NYT: Split Within US Nuclear Regulatory Agency on speed of recommended changes

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/science/earth/21nuke.html?src=recg

July 20, 2011
Split Within Nuclear Regulatory Agency
By MATTHEW L. WALD

WASHINGTON — A majority of the five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission is signaling that it wants to move slowly on at least some new recommendations from its staff on how to reduce the chance of a Fukushima-type accident at an American reactor despite calls by its chairman for swift action.

Three commissioners are resisting a proposal by the chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko, that the commission act promptly on all the recommendations, which were issued last week by a team of six senior staff members. Mr. Jaczko said that because this task force had completed its evaluation in 90 days, the commissioners should be able to decide within a similar time frame what changes to make in safety regulations, although the reforms themselves would take longer.

This is not the first indication of conflict within the agency. After an inquiry, the commission’s inspector general reported last month that some staff members were troubled by Mr. Jaczko’s aggressive management style and by his decision to halt the staff’s work on an Energy Department proposal to build a nuclear waste repository in the Nevada desert. The Obama administration has shelved that project, drawing criticism from many Republican members of Congress.

On Wednesday, a day after the task force briefed the commissioners on the post-Fukushima report, one member, William D. Magwood IV, posted a statement at the commission’s Web site asserting that the task force had worked “without the benefit of the full analytical resources of the agency.” Given its 90-day mandate, “it was not possible to give all issues the consideration they deserve,” he wrote.

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