Atomic Insights

Atomic energy technology, politics, and perceptions from a nuclear energy insider who served as a US nuclear submarine engineer officer

CNN agrees – Harry Reid violated federal law by killing Yucca Mountain

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CNN has investigated and agrees with Atomic Insights regarding the political games that resulted Greg Jaczko being appointed to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with the assignment to kill off the Yucca Mountain project.

The following quote from the above video could have come directly off of one of the many articles about Greg Jaczko published here during the past 5 years.

Narrator: But Harry Reid didn’t just bet on one man in the White House to keep his promise to Nevada voters. This is Gregory Jaczko. You might call him Yucca Mountain’s hired killer.

Jaczko: It was simply a project that was going nowhere and is now dead.

Narrator: Jaczko, who has no background in nuclear engineering was an aid to Harry Reid in 2004 when Senator Reid forced his appointment to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by holding up dozens of George Bush’s judicial nominees.

Griffin: Were you, um, recruited, promoted, appointed to these positions strictly for one purpose, and that was to stop Yucca Mountain.

Jaczko: You know I never talked to Senator Reid about what I would do as Chairman of the NRC, or even as a commissioner. And every issue that came in front of me, I looked at with an independent mind and and independent approach. Senator Reid, certainly from the time that I worked for him and all of the time that he has been in Congress has been a staunch opponent of that site.

(Emphasis in original.)

By the way, does anyone not recognize the fact that Jaczko has unwittingly admitted that his former boss made his position abundantly clear? There would have been no reason for any specific discussion between Reid and Jaczko on the topic of Yucca Mountain; that is not the way that street fighters like Reid work. Everyone who wants anything from him knows the consequences of crossing him.

Since I don’t want anything from Reid, I feel perfectly safe in pointing out the fact that he is a tyrant who has imposed his will — somehow — on 330 million other people, in direct violation of laws that were passed following the processes outlined in our foundational documents. He should be in jail, or at least unemployed, not serving as the Senate Majority Leader.

I wish someone would take the time to figure out what Reid has on the majority of his colleagues to “encourage” them to keep electing him as their leader.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dont do the crime if you can’t do the Time

    Now who has the Guts to do his job And prosecute ?

    No One this is US politics

  2. I didn’t watch “Pandora’s Promise” on CNN, but from what I see on the internet about their “coverage” of Nuclear energy, it’s pretty illiterate overall, Chernobyl and Fukushima pabulum wherein people attribute mysterious diseases to Chernobyl blah, blah, blah.

    Their “Nuclear Quiz” was hilarious, since they asked how many “kilowatts” of energy a kilogram of “uranium,” can produce.

    Apparently the scientific level of the people who want to comment on the most critical energy issue of our time never learned the difference between power and energy – this after having reported so much bull from “renewables will save us” types who also can’t distinguish the difference between the two very basic physics concepts – or a single thing about the isotopic composition of uranium or the existence of plutonium.

    It’s very depressing and is a real indication about why the world is heading so rapidly into disaster.

    • NNadir,
      Heading into disaster…
      Not so pessimistic!
      Last century we tried nuclear, this century we try renewable with bigger chance for success.

    • NNadir,

      What is important is the journey going forward.

      The pro nuclear panelists beat the crapola out of the anti nuclear folks.

      We even look better !

      And Dale Bryk had to be a pro nuclear counter double spy agent that infiltrated the anti nukes. She is good for the cause.

  3. Harry Reid is a making the US a weaker country and is committed to only advancing bad policies.
    Thanks Rod for posting this important CNN perspective on the truth on Yucca’s challenge.

    • this “country” is infested with traitors and thieves.

      “attention walmart shoppers…do you care about anything nuclear?”

  4. CNN has done a great job promoting And debating nuclear.

    For once we had heavy hitters. We won the debates.

    Did not see too much of Lyman And Gundensen if at all.

    And for comic relief we had Dale Bryk of the NRDC. Incompétent ? Yes.

  5. I actually agree with Harry Reid on one point, the fuel is safely stored where it is. That’s no excuse for obstructing the law, but if he were so convinced of that statement, he ought to draft a new waste disposal act. A new waste disposal act is needed. It would be better to start from scratch, refund the money to the utilities, and come up with a sensible plan. Not a once and for all a million years plan, but just a 50 years into the future plan.

  7. I would say that Shimkus is a little disingenuous here. You can see he is a little startled when asked, ‘why not build it in Illinois’ … his answer about ‘if you can find a desert and a mountain in Illinois … ‘ made me laugh a bit. What he should have said was we’ve spent a lot of money already, but other than that … no problem.

  9. I just can’t believe the Jaczko didn’t talk to Reid about Yucca EVER.

    That is just a flat out lie in my book.

    How could someone who was selected as an advisor for the Senate Committee for Environment and Public Works on nuclear energy issues NEVER talk about Yucca Mt. with the committee members. And why would Reid pick Jaczko as his advisor after Jaczko worked for Markey if Reid didn’t know Jaczko’s position on nuclear power and specifically Yucca Mt.

    In other words during the interview, Jaczko was not asked specifically about his time during as an Senate advisor nor was he asked specifically about his discussions with Reid during his time as Reid’s advisor. He framed the answer in his own way.

    So Jaczko gave the political answer not the 100% truthful answer. Which means he lied about never discussing Yucca Mt. with Reid.

    • No, Jaczko didn’t lie in the narrow meaning of the word. What Jaczko said was, he never talked to Reid about what he would do. He DIDN’T say that Reid never talked to him about what he should do.

      • Remember that Jaczko also worked as an anti-nuke aide for Markey from MA befor ehe went over to the senate. They didn’t ask about any talks with Markey directly or between Markey and Reid before he went over. Cheers –

      • @Joffan,

        My issue is that Jaczko started as an aide to Markey, a known anti-nuclear politician as has been discussed here by Rod many times.

        Secondly, Jazcko did not answer yes or no to the question posed to him. Jaczko reframed the question by his response. The implied question was not if Jaczko discussed WHAT he would do IF he were nominated. The implied question asked of Jaczko was if Reid used his political advantage to put someone who could be depended for anti-Yucca stance into the commissioner position.

        I am splitting hairs here but that is because Jaczko gave the politician/lawyer response not a simple yes/no answer. And he gave that politician answer because his entire career has been within the halls of Congress. Jaczko has never worked anywhere else other then Washington DC at least until he was forced to resign after becoming an noisy distraction to the Obama administration.

        Finally, during Jaczko’s tenure at the House of Representatives and then in the Senate, I just find it very hard to believe that not ONCE would Jaczko’s anti-nuclear based opinion about Yucca come out. Why else would Reid have selected a relatively “unknown” 35 year old science professor, who never worked in the nuclear industry or any other industry for that matter, as his nominee for the NRC during the political wars with the Bush administration after a relatively bland stint as a Congressional science adviser.

        http://www.allgov.com/officials/jaczko-gregory?officialid=28941

      • Bill – Not “professor” … adjunct professor. That’s a big and important difference. He wasn’t teaching the field in which he was trained, physics, but rather was teaching (occasionally, as a side job) policy, while he finished up graduate school.

        I find it hilarious that he’s billed as a “professor” and a “physicist.” I’ve probably taught more physics courses than this guy, and my day job is working as a nuclear engineer for industry.

      • Gregory Jaczko has a Ph. D. in Physics and is entitled to call himself a physicist.

      • @Susanne

        Jaczko may be entitled to call himself a physicist, but his résumé would make it difficult to obtain a job as a professional physicist or physics professor. He is better qualified to be a political science or public policy instructor.

      • Calling oneself something is one thing, being that is another. When I was in grad school (physics) it was made clear to me that being a physicist is more than having a degree. Those who work in the field place a great deal of weight on experience. Generally, that means doing two or three turns (2-3 years) as a postdoc, then either finding a position in a national lab or a university where research in one’s specialization is being done or is of interest in starting up. Those who choose other paths (e.g., business, or politics) are generally viewed as having left the field.

      • Until someone comes along who has both subpoena power and political cajones, who can compel these two into sworn testimony under sanction of perjury, we will never know for sure exactly what transpired between them.

        Considering that both of them are expert and confident liars, maybe not even then.

  10. I’m hijacking this thread for a message for Joris van Dorp, as I have no other way to reach him. I don’t want to put it in the thread about European broadcasters, as that would be too deep down. Rod, if this is out of bounds, please remove this.

    Joris, and other Dutch readers of this blog, Pandora’s Promise is part of the IDFA, the documentary and film festival in Amsterdam next weeks. (Link to the relevant page of their site.) Robert Stone will do a Q and A at the show in Tuschinsky II on Friday 22 november, 15:00 hours.

    I have my ticket.

  11. Guess what, the walmart idiots don’t care if this “country” is full of crooks.

    Guess what, the walmart idiots don’t care about nuclear reactors either. They only care about cheap. And the asian nuclear reactors are way cheaper than the ones over here.

    And modular reactors aren’t the answer.

    So now what? NNadir wants to hand out physics textbooks to the walmart idiots. But the walmart idiots don’t care about physics. They only care about cheap.

    • Could you define a “walmart idiot”? Most people want cheap energy. Not just the monolithic “walmart idiot”.

      Could you expand on why modular reactors aren’t the answer?

  12. Due to a power outage I did not watch Pandora’s Promise. However, I have followed the politics of nuclear waste disposal and feel certain that Jaczko was aware of Reid’s position on Yucca Mountain and Reid’s efforts to place Jaczko on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. At one point Reid placed holds on 175 of George W. Bush’s nominees for cabinet and other positions (military promotions were excluded). These holds were removed by Reid after “W” appointed Jaczko to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Senators did not have to vote for Jaczko but they are afraid that if they cross Reid they will not get their favorite bills (spelled Pork) through the Senate.

    S. E. Vandenbosch