Editorial: No place for bias in review

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2003 | 8:49 a.m.

The chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board is at it again. Michael Corradini, whose objectivity on the Yucca Mountain project has been questioned before, recently co-authored a column in a Wisconsin newspaper in which he contended that the transportation of nuclear waste and its storage at Nevada's Yucca Mountain can all be done safely. It's outrageous that the chairman of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, an independent body charged with investigating the safety of the Yucca Mountain project, would show such bias. The irony is that, prior to Corradini joining the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, the group had been viewed by even critics of Yucca Mountain as being relatively evenhanded.

Corradini, chairman of the engineering physics department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was appointed by President Bush to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board in June 2002. But Corradini has never been a paragon of objectivity. Corradini, before his appointment, was listed as an "expert" by the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear power industry's lobbying arm. And Corradini has testified before Congress that the stalemate over Yucca Mountain was unacceptable and was due to political reasons.

Corradini has been unable to quell his biases and give a fair shake to all sides in the Yucca Mountain debate, so in February Nevada's congressional delegation asked President Bush to demand that Corradini step down, but it was to no avail. Corradini's recent comments show that he still doesn't get it. Corradini should resign and let someone join the review board who can examine this incredibly important matter with the high degree of impartiality that it deserves.