OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

To NRC Commissioners: End Soap Opera, Get Back to the Job of Adopting Safety Measures

Press Release

By: Ed Markey
By: Ed Markey
Date: Dec. 14, 2011
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Energy

Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Congress's leading voice on nuclear safety, released the following statement in response to today's House Oversight and Government Committee hearing, "The Leadership of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission".

"The reality is that the issues before the NRC today are entirely about safety despite Chairman Issa's warnings to his colleagues at the hearing not to "hijack' the proceedings to discuss safety matters. These four NRC Commissioners attempted a coup to remove Chairman Jaczko in part because they said they were concerned that the Chairman's actions "undermined the ability of the Commission to function as prescribed by law and decades of successful practice'. Today, they sang a different tune and testified that they have received all information necessary to do their jobs and that the agency is functioning as well as it ever has in protecting public health and safety.

"I urge the Commissioners to end the distraction of this sorry soap opera and get back to the business of adopting the regulatory lessons of the Japanese nuclear meltdowns."

Last week, Congressman Markey released a report, "Regulatory Meltdown", prepared after his office reviewed thousands of pages of documents, including emails, correspondence, meeting minutes and voting records. The report found a concerted effort by Commissioners William Magwood, Kristine Svinicki, William Ostendorff and George Apostolakis to undermine the efforts of the Fukushima Task Force with request for endless additional study in an effort to delay the release and implementation of the task force's final recommendations. Documents also show open hostility on the part of the four Commissioners toward efforts of NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko to fully and quickly implement the recommendations of the Task Force, despite efforts on the part of the Chairman to keep the other four NRC Commissioners fully informed regarding the Japanese emergency.

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