Citizens' groups 'outraged' by TVA's plan to limit public

Citizens' groups 'outraged' by TVA's plan to limit public

By REBECCA FERRAR
News-Sentinel staff writer

Some citizens' groups are mad over TVA Chairman Marvin Runyon's plan to bar anyone from asking questions during the agency's board meetings.

"I'm really outraged by it," said Jenny Freeman, executive director of the Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning. "I think it's a really disturbing decision on the part of Mr. Runyon."

The Runyon format allows comments during board meetings but prohibits questions. Runyon also has changed the seating arrangement so the top managers sit in a row with their backs to the audience. The board faces the managers and the audience. At the end of the meeting is a "listening session," in which board members answer any questions. It is held after decisions have been made and after the managers have left.

Runyon introduced the new format Wednesday at his first board meeting.

"The decisions will be made, and we will have no opportunity to question those decisions," Freeman said Thursday. "I think the arrangement of the office managers with their backs to the public creates a barrier between the people who run this public utility and the public stockholders."

"The public doesn't get that much opportunity to have interaction with the office managers," Freeman said. "These are powerful people within the agency that we need to get to know."

Jim Price, Southeast regional director of the Sierra Club, says the seating plan makes it appear the board and the managers are "circling the wagons" and excluding the public.

"It's a very disturbing trend," Price said. "It's a reflection that there will be less opportunity for the ratepayers and other citizens to have a meaningful say. It's a retrenchment from the democratic process."

The Knoxville-based public interest groups object because they can no longer question board members or top managers before the three-member board votes on issues.

"This isn't a private corporation," Price said. "Every citizen in the valley owns stock in TVA and should be able to speak and question at the point of decision."

Runyon was a Nissan USA executive in Smyrna, Tenn., before coming to TVA.

Mark Siegel, director of Tennessee Valley Energy Coalition, is one who usually attends board meetings and questions such managers as TVA nuclear chief Steven White on items to be acted upon. At the January meeting, Siegel questioned White before the board acted on plans to lay off nuclear power employees.

Under the new arrangement, Siegel will not be able to do this. TVA's information office officials insist the agency answers all questions by citizens. Those answers, however, are not always given speedily and are given by the information office rather than the managers of the programs.

"Over the last several months, I have been one of the principal people who have talked to the TVA board at their meetings," Siegel said. "There has not been any abuse of the process that I'm aware of, and I've gotten very good feedback from TVA employees about the discussions which occurred."

Siegel said he will continue to make comments at the meetings.

"A major effect of the new format for Tennessee Valley Energy Coalition is that the nuclear program will be in effect shielded from questions about their operations," Siegel said. "We have not been able to get informal answers often from the nuclear program. For the general public which doesn't have access to the TVA staff, the new format will severely limit their ability to ask questions before TVA decisions are made."

Two mishaps put tests at Sequoyah on hold

TVA has stopped testing at Sequoyah Nuclear Plant for 48 hours because of two mishaps, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman said Thursday.

Ken Clark of the NRC's regional Atlanta office said the incidents would have had no great safety significance if the unit 2 reactor been operating.

TVA announced it would stop testing during heatup Thursday morning. TVA only recently began heatup at the plant, a crucial process in which the water in the plant is gradually raised to 547 degrees and all equipment is tested except the nuclear reactor. It is a necessary step before Sequoyah begins producing electricity again. The reactor probably will be restarted next month.

In one incident at Sequoyah, a worker dropped a piece of cable on a seismic monitor, which caused an alarm to go off in the control room even though there was no earthquake, Clark said.

The other problem occurred when about 465 gallons of water from the reactor coolant system was put into the wrong tank.

TVA is required to report such "unusual events" to the NRC, Clark said.