nuclear-news

Row over membership of USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Her [Kristine Svinicki’s]  term expires in June, but President Barack Obama has not announced whether she will be nominated to a new term, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has made it clear he will oppose her….
A spokesman for Reid said the delay in Svinicki’s nomination had nothing to do with her complaint against Jaczko, a former Reid aide who has denied bullying anyone at the NRC. 

“Sen. Reid opposes Commissioner Svinicki’s re-nomination because she lied to Congress about her past work on Yucca Mountain,” Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson said Wednesday.

Svinicki said during a 2007 confirmation hearing that she had not worked directly on the Yucca Mountain project while working at the Energy Department in the 1990s, a statement Jentleson and other Democrats called false. Department records show that Svinicki co-authored technical papers on waste disposal issues related to Yucca Mountain in the mid-1990s

Reid has supported qualified Republicans for the NRC and is open to
supporting another GOP nominee.

GOP leader: Obama targets nuclear regulator Google News, By MATTHEW DALY,  19 April 12 WASHINGTON (AP) — Last December, Kristine Svinicki and other members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told Congress that the NRC’s Democratic chairman was an intimidating bully whose actions could compromise the nation’s nuclear safety.
The commissioners – two Democrats and two Republicans – said NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko was responsible for an increasingly tense and unsettled work environment, and that women at the NRC felt particularly threatened.
Svinicki, the only woman on the five-member panel, said she was so
uncomfortable around Jaczko that she asked her chief of staff to “keep
watch” over a private meeting with the chairman in her office.
Now Republican senators say Svinicki is being targeted by the White
House and Democratic leaders in the Senate. Her term expires in June, but President Barack Obama has not announced whether she will be nominated to a new term, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has made it clear he will oppose her….
A spokesman for Reid said the delay in Svinicki’s nomination had nothing to do with her complaint against Jaczko, a former Reid aide who has denied bullying anyone at the NRC. Jaczko has supported efforts by the Obama administration to close down a proposed nuclear waste dump at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. Reid, a Nevada Democrat, is strongly opposed to the project.
“Sen. Reid opposes Commissioner Svinicki’s re-nomination because she lied to Congress about her past work on Yucca Mountain,” Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson said Wednesday.
Svinicki said during a 2007 confirmation hearing that she had not worked directly on the Yucca Mountain project while working at the Energy Department in the 1990s, a statement Jentleson and other Democrats called false. Department records show that Svinicki
co-authored technical papers on waste disposal issues related to Yucca Mountain in the mid-1990s, while working for the agency’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.
Svinicki was traveling Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.
But she told a Senate hearing last year that she did not work on the
Yucca Mountain license application, reaffirming her 2007 testimony.
Svinicki worked at the Energy Department for seven years before
joining the staff of then-Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, in 1997……
Reid has supported qualified Republicans for the NRC and is open to
supporting another GOP nominee. Under NRC practice, the president’s
party gets to name three of the five NRC commissioners, including the
chairman, with two members designated as minority members.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jS-JZNr1anMSmhOKuLUabd5YuY_w?docId=90970ccf695e4d2bacb9842dde838c44

April 19, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general