Imperium Watch: Meltdown at NRC
A Commission chairman who took safety seriously has been drummed out of his job.
Comments (4)Thursday, June 07, 2012
It's ironic that just before the media reported the appearance of radioactive bluefin tuna from Japan off the California coast, Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission since 2009, stepped down.
Jaczko's action followed a hot barrage of requests for his resignation from Republicans and from NRC commissioners who are supportive of the nuclear industry. The reason given is that Jaczko was, or so it's alleged, autocratic and abusive, sometimes even controlling the flow of information to the commissioners to suit his own ends.
But Jaczko's resignation is worth a longer look. The holder of a doctorate in particle physics from the University of Wisconsin, Jaczko came into politics with a Congressional Science Fellowship that paid him to work with U.S. Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts. He became an NRC commissioner in 2005 and was a vocal advocate for public safety, pushing, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, for new requirements that nuclear power plants be built to withstand collisions with airplanes.
As chairman of the NRC, Jaczko cast the lone vote on the Commission against the construction of new nuclear reactors in Georgia and South Carolina, the first new reactors to be built in the U.S. in more than 30 years, because they were not required to meet new, post-Fukushima safety standards. He opposed the construction of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility. In a matter affecting Western Massachusetts and southern Vermont, he refused to go along with commissioners who wanted to involve the federal Department of Justice in a suit to force the state of Vermont to approve relicensing of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant near Brattleboro.
Late last month, when the NRC voted to relicense the Pilgrim nuclear plant in Plymouth, Mass. before all reviews of its operations were completed, Jaczko cast the only dissenting vote.
And after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima last year, Jaczko pushed aggressively for new safety regulations for nuclear power plants in this country—expensive regulations from the industry's point of view. His adversaries on the Commission claimed that after Fukushima, Jaczko became particularly intractable and determined to do things his own way.
(Worth noticing is that a company formed by one of those adversaries, Commissioner Bill Magwood, did consulting work for TEPCO, the firm that owns the Japanese nuclear reactors that melted down; Magwood said in Congressional hearings that his connection with that company didn't influence his view of matters under the purview of the NRC.)
It's true that Jaczko's adversaries included Democrats on the Commission as well as Republicans; Magwood, for example, is a Democrat. But former NRC commissioner Peter Bradford told the New York Times that in Washington there is a "nuclear party" that "transcends" the Republican and Democratic parties, and that Jaczko has "never been a member of the nuclear party." Allison Macfarlane, an associate professor of environmental science and policy at George Mason University in Virginia who has written a book on technical problems with the Yucca Mountain waste storage project, has been nominated by President Obama to replace Jaczko.
Too amusing. To equivelate a "lack of moral fiber" with implementing a more safety conscious perspective (by a political appointee, even) and attempting to stifle and roll back the undue influence in the process by an industry that has spent decades cozying up with lobbyists and others whose actions can only be categorized as subterfuge towars a balanced and fair debate on the science, is disingenuous and dishonestat best and worthy of prosecution for an attempt at endnagering the public good at best.
So Jim, which nuclear facility were you affiliated with that ended any attempt at impartiality in the debate, and drove you to be an industry apologist?
The NRC functions entirely as it should: an embodiment of the will of the people as actualized via congress. I for one am quite glad that Reid has managed to get an appointee as chairman who was not beholden to the industry.
That the NRC is considering extending the licensing of nuclear plants that were designed to operate for forty years and then be decommissioned to eighty years is nothing short of criminal. The NRC needs to be disbanded and replaced by a commission that cares more for the safety of the public than the profit of nuclear plant operators. Look at what such coziness between regulator and operators has produced in Japan.
McFarlane isn't a member of the nuclear party either. The book she edited with Rodney Ewing, "Uncertainty Underground," enraged some NRC employess who participated in the Yucca Mountain license application review, which suggest to me that they were losing sight of their role as regulators. She may face the same problems that Jaczko has faced.
Print
Email
RSS feedLongtime Valley educator and activist Pat Griffin is a pioneer of LGBTQ sports equality.
Good ridence to Reid's puppet Jaczko!!! His actions have been WAY out of line....
Jaczko was always intended to be a poison pill--in power only to obstruct and delay. He took and oath of office as all federal employees do -- and violated that oath repeatedly under the protection and guidance of Sen. Reid. The lack of any moral fiber or integrity is starkly contrasted by the ethical and professional standards employed by the 4500 employees tasked with researching and assembling the license application placed before the supposedly professional board of the NRC.
The damage done by Reid and Jaczko's machinations goes far beyond the issue of the licensing of new plants and Yucca Mountain. In order to win his point, Reid employed subterfuge that has seriously eroded the professional credentials of the nation's nuclear regulatory commission.
I should add that as a former NRC Licensing Project Manager, I believe Jaczko’s actions have destroyed the NRC’s credibility and their reputation as a non-partisan regulator.