Just a week after Congressman Zach Wamp acted to block the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's plan to move a high-tech training center from Chattanooga, the NRC announced it is taking no further action to implement the move pending a study.

"I want to thank NRC Chairman Richard Meserve for slowing down on this proposal to move this outstanding Technical Training Center out of Chattanooga. The center is one of our region's most valuable high-tech assets, and it makes sense to leave it here," Wamp said. "The move would also cost federal taxpayers $4.3 million in moving costs, most of which will not be recovered."

Meserve revealed NRC's change-of-heart in a letter to Wamp on Thursday, March 16, exactly one week after Wamp succeeded in adding to a supplemental appropriations bill a provision that would prohibit the NRC from spending any money in the current fiscal year to plan or implement the move. The NRC had planned to transfer its Technical Training Center, which employs about 32 people, from Chattanooga to Rockville, Md.

"In light of developments in Congress, we believe that it would be appropriate to delay implementing the decision to move the TTC until the GAO (The U.S. General Accounting Office) has had an opportunity to conduct an independent evaluation of this issue," Meserve said in the letter to Wamp.

Meserve was referring to a GAO study of costs and benefits of the planned move that has been requested. "We have directed our staff to take no action on this matter until the GAO has issued its report and the Commission has had an opportunity to review its recommendations," Meserve said in the letter to Wamp.

In the letter, Meserve continued to defend the NRC's thinking in attempting to move the TTC.

But Wamp has pointed to a number of factors that call into question the wisdom of the transfer. Among other things, Wamp has noted that living costs are far higher in Rockville, Md., which is in the high-cost Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, than they are in Chattanooga.

 And daily expenses paid to inspectors coming to the TTC for training would be far higher in Rockville than in Chattanooga. Federal per diem expenses in Chattanooga are $80 as opposed to $153 in Rockville.

On March 9, Wamp added the amendment dealing with the planned TTC move to a $9 million supplemental spending bill that was approved by the House Appropriations Committee. The bill, which covers the current fiscal year, is awaiting action by the full U.S. House and Senate before being sent to President Clinton for his signature.