NRC panel: Nuke chief damages agency

[Dover]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four Nuclear Regulatory commissioners from both parties say they have "grave concerns" about the panel's chairman, charging that the actions of Gregory Jaczko are "causing serious damage" to the commission and creating a "chilled work environment at the NRC."

In a letter to the White House, the commissioners say Jaczko's bullying style could adversely affect the agency's mission to protect health and safety at the nation's 104 commercial nuclear reactors.

..//..

Commission members and staffers have long complained about Jaczko's brusque style, particularly when it comes to a decision he made last year to shut down the technical review of a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. GOP lawmakers also complained that Jaczko may have acted illegally when he declared in March that Japan's nuclear crisis constituted an emergency in the United States.




Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-nrc-panel-nuke-chief-damages-agency-000243009.html

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What a biased (bi-assed) headline!

haha... this guy is apparently just not nuclear-friendly enough for the paid-off nuke industry politicians.
I'd be "brusque" with them too! This poor guy has to fight them off every day of his life. GO JACZKO!

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NRC Commissioners Sought to Thwart Japan Response, Markey Says


December 09, 2011, 7:23 PM EST

By Brian Wingfield

Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission members tried to impede Chairman Gregory Jaczko’s response to Japan’s reactor crisis in March, according to a report from Representative Edward Markey.

Commissioners George Apostolakis, William Magwood IV, William Ostendorff and Kristine Svinicki “conspired, with each other and with senior NRC staff, to delay the release of and alter” an agency task-force study on the crisis, according to the 22-page report released by Markey’s office yesterday.

The report is based on documents submitted by the commissioners in response to an October request from Markey of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee...cont'd

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-10/nrc-members-sought-to-stop-japan-response-markey-says.html

[plumbob]

1. Oh noes!!!!!! How did a non-lackey of the nuke welfare industry get

on this panel????

The horror! He doesn't kiss the industry's ass!!!

Please tell me there are more where he came from.

[Dover]

2. Nuke Industry Lobbyists on the War Path... and just ONE tough little man in their way.

Someone ("bananas") posted this on a thread about this story in the Environment forum.
They desperately want to DEregulate nukes.

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January 15, 2008
Regulatory risks paralyzing power industry while demand grows
Kennedy Maize and Dr. Robert Peltier, PE

<snip>

The U.S. nuclear industry decided—even before the 2006 elections, which produced a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress—to bet the radioactive ranch on the GOP. The nuclear industry lobby was, to use a waterskiing and snowboarding term, “goofy-footed” by the Democratic tsunami—caught with its right foot in the forward binding.

Eight years of Republican control of the White House, and 12 of Congress, haven’t delivered for nuclear power. As one nuclear lobbyist, speaking anonymously for fear of losing his job, told POWER, “We’ve had the most pro-nuclear administration in 20 years. During its reign, not a spade of dirt has turned on a new plant. The schedule for the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain has slipped another 12 years. The Department of Energy has been unable to turn the promises of the 2005 Energy Policy Act into realities. It’s a failure of monumental proportions.” Put Yucca Mountain in that same category (see sidebar, “Clinton, Obama agree: Death to Yucca Mountain”).

<snip>

A PhD physicist, Jaczko came to Congress as a science fellow working for Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), one of the most anti-nuclear members of Congress over the past 30 years. Jaczko decided he liked Washington and became Reid’s chief advisor on nuclear waste issues. Reid has vowed to kill Yucca Mountain, and he may be able to keep his promise come January 2009. Jaczko professes, no doubt honestly, that he is not anti-nuclear power.

But Jaczko has every reason to be anti–nuclear industry. The Nuclear Energy Institute tried, and failed, to block his initial appointment to the NRC when he won a recess appointment—as did Republican Peter Lyons, a former advisor to former Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.). That was a deal the White House and Reid negotiated, over the objections of the nuclear lobby.

Then the nuke reps tried to derail Jaczko’s nomination to fill a full term last year. They failed. Recently, the nuclear lobby tried to abort a second term for Jaczko. They were unsuccessful. Said our lobbyist, “We’ve tried to screw this guy three different times and failed. How understanding and helpful is he going to be when he runs the NRC?” There’s little doubt that if the Democrats reclaim the White House, Jaczko, the only Democrat on the commission, will become its chairman.

cont'd
http://www.powermag.com/gas/Regulatory-risks-paralyzing-power-industry-while-demand-grows_99.html

[Dover]

3. NRC Commissioners Sought to Thwart Japan Response, Markey Says

NRC Commissioners Sought to Thwart Japan Response, Markey Says
December 09, 2011, 7:23 PM EST

By Brian Wingfield

Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission members tried to impede Chairman Gregory Jaczko’s response to Japan’s reactor crisis in March, according to a report from Representative Edward Markey.

Commissioners George Apostolakis, William Magwood IV, William Ostendorff and Kristine Svinicki “conspired, with each other and with senior NRC staff, to delay the release of and alter” an agency task-force study on the crisis, according to the 22-page report released by Markey’s office yesterday.

The report is based on documents submitted by the commissioners in response to an October request from Markey of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.

...

Markey’s report found e-mails and other documents with “high levels of suspicion and hostility directed” at Jaczko. At other times, e-mails showed Jaczko’s colleagues “assumed ill intent on the part of the chairman” and tried to “undermine his efforts or refuse his requests.”... cont'd


http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-10/nrc-members-sought-to-stop-japan-response-markey-says.html

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xposted from a post by 'kristopher' in Environment forum.

[w4rma]

4. This guy appears to be doing his job. And he appears to be trying to do it well.

It's these "commissioners" who appear to be trying to set up roadblocks to this agency's work.

[certainot]

5. replace the commissioners!