Japan Tragedy and U.S. Nuclear Regs

• Author: Margaret Kriz Hobson
• Position: Staff writer covering environmental affairs at Congressional Quarterly
• Pages: 8-8

Page 8 ❧ THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM Copyright © 2011, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, May/June 2011

Japan Tragedy and

U.S. Nuclear Regs

After the massive earthquake and

resulting tsunami damaged re-

actors at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi

nuclear complex, a little-known U.S.

nuclear regulator became the focus

of increased public and political at-

tention. Nuclear Regulatory Com-

mission Chairman Gregory Jaczko

made international headlines when

he warned that the natural disasters

had severely damaged a nuclear waste

pool at one of Japan’s reactors, caus-

ing its protective cooling water to es-

cape. As a result, signif‌icant levels of

radiation were released into the air.

Based on that assessment, the

White House told Americans liv-

ing within 50 miles of the damaged

plants to evacuate the area, despite

the Japanese government’s assurance

that residents beyond 12 miles of the

plant were out of harm’s way.

Jaczko’s blunt assessment of the

conditions at the Japan utility was

not welcomed by the U.S. nuclear

power industry, which had urged the

American public not to jump to con-

clusions about the impacts of the nu-

clear accident until all the facts were

in. e industry-backed Nuclear En-

ergy Institute moved quickly to “clar-

ify” the evacuation issue, releasing

fact sheets that agreed the warning to

U.S. citizens was “prudent” but stat-

ing that “this action should not be

interpreted as a standard that should

be applied to U.S. reactor emergency

planning policy, specif‌ically the use

of a 50-mile zone.”

More important, Jaczko raised

international awareness of the seri-

ous potential dangers of the nuclear

waste stored at reactor sites. at’s

important because the waste stor-

age pools damaged in Japan’s disaster

are nearly identical to the facilities at

America’s 104 nuclear reactors. e

U.S. nuclear sites currently house

65,000 metric tons of radioactive

waste, an estimated 76 percent of

which is warehoused in pools, ac-

cording to the NEI.

Jaczko’s actions exposed the ten-

sions inherent in his job. As NRC

chairman, he was highlighting the

hazards of nuclear power and prom-

ising action if additional controls be-

came necessary at American plants.

But Jaczko is part of the Obama ad-

ministration, which is aggressively

pushing to expand the use of nuclear

power in the United States.

is NRC chairman is in a partic-

ularly ironic position

because he’s played

an important role

over the past decade

in trying to block the

federal government

from building a per-

manent disposal site

for the nation’s commercial nuclear

waste at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.

Before being appointed to the NRC,

Jaczko was a top aide to Senate Ma-

jority Leader Harry Reid, and led the

Nevada Democrat’s campaign to shut

down the Yucca Mountain facility.

Once on the commission, Jaczko

argued that utility companies should

move more of their radioactive waste

from storage ponds located near the

plants to concrete casks. He also sug-

gested that the waste could be safely

stored at the power plants for up to

300 years, a move that utility compa-

nies insist is too expensive and would

eliminate political pressure for the

U.S. government to move the waste

from the plant sites.

In the aftermath of the Japan trag-

edy, the NRC launched a probe into

the safety of U.S. nuclear facilities,

located in 31 states. “We will work

through all of this information me-

thodically, systematically, and care-

fully to determine what lessons can

be drawn that might be applicable

for consideration for changes in the

U.S. safety regulatory structure,” said

NRC spokesman Eliot Brenner.

Commission of‌f‌icials say it’s pre-

mature to suggest that the panel’s

safety review will zero in on the in-

dustry’s nuclear fuel pools or consid-

er the future of Yucca Mountain as

it responds to the Japanese situation.

ey also insist that the crisis in Ja-

pan will not stop them from relicens-

ing existing nuclear plants or slow

down review of proposals to build

new reactors.

But Energy Secretary Steven Chu

recently said that the crisis in Japan

is certain to impact the future of nu-

clear power in America. In an inter-

view with Fox News, Chu suggested,

for example, that federal nuclear

regulators are likely

to take a closer look

at the proximity of

proposed new power

plants to large cities

and other population

centers. “Certainly

where we site reac-

tors going forward will be dif‌ferent

than where we might have sited them

in the past,’’ Chu said.

Former NRC chairman Richard

A. Meserve, who headed the com-

mission during the September 11,

2001, terrorist attacks, said the com-

mission faces a monumental task

in determining why Japan’s facil-

ity failed and working to prevent a

similar event from occurring in the

United States. “In my view, you can’t

just quickly decide what the ultimate

answer is,” Meserve said. So far, he

added, Jaczko “has been doing the

right things.”

By Margaret Kriz Hobson

Margaret Kriz Hobson is a s taff writer

covering environmental affairs at Congr es-

siona l Qua rterly. She can be reached at

krizhobson@gmail.com.

T F B

Regulators and industry

backers look at what

lessons to learn om

reactor releases