http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/us/ex-regulator-says-nuclear-reactors-in-united-states-are-flawed.html
Ex-Regulator Says Reactors Are Flawed
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: April 8, 2013
WASHINGTON — All 104 nuclear power reactors now in operation in the
United States have a safety problem that cannot be fixed and they should
be replaced with newer technology, the former chairman of the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission said on Monday. Shutting them all down at once is
not practical, he said, but he supports phasing them out rather than
trying to extend their lives.
The position of the former chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko, is not unusual
in that various anti-nuclear groups take the same stance. But it is
highly unusual for a former head of the nuclear commission to so bluntly
criticize an industry whose safety he was previously in charge of ensuring.
Asked why he did not make these points when he was chairman, Dr. Jaczko
said in an interview after his remarks, “I didn’t really come to it
until recently.”
“I was just thinking about the issues more, and watching as the industry
and the regulators and the whole nuclear safety community continues to
try to figure out how to address these very, very difficult problems,”
which were made more evident by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in
Japan, he said. “Continuing to put Band-Aid on Band-Aid is not going to
fix the problem.”
Dr. Jaczko made his remarks at the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy
Conference in Washington in a session about the Fukushima accident. Dr.
Jaczko said that many American reactors that had received permission
from the nuclear commission to operate for 20 years beyond their initial
40-year licenses probably would not last that long. He also rejected as
unfeasible changes proposed by the commission that would allow reactor
owners to apply for a second 20-year extension, meaning that some
reactors would run for a total of 80 years.
Dr. Jaczko cited a well-known characteristic of nuclear reactor fuel to
continue to generate copious amounts of heat after a chain reaction is
shut down. That “decay heat” is what led to the Fukushima meltdowns. The
solution, he said, was probably smaller reactors in which the heat could
not push the temperature to the fuel’s melting point.
The nuclear industry disagreed with Dr. Jaczko’s assessment. “U.S.
nuclear energy facilities are operating safely,” said Marvin S. Fertel,
the president and chief executive of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the
industry’s trade association. “That was the case prior to Greg Jaczko’s
tenure as Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman. It was the case during
his tenure as N.R.C. chairman, as acknowledged by the N.R.C.’s special
Fukushima response task force and evidenced by a multitude of safety and
performance indicators. It is still the case today.”
Dr. Jaczko resigned as chairman last summer after months of conflict
with his four colleagues on the commission. He often voted in the
minority on various safety questions, advocated more vigorous safety
improvements, and was regarded with deep suspicion by the nuclear
industry. A former aide to the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of
Nevada, he was appointed at Mr. Reid’s instigation and was instrumental
in slowing progress on a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain,
about 100 miles from Las Vegas.
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