Senate Environment and Public Works Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Wednesday charged that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not done enough to improve American nuclear power plants while implementing lessons learned from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi facility disaster in Japan.
During a hearing on the commission’s fiscal 2017 budget plan, Boxer listed a number of NRC decisions she believes “show the American people how little is actually being done post-Fukushima.” To date the agency has spent about $50 million on post-Fukushima initiatives, which includes implementation of “flex equipment,” or mobile cooling equipment for American plants said to be the foundation to Fukushima response. The equipment includes a standard set of emergency-response vehicles, water pumps, motors, and generators meant to address one of the major Fukushima failures: reactor cooling capability.
Boxer criticized the NRC’s rejection of recommendations from the agency’s senior staff members, including improvements for the regulatory framework and upgrades to mitigation systems for seismically induced floods and fires. On the latter, NRC Chairman Stephen Burns said the commission rejected staff’s recommendation because “we felt that it was bound by the existing seismic protections in place.”
“I understand that,” Boxer said. “All of these are improvements, not status quo. You rejected doing this even though senior staff after Fukushima four years ago said to do this.”
“No,” Burns responded. “What they said to do is to evaluate whether there’s additional benefit. We’ve been responsive.”
Boxer also pressed Burns on mitigation improvements recommended for blackout events, which NRC approved. The final rule on that item, which will lay out implementation strategy, is due by the end of 2016. Burns said that item is on schedule, and that some plants have already implemented improvements, going beyond what NRC staff recommended.
Boxer did not make it through the list of 12 recommendations she wanted to question Burns on, but she asked that the chairman respond in writing by the end of the week.
“I know you’re taking me seriously,” she said. “That’s the difference between that and implementation.”
Inhofe Wants to Know Obama’s Intent on Vacancy
Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) questioned commissioners about the board’s two vacant seats. The first was vacated in 2014, when Democratic Chairman Allison Macfarlane resigned. A second seat will open this summer, when Commissioner William Ostendorff steps down to take a teaching position at the U.S. Naval Academy.
The Obama administration has nominated Democrat Jessie Hill Roberson, vice chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, to fill the first vacancy. Inhofe said during Wednesday’s hearing that it’s important to know the White House’s intentions on Ostendorff’s open seat before moving forward with Roberson’s nomination. Inhofe said “a good Democrat” has been nominated, but a Republican counterpart is now needed.
The Obama administration has not given any indication whether it will submit a nomination for Ostendorff’s seat.
