March 17, 2000

President William J. Clinton
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Clinton:

Last fall, the NRC held a meeting to solicit the opinions of both the nuclear industry and the public on the NRC’s intention to shift from formal to informal hearings on reactor issues and on the licensing of Yucca Mountain as a high-level waste repository.

We see no reason to give away our rights to cross-examination and discovery in order to garner the minimal benefits of an informal hearing. We believe that this move to circumscribe the public’s rights in NRC hearings is wrong and will further erode public confidence in the NRC, the nuclear industry and any potential resolution of the high-level nuclear waste problem.

While the NRC may have the ability to limit the public’s hearing rights, to do so would be to renege on promises already made to and relied upon by the public. According to former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford:

The current NRC adjudicatory hearing process was developed as part of a bargain from which the nuclear industry gained a great deal in the late 1950s. In return for accepting extensive federal hearings, the industry was exempted from any state and local regulation of radiological health and safety and received the limitations on liability that are set forth in the Price-Anderson Act. Thus, citizens in any community in which a nuclear facility was to be located – gave up both local regulation of the facility and the additional financial and safety assurances that normal insurance industry operations would have brought . . . . In return they got a commitment to the full panoply of trial-type procedures as part of the federal licensing process. Now that memories have faded, the industry is seeking to revoke its share of the concessions in that original bargain.

 

The Commission acknowledges that:

the NRC declared in 1978 that the hearing it would hold on an application to construct and operate a nuclear waste repository for high level waste would be formal. In final rules published in 1981, now codified at 10 CFR Part 2, Subpart J, the Commission provided for a mandatory formal hearing at the construction authorization stage and for an opportunity for a formal hearing prior to authorizing receipt and possession of high level waste at a geologic repository.

Any attempt by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to renege on promises previously made to the public can only further erode confidence in the agency’s ability to adequately protect the public health and safety. The undersigned national environmental organizations and grassroots citizen’s groups ask that the NRC halt any legislative and regulatory efforts to limit our rights to formal hearings in the decisions that effect our families, homes and communities.

Sincerely,

Grassroots/Consumer/Environmental:

ARIZONA

CALIFORNIA

CONNECTICUT

DELAWARE

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

FLORIDA

GEORGIA

HAWAII

ILLINOIS

INDIANA

IOWA

KENTUCKY

LOUISIANA

MARYLAND

MAINE

MASSACHUSETTS

MICHIGAN

MINNESOTA

MONTANA

NEW JERSEY

NEW MEXICO

NEW YORK

NEW HAMPSHIRE

OHIO

OKLAHOMA

OREGON

PENNSYLVANIA

SOUTH CAROLINA

TENNESSEE

TEXAS

VERMONT

WASHINGTON

WISCONSIN

CC:

Chairman Richard A. Meserve
Commissioner Nils J. Diaz
Commissioner Greta J. Dicus
Commissioner Edward McGaffigan, Jr.
Commissioner Jeffrey S. Merrifield

More info: Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project Press Release
To learn more about the Critical Mass Energy Project visit www.citizen.org.