NRC, Utility Execs Met Privately

[GACMail98@aol.com]

NRC, Utility Execs Met Privately
  .c The Associated Press
 
  By MELISSA B. ROBINSON
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) - Eager to get Millstone's Unit 3 reactor running again,
executives from New England's largest utility met privately with individual
members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at least 23 times since
March 1997, the agency's inspector general revealed Friday.
 
 Inspector General Hubert Bell concluded that the meetings did not violate any
laws because a quorum of at least three of the commission's five members was
not present at any of them.
 
 Private meetings with individual commissioners are allowed and rules that
prohibit one-sided communications apply only to specific proceedings, not more
casual conversations, Bell's office said in a report.
 
 An investigation into the nature of the meetings between executives of
Northeast Utilities and the NRC commissioners was launched in response to
complaints from individuals and law firms near the Waterford, Conn., nuclear
plant.
 
 The three-reactor Millstone complex has been shut down since 1996. A final,
all-day hearing on restarting the plant's Unit 3 reactor is scheduled at NRC
headquarters in Rockville, Md., next week. In December, the commission levied
a $2.1 million fine against Northeast Utilities.
 
 It's unclear how much lobbying for restart, if any, took place at the
meetings. All five NRC commissioners acknowledged the meetings occurred but
said they also regularly meet at the agency's headquarters with senior
officials from other utilities.
 
 Those meetings ``offer an opportunity for them to ask questions of the
licensees,'' Bell's report said. ``Only Commissioner (Nils) Diaz told (the
inspector general) that he thought the meetings with NU could be characterized
as 'lobbying' attempts,'' it said.
 
 In addition to the 23 meetings, Paul Blanch, an NU contractor and consultant,
met with NRC Chairwoman Shirley Jackson, Diaz and Commissioner Edward
McGaffigan on Nov. 14, 1997, the report said.
 
 Blanch said he requested the meeting as a private citizen, not a
representative of Northeast Utilities management, the report said. However, in
a letter requesting the meeting with Jackson, he identified himself as an NU
consultant and, later, provided a summary of the meeting to company managers.
 
 In the summary, Blanch said that if the NRC were to endorse restart ``today,
we would have affirmative votes from Commissioners McGaffigan and Diaz. I
think the chairman is going to be very sensitive to public opinion,'' the
report said.
 
 McGaffigan and Diaz acknowledged discussing Millstone with Blanch, but not
restart specifically, the report said. Jackson and two of her staff members
said she did not discuss any specific Millstone issues with Blanch.
 
 In the letter requesting the meeting, Blanch had proposed talking about
``whistleblower issues, effectiveness of the NRC's enforcement process, and
the NRC's identification and resolution of potentially significant safety
issues,'' the report said. Northeast Utilities had a history of punishing
whistleblowers, including firings.
 
 William Beecher, an NRC spokesman, rejected a contention that the private
meetings produced a one-sided view with commissioners, saying that on several
occasions they had heard from public critics of the plant at open meetings and
hearings in Maryland and Connecticut.
 
 AP-NY-05-29-98 2249EDT