U.S. NRC Chairman Gregory JaczkoRyan Grim of Huffington Post, in an in-depth investigative report, documents

“[NRC Chairman Jaczko's] not ‘our guy’ by any means, he has voted to re-license plants that should probably be shut down” says Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear.  “But he does care about safety, in ways that the [other NRC Commissioners] do not.”

One of Jaczko's (pictured, left) greatest "transgressions" against the nuclear power industry and its right wing political supporters -- earning their eternal wrath -- seems to be his carrying out of President Obama's policy decision to phase out the Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste dump. Before becoming an NRC Commissioner, Magwood had advocated for opening the Yucca dump.

Media coverage of this "mutiny" at the highest levels of the NRC began on Friday, December 9th with U.S. Representative Darrell Issa's (Republican-California) public release of a letter from NRC Commissioners Magwood, Svinicki, Ostendorff, and Apostolakis to President Obama that was clearly marked "Not for Public Disclosure," and has continued up to the present, as documented, with links to the articles, at the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Project's What's News page.

The webcast of the 3 hour, 30 minute long hearing on these matters, conducted on Dec. 15, 2011 by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, chaired by U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), featuring the five NRC Commissioners as the sole witnesses, is archived online.

"...Yucca was originally Shoshone land, taken by the federal government in 1951 for weapons testing, said Kevin Kamps, a nuclear waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear.

And Nevada was chosen not because it was a good site, but because it had the fewest representatives in Washington of any state under consideration, critics say.

"The most common name for that legislation was the 'Screw Nevada Bill,' " said Kamps. "It never should have been targeted to begin with."..."

The U.S. government signed the "peace and friendship" Treaty of Ruby Valley with the Western Shoshone Indian Nation in 1863; it recognized Western Shoshone sovereignty at Yucca Mountain, throughout most of what is now the State of Nevada, as well as portions of California and Idaho.

The "Screw Nevada Bill," enacted into law in 1987, singled out Yucca Mountain as the only targeted site in the country to undergo further study as a potential high-level radioactive waste repository. The States of Washington and Texas, also on the target list, joined forces, and in coalition with eastern states also on the dumpsite target list, ganged up on Nevada. Texas and Washington had 32 and 12 Representatives in the U.S. House, respectively, whereas Nevada had but one. Texas and Washington also split between them the powerful positions of Speaker of the House and House Majority Leader at that time. Even Nevada's U.S. Senate delegation consisted of two low ranking first-term Senators. But one of those rookies was Harry Reid, who has since devoted his political career to stopping the Yucca dump, and now serves as Senate Majority Leader.

This Jan., 2004 photo by Gabriela Bulisova shows the frame of a sacred ceremonial Western Shoshone sweat lodge, with Yucca's west face in the background.

July seems to be the month for major Yucca decisions. On July 9, 2002, the U.S. Senate voted 60 to 39 to allow the U.S. Department of Energy to proceed with a construction and operations license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which George W. Bush signed into law two weeks later. Then, on July 9, 2004, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals (although comprised of a different three judge panel) ruled in favor of the State of Nevada and an environmental coalition, ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency back to the drawing board on its Yucca regulations (EPA had wanted to cut off regulations at 10,000 years, long before Yucca's worst radiation releases downstream; under court order, EPA acknowledged in 2008 that high-level radioactive waste at Yucca would remain hazardous for a million years!).

Although a major battle victory, today's ruling does not end this 25+ year long war over the Yucca dump. Under law, the NRC has until later this year (with the possibility for a one year extension) to issue a final "yea or nay" on DOE's 2008 Yucca application. In March 2010, Obama Energy Secretary Steven Chu moved to withdraw the application, but in late June 2010 a panel of three administrative law judges at NRC (the Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board, or ASLB) rejected the motion. The five NRC Commissioners have yet to sustain or overrule the ASLB ruling.

Reflecting the national significance of this court ruling is the widespread media coverage: Associated Press; The Hill (times two!); Hanford News and Tri-City Herald (Washington State); Augusta Chronicle (Georgia). The coverage is likely to expand as word spreads.

AP published an article based on the NRC staffpersons' prepared remarks for the House committee. The article reports that a senior NRC staff person on the Yucca Mountain review, Aby Mohseni, "just last week took the rare step of appealing a decision to the commission," that senior NRC leadership, especially Chairman Jaczko, was shutting down a process that should continue, and withholding analyses that should be made public. Mohseni was quoted as saying "It is becoming a little more obvious to all the staff here that things are not right...It has been a struggle for me to find a way to bring light on this issue so that at some point we will get this agency back on track to where it needs to be. Once politics penetrates the barrier into staff activities, we will quickly lose credibility with the public." But what about an NRC "contrarian" like Dr. Ross Landsman, who worked within NRC's system for decades to warn that dry cask storage of high-level radioactive waste at Palisades on the Lake Michigan shoreline violated NRC earthquake safety regulations? His warnings have been ignored by NRC since 1994, putting the drinking water supply for 40 million people at risk. If only his dispute with senior NRC leadership had gotten the honor and attention of a full congressional hearing, and Associated Press coverage. And is there nothing "political" about NRC's virtual rubberstamp of every nuclear proposal that comes before it -- such as 68 of 68 license extensions at dangerously degraded old reactors? Fortunately, AP did investigate that issue -- publishing a four part series last week on aging nukes.

In his concluding section entitled "Principal Lessons Learned that Could Facilitate Future Nuclear Waste Storage or Disposal Efforts," Gaffigan testified that federal government "transparency" and "cooperation" with local and state governments would help win support for dumps. He said "Education has helped foster public acceptance. For example, DOE's contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant gained public acceptance through education and training programs on the safe transportation of radioactive waste. One important aspect of education has been to dispel the inaccurate perception that nuclear waste poses risks comparable to nuclear weapons." (emphasis added) This last point is a real red herring -- opponents to risky radioactive waste transportation don't compare it to nuclear weapons risks. Also, WIPP shipments are risky, and have suffered accidents. In one, a collision spewed plutonium within a WIPP container that had already traveled 1,000 miles and had almost arrived at WIPP. Rather than contaminate WIPP surface facilities by opening the damaged container there, the shipment was sent 1,000 miles to Idaho, doubling transport risks with an already damaged container.

Gaffigan also emphasized the importance of financial "incentives" for dump host localities and states. Such tactics will undoubtedly be deployed to overcome resistance in the future, as the final BRC report in early 2012 will launch a new round of targeting "parking lot dumps."