{"id":517,"date":"2012-09-05T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/new-nrc-head-says-agency-is-standing-up-for-public-health-and-safety.html"},"modified":"2012-09-05T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T14:00:00","slug":"new-nrc-head-says-agency-is-standing-up-for-public-health-and-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/new-nrc-head-says-agency-is-standing-up-for-public-health-and-safety.html","title":{"rendered":"New NRC head says agency is standing up for public health and safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nSounds to me like the NRC is not telling its new chief everything.\nFor example, what about\n\nVogtle unit 1 shutting down right after it passed\nan NRC review?<\/a>\nWhat about\n\ncancer in Shell Bluff, Georgia,<\/a> near the reactors?\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nMike M. Ahlers wrote for CNN 14 August 2012,\n\nNew NRC chair vouches for agency’s independence, states goals<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nAllison Macfarlane said Tuesday she has confidence in the agency and\nits independence from the nation’s 104 commercial nuclear power\nplants.\n<\/p>\n

\n“I have some strong initial impressions of the agency, and one is\nthat I’ve been very impressed with the staff and their dedication to\nsafety, and their willingness to stand up to industry when they\nbelieve a situation is not safe,” Macfarlane said in a wide-ranging\ndiscussion with reporters.\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\n“So I’m actually quite assured that the agency is completing its\nmission of protecting public health and safety,” she said. “They\ntake safety issues very seriously. They take their role as\nregulators very seriously and the public should be assure that they\nhave the public’s best interests in mind.”\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nMacfarlane said she hopes to build public confidence in the agency\nby improving communication, increasing transparency and making NRC\ndocuments understandable. “Some of them are rather opaque,” she\nallowed.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nShe has said some slightly more impressive things back before\nshe was appointed.\n\n\nTara Laskowski wrote for Georga Mason University News 15 February 2010,\n\nNuclear Energy Expert Seeks Disposal Solutions<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\u201cWe want to stop the spread of nuclear weapons throughout the\n\n<\/a>\nworld,\u201d says Macfarlane. She also is chair of the Science and\nSecurity Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which runs the\ncheery Doomsday Clock monitoring the threat of\n\u201cmidnight,\u201d or the end of the world should nuclear\nweapons, global warming, biotechnology or any other human\ndevelopment get out of hand.\n<\/p>\n

\nFinding a solution to the threat \u2014 and potential \u2014 of\nnuclear power is just one of the many issues that make up an even\nlarger problem of global warming. Although Macfarlane sees much\ninnovation ahead in terms of alternative energy, she is concerned\nabout the future.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe best way to meet goals is to diversify energy supply.\nNuclear energy must be considered, and renewable energy resources\nmust be developed. We are still very far from finding a clean,\nefficient energy source. And with the damage we are doing to our\nplanet, it may already be too late.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat part about “renewable energy resources must be developed”\ncertainly isn’t aligned with Southern Company or Georgia Power.\nUnfortunately, the NRC doesn’t deal with solar or wind energy.\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sounds to me like the NRC is not telling its new chief everything. For example, what about Vogtle unit 1 shutting down right after it passed an NRC review? What about cancer in Shell Bluff, Georgia, near the reactors? Mike M. Ahlers wrote for CNN 14 August 2012, New NRC chair vouches for agency’s independence, […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[47,14,16,18,2,41,104,21,22,23,73,24,3,36],"tags":[1766,8719,8704,8706,8701,8708,8699,8718,8702,12,7,8737,8711,107,8712,8713,8731,8714,108,8700,6,8716],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-economy","category-environment","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-health-care","category-nuclear","category-planning","category-politics","category-renewable-energy","category-safety","category-solar","category-transparency","category-wind","tag-allison-macfarlane","tag-climate-change","tag-economy","tag-environment","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-government","tag-health-care","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-nuclear","tag-planning","tag-plant-vogtle","tag-politics","tag-renewable-energy","tag-safety","tag-solar","tag-southern-company","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-wind"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-8l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}