Generally these teabaggers Senate and House Republicans are hired hands of the anti-government of the utilities. They can save a few pennies over this to boost their profit. I think this is criminal activity. This is governmental disruption on a massive scale.
Clearly the House and Senate anti government Republicans have begun a war on the NRC. The cheap natural gas has undermined the safety of the nuclear plants and dangerous congressional teabaggers are scapegoating the hapless Nuclear regulatory Commission. This has turned into a national crisis at the intersection of politics and government oversight with dangerous industries. Generally the democrats are incompetent...the Dems would love to hide in the bushes while the giant nuclear utilities disassemble the NRC alive.
This is a gigantic shadow over the federal agency and the whole culture is effected by the political and corporate intimidation. I bet you this is the test case with how in the future the teabaggers disrupt and destroy government.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Took 6 Months and 3 Tries To Produce Research Budget-Andrew Follett
Things are moving so slowly at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that it took nuclear regulators six months and three different attempts to give congressional overseers information they requested on the research budgets of projects.
The NRC finally did give the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works the information, but it was an incomplete list delivered the night before the commission was set to testify.
Republican Oklahoma Sen. Inhofe asked the NRC at the Wednesday hearing, “How do you develop a budget and meet your responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and license fees if it takes six months and three oversight requests to produce a list of what projects this 91 million dollars will be spent on?”
NRC Commissioner Stephen Burns replied that the slow response was because of the “responsible” accounting methods the commission uses to compile its list of projects. Burns continued by saying that NRC accounting, however, lacks the ability to “track” the data at the level of individual projects.
According to Inhofe, “the NRC’s bureaucracy has grown beyond the size needed to accomplish its mission.” The nuclear industry has shrunk in recent years, and the NRC previously accomplished “a lot more work with a lot fewer resources.”
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Took 6 Months and 3 Tries To Produce Research Budget-Andrew Follett
Currently, the NRC plans to reduce its budget by roughly 10 percent by 2020 while reducing its staff by around 9.5 percent from the current 3,778 to 3,600 by September 2016.
The NRC has seen its budget expand by about 50 percent over the past decade. It predicted a wave of new reactor license requests and a general expansion of the nuclear industry following the applications of 13 different companies to the NRC for licenses to build 25 new nuclear power reactors in the United States between 2007 and 2009.
Changing economic conditions, however, especially low natural gas prices, slow demand growth for electricity, and the Fukushima nuclear disaster ended this “nuclear renaissance” in the United States. This caused a declining interest in the construction of new nuclear plants and as a result the NRC has received 40 percent fewer licensing requests and about half as many license renewal applications, greatly decreasing its work load.
Things are moving so slowly at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that it took nuclear regulators six months and three different attempts to give congressional overseers information they requested on the research budgets of projects.
The NRC finally did give the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works the information, but it was an incomplete list delivered the night before the commission was set to testify.
Republican Oklahoma Sen. Inhofe asked the NRC at the Wednesday hearing, “How do you develop a budget and meet your responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and license fees if it takes six months and three oversight requests to produce a list of what projects this 91 million dollars will be spent on?”
NRC Commissioner Stephen Burns replied that the slow response was because of the “responsible” accounting methods the commission uses to compile its list of projects. Burns continued by saying that NRC accounting, however, lacks the ability to “track” the data at the level of individual projects.
According to Inhofe, “the NRC’s bureaucracy has grown beyond the size needed to accomplish its mission.” The nuclear industry has shrunk in recent years, and the NRC previously accomplished “a lot more work with a lot fewer resources.”
Currently, the NRC plans to reduce its budget by roughly 10 percent by 2020 while reducing its staff by around 9.5 percent from the current 3,778 to 3,600 by September 2016.
The NRC has seen its budget expand by about 50 percent over the past decade. It predicted a wave of new reactor license requests and a general expansion of the nuclear industry following the applications of 13 different companies to the NRC for licenses to build 25 new nuclear power reactors in the United States between 2007 and 2009.
Changing economic conditions, however, especially low natural gas prices, slow demand growth for electricity, and the Fukushima nuclear disaster ended this “nuclear renaissance” in the United States. This caused a declining interest in the construction of new nuclear plants and as a result the NRC has received 40 percent fewer licensing requests and about half as many license renewal applications, greatly decreasing its work load.
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