Seeking the support of Mr. Reid and to win his pivotal state, President Obama promised during his 2008 election campaign to seek a different disposal site, and later eliminated most of the funding for Yucca Mountain. Mr. Jaczko, 40, was named to the chairmanship of the nuclear regulatory panel by Mr. Obama in 2009 with the explicit expectation that he would oversee the phaseout of the commission's work on Yucca Mountain. Mr. Jaczko, who holds a doctorate in particle physics, for a time served as a science adviser to Senator Reid. The regulatory commission's inspector general, Hubert T. Bell,
charges in the new report that Mr. Jaczko used his powers as chairman to carry out the president's wishes while running roughshod over his fellow commissioners. The report said that Mr. Jaczko failed to fully inform the other four members that he was issuing budget guidance that would essentially halt the commission's work on the project, which was to decide whether the Energy Department should be allowed to build and operate the dump. (In line with administration policy, the Energy Department had already laid off all the contractors and reassigned its staff.) Further, Mr. Bell asserts that Mr. Jaczko created a hostile workplace atmosphere with frequent outbursts of temper, favoritism in travel assignments and selective release of information to the other members of the commission.
AP: NRC Chief in Hot Seat
- In the two years that Gregory Jaczko has led the nation's independent nuclear agency, his actions to delay, hide and kill work on a disputed dump for high-level radioactive waste have been called "bizarre," ''unorthodox" and "illegal."
These harsh critiques haven't come just from politicians who have strong views in favor of the Yucca Mountain waste site in Nevada. They've come from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's own scientists and a former agency chairman. An inspector general's report released last week exposed the internal strife under Jaczko. The internal watchdog said he intimidated staff members who disagreed with him and withheld information from members of the commission to gain their support. The tactics disclosed in the investigative report are just the latest in a saga unfolding since President Barack Obama put the former aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is Yucca's leading opponent, at the helm of the agency in May 2009. Less than a year after Jaczko was named chairman, the Energy Department sought to pull back its application to construct the dump. Since then, Jaczko has made a series of decisions that have aided the administration's goal of shutting down Yucca Mountain. His purported reasons for doing so have come under attack by Congress, his fellow commissioners and in-house experts as being contrary to the 1982 law that requires the NRC to review the government's plans for an underground repository in Nevada for the country's spent nuclear fuel. Emails and documents gathered by investigators on three House committees and reviewed by The Associated Press, along with interviews with NRC staff members, paint an even more damning portrait of the NRC leader. They also raise questions about whether the agency's independence and scientific integrity have been compromised to advance a political agenda. "He was put there to stop Yucca Mountain, and that is what he is doing," said former NRC chairman and commissioner Dale E. Klein. Klein was appointed chairman in 2006 by President George W. Bush and left in March 2010.
Wall Street Journal: Report Slams U.S. Nuclear Regulator
- The U.S.'s top nuclear-power regulator "strategically" withheld information from his colleagues in an effort to stop work on a controversial proposed waste dump, according to a report by the agency's internal watchdog, a finding likely to inflame debate about how to handle the nation's nuclear waste. The June 6 report by Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspector General Hubert T. Bell offers an unflattering portrait of the NRC and its leader, Gregory Jaczko, who is described as having a temper that makes it "difficult for people to work with him." At issue is a directive by Mr. Jaczko to agency staffers that effectively halted work on a key NRC report about a proposed waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. The inspector general alleges that Mr. Jaczko wasn't forthcoming with his fellow NRC commissioners about the implications of his directive. [...] Mr. Jaczko's written statement didn't respond to criticisms about his management style.
The report says Mr. Jaczko's colleagues are sometimes "uncertain" whether he keeps them "adequately informed" on policy matters, and portrays the chairman as controlling. It paraphrases Mr. Jaczko as having acknowledged to investigators he sometimes uses "forceful management techniques to accomplish his objectives," but also having maintained that such techniques were "necessary to facilitate the work of the commission."
Wall Street Journal: STRASSEL: Obama's Nuclear Politics
- This tale begins in 2008, when candidate Obama was determined to win Nevada, a crucial electoral state. Catering to locals, Mr. Obama promised to kill plans-approved by Congress-to make the state's Yucca Mountain the repository for spent nuclear fuel. He was backed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevadan who has made Yucca's demise an overriding priority. Shortly after inauguration, Messrs. Obama and Reid teamed up to elevate Gregory Jaczko to chair the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the nation's independent regulator.
Mr. Jaczko was anything but a neutral designee, having served for years on the staffs of both Mr. Reid and Massachusetts' antinuke Rep. Edward Markey. As a Reid adviser, Mr. Jaczko headed up opposition to Yucca. The clear intent in making him chairman was to ensure Yucca's demise. Toward that end, the Obama Department of Energy quickly filed a formal request with the NRC to revoke the license application for Yucca. A coalition of states and industry groups-drowning in spent fuel-then petitioned to prevent the department from doing so. The issue was thrown to a panel of NRC administrative judges. Much to the administration's frustration, they ruled unanimously in June of last year that the Energy Department lacked the authority to "singlehandedly derail" a policy that had been directed by Congress. Enter the brass knuckles. The panel's decision was appealed to the five-member NRC board. This was Mr. Jaczko's moment to finally tank Yucca, only he ran into problems. While the board officially contains three Democrats and two Republicans, it has tended toward nonpartisanship and has in the past proved unwilling to overturn panel rulings. Worse for Mr. Jaczko, one of the board's Democrats recused himself from the vote. A 2-2 board decision is not enough to override the judges' verdict. All four commissioners had voted by September of last year.
Yet in an unprecedented display of political partisanship, Mr. Jaczko ultimately withdrew his vote, held open the process, and didn't revote until just before the November election. Why? The chairman had obviously lost the vote and didn't want the bad news hitting his former boss, Mr. Reid, before the polls closed in his hard-fought Nevada re-election. To this day, Mr. Jaczko has refused to close out the process and release the votes.
Reuters: Watchdog Says Top U.S. Nuclear Cop "Ruling by Intimidation"
- The head of the U.S. nuclear safety regulator loses his temper and uses threats and intimidation to try to get his way, the agency's own independent watchdog said in a report.
The report paints a picture of a toxic work environment at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at a time when the agency is working through whether it needs to change rules and oversee any expansion of the nuclear industry in the wake of the disaster at Japan's Fukushima plant. Gregory Jaczko, appointed by President Barack Obama to lead the NRC, did not break the law in his actions on one of the most controversial policy issues the NRC has faced -- what to do about a nuclear dump proposed for Yucca Mountain, Nevada, said Inspector General Hubert Bell in a 46-page report. But Jaczko "strategically provided ... varying amounts of information" to the four other commissioners who helm the agency," the report said. Jaczko "withholds information to the commission by either suppressing papers or manipulating the agenda planning process," commissioners' staff told the IG, and "often yelled at people," according to a former chairman. "Chairman Jaczko acknowledges that he sometimes loses his temper. He said he worked to control it and there are times when he has wished he has said or done things differently," the report said.
National Journal: IG Report Criticizes NRC Chairman Over Yucca Mountain Decision Process
- The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission made unilateral decisions to shut down Yucca Mountain and didn't fully inform the other commissioners about his actions, according to a critical report released on Friday by the commission's inspector general.
NRC Chair Gregory Jaczko "was not forthcoming with the other Commissioners about his intent to stop work" on the Yucca Mountain repository application, the report says. Jaczko stopped work on key parts of the application as they were nearing completion at the end of FY2010, according to the IG. "The chairman anticipated that proceeding to close out in this manner could be controversial and viewed as a policy decision for full Commission consideration. Therefore... he strategically provided three of the four other Commissioners with varying amounts of information about his intention to proceed to closure," the report says. The report was released on Friday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. NRC Inspector General Hubert Bell will testify on Tuesday to the Environment and Economy Subcommittee on his report, which was completed and sent to members of Congress and the commission on Monday.
PoliticoPro: Big Mistake
- It also says he gave selective information to commissioners and staff about a budget guidance memo that Jaczko was using to angle the agency toward closing out the project. He told the staff that the other commissioners had agreed to the document, but in fact only one commissioner agreed with it, one commissioner hadn't seen it, and two had seen it but didn't recognize the impact it would have. In addition, the report says Jaczko confronted Commissioner Kristine Svinicki angrily after she proposed making changes to a document that cited a lack of congressional funding as a reason for ending work on reviewing the Energy Department's license application for Yucca Mountain. Jaczko, a former science adviser to Reid, interpreted her proposed changes as implying "a belief on her part that he was at the NRC for the purpose of dismantling and terminating the Yucca Mountain program at the bidding of Sen. Reid," the IG reports says. Svinicki told investigators that Jaczko was "very animated" and "objected to the perceived accusation." The report also details commissioners' objections to Jaczko's decision to stop work on a safety evaluation report for the project. Jaczko told the staff not to hasten publication of the safety report, even after finding out they were ahead of schedule, and ultimately had them stop work on it. Jaczko also had the agency refuse to publish the final version of the safety report.
Commissioner William Ostendorff told the IG investigators that he had challenged Jaczko on the decision to delay and then terminate the safety report, calling it a "big mistake" that would look like interference in the staff's handling of an outstanding legal decision. He "cautioned the chairman that he would likely have to deal with any accusations of tampering with the proceedings if word got out that he had provided such direction," the IG wrote.
