Connections between NRC and Nuclear Industry

Industry Connections “……….As with many regulatory agencies, the movement from N.R.C. jobs to industry jobs — and sometimes vice versa — is a recurring issue…….

for others, particularly officials at the highest levels, the commission can be a steppingstone to more lucrative work in the private sector.

Nuclear Agency Is Criticized as Too Close to Its Industry.  NYTimes.com, By TOM ZELLER Jr., May 7, 2011  “…..The agency’s deferential attitude also brought the Davis-Besse plant in Ohio to the brink of the worst American nuclear accident since the Three Mile Island meltdown of 1979.
On March 6, 2002, workers finally conducted the inspections and found that acid used in the cooling water had eaten almost completely through the lid of the reactor. The plant was closed for two years for emergency repairs, two FirstEnergy engineers were convicted of lying to investigators and the company paid more than $33.5 million in civil and criminal penalties.

“They should have just shut them down,” said Mr. Mulley, who investigated the case. “But the attitude at N.R.C. was always, ‘You can’t shut them down. They’ll fight us in court.’ ”

The Byron case in Illinois, while not as dangerous as Davis-Besse, was similar in that it revealed the industry’s predilection for deferring maintenance until more serious safety problems developed. Indeed, since the Three Mile Island accident, at least 38 nuclear power reactors have been forced to shut down for a year or more because of an accumulation of safety problems…..

The nuclear industry is not shy about complaining, and if necessary, throwing around its weight with Congress, which approves the N.R.C.’s budget of roughly $1 billion a year.

That was borne out in June 1998, when then-Senator Pete V. Domenici, a New Mexico Republican with strong ties to the nuclear industry and chairman of the subcommittee that funded the N.R.C., threatened to slash the agency’s budget. Although the budget was not ultimately cut, Shirley Ann Jackson, then chairwoman of the commission, said in a speech to her staff that the industry had sent a clear message: “That we are inefficient, that we over-regulate, that we inspect too much, assess too much, enforce too much, take too long on licensing actions and employ an overly restrictive body of regulation.”

Industry Connections

“……….As with many regulatory agencies, the movement from N.R.C. jobs to industry jobs — and sometimes vice versa — is a recurring issue…….

for others, particularly officials at the highest levels, the commission can be a steppingstone to more lucrative work in the private sector.

That was certainly the case for one commissioner, Jeffrey S. Merrifield.

Shortly after Mr. Merrifield retired from the commission in 2007, Shaw, a nuclear services company, announced that he was taking a top executive position with the company. That stirred the suspicions of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group, which complained to the N.R.C.

Federal law prohibits government employees from taking part in matters that they know could financially benefit them or anyone with whom the employee is negotiating or seeking employment. But according to an inspector general’s report on the case, Mr. Merrifield sought employment with not just Shaw but also General Electric and Westinghouse, both nuclear reactor makers, while still voting on two issues that affected them……

Other commissioners have also had close ties to the industry.

Environmental groups and industry monitors were angered, for example, when Mr. Obama nominated William D. Magwood, a former employee of Westinghouse Electric and more recently director of the Energy Department’s nuclear expansion program, to fill a vacant seat on the commission last year.

“Given his more than a dozen years promoting nuclear power, we do not believe Mr. Magwood has the independence from the nuclear power industry, nor the security oversight background, to regulate it,” said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight……..

Mr. Mulley argued that the prospect of one day landing a lucrative position with a private company almost certainly played a role in softening the positions of some commission employees.

“The N.R.C. is like a prep school for many of these guys, because they know they’ve got a good shot at landing much higher-paying work with the people they’re supposed to be keeping in line,” Mr. Mulley said. “They’re not going to do anything to jeopardize that.”..

.Nuclear Regulatory Commission Criticized for Industry Ties – NYTimes.com