Both the Senate and House questioned Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Greg Jaczko on nuclear facilities’ earthquake risks March 16. While the committee hearings were originally scheduled to cover more general topics, the week’s events focused lawmakers on the implications of Japan’s nuclear plant problems for the nation’s own nuclear reactors. Jaczko intimated to lawmakers that the Obama administration does not believe Japan’s version of nuclear hazards. He revealed a much bleaker picture to Congress than the official line from Japan--with (at press time) no water covering spent fuel rods. That, in engineering terms, indicates a meltdown. In the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, some senators were incredulous that the commission refused to reconsider aging nuclear plants and plants with pending license extensions on the agency’s agenda. Pacific Gas & Electric is among those utilities seeking to extend the life of its Diablo Canyon plant. “Shouldn’t we be humbled?” Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) asked Jaczko. “Can we take another look” at the nation’s nuclear facilities? Boxer also asked the NRC chief why the agency--like the governments of Germany, China, and Switzerland--is not suspending relicensing, and/or shutting down nuclear plants built before 1990. In the latter case, that would include all the nation’s nuclear facilities. The commission chair told the senators, as well as representatives during a hearing earlier in the day in the House, that the NRC has no intention of reviewing the nation’s nuclear facilities. “We don’t have any specific actions planned beyond what we normally do,” Jaczko told Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) in a hearing before the House Energy & Commerce Committee. Jaczko avoided answering direct questions by citing confidentiality provisions. He told senators he couldn’t discuss Diablo Canyon relicensing--neither the plant’s earthquake vulnerability nor its security issues--because the 20-year license extension is currently under agency review. “New faults are being discovered,” Boxer warned. She referred to the Shoreline fault estimated to be a half-mile from the Diablo facility that wasn’t revealed until 2008. Another fault, just coming to light, may also run beneath the plant. On the House side, Markey asked, “Should we be retrofitting San Onofre and plants like that?” to withstand unpredictable earthquakes. Jaczko repeated that the agency is confident that U.S. nuclear facilities are built to handle maximum forecasted earthquakes. While the nuclear agency was in the hot seat, some lawmakers invoked confidence in the nation’s nuclear plants and want to proceed with building new nuclear facilities. “I firmly believe that the U.S. should move forward on nuclear,” said Senator James Inhofe (R-OK).
