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Jaczko calls for changes in process for responding to allegations
November 12, 2007
By Daniel Horner
Inside NRC (by Platts)
Commissioner Gregory Jaczko is pushing for NRC to change the way it handles allegations and interacts with allegers and their employers. In an October 30 speech in Cambridge, Maryland, Jaczko praised the allegations program but said he planned to offer a three-part proposal for improving it. He also said he planned to send a memorandum to the other commissioners proposing a new policy statement on safety culture. The spark for the planned efforts, he said in a November 7 interview, was the recent developments at Peach Bottom, where a security officer videotaped his sleeping colleagues. The video confirmed allegations that a whistleblower had previously made to NRC but that the agency had been unable to substantiate. … Danielle Brian, the executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, praised Jaczko's speech — in large part, she s aid, because his proposals are similar to ones that POGO, a group that works on nuclear security and other "government accountability" issues, has offered. In a November 6 posting on POGO's blog, she said Jaczko's recommendations "all sound so common sense that those not familiar with nuclear regulatory policy might yawn and ask, 'What's the big deal?'" However, she said, "nuclear power plant security has been so controlled by industry that even these small steps in the right direction, if implemented, will make a big difference."
