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…
Yesterday I wrote about the need to rationally compare the physical risks associated with producing energy by burning natural gas against the similar risks of producing energy by fissioning uranium in a nuclear power plant. However, even when decision makers includes some reasonable estimates for those kinds of risks, they are still often choosing to…
The temperature in the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 spent fuel pool never exceeded 90 degrees C and the level in the pool never fell below the top of the used fuel that was stored there. The Chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the people who supported his testimony to Congress on the afternoon…
It worried me to learn that on Saturday, September 22, Allison Macfarlane, the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and William Magwood, one of the four Commissioners who serve with Dr. Macfarlane on the five member Commission, held a private meeting with six representatives of groups that oppose the use of nuclear energy. From…
By Paul T. Dickman Paul Dickman was a career Federal environmental scientist specializing in nuclear waste and nuclear materials management. He served as Chief of Staff to NRC Chairman Dale E. Klein. Part 2 of 2 NRC’s Draft Waste Confidence Decision Update of October 2008 was based on an understanding of that the DOE would…
By Paul T. Dickman Paul Dickman was a career Federal environmental scientist specializing in nuclear waste and nuclear materials management. He served as Chief of Staff to NRC Chairman Dale E. Klein. Part 1 of 2 The 12th paragraph below has been revised to clarify that the 1998 rule was a reaffirmation of a 1990…
A post titled Bill Magwood, NRC Democrat, Is ‘Treacherous, Miserable Liar’ And ‘First-Class Rat,’ Says Harry Reid offers an illuminating view of political thinking coming from inside the Washington, DC beltway. That way of thinking, in this case, can be traced back to Las Vegas, NV and the mob-influenced power politics that played a role…
Readers of Atomic Insights know that I have never been a fan of Dr. Greg Jaczko. He is a politician with no background in nuclear energy production either through education or professional experience. His only claim to knowledge of nuclear energy came through his policy jobs on Congressional and Senate staffs, but his employers in…
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a brief press release late in the afternoon of June 9, 2012 titled ALLISON M. MACFARLANE BECOMES 15TH NRC CHAIRMAN. Here is the text of that press release:
NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko was asked to resign from his position of authority over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission because the agency charged with independent audits of his organization found that he was not trustworthy and not discharging the duties assigned to him as the Chairman of a duly appointed group of commissioners who share equal…
In keeping with a familiar pattern, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Gregory Jaczko issued a press release in advance of the the official release of a damaging NRC Inspector General (IG) report about him. In my opinion, for what little it is worth, it is another example of his routine abuse of the power of…
I just finished watching the archived video of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on the nominations of Dr. Allison Macfarlane to be a Commissioner and Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Kristine Svinicki to serve an additional five year term as a Commissioner. It was disheartening to see that the Senate’s…