Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
6/20/2014
A group of 34 environmental activist groups this week called for the resignation of NRC Commissioner William Magwood for accepting a position with an international organization that promotes nuclear energy while he still served as a regulator, according to a letter sent to Magwood. Magwood announced earlier this year that he would be leaving the Commission sometime this summer to take over as Director General of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Nuclear Energy Agency beginning in September. The group accused Magwood of compromising his impartiality in his role as independent safety regulator by negotiating for the position while still in office. “You have fatally compromised your role as an independent safety regulator by negotiating for and accepting the position of Director-General with the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s (“OECD’s”) Nuclear Energy Agency (“NEA”), an organization (a) that actively promotes “the development of the production and uses of nuclear energy;” and (b) whose policies are set by member governments, including a number that own or sponsor U.S. nuclear licensees and applicants,” the letter said. “In appearance and in actuality, you are now committed to an organization whose mandate to promote nuclear energy as well as the economic interests of its members is antithetical to the basic principles of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 that safety, not economics, must be the NRC’s paramount consideration and that promotional policies shall be left to the U.S. Department of Energy.”
The group calls for his immediate resignation as well as a retroactive recusal from decisions made in the past nine months. “In order to avoid the reality and the appearance of bias in future decisions, you should resign from your position as NRC Commissioner,” the letter said. “In addition, you should disqualify yourself retroactively from all safety decisions you made after applying to the NEA for your position.” The group especially noted the votes Magwood made concerning the expedited transfer of spent nuclear fuel to dry cask storage and the adequacy of the scope of NRC’s safety regulations in light of lessons-learned from the Fukushima accident. “Given that further research on both issues could have led to the imposition of additional costly safety requirements on reactor licensees, in conflict with the NEA’s interests in minimizing reactor costs, a reasonable person would question the objectivity of your vote against further inquiry by the Staff,” the letter said.
The letter also cited a past Office of Inspector General report, as precedent, that found that then-commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield had violated federal ethics rules by accepting a position in the nuclear industry, similar to Magwood’s pending exit. Merrifield left the Commission in 2007 to accept a position with CB&I. “As you should be aware, the NRC’s OIG found that former Commissioner Merrifield violated federal ethics rules by soliciting employment with the nuclear industry while serving as an NRC Commissioner, without recusing himself from decisions in which his prospective employer had a financial interest,” the letter said. “Like Commissioner Merrifield, you have failed to take measures to ensure that your employment negotiations and acceptance of a position with an organization that promotes the nuclear industry would not create a conflict of interest with your responsibilities as an NRC Commissioner.”
The NRC declined to comment, but Magwood’s office said, “The commissioner has only just received the letter and is reviewing it, and will prepare a written response to the authors.”
