[CPEO-MEF] Idaho Privatization Fast Tracked

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Would you please circulate this letter sent to Dingell to any parties 
you think might be interested, including media?  Given the nature of 
your group - oversight on the environment - your folks should be 
concerned - there is much at stake here.

Thanks!

Chris Borello/CCLT

From: Crborello@aol.com
Re:  Privatization of the Idaho National Lab                   8/17/07


Dear Congressman Dingell and Members of the Committee on Energy & Commerce:


As a concerned US citizen, grassroots leader involved with nuclear waste 
and therefore a serious stakeholder regarding the proposed privatization 
(corporatization) of the Idaho National Lab,  I am writing to not only 
express my deep concern, but I am requesting that Oversight & 
Investigations take immediate action, after learning just yesterday that 
the situation concerning the Idaho Lab has become critical.

Quite curiously, it is my understanding the same documents deemed too 
sensitive for release to your Congressional Committee just a few months 
ago despite the written requests made to DOE, have suddenly become 
public, but also, conveniently, with a very short period of time now 
allocated for a review of the Idaho Lab's proposed privatization 
feasibility study -  just 30 days.

I believe it is safe to assume, without proper Congressional scrutiny, 
including review by objective independent experts with no conflict of 
interest, the report may very well end up being rubber stamped, with the 
 privatization/corporatization of Idaho Lab resulting, to the detriment 
of public health and safety.

Therefore, I am writing this letter to Congressman Dingell and all 
members of the Committee, requesting that our elected officials 
immediately write the DOE Inspector General requesting that the DOE IG 
conduct a thorough investigation concerning this report, any previously 
performed reports, and an indepth analysis of those findings.  After 
speaking personally  to an IG representative yesterday, I believe that 
the DOE IG is indeed interested in such cases, where potential waste, 
fraud and abuse are of serious concern.

Your June 26th letter to DOE's Secretary Bodman clearly addresses the 
important work performed by Idaho regarding not only critical oversight 
of DOE's contract labs ( to prevent shoddy radiation testing) but cited 
the important role Idaho plays as a radiological technical 
support/reference for other government agencies like the NRC and the US 
EPA.  My citizens' group can personally attest to the latter, having 
spent well over a year consulting with Idaho regarding serious testing 
concerns regarding Plutonium and the questionable, outdated methods 
still clung to by the US EPA, biasing results at our Superfund Site, 
where nuclear waste, specifically plutonium, is of concern. 
Unfortunately, the EPA chose, in our case,  to ignore the technical 
advice and concerns conveyed by Idaho.  We fear that without Idaho 
performing in the future the oversight, auditing of labs, etc. and 
technical support role it has provided for over a decade now, seriously 
flawed and outdated radiation testing methods will become the norm 
throughout the country, potentially masking or underestimating radiation 
exposures to Americans and nuclear facility workers.

In addition, because nuclear power is reportedly going to be promoted 
once again in the US as "a safe and clean" alternative energy, one would 
hope that our elected officials would recognize the importance of good, 
scientific testing and unimpeachable oversight be maintained. and 
strengthened - yet, ironically, instead, it is being weakened by the 
intentional  dismantling by the privatization of the Idaho National Lab.!
.
We request that our citizens' group and public/ media be provided with a 
copy of any letter written to the DOE IG in response to this request.

Very truly yours,

Christine Borello - President

Concerned Citizens of Lake Twp./
Uniontown IEL Superfund Site, Ohio

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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