The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday approved a construction and operating license for new nuclear power reactors for the first time since 1978, giving Southern Co. the green light to build two new units at its existing Vogtle site in Georgia.About damn time.
The commission voted 4-1 in favor, with NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko casting the sole vote against granting the license. Jaczko said later that he wanted binding assurances that the new reactors would be modified to meet recommendations made by the agency’s task force on the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant last year.
The dissenting vote?
On May 13, 2009, President Obama designated him the organization's Chairman, i.e. its principal executive officer and official spokesperson... In October 2011, all the other four NRC commissioners - two Democrats and two Republicans - sent a letter to the White House expressing "grave concern" about Jaczko's actions at the NRC. On December 14, 2011, Commissioner William Ostendorff, a Republican, told a House oversight committee that Jaczko's "bullying and intimidation... should not and cannot be tolerated." Commissioner William Magwood, a Democrat, testified that Jaczko has humiliated senior female staff in meetings and "reduced (them) to tears in front of colleagues and subordinates". The "most troubling" issue about Jaczko, Magwood said, was his "raging verbal assault" of agency staff, particularly against women.
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