‘Meltdown’ at Nuclear Regulatory Commission?(c) OC Register
December 11th, 2011, 9:55 pm
Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
LINK(excerpt)
Science, meet politics.
On Friday, a memo stamped “NOT FOR PUBLIC DISCLOSURE†was disclosed to the public, detailing “grave concerns†held by all four members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the “very troubling actions†of NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko (left), the guy ultimately charged with protecting the American public from nuclear disaster.
Jaczko intimidated and bullied senior staffers, ordered staff to withhold or modify information, and “is jeopardizing the ability of the NRC to perform its critical mission,†said a memo that went straight to the White House.
It’s such a scandal that U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, chair of the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, will hold hearings Wednesday on whether Jaczko is still capable of leading the NRC. â€We believe that his actions and behavior are causing serious damage to this institution and are creating a chilled work environment at the NRC,†the four NRC commissioners wrote. â€We are concerned that this will adversely affect the NRC’s essential mission to protect the health, safety and security of the American people.â€
But is Jaczko’s sin that he’s a self-righteous bully who belittles and manipulates staff — or is it that he’s taking on the powerful nuclear industry, which wants to drag its feet on reforms in the wake of the Fukushima accident?
That, asserts U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, is much closer to the truth.
(snip)
The Fukushima disaster has also energized the no-nukes movement. Opponents of nuclear energy have until April to gather enough signatures to put an initiative on the ballot that would effectively close San Onofre and Diablo Canyon,California’s two nuclear power plants. The plants provide about 16 percent of the state’s electricity, so shutting them down would have tremendous, and immediate, impacts on consumers, businesses and governments, state analysts said. It would likely result in rolling blackouts and the loss of tens of billions of dollars; but it would likely prevent disasters as well. (Opponents say this analysis is grossly distorted.)
The folks who run San Onofre and Diablo Canyon may have reason to worry; we’ve been running a poll to measure people’s passions on the issue, and with almost 1,900 votes cast, it’s running 54 percent in favor of closing the plants down.==============================================
edit: emphasis mine.
The latter passage is why I put this story here and not Science/Technology. Markey is a luddite anti-nuke who has fought Seabrook at every turn since the 1980's. He's also buddy-buddy with Jaczko, who was a science fellow to Markey back in the day.
But go ahead, California--turn off those nuke plants. It'll still take decades and billions of dollars to decommission those plants. Money you don't have.
