With U.S. Nuclear Plants Under Scrutiny, Too, a Report Raises Safety Concerns

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With Japan’s nuclear industry facing intense scrutiny after the devastating earthquake and tsunami, critics of nuclear power in the United States are increasingly shining a spotlight on American regulators and power companies.

On Thursday, the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental and nuclear watchdog group based in Cambridge, Mass., accused the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a report of allowing companies that operate plants to ignore, or delay repairs to, leaky pipes, electrical malfunctions and other problems that could escalate into something more serious.

“It’s like the spinning wheels on a slot machine,” David Lochbaum, the author of the report and the director of the organization’s nuclear safety program, said in a prepared statement. “One ingredient showing up causes a puddle on the floor. Two ingredients yield a near miss. All three ingredients showing up can cause nuclear disaster.”

The report echoes more general concerns raised on Wednesday in Congressional hearings, when the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory Jaczko, fielded questions from lawmakers about the age of the nation’s nuclear plants and whether safety and oversight procedures needed to be revisited.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/science/earth/18scientists.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22