April, 2012

An influx of tiny, jellyfish-like creatures last week forced the shutdown of one of the reactors at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California. The creatures are called “Salp” and they can be held in the palm of a hand, although they...

A big part of the NRC’s mission to protect people and the environment depends on the companies and individuals we regulate meeting our requirements. The NRC’s Office of Enforcement has a number of tools that serve as deterrents and emphasize the importance...

The idea of “containment venting” has been front and center in discussions about the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident and what the NRC wants plants to do to improve their vents. But to most people outside the nuclear industry vents are the things in...

Economists and others like to talk about “problems in the aggregate,” or a big-picture view of the issues. But that phrase is taking on new meaning in the case of the Seabrook nuclear power plant, where there are concerns involving the aggregate used...

In celebrating the second birthday of our Open Government Plan, we did what any proud parent would do, we made a movie! You can see our story on YouTube. During the past two years we have successfully begun to use social media services, redesigned the...

Most people think of the NRC as a place filled with engineers, health physicists, and nuclear scientists. That is true, but the nature of our regulatory oversight work extends beyond the technical, and into the financial realm as well. As a measure of...

People here at the NRC were scratching their heads last week when e-mails began circulating about an Internet ad for the KUBE X-15 MiniNuke, a palm-sized power reactor that supposedly could power a city the size of Dayton, Ohio, for a year. The ad said...

Friday, April 6th, was a long day. Very long. We trouped out of the hotel about 6:45 a.m. and set off for the start of 12 hours of nonstop nuclear issues. First stop: the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, or SONGS to the residents of Southern California...

When it comes to creating a seal, most federal agencies keep it simple: show what you do. The Forest Service: A pine tree. The Bureau of Reclamation: A lake. The Federal Communications Commission: Telephone lines. It’s usually not complicated. But for...

The NRC assesses the safety of all 104 nuclear reactors in this country by looking closely at seven different safety “cornerstones.” These are the fundamentals of nuclear plant safety such as “public radiation safety,” and “barrier integrity.” The severity...