Letter to Mr. Nils Diaz, Chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
August 6, 2004
The Honorable Nils Diaz
Chairman
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555
Dear Chairman Diaz:
We write in full support of the State of Vermont's recent requests regarding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (hereafter the NRC or the Commission) upcoming engineering inspection at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station. We believe these requests will help ensure the integrity of the inspection process and keep the State and the public better informed of the inspection team's activities.
We understand that the NRC inspection will begin next week and extend through the end of August. We appreciate the additional criteria the NRC has adopted to ensure the independence of the inspection team members and would like an opportunity to review their professional experience when the members are announced. We believe that it is very important that the team leader and other members be available, per the State's request, to brief both the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel and the Commissioners of Public Service and Public Safety. We also believe it is important that the NRC schedule a meeting to brief the public on the issues examined and findings of the inspection before the inspection report is finalized.
Finally, we support the State's request for an extension of the public hearing filing deadline. As noticed in the Federal Register on July 1, 2004, the current deadline expires August 29, 2004, well before the completion of the engineering inspection report. We agree with the State that the inspection team's findings should be available to interested parties well before the public hearing filing deadline and believe the deadline should be extended.
We believe that the NRC has the discretion to accommodate all of these requests and urge that NRC act to do so promptly so that the State can be fully apprised of the process from the beginning. We further believe that granting these requests will be important to the public's acceptance and confidence in the findings of the engineering inspection
We appreciate your prompt attention to our request.
Sincerely,
JAMES JEFFORDS
PATRICK LEAHY
BERNARD SANDERS