Nuclear Agency Delays Action on Closing More of Its Meetings

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, confronted with criticism from Congress and the public, decided Friday to postpone final action on a rule permitting it to close more of its meetings until an American Bar Assn. committee reports on the rule change.

The effect of the decision, approved without a recorded vote after 90 minutes of discussion at a public commission meeting, will be to defer ratification of the rule change until after the ABA committee reports to the bar association’s administrative law section at a meeting scheduled for April 26 and 27.

At issue is a rule, formulated last May, authorizing the NRC to take advantage of provisions of the 1976 “Sunshine Act” and close meetings on personnel and investigative matters that do not involve final policy decisions. The commission since has revised the rule to make it clear that all meetings and technical briefings on plant safety shall be open to the public.

Meetings Kept Open

Although the rule technically has been in force on an interim basis since May, Frank Ingram, an NRC spokesman, said Friday that it has yet to be applied. Discussion at the commission meeting indicated that it will not be invoked before the ABA report is submitted.

The rule drew outspoken opposition from some consumer and public interest groups and from Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on energy conservation and power.

Markey co-sponsored a bill that would repeal the new rule and require the NRC to return to the procedures it has followed since the sunshine law was enacted. In addition, he has threatened to sabotage any secret meetings by using his subcommittee’s authority to obtain details of what went on in the closed sessions.

Abuses of Rule Foreseen

After Friday’s NRC meeting, Richard Udell, a Markey aide, quoted his boss as saying that the NRC proposal “is open to unintentional misuse and even deliberate misuse. The public cannot afford to trust an agency that cannot explain why it needs to hold secret deliberations and what it will discuss at them.”

At Friday’s meeting, NRC Chairman Nunzio J. Palladino said that the original rule should be modified to permit “brainstorming” in private about unresolved proposals. He supported deferring action until the ABA can issue its report.

The only direct criticism of the rule change came from Commissioner James K. Asselstine, who argued that the sunshine law already cites 10 reasons for closing meetings, more than enough for the NRC to close all the meetings it wants.