Friday, March 22, 2013

US Regulator Delays Nuclear-Plant Rules




Tracy, R. (2013, March 20). Regulator Delays Nuclear-Plant Rules. The Wall Street Journal, p. A6.

[Excerpted] The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission delayed action on a proposed regulation that might have imposed hundreds of millions of dollars of costs on some of the country’s older nuclear reactors. 

In a victory for the nuclear industry, a majority of the commission’s five-member governing board voted for more analysis of the costs and benefits of installing filters on reactor venting systems…

...In a written statement Tuesday, NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane appeared to disagree with her colleague’s decision to delay, saying the filter’s would be a ‘valid and important safety improvement.’

Majia here: The article quotes NRC Commissioner W. Ostendorff who said that the filters were “important, but not urgent.”

The chief nuclear officer of the nuclear industry’s main trade group, the Nuclear Energy Institute, was quoted as saying more study “increases public involvement and transparency.”

Senator Ed Markey notes that more study is simply delay and that there is no guarantee that the NRC “will ever make this common-sense requirement mandatory.”

I think it is obvious who is in control.

 

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