Elaine Grossman has published a piece on Nextgov.com titled Former Defense Brass Object to ‘More Restrictive’ Nuclear Trade Policies that is critical of an effort led by John Hamre to question recent deliberations by the Obama Administration. The end result of the talks has the potential to complicate rules for US based organizations that want…
Dr. Jerry Cuttler has been concentrating his research on the health effects of low dose radiation for more than 15 years. The events at Fukushima and the human tragedy of the poor decision making both during and after the release of modest quantities of radioactive material have reinforced the importance of his work. Dr. Cuttler…
Matt Wald responded to the comment I described in my post titled Too Hot to Touch – Matt Wald’s review of new book on nuclear waste issue. As a brief reminder, in that post I told him that he and the authors of Too Hot To Touch were misinforming the public by stating that the…
Ted Rockwell has been an active participant in the development of nuclear energy production in the United States since the very earliest days of the technology. He started his nuclear career as an engineering troubleshooter in 1943 at the site that is now Oak Ridge National Laboratory during the Manhattan Project. He was one of…
Dear President Obama: I was heartened to hear that you have put fighting climate change near the top of your “to do” list during your second term. It is time for you to dig through your memory banks, your pile of correspondence and the lessons you are learning by studying Eisenhower’s presidency to realize that…
When the National Academy of Sciences issued its report on uranium mining in Virginia, it included a phrase about “steep hurdles” that has been seized by the people opposed to the enterprise and repeated as almost a mantra. It has made an appearance in almost every article I have read on the topic. Here is…
On Sunday, January 13, 2013, I had a conversation with Dr. Jerry Cuttler and Dr. A. David Rossin. Each of these distinguished gentlemen has a long history of working with ionizing radiation and studying its biological effects on human beings. Dr. Jerry Cuttler earned his PhD in 1964. He has performed radiation research, designed radiation…
On December 21, 2012, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) blog posted a letter from Chairman Macfarlane titled A Visit to Japan: Reflections from the Chairman. She has recently returned from a trip to Japan and a visit to the evacuated areas near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. Here are her concluding thoughts: On…
On December 18, 2012, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a notice in the Federal Register (74788-74798 vol, 77, No. 243) announcing that it would consider in the rulemaking process the issues raised in a petition (Docket No. PRM-50-96: NRC-2011-0069) asserting that existing regulations for civilian nuclear power facilities are inadequate to assure…
Update I checked the NRC blog to find out that the comment that is the main subject of this post had not been approved by the moderator. I edited it to remove the supporting links and made a couple of other minor changes. It appeared right away. I have learned a valuable lesson; on many…
On Friday, Nov 16, I wrote about the potential impact of applying a “peanut butter spread” sequestration algorithm to the NRC budget. (I spent a few years as a government budget analyst, so I sometimes speak the lingo.) If the accountants at the Office of Management and Budget continue on their proposed path, the NRC…
It is time to remind Congress and the President that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s budget is, by law, almost 90% funded with fees assessed on licensees. The structure was put into place during the Reagan Administration at a time when David Stockman was selling the idea that the government could charge fees on users of…