Feb 28 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Sean Adkins York Daily Record, Pa.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., plans to propose legislation that would create a federal office aimed at addressing concerns raised by nuclear-industry whistle-blowers.

Casey said the separate office would have a specific budget, be part of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and feature a toll-free hotline in which workers may relay their issues.

"I would want this office to focus on whistle-blowers and carry out investigations on those types of issues," he said.

Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the NRC, said the commission's office of allegations and enforcement currently deals with those issues.

"If a worker at plant has a concern but does not feel comfortable with going to plant management or if they have done that and their issues have not been satisfactorily addressed, they can come to the NRC anonymously," he said.

The commission would review those allegations and determine if an investigation is warranted, Sheehan said.

Casey plans to discuss his proposed legislation as well as the events surrounding security officers that were recorded last year sleeping within the ready room of the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station at a U.S. Committee on Environment and Public Works hearing slated for 10 a.m. today in Washington, D.C.

The ready room is an area where officers are allowed to relax but must remain ready to respond to emergencies.

Monday, Casey took a two-hour tour of the power station that included excursions into the plant's control room, the ready room and a guard tower.

"I think [the plant] has made changes that, I think, will prevent [guards sleeping on the job] from happening again," he said.

One of those changes include the addition of cameras to the ready room, Casey said.

"It's one thing to say changes have been made, and procedures have been put in place, but we'll have to see," he said.

A change that needs to be in place would involve a set of procedures that can deal with the concerns of nuclear-industry whistle-blowers in an appropriate and confidential way, Casey said.

"You have to have procedures in place in which the employees are comfortable bringing issues like [the sleeping guards at Peach Bottom] forward," he said. "In this case, that didn't happen."

Earlier this week, Casey met with Kerry Beal, the former Wackenhut Corp. guard who videotaped his fellow officers napping on the job at the power station.

In September, CBS News aired Beal's videos that eventually led to the plant terminating its contract with Wackenhut and creating a new in-house force, Exelon Nuclear Security.

"I do feel that Kerry Beal did do the right thing," Casey said. "He shouldn't have had to travel the distance and endured what he had to endure to have the problem addressed."