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Nuclear Regulatory Commission more interested in its processes than in public safety

“the current commission’s preoccupation with process at the expense of nuclear safety policy.”

U.S. nuclear regulator tied up by process: chairman– By Roberta Rampton, WASHINGTON  Aug 10, 2011 (Reuters) – The chairman of the U.S. nuclear regulator said his own commission is hamstrung by an inefficient, “flawed voting system” which distracts from its job of ensuring safety at the country’s power plants.

Gregory Jaczko chided his colleagues on the five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission for their approach to recommended changes in the wake of Japan’s nuclear disaster — an approach he said reflects “the current commission’s preoccupation with process at the expense of nuclear safety policy.”

The focus “is a result of a flawed voting system that encourages the commission to sidestep the actual substantive policy issues presented…..

“I believe the task force found that the status quo of our existing regulatory framework is no longer acceptable,” Jaczko said in his vote.

Decisions on the new safety recommendations will be the NRC’s most significant task since 1979, when a reactor at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania melted down, Jaczko said, noting the agency is also on the cusp of approving licenses for new nuclear plants, something it hasn’t done for more than 30 years.

“The commission is reacting to a real accident at a plant with a design similar to designs licensed and built in the United States,” Jaczko said…..

The task force said there is no imminent risk that a disaster similar to Fukushima could occur in the United States, home to the world’s largest nuclear power industry.

Jaczko chastised his colleagues for accepting that finding “without question.”

August 11, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA