ML20149M691
| ML20149M691 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Sequoyah  |
| Issue date: | 02/19/1988 |
| From: | Gejdenson S HOUSE OF REP., INTERIOR & INSULAR AFFAIRS |
| To: | Zech L NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20149M663 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8802260241 | |
| Download: ML20149M691 (3) | |
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g February 19, 1988 The Honorable Lando W.
Zech, Jr.
i Cnairman i
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C.
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Dear Chairman Zech:
This is in response to your letter of February 11, 1988, regarding the request of the Subcommittee on General Oversight and Investigations for documents relating to the NRC's investigation of alleged wrongdoing at the Tennessee Valley Specifically, the Subcemmittee has requested a draft Authority.
report by the Office of Investigations (and related documents) regarding alleged material falso statements by Steven White, director of the nuclear program of the Tennessee Valley Authority.
i The NRC has refused to provide the requested information at i
this time, indicating that the Subcommittee will have to wait to receive the documents until the Department of Justice has completed its "prosecutorial review."
The Commission's withholding of these documents causes us great concern.for a number of reasons.
The Subcommittee is legally entitled to the requested documents.
At no point have you suggested otherwise.
Thus, the NRC is withholding documents which it is legally obligated to l
provide.
Delay on the premise of "prosecutorial review" is de
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facto denial of those documents.
1 The Subcommittee has repeatedly assured the NRC that we will treat the documents most carefully.
We have repeatedly. assured the Commission that we would not want to do anything that would detract from the ability of the government to pursue appropriate criminal and/or civil actions.
We have provided these written assurances in good faith, and notwithstanding our legal entitlement to the documents.
Particularly undet these circumstances, it is difficult to credibly assert that simply 8802260241 880222 PDR COMMS NRCC I
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il providing the Subcommittee with documents would jeopardize civ or criminal actions.
I am also very troubled by the coincidence between the Commission's withholding of the requested docume h
NRC's Office of Investigations l
conducted an inquiry to determine whether Steven W 2 plant.
As you are aware, f
another of TVA's power plants, Watts Bar, with Appendix B ofIt NRC's regulations.
the NRC's own after a lengthy and rigorous investigation, investigators ha By your intentionally made material 1988, you essentially confirmed this letter to us of February 4, the NRC would not have referred the fact.
Had this not been so, case to the Justice Department.
It is our understanding that the Commission expects to meet 1988, to discuss very shortly, perhaps as soon as February 24, and pecaibly to decide whether to allow the Sequoyah 2 plant to Presumably that decision will be based at
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It is resume operation.
least in part on representations made by Steven White.
unfortunate that the NRC has chosen to withhold do whose supervision Sequoyah 2 falls. intended delay in providing the anticipated resolution of the Sequoyah 2 issue.however, only serves to emphasize the decision on Sequoyah 2,importance of the NRC's refusal to prov documents to which it is legally entitled.
This There is an additional issue of great significance.
Subcommittee has long been concerned with the disregard shown by the Commission for the role of the Office of Investigations (OI).
l By investigating wrongdoing on the part of licensees, OI performs As an "audit" agency, the NRC relies a critical function.
heavily on the truthfulness and accuracy of statements by Intentional utilities as to the safety of their power plants. false stateme If a licenses has safety of all of the plants it operates.
the intentionally lied to the NRC regarding one of its plants, credibility of assertions as to the safety of that or other plants must be called into question.
Recognition of the link between licensee wrongdoing, e.g.,
willfully lying, and the safety of nuclear plants was one of the For the Commission to primary reasons for the creation of OI. findings would be a very serious act in disregard of the OIThe NRC has itself recognized that the long-st matter.
problems at TVA are management related. James Keppler, was reported NRC's special team assigned to TVA,
3 to have said that White must be cleared before NRC will agree to "We have to have that issue resolved before we restart Sequoyah.
can conclude satisf actorily that Sequoyah can be operated safely" 10/31/87).
(James Keppler as reported in The Chattanooga Times, I do not see how the Commission can act on the Sequoyah 2 restart until the issue of Steven White's credibility has been While the Subcommittee is clearly entitled to fully resolved.
we are willing to suspend our request the requested documents, pending prosecutorial review in this one situation, provided If the NRC will provide the certain conditions are met.
assurances that the Subcommittee with clear, unequivocal Commission 1) will not vote on restart of Sequoyah 2 prior to and completion of prosecutorial review by the Justice Department,
,2b w111 provide the Subcommittee with the requested documents the within'2 days of completion of prosecutorial review, Subcommittee is willing to defer its request for the documents in question, pending completion of such review by the Justice in writing, Please provide us with such assurances, Department.
1988.
If the NRC is unwilling to extend the by February 22,necessary assurances, please provide us with the requested information by February 22, 1988, accompanied by an explanation of the Commission's. intended course of action on restart of Sequoyah 2 as it relates 'to the Steven White matter.
Pursuant to conversations between Subcommittee staff and NRC's Office of Congressional Affairs, our January 28th request for information regarding the TVA investigation should be read to include the memorandum from the Execut ve Director for Op rations requesting the OI investigation.
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