MSNBC "Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript

Interview

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Congressman Markey, thanks for your time tonight.

REP. ED MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Good evening, Rachel.

MADDOW: How is your faith about the agencies assuring us about the safety of our nuclear sites under stress around the country tonight?

MARKEY: Well, what I did after Fukushima was ask my staff and many of my staffers have been with me more than two decades working on these nuclear safety issues--I asked them to do an assessment after Fukushima of the deficiencies which exist within the United States system for responding to a nuclear disaster.

And what we produced was a 28-page report, "Fukushima Fallout." That is where the problems exist within the United States" nuclear safety system. And this is a blistering, scalding indictment of the system that we have here in our country. There is still too much of an assumption that things can"t go wrong, that a tsunami can"t hit, that an earthquake won"t be that bad, that a flood can"t do the damage, that a fire can"t cut off the electricity to a nuclear power plant triggering a meltdown.

And instead of having a little bit of humility of all the lessons which Mother Nature has been teaching us this year, unfortunately, too many people at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission--I"m not talking about the chairman here, but many of the other members still refuse to learn those lessons.

MADDOW: Why do you think that is? What explains the sort of mistaken mindset or mistaken footing that the regulatory bodies here have toward the industry? Is there too much--I guess you"re hoping for a more confrontational relationship in the industry and they"re looking for a cooperative relationship?

MARKEY: I think it"s not unlike what happened in the Gulf of Mexico with BP. There"s the assumption that nothing can go wrong, and as a result, the representations that are made by industry, that they don"t need batteries for backup generators, they don"t need to make sure that the diesel fuel generators work, they don"t have to make sure that the emergency evacuation plans actually can work. They don"t have to distribute the potassium iodide pills. They think don"t have to make sure that in the event of a meltdown, there is an emergency response plan that ensures that the reactor operators know what to do, and it"s not voluntary, but mandatory--all of that remains untended to because there is still this sum in assumption that a big accident cannot go wrong, even after Fukushima, after the BP oil spill. That is the mentality unfortunately which dominates those industries.

MADDOW: Let me ask you about a looming issue about nuclear power plants in particular that the "Associated Press" has been doing some incredible investigative reporting on this year, and that is that, essentially, all of the country"s nuclear power plants are hitting the end of their planned life span at the same time. They were all built 40 years ago to last 40 years.

Do you believe--after all your experience overseeing this industry -

do you believe there"s anyway to retrofit an old fleet of nuclear power plants to be safe and to handle the real threats that we face today?

MARKEY: I think it is possible if there is basically an order given to the nuclear industry and the industry is willing to spend the money. Now, the problem is this, the industry makes more money the longer the plant operates. It"s a very expensive way to boil water.

So, in the early years, they don"t make much money because it costs a lot to build the plant. They make more money if the plant operates for 40 years, for 60 years.

But the problem is that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission then would have to order all new safety procedures built into these plants in order to guarantee that they are safe. So, for example, up at Seabrook right now, they want an extension for 20 more years for the operation of that plant. But this existing license has 19 more years to go before they hit that next 20 years.

Now, what we found in the last month is that water is now corroding the concrete at the plant where it protects safety features. Should we give them another 20 years right now, even though there"s 19 more years to go on the license? Or should we wait, learn all the lessons where safety might be compromised, mandate that they have to build in those safety measures as a precondition to getting the extra 20 years?

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission--believe it or not--since Fukushima has given five new 20-year extensions to these already old nuclear power plants without mandating the implementation of any of the safety lessons from Fukushima, that"s what"s scary. That"s what makes you believe that the lessons haven"t been learned, that the industry unfortunately still looks at the NRC as a lap dog and not a watchdog. And as a result, I think that we should all be casting arched eyebrows towards whether or not the safety procedures are, in fact, adequate.

MADDOW: Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts, senior member of the energy and commerce committee--thanks very much for your time tonight, sir. Appreciate it.

MARKEY: Thank you.

MADDOW: We"ll be right back.

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