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Former Nuclear Regulator Says All Reactors Have Unfixable Flaw
TweetApril 9, 2013
A major safety problem in all 104 nuclear power reactors in the U.S. cannot be fixed and must be replaced with newer technology, according to Gregory Jaczko, the former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Jaczko was quoted in the The New York Times saying “Continuing to put Band-Aid on Band-Aid is not going to fix the problem.”
From the article:
Dr. Jaczko cited a well-known characteristic of nuclear reactor fuel to continue to generate copious amounts of heat after a chain reaction is shut down. That “decay heat” is what led to the Fukushima meltdowns. The solution, he said, was probably smaller reactors in which the heat could not push the temperature to the fuel’s melting point.
This kind of sharp, public criticism of the nuclear industry by such a prominent former regulator is very unusual.
Read more about Jaczko’s comments in The New York Times.
Image from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Andre Francisco is the Online Producer for the Project On Government Oversight.
Topics: Energy and Natural Resources
Related Content: Nuclear Power
Authors: Andre Francisco
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