Leaking of Data on Nuclear Plant Hazards Alleged

Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents alleging serious safety defects at a Louisiana nuclear-power plant were leaked to the plant’s owner, apparently from the office of an NRC commissioner who later destroyed documents containing evidence of the security breach, the agency’s chief inspector told Congress on Thursday.

Ben B. Hayes, head of the NRC Office of Investigations, told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee that the documents, dated June 8, 1983, gave the Louisiana Power & Light Co. a “tremendous advantage” in a subsequent safety investigation at its Waterford nuclear plant near New Orleans.

Pattern of Coziness

“I have never before seen an internal document of this nature given to a party at interest, either in this or any other agency where I have worked,” Hayes said.

He and other witnesses said the leak to the company appeared to be part of a pattern of NRC coziness with the nuclear-power industry, to the point of squelching potentially embarrassing investigations and compromising safety.

The document leak was not discovered until 1985 and was never fully investigated, Hayes said. He said he was ordered to turn over his notes and all copies of the documents to NRC Commissioner Thomas M. Roberts, who told the senators he destroyed them.

Roberts said he destroyed the documents and Hayes’ notes because “I thought somebody was trying to set me up.”

Unspecified ‘Collusion’

The documents, written by an aide to then-Commissioner Victor Gilinsky and addressed to the director of the NRC’s inspection office, outlined information gathered by a reporter about cracks in the concrete floor of Waterford’s containment facility and unspecified “collusion” between the NRC and utility officials to cover up the problem. All of the commissioners received copies of the documents.