The State - News from Sept. 4, 1985

A House subcommittee chairman, stepping up criticism of the process under which the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant was granted an operating license, charged that there have been “key inconsistencies” in congressional testimony by the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on enery conservation and power, said in a letter sent to NRC Chairman Nunzio J. Palladino that verbatim transcripts of the commission’s closed sessions “undermine and contradict” statements Palladino made under oath. The subcommittee charged last July that the NRC may have violated federal regulations by using off-the-record material to conclude that earthquakes are not a threat to the San Luis Obispo County site. Subsequently, Palladino told the panel that the NRC “considered” the off-the-record report but did not “rely” on it--a statement Markey said “is inconsistent with the factual record.”