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In the wake of Fukushima, the commission assembled an expert task force. Last July, it offered a list of three dozen thoughtful recommendations. They included specific recommendations to upgrade safety equipment and procedures, as well as an ambitious call to revamp the current regulatory approach and replace certain voluntary provisions with mandatory requirements.

Dr. Jaczko’s constant prodding in public and in private helped push the commission to set clear deadlines for taking action. It gave its staff members 24 to 30 months to develop rules to prevent the complete loss of power experienced at Fukushima. And Dr. Jaczko set a goal of implementing all of the recommendations within five years. Dr. Macfarlane will have to keep pushing for prompt and thorough action.

Dr. Jaczko had been under heavy fire from fellow commissioners and Congressional Republicans for what they charged was a manipulative and abrasive management style, some of it described by the agency’s inspector general. (The Republicans have pressed for another report that may be released soon.) We’ve never been sure whether the attacks on him were mostly a cloak for policy disagreements or reflected a truly important management problem. Either way, they became a distraction…. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/26/opinion/nuclear-power-after-fukushima.html