Senate subcommittee conducts oversight hearing of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The Senate subcommittee has jurisdiction over the regulatory body and the hearing was called to review the operations of the NRC. Chairman Voinovich's questioning was chiefly focused on the problems at the Davis-Besse plant and the NRC's response in reforms to its regulatory oversight, workforce skills, communications and inspections and related processes.
Discussion during the hearing also touched on the fact that there are only three current members on the five-member commission. The Bush Administration nominated Greg Jaczko, staff to subcommittee member Harry Reid (D-NV) to the panel two months ago. His confirmation hearing has not been scheduled. The Republican nominee to the fifth slot on the panel, Admiral John Grossenbacher, withdrew his name from consideration after being nominated last year to take a job in the private sector.
The second panel of witnesses were Marilyn Kray, Vice President, Project Development, Exelon Generation; David Lochbaum, Nuclear Safety Engineer, Union of Concerned Scientists; Marvin Fertel, Senior Vice President of Nuclear Generation, Nuclear Energy Institute; and Dr. Barclay Jones, Professor, Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Dr. Jones was questioned about the number of nuclear engineering programs in the US and whether the federal government was sufficiently supporting these efforts to ensure a quality and trained workforce would be available at the NRC, utilities and other locations. Chairman Voinovich asked for a plan to strengthen the US nuclear engineering education program.
The witnesses statements will be available on the committee website, epw.senate.gov.
