they found him acceptable to head the agency that might consider allowing high-level nuclear waste to be stored in the state.

Dale Klein told Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R- Nev., he believed he could be objective in judging a waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Ensign said after their 20-minute meeting.

Ensign said he remained uncertain about Klein, who had appeared in nuclear industry TV commercials in Nevada during a Yucca Mountain push in the early 1990s.

"He gave the patented response that he would let sound science determine everything," Ensign said of the meeting. "I told him if somebody has a biased attitude, then sound science is different to that person."

Reid declined to talk about the meeting amid signs that a deal already was in the works for Klein's confirmation to a five-year NRC term. As Senate minority leader, Reid has the power to block or grease the skids for nominees.

Klein also declined to comment.

Klein is a nuclear waste expert and former University of Texas professor and associate dean who serves at the Pentagon as assistant to the secretary of defense for nuclear, biological and chemical programs.

As chairman of a five-member commission and leader of the regulatory agency, Klein would set a course for the agency that has 3,300 employees and a $760 million budget. The NRC regulates nuclear power plants and management of nuclear waste and other nuclear materials.

Staff scientists at the agency have been monitoring Energy Department plans to submit an application for nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain. Commissioners would have the final word after license hearings.

Klein's nomination became a flashpoint for some Nevada officials and anti-Yucca activists because he took part in a series of television commercials 15 years ago as part of a Yucca Mountain public relations drive in Nevada.

Critics questioned whether Klein's participation in the so- called "Nevada Initiative" compromised his ability to be impartial in judging Yucca Mountain. Klein at the time was a faculty member at the University of Texas.

Klein's supporters say he appeared in the commercials as a scientist and not a repository advocate, and his remarks were noncontroversial.

Klein's meeting with the Nevada senators took place amid indications a Senate deal was in the works no matter the outcome. The deal reportedly would place Klein at the NRC while extending the terms of two others on the five-member nuclear commission.

One of them is Gregory Jaczko, a former Reid science adviser who the senator has said he wants to keep on the commission. The other is Peter Lyons, a former adviser on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and formerly a manager at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

On Tuesday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the nominations of all three, and Chairman Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said they were moving forward as a bloc.

Inhofe was asked afterwards if he and Reid had reached an agreement on the nominees.

"I'm not sure there is a formal agreement," Inhofe said. "I think we had a discussion and there shouldn't be a problem."

Inhofe and Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said they wanted to get the slots filled as soon as possible. The NRC will assess plans for new nuclear power plants and other pro-nuclear initiatives encouraged by the Bush administration.

Senate officials said the three could win final approval by the end of the week.

"They've got a lot of work to do and we've come to an agreement that all of them are qualified," Inhofe said.

Referring to Jaczko and Lyons, Voinovich said, "we've worked it out so they both can remain on the commission."