WASHINGTON, DC—The Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners quietly met on the afternoon of Monday, August 16, 2004 and by a unanimous vote of 3-0 decided to hold a public meeting at 9:25 AM EST on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 regarding an appeal of its licensing board's decision to deny a public hearing on the legality and safety of the restart of Ohio's controversial Davis-Besse nuclear power station. The only notification (attached) of the public meeting was emailed to the Toledo, Ohio attorney for Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and local interveners at 8:30 AM Tuesday morning—less than one hour before the meeting began.
Following its "open to the public meeting," the Commission promptly issued an Order and Memorandum (attached) affirming the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) decision by email to the Attorney Terry Lodge.
"We attempted to raise documented Davis-Besse fire protection violations and public safety concerns to NRC's restart panel back in December 2003, months before the restart," said Paul Gunter, Director of the Reactor Watchdog Project for Washington, DC-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). "Reminiscent of the same regulatory malfeasance that led to severe reactor corrosion and a near miss accident, the agency sunset its own Sunshine Law to circumvent serious public safety questions," he said.
NIRS and local plaintiffs pointed to publicly disclosed NRC documents where pre-restart NRC inspections of Davis-Besse records discovered "pretty outrageous" violations of mandatory fire protection for reactor safe shutdown equipment. [1]
"When serious safety allegations didn't fit the agency's restart script, NRC omitted them from any restart considerations," said Toledo Attorney Terry Lodge. "The grand jury investigating wrongdoing around Davis-Besse's hole-in-the head is public safety's last chance for any justice," said Lodge.
The ASLB dismissed contentions claiming that the plaintiffs had sought a hearing on actions beyond the scope of the NRC Restart Order. The plaintiffs then sought an appeal to the Commission.
"This is simply contempt for public participation in the reactor safety process," said Michael Keegan, a plaintiff in the Davis-Besse restart decision. "These rogues masquerading as regulators must be called out on the Congressional Oversight Carpet," concluded Keegan.