Boxer slams nuke regulator's 'intimidation'

[bananas]

Source: The Hill

The chairman of a key Senate panel on Thursday lambasted members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, arguing that the agency’s new information-sharing policy exceeds the scope of its power and is impeding congressional investigations.

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Sen. Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, raised the issue during a hearing intended to gauge progress toward implementation of a host of safety regulations being crafted in response to the 2011 meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima power plant.

“With out notifying our committee and, I believe, acting outside the NRC’s authority, the commission issued a new policy with substantial hurdles and delays that could even be used to withhold information entirely from the chairs and the ranking members of oversight committees,” Boxer said.

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Boxer said the policy was evidenced earlier this week when NRC personnel sought to restrict her staff’s review of records related to an ongoing probe of safety issues at the San Onofre plant in Southern California.

Boxer’s staffers were told that they could be physically searched for stolen documents after they had finished reviewing them, she said.

“Let me be clear — no form of agency intimidation or obstruction will be tolerated in this committee’s investigation or its Constitutional oversight responsibilities.,” Boxer said. “Action will be taken if you do not reverse your policy.”

All five NRC commissioners appeared as witnesses at the hearing. But none uttered a word, as Boxer abruptly adjourned the hearing after less than 30 minute so that the panel’s members could rush to the Capitol Building for a major debate over the Senate’s voting rules.

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Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/regwatch/energyenvironment/191059-boxer-slams-nuke-regulators-on-intimidation-obstruction

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Where there's smoke, there's fire.

The NRC wouldn't try these intimidation tactics if it wasn't hiding something.

Expect the corrupt nuclear industry to respond the way they always do - by attacking the messenger.

[RobertEarl]

1. A good time to recall this

But first, thank you Sen. Boxer for standing up for the People.

Ok. Remember the last head of the NRC, a fellow by the name of Jazcko? He voted his last vote as against permitting the Vogtle nuke plant in Georgia. That vote sealed his fate. He was soon removed from office.

Now he has been quoted as saying that nuke plants in the US, similar in construction to the Fukushima plants, should all be closed since they are not safe. He would know would he not, as to the question of safety, since he was privy to all the background information of both the US plants and what happened to Fukushima?

Before someone else jumps in and claims Jazcko is anti-nuke, and always has been, let's remember that he was an associate of Sen. Reid (D) Nevada, and Reid is against Yucca nuke depository. So, yeah, Reid had a hand in denying the Yucca permits via Jazcko. I say way to go Reid!

[RC]

4. Yeah, all those nuclear power plants are in danger of being swamped out by monster tidal waves.

'Cause one was, that means the rest, the world over, all are too!

Now he has been quoted as saying that nuke plants in the US, similar in construction to the Fukushima plants, should all be closed since they are not safe.

[RobertEarl]

5. Actually

Fukushima was doomed because the grid went down.

And because of the earthquake tore up the piping carrying coolant.

The tsunami did flood some pumps but that is about all it did.

I'm not sure the details on why Jazcko has made the request he did, but he is right, these plants with their spent fuel pools fifty feet off the ground are death traps. The industry said, remember, Fukushima could never happen. Jazcko, knowing more than you or I ever will about nukes should be heeded.

[RC]

6. The grid going down is what the diesel generators are for.

They were running when they got swamped out and drowned in the Tsunami because the sea wall that was suppose to protect the power plant dropped 3 feet, along with the land it was built on.

I'm surprised someone hasn't come up with a wind farm and/or a solar field as back up for the generators and to keep the backup batteries charged.

[RobertEarl]

7. And

Several plants in the US are downstream from dams. So some are in danger of walls of water impacting the operation.

It is odd to think that nuke plants are not able to survive without the grid. Weird that with all the electricity they produce, are incapable of keeping themselves powered up.

Closed down nuke plants will make ideal locations for solar and wind. Especially since power will be needed for many years to keep water pumps running for the fuel pools.

[Wilms]

2. ^

[madokie]

3. Hang in there Barbara

the NRC will be on you like ugly on ape.
You're a big girl and can handle 'm though.

[marble falls]

8. Boxer mad at the regulators? Does she think she's a NeoCon?

[bananas]

9. The NRC is a case of regulatory capture

When Neocons, Republicans, and Teabaggers come into office,
they do everything they can to not just weaken regulatory agencies,
not just turn them into rubber-stamps for industry,
but to turn them into part of the industry PR machine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

Regulatory capture

Regulatory capture is a form of political corruption that occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or special concerns of interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure; it creates an opening for firms to behave in ways injurious to the public (eg, producing negative externalities). The agencies are called "captured agencies".

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Nuclear Regulatory Commission

According to Frank N. von Hippel, despite the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has often been too timid in ensuring that America's 104 commercial reactors are operated safely:

Nuclear power is a textbook example of the problem of "regulatory capture" — in which an industry gains control of an agency meant to regulate it. Regulatory capture can be countered only by vigorous public scrutiny and Congressional oversight, but in the 32 years since Three Mile Island, interest in nuclear regulation has declined precipitously.[54]

Then-candidate Barack Obama said in 2007 that the five-member NRC had become "captive of the industries that it regulates" and Joe Biden indicated he had absolutely no confidence in the agency.[55]

The NRC has given a license to "every single reactor requesting one", according Greenpeace USA nuclear policy analyst Jim Riccio to refer to the agency approval process as a "rubber stamp".[56] In Vermont, ten days after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that damaged Japan's Daiichi plant in Fukushima, the NRC approved a 20-year extension for the license of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, although the Vermont state legislature had voted overwhelmingly to deny such an extension.[56][57] The Vermont plant uses the same GE Mark 1 reactor design as the Fukushima Daiichi plant.[56] The plant had been found to be leaking radioactive materials through a network of underground pipes, which Entergy, the company running the plant, had denied under oath even existed. Representative Tony Klein, who chaired the Vermont House Natural Resources and Energy Committee, said that when he asked the NRC about the pipes at a hearing in 2009, the NRC didn't know about their existence, much less that they were leaking.[56] On March 17, 2011, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released a study critical of the NRC's 2010 performance as a regulator. The UCS said that through the years, it had found the NRC's enforcement of safety rules has not been "timely, consistent, or effective" and it cited 14 "near-misses" at U.S. plants in 2010 alone.[58] Tyson Slocum, an energy expert at Public Citizen said the nuclear industry has "embedded itself in the political establishment" through "reliable friends from George Bush to Barack Obama", that the government "has really just become cheerleaders for the industry."[59]

There have also been instances of a revolving door. Jeffrey Merrifield, who was on the NRC from 1997 to 2008 and was appointed by presidents Clinton and Bush, left the NRC to take an executive position at The Shaw Group,[56] which has a nuclear division regulated by the NRC.[note 2]

A year-long Associated Press (AP) investigation showed that the NRC, working with the industry, has relaxed regulations so that aging reactors can remain in operation.[60] The AP found that wear and tear of plants, such as clogged lines, cracked parts, leaky seals, rust and other deterioration resulted in 26 alerts about emerging safety problems and may have been a factor in 113 of the 226 alerts issued by the NRC between 2005 and June 2011.[60] The NRC repeatedly granted the industry permission to delay repairs and problems often grew worse before they were fixed.[60][note 3]

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