(Nuclear regulator) N.R.C. Chairman to Resign After Stormy Tenure

[alp227]

Source: NY Times

Gregory B. Jaczko, whose three-year tenure as chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been marked by bitter battles with colleagues and with Congress, announced Monday that he would step down as soon as a successor was confirmed.

Dr. Jaczko, chairman since May 2009 and the longest-serving member of the five-member commission, was an outsider and a maverick. He had drawn sharp criticism for helping to end government consideration of a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, a volcanic ridge about 100 miles from Las Vegas, and for assuming some emergency powers at the commission after the triple meltdown of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi reactors in March 2011.

He sought to address some longstanding safety problems at America's nuclear power reactors, but with a background in nuclear physics and nuclear policy but not the nuclear industry, Dr. Jaczko was long viewed with skepticism and mistrust by some industry insiders.

...

loses and becomes a lame duck. Dr. Jaczko was named to the N.R.C. by President George W. Bush in January 2005 under a longstanding practice of approving new commissioners in pairs, one from each party. He was chosen by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, on whose staff Dr. Jaczko served. As chairman, Dr. Jaczko was instrumental in achieving one of Mr. Reid's central goals, killing the proposed nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain, chosen as a potential waste site by the Senate in the 1980s.

Read more: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/us/gregory-jaczko-to-resign-as-nrc-chairman-after-stormy-tenure.xml

[bananas]

1. The Republicans won. "We’ve tried to screw this guy three different times and failed"

That's what a nuclear industry lobbyist said back in January 2008, long before Obama was elected.
Looks like they finally succedded.

http://www.powermag.com/gas/Regulatory-risks-paralyzing-power-industry-while-demand-grows_99.html

January 15, 2008
Regulatory risks paralyzing power industry while demand grows
Kennedy Maize and Dr. Robert Peltier, PE

<snip>

The U.S. nuclear industry decided—even before the 2006 elections, which produced a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress—to bet the radioactive ranch on the GOP. The nuclear industry lobby was, to use a waterskiing and snowboarding term, “goofy-footed” by the Democratic tsunami—caught with its right foot in the forward binding.

Eight years of Republican control of the White House, and 12 of Congress, haven’t delivered for nuclear power. As one nuclear lobbyist, speaking anonymously for fear of losing his job, told POWER, “We’ve had the most pro-nuclear administration in 20 years. During its reign, not a spade of dirt has turned on a new plant. The schedule for the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain has slipped another 12 years. The Department of Energy has been unable to turn the promises of the 2005 Energy Policy Act into realities. It’s a failure of monumental proportions.” Put Yucca Mountain in that same category (see sidebar, “Clinton, Obama agree: Death to Yucca Mountain”).

<snip>

A PhD physicist, Jaczko came to Congress as a science fellow working for Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), one of the most anti-nuclear members of Congress over the past 30 years. Jaczko decided he liked Washington and became Reid’s chief advisor on nuclear waste issues. Reid has vowed to kill Yucca Mountain, and he may be able to keep his promise come January 2009. Jaczko professes, no doubt honestly, that he is not anti-nuclear power.

But Jaczko has every reason to be anti–nuclear industry. The Nuclear Energy Institute tried, and failed, to block his initial appointment to the NRC when he won a recess appointment—as did Republican Peter Lyons, a former advisor to former Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.). That was a deal the White House and Reid negotiated, over the objections of the nuclear lobby.

Then the nuke reps tried to derail Jaczko’s nomination to fill a full term last year. They failed. Recently, the nuclear lobby tried to abort a second term for Jaczko. They were unsuccessful. Said our lobbyist, “We’ve tried to screw this guy three different times and failed. How understanding and helpful is he going to be when he runs the NRC?” There’s little doubt that if the Democrats reclaim the White House, Jaczko, the only Democrat on the commission, will become its chairman.

<snip>

[Octafish]

4. +1

Thank you for putting that together, bananas. I am impressed by all the support Dr. Jaczko received from the Democrats in the administration, Congress and the DoE. I wonder where it all went?

[Hubert Flottz]

2. K&R

[proverbialwisdom]

3. Damn.

http://enenews.com/just-in-gregory-jaczko-to-resign-as-n-r-c-chairman-nytimes

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/21/gregory-jaczko-resigns-nrc-nuclear-regulatory-commission_n_1531805.html?ref=tw