Less than a year after the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, physicist Gregory B. Jaczko tried to break the “first commandment” of nuclear regulation: Thou shalt not deny a license to operate a reactor. As chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), he knew that the tradition was to encourage doomed applications to be withdrawn. But when one company refused, Jaczko dug in his heels and opposed the license. It turned out to be a futile gesture that the other commissioners opposed. But it was one of many examples, he contends, of the weaknesses in the nation’s top nuclear regulatory body and an exemplar of its obeisance to the nuclear power industry. Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator is one part engrossing memoir and another part seething diatribe, depicting a government agency that routinely caves to industry pressure.
Science 15th Jan 2019 read more »
Barack Obama’s former top regulator Greg Jaczko now says nuclear power is ‘hazardous’ and claims its continued use ‘will lead to catastrophe in the US or somewhere else in the world’. Jaczko spent three years as chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) after he was offered the role by the former President in 2009. He does not think the 59 commercial nuclear sites in the US and their 98 reactors are as safe as they could be and is ‘being honest’ with the public. Jaczko thinks the United States should abandon the ‘failed technology’. He led the NRC during the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. Some of the recommendations made its wake ‘have still not been implemented’. In 2011 Jaczko said nuclear power plants ‘operate safely and securely’. The Nuclear Energy Institute argues it has spent $4 billion on improvements.
Daily Mail 16th Jan 2019 read more »
SFGate 14th Jan 2019 read more »
