Senate Vote on Nuclear Arms Chief Delayed

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday delayed indefinitely a vote on President Bush’s nominee to head the nation’s troubled nuclear weapons complex after learning that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating charges that he lied to Congress.

The committee’s chairman, Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), and the ranking Republican, Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia, recommended the delay after the NRC’s inspector general told them that Victor Stello Jr. remains a focus of an ongoing investigation by his office.

“We did not know how serious the allegations were regarding Mr. Stello,” Nunn said after a closed committee meeting. “The committee voted not to come to a conclusion or vote . . . until such time that we have at least an oral report from the I.G. (inspector general).”

Rep. Peter H. Kostmayer (D-Pa.) has accused Stello, the NRC’s former executive director, of making “willful misstatements” last fall to the House Interior Committee’s investigations subcommittee that he chairs.

Nunn said he had been told by NRC officials that the investigation into allegations involving Stello, who is hospitalized as a result of a recent skiing accident, should be completed by April.

In the meantime, he said, he is not leaning for or against the nomination, adding: “I’m going to wait until all the information is in.”

The Administration has shown no inclination to withdraw Stello’s nomination, the most controversial before the armed services panel since Bush’s ill-fated nomination a year ago of former Sen. John Tower of Texas to be secretary of defense.

In a letter to the committee Tuesday, Energy Secretary James D. Watkins said he has “full confidence” in Stello, who, in the absence of confirmation, is acting as his principal deputy in charge of the weapons program.

Environmentalists and anti-nuclear activists and their allies on the committee have accused Stello of being too close to the nuclear industry to effectively supervise operation of the weapons complex.