Three Resign From A-Plant Board

PIKETON, Ohio

August 8, 2009

 Three members of a citizens board
>> created to oversee cleanup of nuclear waste, future land use and
>> environmental management at the U.S. Department of Energy's atomic
>> plant site at Piketon have resigned, charging that DOE has failed to
>> abide by federal regulations and guard the panel from substantial
>> conflicts of interest.
>>
>> Lorry Swain, Lee Blackburn and Andrew Lee Feight, Ph.D, all three
>> submitted their resignations, effective immediately, shortly after
>> the meeting of the Portsmouth Site Specific Advisory Board got under
>> way Thursday evening at The Ohio State University Endeavor Center,
>> off Shyville Road just south of Piketon.
>>
>> As members of the board's Future Land Use Committee, the three
>> charged in a combined statement issued above their names, "We were
>> deceived by DOE officials and members of our own board who had
>> significant conflicts of interest."
>>
>> The problem of conflicts of interest became "particularly clear,"
>> their statement said, with the June 18 announcement that USEC Inc.,
>> Duke Energy, the French company Areva, UniStar Nuclear Energy and the
>> local Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI), plan to build
>> a nuclear reactor at the 3,700-acre Piketon site, owned by DOE.
>>
>> The board was never consulted regarding the plans, "...
>> which clearly impacts future land use, cleanup levels, and the
>> board's reason for being," the three said in their statement to DOE
>> officials.
>>
>> One of the chief objections by the resigning board members was that
>> the proposed nuclear reactor to be built there goes against the
>> board's recent recommendation that "the future use of the Piketon
>> site never include the interim storage of spent nuclear fuel."
>>
>> "As no permanent storage facility for spent nuclear fuel is currently
>> accepting such high-level radioactive waste,"
>> they said, "the proposed reactor will of necessity include the
>> interim storage of spent nuclear fuel at Piketon."
>>
>> The three charged that planning involving the nuclear reactor took
>> place in secret over a span of months prior to DOE's June 18
>> announcement, at which time the board was developing a recommendation
>> in favor of locating a new alternative "Energy Park" at the site and
>> making more general recommendations regarding future-use of the site.
>>
>> It said that DOE's Conflict of Interest Guidance calls for members of
>> the board to not be employees of DOE contractors, "yet some board
>> members are employed by DOE contractors or hold positions with the
>> DOE-funded community re-use organization known as SODI."
>>
>> DOE's hiring of SODI's executive director to oversee the
>> site-specific board was questioned by some board members, who said it
>> posed a conflict of interest because SODI proposals would be coming
>> before the board for recommendations.
>>
>> The 100-seat meeting room was filled, with a few people standing, and
>> most of them applauded as the three resigning board members listed
>> their reasons for quitting to several DOE officials on hand at the
>> front of the room.
>>
>> Geoffrey Sea, with the Southern Ohio Neighbors Group (SONG), came to
>> the microphone to call for termination of the current board and
>> creation of a new one.
>>
>> He said Dan Minter, a member of the advisory board and former
>> president of United Steel Workers Local 689 in Piketon, is vice
>> president of SODI.
>>
>> Bobby Graff, current president of Local 689, is also a member of the
>> advisory board. "As president of the local, they seem to think that's
>> a conflict, too," Graff said following the meeting. "And I also
>> attend SODI meetings.
>> My personal take is that these people are anti-nukes. What I don't
>> understand is why it took them a year to figure things out. I could
>> see from the very start of this advisory board that there were people
>> on it with different agendas."
>>
>> Ohio's U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, speaking at the June
>> 18 announcement of the nuclear power plant, praised SODI officials
>> for working for the past eight years to see jobs like those that
>> could be created by the plant's construction and operation become a
>> reality for the Piketon area.
>>
>> "We call for the immediate investigation of all relationships, these
>> accusations, and any conflict of interest or financial interests
>> existing between SODI and the Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office as
>> they now stand,"
>> Sea said. "You (board members) have had a year and you have
>> completely violated several federal laws by refusing to enforce
>> conflict of interest issues. We conclude there is no citizens
>> advisory board of Piketon. This board cannot continue to function in
>> that capacity. There needs to be a new board established."
>>
>> Sea, a strong backer of the Obama Administration's energy policies
>> (while saying USEC backs the Republicans), in the past has called for
>> the entire atomic plant site to be designated as a manufacturing
>> center for renewable energy technology, and that the American
>> Centrifuge Plant being built there by USEC not be granted a $2
>> billion federal loan guarantee it needs to continue development of
>> the plant - chiefly because of the nuclear waste it would create.
>>
>> USEC, in announcing the proposal for the new nuclear power plant at
>> Piketon, referred to the endeavor as the Southern Ohio Clean Energy
>> Park Alliance.
>>
>> The local community will receive great benefit from the plant,
>> officials said, pointing out that during the initial licensing
>> efforts, several hundred well-paying jobs may be created. Based on
>> industry estimates, an average of 1,400 to 1,800 jobs could be
>> created during nuclear plant construction with a peak of 3,000
>> workers. The plant could employ 400-700 permanent workers once it is
>> in operation.
>>
>> The Portsmouth Site Specific Advisory Board is a DOE-appointed
>> citizens panel that provided advice and recommendations to DOE on its
>> Environmental Management program. DOE advertised for applications for
>> the positions and then appointed 20 members living from Waverly to
>> South Shore, Ky. Each member was appointed for two years. There is a
>> limit of no more than three two-year terms, or six years possible
>> service on the board. Members serve without compensation.
>>
>> The Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office, located in Lexington, Ky., has
>> oversight of the board.
>>
>> The board came into existence just over a year ago. The resignations
>> of Blackburn, Feight and Swain left the board now with 15 members.
>>
>> Dorsey Stebbins told plant officials he had filled out an application
>> to serve on the board, but was withdrawing it.
>>
>> "I'm not willing to waste my time nor the taxpayers'
>> money on it," he said. "This board has been compromised.
>> This is not democracy."
>>
>> The board has members with a wide diversity of opinions.
>> Board member Terry Ann Smith made a motion that anybody on the board
>> working for a contractor at the plant site to "get off" the board.
>> The motion died for lack of a second.
>>
>> Smith is a member of Portsmouth-Piketon Residents for Environmental
>> Safety and Security (P.R.E.S.S.) and also a member of the National
>> Nuclear Workers for Justice.
>>
>> After her motion failed, she left her seat at the table and sat in
>> the audience beside Vina Colley, a former worker at the Portsmouth
>> Gaseous Diffusion Plant and president of P.R.E.S.S.
>>
>> Colley addressed DOE officials about her continued concern for the
>> health of citizens of the community. She cited statistics showing
>> residents of Pike and Scioto counties have some of the highest
>> incidents of cancer of any area of comparable size in the nation.
>>
>> Cristy Renner made a motion, seconded by Minter, to invite the three
>> resigned members to return to their positions on the board. The
>> motion passed unanimously. All three declined.
>>
>> Board member Michael Payton of New Boston said later that he didn't
>> see the resignations coming.
>>
>> "I had sensed some dissension over us not knowing about the nuclear
>> power plant ahead of time, but the company really didn't have to tell
>> us, the way I see it, until they made the public announcement. We
>> only get into certain areas. We make recommendations. We don't have
>> the authority to order anything. Some of the board members think
>> differently. That came out loud last night. But you can work for
>> change without attacking people."
>>
>>
>>
>> G. SAM PIATT can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 236.
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