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(includes  video )  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/15/william-ostendorff-nuclear-safety_n_1778989.html  William Ostendorff, GOP-Appointed Regulator, Under Investigation For Thwarting Nuclear Safety Probe  HUFFINGTON POST, Ryan Grim,  08/15/2012   WASHINGTON – The inspector general at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has launched an investigation into a GOP political appointee for attempting to thwart an agency probe into safety concerns at a Michigan plant, NRC insiders tell The Huffington Post.

In late May, Gregory Jaczko, then the chairman of the NRC, paid a rare visit to the controversial Palisades Power Plant on Lake Michigan. Activists are agitating for the plant’s closure due to safety issues. The plant is represented in Congress by Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican who has long been close to the nuclear industry.

While Jaczko was touring the plant on May 31st, according to the sources, a significant leak of potentially radioactive water was pouring into the control room. Less than two weeks later, the plant was shut down to repair the leak. Yet Jaczko was never made aware of the issue while inspecting the plant. He asked the NRC’s Office of Investigations to look into why the leak was kept from him.

Commissioner William Ostendorff, however, wanted no such investigation to take place. Shortly after Jaczko ordered it, Ostendorff shouted at the top agency investigator, Cheryl McCrary, in front of several NRC employees. He told her that the inquiry should be halted and that it was a “waste of agency resources,” according to the sources, who were briefed on the exchange by witnesses. The probe into Ostendorff is the latest tussle in an ongoing war inside the agency over how to regulate the industry — whether to take a trusting, hands-off approach, or to apply the rules in a serious way. It’s a battle being fought all across Washington, as longtime advocates of deregulation argue that government bureaucrats are stifling job creation. Inside some industries, deregulation might tilt the balance of power away from consumers and workers, but in the nuclear industry, the consequences involve life and death.Pro-industry forces won a round in May, just before Jaczko visited Palisades, when he announced his resignation, finally stepping down June 29th when a new chair was confirmed. Jaczko’s resignation was the result of a scorched-earth campaign waged against him by the other commissioners, backed by the industry’s lobbying arm, the Nuclear Energy Institute.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Jaczko’s former boss, fired back at the leader of the campaign against him, Democrat Bill Magwood, calling him a “treacherous, miserable liar,” among many other things.

The upheaval has altered the mood within the NRC; before the anti-Jaczko campaign, pro-regulation sources were largely unwilling to speak to HuffPost about internal disputes. But as a full-fledged war wages on, some of that resistance is slackening……  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/15/william-ostendorff-nuclear-safety_n_1778989.html