Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Gregory Jaczko opined to utility CEOs at November's meeting of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations that "complacency" from too many years' worth of safe operations combined with a backlog of new safety requirements is leading the American nuclear industry in "the wrong direction."
Noting that the last time three plants were all shut down for prolonged 'forced' outages at the same time was the late 1990s, Jaczko said his staff had been plenty busy in 2011, and had put four plants on a watch list for repeated safety violations.
"We should all be on guard to the possibility that they [the four plants] could be indicative of broader issues for the industry," he told the assembled nuclear bigwigs.
Well, duh. Of course there's broader issues for the industry that gets to report its own data and decide for itself whether or not to follow any directives from the governmental 'regulators' with no power to enforce. This is precisely what they paid for when they bought legislators in DC to dis-empower the commission so they wouldn't have to follow any rules. Is anybody but me surprised that the chairman of the NRC thinks this is probably not the best way to ensure the safety of this industry?
For the record, Jaczko did note that "many" US reactors are NOT in compliance with NRC regulations. As of today. He also brought up the fact that an issue of debris blockage of critical water circulation inside reactor containments cited in 1979 had yet to be properly addressed by the industry. Looks like TMI didn't phase them, Chernobyl didn't phase them, and Fukushima's not going to phase them either. They'll operate until they melt and/or blow, as complete cash cows to the utilities that have long since paid for them. When they melt and/or blow the utility can just walk away, it's up to us taxpayers to foot the bill for damages.
Cushy gig if you can get it.
At any rate, I trust the salad and entree were worth Jaczko's time spent talking to brick walls. It's a thankless task...