NRC Commissioners Appointed

Two physicists with extensive experience on Capitol Hill have been sworn in as commissioners on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission following months of showdown politics between the Bush administration and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). Reid’s science adviser, Gregory Jaczko, was appointed to the commission by President Bush only after Reid blocked about 40 of the administration’s nominees for everything from the ambassador to Ireland to the US attorney for Oregon.

The administration resisted Jaczko’s nomination because he is closely identified with Reid’s staunch opposition to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility in Nevada. The Yucca license is set to come before the NRC sometime in the next two years. As part of a compromise between the administration and Reid, Jaczko was appointed for only two years instead of the normal five-year term. He also will not vote on any Yucca-related matters for his first year. Jaczko has a PhD in particle physics from the University of Wisconsin—Madison.

A much less controversial appointment to the NRC was Peter Lyons, the long-time science adviser to Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM). Domenici is a strong advocate of Yucca Mountain. As part of the deal that got Jaczko on the NRC, Lyons is also appointed for only a two-year term but has no restrictions on voting on Yucca-related issues. Lyons, who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1969 to 1996, has a PhD in nuclear astrophysics from Caltech.