Editorial: Turning deaf ear to public

Friday, April 30, 1999 | 11:04 a.m.

One troubling episode began on Feb. 26 when the commission issued a 60-day public comment notice in the Federal Register regarding the relicensing of commercial nuclear power plants. Nevada has no nuclear power plants, so the title of the proposed rule, "Changes to Requirements for Environmental Review of Nuclear Power Plant Operating Licenses," caused it to go unnoticed here. What the commission failed to do in that notice's heading was declare the real purpose of the rulemaking -- consideration of proposed transportation routes of high-level nuclear waste through Southern Nevada. It was only by accident that a Nevada state official stumbled onto this, but it was too late to submit well-researched information. Officials sought an extension to comment on the possible dangers of transporting the world's deadliest waste through this valley, but the commissio n so far has refused to extend the deadline.

The bad news doesn't stop there. On March 1 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a proposed rule that would allow the commission to circumvent open meeting laws. The rule, if adopted, would permit meetings to be held in secret by three or more of the commission's five members. As it stands now, only two members of the commission can discuss business privately that is not open to the public. Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., is adamantly opposed to the plan. "With the NRC having control over some of the most dangerous and volatile substances known to mankind, the argument could be made that no federal agency should pay more attention to open meeting requirements," Bryan said. Bryan is so upset by what he sees as the NRC's lack of responsiveness to Nevada residents that he sent a letter to the White House Thursday threatening to withhold future support for any new nominee to the commission, including for the chairman whose term expires June 30.

The role of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the lives of Nevadans is intensifying as the Department of Energy's scientific investigation of Yucca Mountain picks up. For the commission to gain the trust of this state's residents it should scrap its secrecy proposal and reopen the public comment period for its assessment of the transportation of nuclear waste. Failure to do so will serve to increase Nevadans' suspicions that the commission places a premium on secrecy, a situation that -- if not reversed -- will erode the public's confidence in this agency.