Monday, Sept. 29, 2003 | 11:15 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- A 32-year-old nuclear physicist is at the center of a stalemate between Democrats in the Senate and the White House that could stall nominations to several boards.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said none of President Bush's executive branch nominees will move through the Senate until the White House considers Greg Jaczko, Reid's science adviser, for a seat on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Reid wants Jaczko, who holds a doctorate in particle physics, to fill an open seat on the NRC, the federal regulatory agency for nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities, reserved for a Democrat.
The hold includes the nominations of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, who has been picked by the White House to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Navy Vice Adm. John Grossenbacher, President Bush's nominee for the open Republican seat on the NRC. Reid will not block judicial or military nominees, spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.
Reid says Jaczko is the best person for the job, while critics of the nomination see it as a yet another battle in the senator's long war against the Energy Department's plans to store 77,000 of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The commission ultimately will decide if the Energy Department can build the storage facility once it receives the license application, now scheduled for December 2004. The NRC also oversees the country's 103 nuclear power plants.
The appointment process is at a standstill now, leaving the commission two members short of its five slots.
Jaczko does not like to talk about the political battle brewing around his nomination but called the support from Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., "flattering." He believes he can be an effective commissioner, despite conflict-of-interest charges by critics of his potential nomination.
"Being a commissioner is about regulating the industry and something I would take seriously. It's a serious responsibility." Jaczko said.
But his critics say his work for one of Yucca Mountain's most vocal opponents creates a built-in conflict.
"Once you work for Harry Reid, you're going to be tainted on an issue like Yucca Mountain," Tripp Baird, director of senate relations at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank in Washington, said.
In fact, Baird said the hold is nothing but "bare bones politics" and the nomination a new way for Reid to try to slow the Yucca Mountain process down.
"It's another front he is opening," Baird said, adding that Reid knew the recommendation would "draw the ire of the administration."
Jaczko worked with Reid during the height of the congressional debate on the project last year, and although the White House has not said specifically why it rejected Jaczko, his Yucca work is the likely culprit. The White House supports the Yucca Mountain plan, and President Bush signed the order to move forward with it last year.
Jaczko began in the field studying physics and philosophy as an undergraduate at Cornell University. While earning his doctorate in particle physics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Jaczko worked on some political campaigns and became involved with public policy activities on campus.
"I found I was spending a lot of my free time doing these things," Jaczko. said. "I felt I didn't necessarily want to be a research scientist."
He finished his thesis and graduated in 1999 but instead of heading to a research job, he decided to come to Washington.
"I wanted to do something that would help others," he said.
Jaczko applied for an American Institute of Physics fellowship and, in 1999, ended up working in the office of Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass, for a year, using his science background to gain more of the political expertise he desired.
There he worked on several issues including NRC oversight work, since Markey sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the NRC.
When his year on the House side was up, Jaczko was hired to work for Reid on the Environment and Public Works Committee, focusing on nuclear safety issues.
Months later Reid gave up the chairmanship to Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont when Jeffords left the Republican party to become an independent in the summer of 2001.
After the switch, Reid's office hired Jaczko to advise the senator on clean air, climate change, nuclear and other energy issues.
"There are people who get it and there are people who don't get it," said Kai Anderson, Reid's deputy chief of staff, referring to Jaczko's understanding of the political process in Congress. "Greg gets it. That's not a common attribute for someone who's a Ph.D. scientist."
Jaczko worked with five or six people on the Yucca debate, but his science background gave him a different perspective beyond the senator's staunch opposition to the project.
"It gave me comfort that I could understand the technical aspects," Jaczko said. "I can look at some of the more technical things DOE has done, such as risk assessment and analysis and understand it. There is a lot of science that still needs work."
The nuclear industry objects to his nomination, arguing there could be a conflict of interest because he has worked on Yucca Mountain issues. Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman Mitch Singer said it is nothing personal against Jaczko, just a question of bias.
Brian O'Connell, director of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners' Nuclear Waste Program Office, said Jaczko's age also gives opponents fodder.
A 32-year-old Senate staff member probably does not have the work experience to regulate the industry. Grossenbacher, the Republican nominee, has 30 years experience on a nuclear submarine.
The association supports the Yucca Mountain project.
Jaczko says his past work could actually help him.
"Yucca Mountain is (a) challenging, complicated issue that must balance public safety, scientific and security concerns," Jaczko said. "I believe that my background has prepared me to objectively evaluate a license for Yucca."
Jaczko said his training as a physicist and work as a congressional staffer have exposed him to many different viewpoints about Yucca Mountain, and that gives him a good background to balance the scientific and policy issues associated with regulating a geologic repository.
Those who work with Jaczko also say he can put his own thoughts aside.
"He works in a bipartisan fashion," Anderson said. "He's not ideology driven."
Jaczko said he has been able to work well with Republicans, pointing out that when he worked on a nuclear security bill where there was a lot of bipartisanship. "The guy is tremendously ethical," said Francis Slakey, a lobbyist with the American Physical Society, who teaches a science and policy class at Georgetown University with Jaczko. Slakey is also the Upjohn Lecturer in Physics and Biology at Georgetown
Slakey and Jaczko work with the students on their projects no matter what their political affiliation.
"If the class is any indication, he's not the kind of guy who's going to pop off, isolate Republicans and try to just jam up the process. That's not his style," Slakey said.
"Greg is not some sort of partisan character who will try to sway students away from the topics of their choice," Slakey said. "So if they were to choose an issue that clearly has a Republican ring to it. ... he would work with them and show them how to get things done.
"How often do you have a guy in Washington who is able to do that?"
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