Congressman Asks Ouster of NRC Member

The chairman of a House panel that oversees the Nuclear Regulatory Commission repeated today his call for the ouster of Commissioner Thomas M. Roberts, telling President Reagan that service on the agency “must be based on more than partisan politics.”

Rep. Sam Gejdenson (D-Conn.), chairman of the House Interior and Insular Affairs subcommittee on general oversight and investigations, sent Reagan a subcommittee report, released to the media last month, accusing the commission of “coziness” with the industry.

In an accompanying letter, Gejdenson again urged Reagan to fire Roberts. The congressman said the commissioner is guilty of malfeasance.

Gejdenson wrote to Reagan last June urging him to fire Roberts.

Bush Treasurer in ’80

“Qualification to serve on the NRC must be based on more than partisan politics,” Gejdenson said in his letter today.

Roberts served as treasurer of George Bush’s 1980 presidential campaign before his appointment to the NRC in 1981. His second term is scheduled to expire in June, 1990.

Gejdenson and other Democrats on his subcommittee have repeatedly urged Roberts to resign, citing a case in which his office allegedly leaked a classified document to a utility and then quashed an internal investigation of the incident.

Roberts has said that a Justice Department investigation of the incident would clear him of any wrongdoing.

“The regulation of nuclear power is simply too important to entrust to one who has demonstrated such disdain for the process of government,” Gejdenson wrote.