~65~0------NEVVS------N_ATU__ RE __ v_o_L._~_J_n __ Ju_NE __ I_~_J Nuclear Regulatory Commission UK overseas development More licence for nuclear industry? Rayner's cuts Washington changes would increase opportunities for CITING the increased maturity of the public participation. In her Senate testi­ ''flawed'' nuclear industry, the Reagan mony, Ms Weiss noted that there would no BRITISH Government plans to scale down Administration has begun to urge longer be automatic public hearings after a the work of four scientific units run by the Congress to streamline the procedures used plant had been built and before it was Overseas Development Administration by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission turned on. More significantly, she said, a (ODA) are criticized in scathing terms in a (NRC) to license new power plants. A change in the legal character of any hear­ House of Commons Select Committee Department of Energy (DOE) bill, the ings- from an adjudicatory to a' 'hybrid'' report published last week. Concluding subject of heated Senate hearings, hearing - would place "outlandish and that the severe staff and budget cuts intend­ proposes condensing the present two-step onerous" obstacles in the path of members ed for the four units are based on scrutinies licensing procedure into a single stage, of the public who wanted to intervene at that are "fundamentally flawed", the curbing the number and scope of public any stage of the licensing procedure. committee asks the government to suspend hearings and limiting the ability of NRC to Under hybrid hearings, intervenors its decisions and think again. impose new safety requirements once would no longer be permitted to call and The report was compiled by a subcom­ construction of a plant is under way. cross-examine witnesses unless they could mittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee In hearings last week, Ellyn Weiss, first prove to the commission that there (FAC) chaired by Labour MP Frank representing the Union of Concerned existed "genuine and substantial disputes Hooley. The ODA scientific units, which Scientists, said it was "unconscionable" of fact which can be resolved with carry out training and research into prob­ for Congress to reduce public oversight of sufficient accuracy only by introduction of lems of developing countries, have in the nuclear safety and draw the already evidence at a formal hearing". But they past two years been scrutinized by Lord blunted teeth of NRC. The most would not be allowed, before proving that Rayner, formerly the Prime Minister's ad­ controversial ingredient of the DOE bill is a such disputes of fact existed, to question visor on Whitehall efficiency. As a result, provision to limit the authority of NRC to utility experts or NRC staff. Such a change, scheduled stafflevels have already been cut insist on design changes once it has licensed Ms Weiss claimed, would result in wasteful to 75 per cent of the 1979 total, with further the construction of a plant. The industry litigation to establish whether a disputed reductions planned. And two of the units blames the proliferation of design changes fact was "substantial" or could be have been amalgamated. FAC says the -known as "backfitting" -for many of accurately resolved. Rayner scrutinies were concerned only with the delays and cost overruns experienced The Union of Concerned Scientists has costs, rather than efficiency, and that the by nuclear power plants. Under the new also vehemently opposed the proposal to total cost of the units (£14.3 million this bill, NRC would be allowed to impose a limit the scope ofbackfits ordered by NRC. year) is "minute" in relation to their value backfit only if it could prove that the Weiss told the committee that most to developing countries. change would "substantailly" enhance examples of back fitting did not result from One of the units, the Centre for Overseas overall safety and that the extra cost could changes in NRC regulation but from the Pest Research, has already been forced by be justified. In addition, all backfitting belated discovery of deficiencies in plant cuts to abandon its trials of the mollusc­ would have to be approved in person by the design. NRC Commissioner Victor icide, nicotinanilide, against the snail vec­ NRC commissioners - a proposal the Gilinsky, in earlier testimony, said that tor of schistosomiasis just as "success commission itself claims will result in NRC regulations had become more was imminent". This year the centre was serious administrative bottlenecks. detailed and prescriptive only because of A second major change would do away the "uneven" safety performance of the with the separate hearings conducted by nuclear utilities and their inability to New men at ministry NRC at the building permit and operating regulate themselves. PRIME Minister Margaret Thatcher's post­ licence stage of power plant construction. Although the administration's bill has election reshuffle, to the surprise of many, Permission to operate a new plant would be received enthusiastic support from the left Sir Keith Joseph still in charge at the granted at the same time as permission to industry, NRC has produced an alternative Department of Education and Science. build, subject only to later "certification" bill which offers some streamlining of Two new under secretaries have been - by the utility itself- that the plant had procedures but retains more licensing appointed, however, Mr Peter Brooke been built in accordance with the original hurdles and safeguards. It would leave the (left) and Mr Robert Dunn. The division of plans and would operate safely. Public scope of backfilling to the commission to hearings would be held only at the original resolve administratively, and it would licensing stage and would no longer be retain the right of members of the public to "adjudicatory", with sworn testimony and call for a hearing after a plant had been the cross-examination of witnesses. built. Like the DOE bill, the NRC Energy Secretary Donald Hodel, legislation would combine the operating explaining the new procedure, told the licence and construction permit, but an committee that by combining the operating NRC review of a completed plant would be licence and building permit, NRC would be required before it could start operation. able to make public participation more Dissenting from his NRC colleagues, ''meaningful'' as well as reassure commissioner Gilinsky said he could not responsibilities between them has not yet contractors that they would not be understand how the single-stage licensing been announced, but it is likely that Mr prevented from operating power plants procedure could be coupled with a Brooke will take over from William that had been built at enormous cost. To compulsory review of a power plant after it Waldegrave (now at the Department of the qualify for the joint permit, he maintained, had been built. "So long as the law tells a Environment) in the department's dealings contractors would have to provide NRC utility building a plant that it has a licence, with the University Grants Committee. Mr with more complete design plans early in and at the same time tells the regulators Brooke, aged 49, a graduate of Balliol the licensing procedure, giving critics of the that it is still up to them to determine the College Oxford and the Harvard Business plant "a real target at which to shoot". readiness of the plant for operation, School, was vice president of the National Critics of the bill have ridiculed the someone is being fooled", he said. Union of Students in 1955-56. Ll administration's contention that the Peter David

0028-0836/83/250650.02$01.00 © 1983 Macmillan Journals l.td N_A_TU__ ~__ v_oL_._~_~_~_J_~---~-~-3------NEVVS,------M_t formally united with the Tropical Products Soviet oceanography Institute, which specializes in post-harvest storage, to form the Tropical Development and Research Institute. The new institute, Costly neglect of plate tectonics which is still seeking a site, is planned to SOVIET neglect of plate tectonics could notable advances, including the 1976 ex­ save £475,000 through a "greater concen­ have serious economic consequences, two pedition of the Dmitrii Mendeleev, which tration of effort" and staff reductions of leading Soviet oceanologists warned yielded unique rock specimens from layers 10 per cent. FAC says the merger was not recently. In a major article in Pravda, Dr 2 and 3 of the oceanic crust, the magnetic warranted by the Rayner scrutinies, which Andrei Monin, director of the Institute of survey of the Baltic by the vessel Zarya in took "no serious account" of the value of Oceanology of the Soviet Academy of 1981 and the tectonic mapping of ore oc­ training and scientific information the Sciences and Dr Leonid Brekhovskikh, currence and recovery of iron-manganese units provide. It says funds for the two secretary of the Academy's Department of nodules in the neighbourhood of the Owen units were well spent and that resources for Oceanology, Atmosphere Physics and fracture by the Akademik Vernadskii in both should be increased. The merger is Geography, accused the Ministry of 1979. Very little such work, however, has widely unpopular with staff of the new in­ Geology of making insufficient use of re­ been organized from the geologists' side - stitute. cent advances in tectonics. Moreover, they one notable exception being the Bell­ Of the other two units, the Directorate said, the Ministry of Higher and Specializ­ inghausen and Gidro/og expedition of of Overseas Surveys, which produces ed Secondary Education needed to update 1979, which was a joint venture of the In­ specialist maps and surveys, will cease to university courses in geology, which dealt stitute of Geology of the Ukrainian SSR exist in its present form and will be merged only superficially with tectonics. and the naval hydrographic service. with the Ordnance Survey. The govern­ By the time the article had appeared in The use of submersible manned and ment's scrutiny by the Rayner Unit found Pravda, Dr Brekhovskikh was aboard the remote-controlled craft has played a major the directorate to be inclined to an "over­ research ship Academik Mstyslav Keldysh, role in these ventures. These are generally artistic" approach to cartography but leading a major expedition with an acoustic multipurpose vehicles, which combine the recognized it as a centre of excellence. The monitoring programme aimed at develop­ recovery of bed samples with the photo­ move to Ordnance Survey's headquarters ing rapid acoustic methods for the location graphy and video-recording of marine life. at Southampton will involve staff reduc­ of iron and manganese nodules on the sea­ They include the Argus, which can operate tions of 60 per cent, and many carto­ bed. So far, sea-bed exploration has been at depths of 600 m and glides over the bot­ graphers have already resigned. FAC con­ left almost entirely to the initiative of the tom on ski-supports, and the Pisces, which cludes, after consultations with inter­ Academy of Science's "Commission on can operate to depths of 2,000 m, the Man­ national aid organizations, that the need Problems of the World Ocean"- which ly and Krab, which are equipped with for surveying and mapping in developing coordinates the efforts of the Institute of special manipulators, and the Okeanolog, countries is increasing and doubts whether Oceanology, the four earth-sciences in­ which has electrohydraulic grabs capable the directorate will be able to sustain its stitutes, and also the Far Eastern Centre of of removing up to 20 kg of bed samples at a "highly regarded" work if the planned the Soviet Academy and the Institute of time, and fitted with special engines enabl­ changes are made. Geological Sciences of the Ukrainian ing it to "hover". However, although the The Land Resources Development Cen­ Academy. But the main initiative in under­ Soviet Union can boast of more than 120 tre (formally a "special" rather than a sea exploration has come from the ocean­ research ships (not counting almost the "scientific" unit) is to have its staff ologists - largely due to the reluctance of same number of specialized vessels of the complement cut to 45, from a 1979 figure certain leading geologists, notably Dr hydrometeorological and fisheries ser­ of 83. FAC says that the reduction will Vladimir Belousov, to accept the theory of vices) it has fallen badly behind as regards decrease the centre's cost-effectiveness, plate tectonics. This divergence of opinion research submersibles. In all, say Monin which it says compares well with the private was carefully glossed over by Monin and and Brekhovskikh, there are some 200 such sector. The centre is concerned with ap­ Brekhovskikh with a call for "greater craft in the world - but only "twenty­ plied land-use research and undertakes creative cooperation" between oceano­ plus" of these belong to the Soviet Union. training in developing countries. logists and geologists, and an allusion to The "further development of earth The government's plans for the four the work done by Soviet oceanologists in sciences and the needs of [Soviet] in­ units, which account for 1 per cent of the the development of plate tectonics. dustry" they conclude, requires the con­ overall aid budget, are described by F AC as During the past decade, Soviet oceano­ siderable expansion of the submersible "a short-sighted error for the sake of small logists have, indeed, made a number of "fleet" in the nearest future. Vera Rich and short -term savings"; the damage to the units, which have an ''extremely high inter­ national reputation", will "probably be ir­ reversible". FAC endorses the government's aims of increasing efficiency and encouraging the units to act in a more entrepreneurial man­ ner; this would, it says, increase flexibility as well as efficiency. The aims are con­ sistent with the general enthusiasm in government for "privatization" and the Rothschild customer/contractor principle. But FAC says the units must have more reliable central funding and should be per­ mitted to seek additional funds from out­ side sources if their accumulated expertise is to be protected. It is not known how the government will respond to the FAC report; however, one senior ODA official, asked what impact the report may have, said ''Almost certainly none at all''. Tim Beardsley Akad~mik V~rnadskii. veteran of a 1979 hunt for manfianese nodules

0028.()836/831250651.()2$01.00 © 1983 Macmillan Journals Ltd