Reagan Acts to Curb States’ Ability to Block A-Plants

President Reagan, in a controversial boost for the embattled nuclear power industry, on Friday signed an executive order opening the way for nuclear plants to get licenses that had been blocked by opposition in their communities and states.

The order, signed without an accompanying statement, allows the federal government to intervene and draw up evacuation plans for nuclear plants that could not obtain operating licenses because local officials had refused to submit the plans.

The action could revive the operating chances of completed plants such as Seabrook in New Hampshire and Shoreham in New York that have been blocked from generating power for years by the lack of emergency plans.

Environmentalists and anti-nuclear activists immediately assailed the action as unfair and politically timed for release after the election, when it would not harm Republican candidates.

The order is a betrayal “for someone who has previously protected states’ rights,” charged Michael H. Remy, an attorney and the chairman of the Citizens for Safe Energy, based in Sacramento, Calif.

Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, an opponent of the Seabrook plant, called Reagan’s order “an unfortunate decision. It’s wrong-headed. It flies in the face of the President’s professed philosophy of increased federalism.

“It would usurp a very important power which governors have had since the beginning of the republic--the responsibility and authority for the protection of its citizens,” he said in a statement.

The order gives the Federal Emergency Management Agency broad new power to provide evacuation plans for areas around nuclear plants. Such plans must be approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before operating licenses are issued.

An Administration official, who asked not to be named, said that local and state officials’ refusal to draw up plans is unfairly harming the nuclear industry. Such tactics “have affected the ability of the nuclear industry to plan” its operations, he said. “This order allows (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) to submit plans when the process is completely deadlocked.”

The emergency management agency “shall make all necessary plans and arrangements to ensure that the federal government is prepared to assume any and all functions and undertakings necessary to provide adequate protection to the public,” the order says.

It says that the order applies “whenever state or local governments either individually decline or fail to prepare” the emergency preparedness plans.

Could Affect Many Plants

The Seabrook and Shoreham plants are the best known, but the order has the potential for making it easier for many new plants nationwide to open despite local opposition.

The Shoreham plant is in limbo. The Long Island Lighting Co., which built it, has signed an agreement to sell the plant for $1 to the state of New York, which in turn would be expected to close it. However, the New York Legislature has not acted on the agreement, which must be ratified by Dec. 1.

In Albany, N. Y., a spokesman for New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, who opposes Shoreham, called the Reagan order “a thinly disguised plan” to open the plant and warned that it would “undermine federal-state relations.”

“It all comes down to the Legislature,” aide Gary Fryer told United Press International. “Either they pass the bill or Shoreham opens. It’s that simple.”

In Sacramento, Remy called the timing of the order “very interesting,” and other anti-nuclear activists said that the move may have been inspired by President-elect George Bush’s newly named chief of staff, New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu, a strong backer of the Seabrook facility.

However, the Administration official denied that politics had played a part in Reagan’s decision.

“The President supports nuclear power and he supports safety,” the official said. “He’s not telling (the emergency management agency) to push the states aside.”

Opponents of the Shoreham and Seabrook plants have charged that adequate evacuation plans for the nuclear plant areas could not be drawn up because transportation routes are few and too congested to allow everyone to flee in the event of an emergency. The problem is particularly severe around Shoreham, Cuomo has maintained, because of the few bridges between heavily populated Long Island, where it is situated, and the mainland.

The order directs the federal agency to “assume any necessary command-and-control function” and provide advice and technical assistance during any radiological emergency.

The order, which became effective Friday, says that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in addition to assisting in evacuations, will provide shelters and emergency and medical facilities. It will make sure that “channels of communication” between a plant owner and the public remain open.

When asked what would happen if state or local officials disagreed with the way the agency was handling an emergency, the Administration official said: “I’m not sure what the outcome of that would be.”