Group urges TVA to think about junking nuke program

Group urges TVA to think about junking nuke program

By RANDELL BECK
The Knoxville Journal

The Tennessee Valley Authority should seriously consider scrapping its $16 billion nuclear program now that legal questions have halted a massive rescue effort, a citizens group says.

The departure of 17 full-time contract managers Monday — and probably more today — should convince the agency that the cost of rejuvenating the program is too high, said Mark Thompson of the Tennessee Valley Energy Coalition.

"It seems all the efforts of the past year and a half have made very little headway," Thompson said. "It's time to consider an alternative to what we have now."

While the TVA board met in Washington, D.C., with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, Stone and Webster Engineering Corp. announced that it had recalled 23 employees who had been helping nuclear czar Steven A. White turn around the troubled program.

Six of the affected employees were advisers at TVA and did not occupy management positions.

Still, Stone and Webster chairman T.J. Whelan said in a letter to TVA, questions raised by the ethics office had convinced him that the managers faced "some risk of legal action."

White took an indefinite leave of absence Friday after David H. Martin, director of the ethics office, told the TVA board that the nuclear czar might be breaking a federal conflict-of-interest law.

In the Oct. 15 letter, Martin suggested White had run afoul of the law, which bars federal employees from awarding business to firms in which they hold a financial interest.

TVA had obtained White's services through a complex agreement with Stone and Webster.

'The people have a right to know whether it is a good investment to restore the TVA nuclear facilities and whether guarantees can be made as to their safe operation.'

Rep. Ronnie Flippo, D-Ala., in letter to President Reagan

"We strongly disagree with Mr. Martin's conclusions," Whelan wrote in a letter to the board. "Nevertheless, we must recognize that his office has the power to take action against our personnel, however unfounded."

Among the departing managers: John A. Kirkebo, TVA's director of nuclear engineering; James E. Huston, director of nuclear quality assurance; and John Krummel, who has overseen contracts.

TVA officials said additional contractor managers may leave the agency today. Several large firms have TVA contracts similar to Stone and Webster's. They include: General Electric Co., Impell Corp., Bechtel North American Corp., and Westinghouse Corp.

Board members Charles H. Dean and John B. Waters Jr. met with the ethics office in an effort, one agency official said, "of just finding out what Martin wants. The board would try to go along with almost anything Martin says."

One hitch, however, is White's insistence that he have complete authority over the nuclear program. The retired admiral has said repeatedly that he will return to his Virginia farm if his "hands are tied."

In negotiations last week, board members and White were close to agreeing on a reorganization of his ties with Stone and Webster. A TVA-funded report by the Washington, D.C., law firm of Robert Strauss has recommended that White cut his ties with Stone and Webster.

White may be willing to do that, sources indicate.

But Martin goes a step further, demanding that White have no dealings with Stone and Webster while at TVA.

The board and Martin found little common ground in their meeting Monday. Martin, accused last week of picking on TVA to appease his enemies in the nation's capital, said he would not back down from his position that White must recuse himself from all dealings with Stone and Webster.

Also Monday, Rep. Ronnie Flippo, D-Ala., asked President Reagan to appoint a special citizens commission to study TVA's nuclear power program.

Flippo, chairman of the House TVA caucus, said the decision by TVA nuclear power chief White to take a leave of absence because of conflict of interest questions means the time has come for Reagan to "step up here and take control."

Flippo introduced a resolution in Congress earlier this year urging the president to appoint a blue-ribbon commission to review TVA's problems and recommend solutions. When Congress adjourned without acting on the resolution, Flippo made the request directly to Reagan in a letter dated Friday and released Monday.

"The people have a right to know whether it is a good investment to restore the TVA nuclear facilities and whether guarantees can be made as to their safe operation," Flippo said in the letter.