Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
7/3/2014
George Apostolakis’ tenure as a Commissioner on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission came to an end this week, and it remains to be seen who the Obama Administration will nominate as a replacement. Apostolakis, who has served on the Commission since 2010, confirmed two weeks ago that he would not be returning as commissioner after President Barrack Obama elected not to re-nominate him to another term. “I am proud and honored to have served as a member of the U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the past four years and to have served as a member of the Commission’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards for 15 years, including a term as Chairman of the Committee, prior to my appointment to the Commission,” Apostolakis said in a statement. “I thank President Obama for the opportunity to serve. It has been an extraordinary professional and personal experience and a great privilege to work with my fellow Commissioners. I leave with great pride in what we have accomplished together.”
Apostolakis’ legacy at the Commission lies in his devotion to risk-informed decision-making, a quality that he was both celebrate and criticized for employing. One of his main goals for the Commission was to strengthen its use of Probabilistic Risk Assessment to determine regulations. PRA analysis tries to address quantitatively how current regulations and future regulations adapt safety by mapping out the probability of a devastating event like a terrorist attack or earthquake happening. “As a non-profit sort of watchdog organization, I would just like to personally congratulate Commissioner Apostolakis on such a long tenure,” said Matthew McKinzie, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s nuclear program. “We have great respect for his thoughtful approach to nuclear safety. One of Commissioner Apostolakis’ main goals was to strengthen PRA analysis within the NRC, and we would have liked to see him further that idea in the agency.” The Nuclear Energy Institute added: “Commissioner Apostolakis had an unwavering commitment to safety during his time at the NRC. He was at the forefront in pioneering risk management.”
Not everyone was as pleased, though, with Apostolakis’ use of PRA. Ed Lyman from the Union of Concerned Scientists criticized the abstract approach the now-former commissioner took to his decision-making. “I feel like his approach to regulation was a little too abstract,” Lyman said. “His specialty is probability risk assessment. He came onto the Commission wanting to increase their use of PRA in licensing decisions, in what is called risked informed regulation. What this really means is using numerical methods as ways to approximate the risk of reactor accidents to make regulatory decisions. The problem is that those type of analyses are not good enough to really make good decisions, and I have a feeling he was pushing things too far.”
Tenure Saw Discord in NRC With Previous Chairman Jaczko
Apostolakis’ tenure also saw the NRC go through a patch of discord under former Chairman Gregory Jaczko, who was instrumental in the shutdown of the Yucca Mountain repository program. Jaczko was accused of gross mismanagement, reaching a climax when the other four members of the Commission, including Apostolakis, sent a letter to the President highlighting a long list of grievances, including withholding information from the other Commissioners, berating the NRC’s professional staff, and reducing a female subordinate to tears with his words.
According to one industry official, this incident, as well as his recusal from Yucca Mountain licensing decisions, highlighted Apostolakis’ integrity. “Here’s a man who recused himself on the Yucca issue because it was the right thing to do due to his previous involvement with the project,” the industry official told RW Monitor. “Yet, because he was recused from that, I think it’s even more impressive that he engaged on the letter to the White House about Jaczko. It showed that Jaczko was more damaging to the Commission than just him being damaging to Yucca Mountain.”
How Will NRC Operate With Vacancies?
Apostolakis’ departure, combined with Commissioner William Magwood’s impending exit, calls into question how the NRC will operate in the immediate future. With the White House so far quiet on naming any potential nominations for the two opening positions, it appears the Commission will operate with three commissioners, instead of the usual five. One industry executive predicted that any nomination would not get Senate-approval until “at the earliest” in February of next year. The short legislative calendar, along with the backup of nominations for other federal positions, is likely to put the NRC on the back-burner until after the upcoming mid-term elections.
Leading candidates for the positions have begun to emerge, however. Jeff Baron, a congressional staffer for Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee; and Steve Burns, a former general counsel for the NRC, are rumored to have begun the vetting process for a potential nomination, RW Monitor has learned.
Both Magwood and Apostolakis were Democratic nominees, and their departures are set to leave majority control on the NRC to the Republican-nominated remaining commissioners—William Ostendorff and Kristine Svinicki. With important budgetary decisions for Fiscal Year 2016 and the Waste Confidence rulemaking looming around the corner, this shift in control could mean changes in Commission policy decisions, among them, Yucca licensing finances allocations. According to Lyman, the three commissioner mix could make for an interesting dynamic. “Commissioner Svinicki has been very hostile to any efforts, or most efforts, to strengthen safety,” Lyman said. “On the other hand, Chairman Macfarlane has skepticism about risk assessment. She is more committed to strengthening safety. Commissioner Ostendorff is kind of the swing vote. He is pretty level-headed, another thoughtful commissioner, so I think it will be an interesting dynamic.”
Regardless, many stakeholders have called for a quick nomination process. “Our hope would be that the confirmation process can proceed quickly,” McKenzie said. The NRDC’s main concern is Waste Confidence, an issue it would like to see before a full commission. “It’s such an important issue that it is worrisome that it would not go before a full commission to really engage it,” McKenzie said. NEI also called for a full Commission. “It is vital that the agency maintain a full complement of qualified, collegial commissioners,” it said.
