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r 1ESTI!!OllY OF D. DAVID ALTMAN, CllAIRMAN, CINCIliNATI ENVIRONMENTAL ADVISORY COUNCIL BEFORE Tile SUBC01211TTEE ON EllERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT OF Tile C0121ITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SEPTEMBER 14, 1982, ON THE ISSUE OF QUALITY ASSURANCE AT Tile ZIIRIER NUCLEAR POWER STATION IN MOSCOW, 01110 I am D. David Altman, an attorney practicing in the Cincinnati area and Chairman of the Cincinnati Environmental Advisory Council, a volunteer group of 23 citizens, with various types of expertise, experience and concerns that relate to the local environment.
The Cincinnati Environmental Advisory Council advises the City of Cincinnati on issues that relate to environmental health and safety.
It has, as an agency, no governmental power or authority.
It does, however, represent strong public. concerns.
In that connection, the Cincinnati Environmental Advisory Council has scheduled four nights of hearings on consecutive Thursdays in September in the City of Cincinnati Council chambers at City Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio.
The purpose of these hearings is to provide the public an opportunity, through expert witnesses who have agreed to appear, to hear facts on the safety and reliability of nuclear power facilities, with particular emphasis on the hearings after the first, on the quality assurance program at the Zimmer Nuclear Power Station, a facility of the Cincinnati Gas &
Electric Company. The specific goal of these hearings is to give the public the broadest practicable opportunity to be informed on the issues of safety and reliability of facilities like Zimmer.
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- The specific concerns that have motivated our hearings were recently addressed not only by the members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) who wanted to reopen the hearings on the licensing of Zimmer, but also by two of the remaining three members of the NRC who opposed reopening of Zimmer licensing.
Specifically, both Commissioners Ahearne and Roberts said that "[w]e can agree with the serious nature of the quality assurance issue at Zimmer" but then noted that formal Commission licensing hearings are not cost-effective or an otherwise effective way of informing the general public, but the objective of providing public information "can be met by holding more informal public meetings".
The' Cincinnati Environ-mental Advisory Council will be holding such informal public meetings.
As a way of addressing public concerns about the safety and reliability of nuclear power facilities, the Council has had considerable success.
The support by local media, i.e., TV, radio and newspapers, of our hearings and the pur-poses they espouse has, in general, been spectacular.
The media has energetically recognized the public's "right to know".
However, the Council has also had to confront some serious limitations, primarily of a legal nature.
One severe problem is that the Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company (CG & E) has determined that its appearance at these hearings would - _ _
r serve "no useful purpose", even though the sole purpose of the hearings is to inform the public about general matters af-fecting health and safety of nuclear power facilities.
The ability of members of the public to resolve, in their own minds, the serious safety issues raised by Zimmer, is burdened by CG & E's non-appearance.
Likewise, members of the Advisory Council are seriously concerned about the reluctance of some industry representatives, particularly those who could be expected to have the greatest familiarity with Zimmer's con-struction and operation, to appear as witnesses.
That re-luctance is due, at least partially, to their concern that their appearance, even to give general testimony about quality assurance, could adversely affect the nuclear industry.
We also have the problem of the agreement of the City of Cincinnati, approved by the City Council, to refrain from taking any action that could adversely affect CG & E's getting an operating license for Zimmer in exchange for CG & E giving the City the right to monitor the air and water impact of Zimmer's ongoing operations.
Information-gathering in a public setting is seen as a potential violation of the agreement.
This agreement has the effect (perhaps not intended) of depriving the regional public of the use of the City's powers to educe highly material testimony on safety and reliability issues.
Another obstacle is the fear of individuals with knowledge of alleged construction and quality control defi-y s-ciencies at Zimmer, to testify freely about their knowledge and experience, without fear of harrassment and reprisals against them (fears which, to my knowledge, seem to be justified).
Thus, the fact that the Cincinnati Environmental Advisory Council has no subpoena, or other governmental, power or authority to assure the appearance of knowledgeable wit-nesses or to protect such witnesses from possible reprisals against them, particularly in keeping, and getting deserved promotions in, their jobs and professions.
The Advisory Council's lack of such power must be considered a serious restriction on its capability to provide, in the most com-prehensive way, facts about the safety and reliability of nuclear facilities.
In the latter connection, however, this Subcommittee, the full Committee and the Congress can help the Cincinnati Environmental Advisory Council and the entire region which has legitimate concerns about nuclear safety and reliability, in two very important ways.
Those ways, I might add, are com-pletely consonant with President Reagan's "New Federalism",
that purports to offer local entities the tools they need to address locally and regionally significant local and regional concerns.
First, there is a singular need for Federal legis-lation to protect individuals in matters that are legitimately the subject of Federal regulation, from being harrassed, sub-ject to reprisals, or penalized in their jobs (by dismissal,
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demotions or other adverse actions) solely for providing to public bodies information that exposes significant deficiencies in the conduct or behavior of public or private entity officials when such conduct or behavior is within the purview of a reg-ulated activity.
This type of legislation, that would pro-vide, as a ninimum, the protection accorded Federal employees under existing " whistle blower" laws and regulations, would seem to have a particular urgency in the area of nuclear safety and reliability, with which this Subcommittee is concerned.
The other need for Federal action is for this Sub-committee, with its subpoena and related power (e.g. to enduce testimony under oath and where appropriate, to cite for con-tempt), to join with the Cincinnati Environmental Advisory Council in the fourth and last of its hearings, to assure that witnesses with vital knowledge about nuclear safety and re-liability, contribute as best they can to the process whereby citizens in the region who would be affected by the operation of Zimmer get honest answers to questions of enormous concern to them.
To that end, we propose that one or more members of the Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment appear with us i
in the Cincinnati City Council Chambers on September 30, given i
the legal authority they have (and we do not), to assure that all important testimony, including that of CG & E, is available and "on the record" to address what Commissioners Ahearne and Roberts have described as "the serious nature of the quality assurance issue at Zimmer".
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's-Mr. Chairman, I greatly appreciate the time and attention you have given me to address here issues that I am sure this Subcommittee is just as concerned about as the citizens of Cincinnati and the Ohio Valley.
Further, we would be extremely grateful for favorable consideration of the two requests we have made for Federal action.
Thank you very much.
I will be happy to try to answer any questions you may have.
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