Boxer-NRC Hearing hr 1 - Fukushima Lessons Not Learned
Channel: eon3
Date: 17/12/2014

The NRC’s Bi-Polar Mission
The schizogenic effects of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s contradictory mandate – to protect public safety while simultaneously protecting America’s failing nuclear energy industry from its own bad karma – have never been more apparent than in this recent Dec. 3, 2014 hearing of NRC Commissioners before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, under the gavel of the Committee’s out-going Chair, Sen. Barbara Boxer [ D-CA].

The hearing’s inelegant – and as it turned out, ironic title - was "NRC's Implementation of the Fukushima Near-Term Task Force Recommendations and Other Actions to Enhance and Maintain Nuclear Safety."  

As these video excerpts show, the two main issues raised in the NRC’s segment of the hearing were (1.) Sen. Boxer’s graphic chart demonstrating that none of the 12 recommendations made months ago by the NRC’s own Safety Task Force for retrofitting U.S. nuclear plants in keeping with post-Fukushima lessons have yet to be implemented by the NRC, and (2.) Sen. Ed Markey’s expressed outrage that document requests to the NRC in line with the Committee’s Congressionally mandated oversight authority have been persistently refused by out-going NRC Chair Allison M. Macfarlane . 

As the year ends, Sen. Boxer will hand the Committee gavel over to leading GOP climate change denialist James Inhofe.  At the same time, in a sure recipe for policy-setting and enforcement gridlock, departing NRC Chair Dr. Macfarlane will leave the Commission with an apparent 2/2 split until her replacement is appointed, which is likely to be a lengthy and contentious process.  

So this Dec. 3 hearing is significant and worth paying attention to, as it is probably the last one for a while in which public safety is advocated for, rather than nuclear industry and wing-nut interests.

In a preview of coming distractions, in this excerpt Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse [D-RI] urges the Commission to be more vigorous in its promotion of such discredited and unproven nuclear technologies as thorium and small modular reactors.