Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire - Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry. Nuclear Activities
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Spending a Saturday Afternoon at the NRC Listening to All Sides
On
a beautiful fall afternoon, when many Americans were focused on college
football, viewing the changing leaves (or raking them), or perhaps
chasing about on suburban errands, two members of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission spent part of Saturday afternoon meeting with leaders of
groups opposed to nuclear power who also have complaints about the NRC.
Chairman
Allison Macfarland and Commissioner William Magwood met with the
half-dozen individuals in the room at NRC headquarters usually reserved
for business meetings of the five-member commission. Macfarlane, in
comments opening the hour-long session, told the visitors the NRC values
hearing from all points of view.
"I'm
really glad to get the opportunity to chat and I look forward to
hearing from all of you," Macfarlane said at the outset of the 75-minute
session. And after the cordial discussion she added, "I do want us to
have a partnership relationship, not an adversary relationship." She
added that as a former academic she likes to hear all sides of an issue
and "the public has legitimate concerns and technical knowledge."
Magwood,
who noted he has met with a number of interest groups on his visits to
plants regulated by the NRC and helped set in motion improvements in the
way the agency communicates with Tribal governments, said he too valued
the meeting. "We like these dialogues because they give us a different
perspective," he said. He also noted, as did Macfarlane, that NRC
employees "really do care about the health and safety of the American
people."
Gene
Stone, of the San Clemente, Calif.-based group Residents Organized for a
Save Environment, who worked with the chairman's office to arrange the
meeting, said, "We are hoping that you will tighten the ship and through
your collegial interactions work together for safety and not just the
licensee."
Topics
raised by the vistors ranged from reactor-specific issues to the length
of time it takes to get safety issues resolved, real time radiation
monitoring, Agreement State issues, the National Environmental
Protection Act, disposal of uranium mining products, and on-site waste
storage. Plants mentioned in the discussion included San Onofre in
California, Davis-Besse in Ohio, Palisades in Michigan, Zion in
Illinois, Millstone in Connecticut, Fort Calhoun in Nebraska, and a
nuclear fuel plant in Tennesse. Macfarlane was presented with two
petitions with in excess of 68,000 signatures -- 24,000-plus from
California -- seeking the closure of the San Onofre plant near San
Clemente.
Others
at the meeting included David Kraft of the Nuclear Energy Information
Service in Chicago; Linda Cataldo Modica of the Sierra Club in
Jonesboro, Tenn.; Josh Nelson of Credo in Washington, D.C.; Michael
Mariotte of the Nuclear Information Resource Service in Takoma Park,
Md.; and Nancy Burton of the Connecticut Coalition against Millstone of
Redding Ridge, Conn.
The
NRC is a 4,000-person strong independent agency that regulates civilian
uses of nuclear materials to protect people and the environment. Issues
handled by the NRC range from safety improvements after the Fukushima
accident to day-to-day oversight of reactor safety, and overseeing the
safe use of nuclear materials in medicine and industrial settings.
Eliot Brenner
Director, Office of Public Afffairs
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The United Arab Emirates, one of the top oil exporters, is leading the
race to develop nuclear power in the Arab world and has awarded
contracts worth $2 billion to provide, convert and enrich uranium.
For now, only the Emirates and Saudi Arabia have the political clout
and the financial reserves to achieve nuclear power programs that will
transform their economies.http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Emirates_Saudis_drive_for_nuclear_power_999.html
