Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Kristine Svinicki and an agency staffer in August 2016 used a chartered flight to reach an isolated area of Saskatchewan, Canada, the NRC told senior members of the House of Representatives.
Eugene Dacus, director of the NRC’s Office of Congressional Affairs, responded on Oct. 25 to an Oct. 17 query from the top Republican and Democrat members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee regarding any trips by non-career personal on government-owned or private noncommercial airplanes from Jan. 1, 2016, to Jan. 19 of this year.
Svinicki, a commissioner since 2008 who in January became NRC chairman, traveled with a staffer from the NRC’s Office of International Programs on a chartered flight from Saskatoon to the Cigar Lake uranium mine and McClean Lake uranium processing mill in northern Saskatchewan, Dacus wrote. He noted the trip was made at the invitation of Canada’s Nuclear Safety Commission, which sent top officials on the tour.
“This mode of transportation is the only way to access these remote locations, and is the method used to transport mine and mill workers to the sites,” Dacus said in identical letters to committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.).
Mill operator AREVA chartered the aircraft, and the NRC reimbursed the company $1,770.62.
In a letter sent to the lawmakers on Oct. 10, Dacus said no non-career NRC personnel had used government-owned or private noncommercial aircraft since Jan. 20 of this year, which was Inauguration Day for President Donald Trump.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign in September after it was found he had spent no less than $400,000 of government money on chartered flights. That drew scrutiny to the travel practices of other top administration officials, including Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who told lawmakers last month he had chartered only one flight since taking office.
