in the united states, nrc is designed to basically ignore entirely the political winds around it. if, for example, president obama had lost the election and governor romney had won, it would not have affected our work. >> reporter: nrc officials are reviewing the safety of u.s. nuclear facilities following the fukushima accident. magood says they have learned what happened there. one lesson involves filters. the absorb radioactive material when plants are vented. the fukushima plant didn't have them so more contamination was able to get out. >> we've asked the question in our country, should we install filters? this is a way of removing contamination from the exhaust after a nuclear accident. we don't require filters today. but we may change. so, we're looking -- reviewing that. >> reporter: magwood also believes in focusing on education, which the u.s. did following the 1979 three mile island accident. fewer people in japan are choosing to study nuclear science. >> how do you convince students to go devote their lives to this field when it's not clear to what the future is? so, i

the study was prompted by -- prompted to nasa and the nrc. the issue of the longer-term piece, i think that would be an enduring theme, regardless of other events. >> dr. pace, if you would not mind your thoughts on how these conclusions would be different if the program had not been cancelled. >> i think there are two parts to the disruption that occurred. one is the consolation program itself impact. we would have maybe a slightly different tenor of the program had not been cancelled. but the deeper problem really is the policy. the national space policy in 2010 is quite a good document. it is very balanced. there is a lot of good material. the part that sticks out for me is the section on civil space exploration. the asteroid and mars aspect of it. which to my mind really comes out of left field. it did not have an international context, a commercial context. it was not my fault of industrial base realities. it is distinct from the rest of the policies. i think if that mistake had not been made, you could have had a more rational discussio

when you've got cruz working with the nrc he's got to keep in mind the goal is to elect senators.ou cannot come in with this doctrinaire point of view and applying that across the country. not every senate race is the same. they're not equal. you have to be much more measured and balanced. ann coulter is right. i've been saying it for a long time. the party has to get in the real. you got your clocks cleaned. step back and assess how you move forward and take your brand, rejuvenate it. you don't have to dumb down your values, walk away from your principles, but make them relevant to the conversation that the country wants to have with this administration and with the leadership in the house and the senate. and if we do that, i think we'll be much better off in the longer term. we're going too get some extra knocks upside the head in terms of what we have to do to get the deal done with the president but that's for the longer term the better move than as was noted by the panel being the party of no again, and standing in the doorway with a checklist on purity. that's just not where

an environmental group said today, it's pleased the nrc is asking the hard questions. >>> federal employees have rejected california's request to waive no child left behind requirements. that law requires schools must raise student test scores in english and math by 2014. the state superintendent of public education says the requirements are unworkable, and unrealistic. he says federal officials told him last week, they're ready to deny california's waiver. without a waiver low income schools are more likely to be taken over by the state, and may lose federal funding. >>> russia's president is expected to sign into law a bill that bans american families from adopting russian orphans. the dire reality for those who don't find a home. >> reporter: a determined set of eyes. >> i just love clothes. >> reporter: a patient hand. 18-year-old julie rally has a dream. in her life sketch, she is a fashion designer. >> a thing about going to konyata college. they have a wonderful two year program for fashion. >> reporter: in 2001, julia was an orphan in russia. >> she was so small at that time, i coul

an environmental group said today, it's pleased the nrc is asking the hard questions. >>> federal employees have rejected california's request to waive no child left behind requirements. that law requires schools must raise student test scores in english and math by 2014. the state superintendent of public education says the requirements are unworkable, and unrealistic. he says federal officials told him last week, they're ready to deny california's waiver. without a waiver low income schools are more likely to be taken over by the state, and may lose federal funding. >>> russia's president is expected to sign into law a bill that bans american families from adopting russian orphans. the dire reality for those who don't find a home. >> reporter: a determined set of eyes. >> i just love clothes. >> reporter: a patient hand. 18-year-old julie rally has a dream. in her life sketch, she is a fashion designer. >> a thing about going to konyata college. they have a wonderful two year program for fashion. >> reporter: in 2001, julia was an orphan in russia. >> she was so small at that time, i coul

david: hold on, bob, let me define what you mean about clean energy, a lot of people from nrc did do not include natural gas with clean energy, but do you? >> well, what i'm talking about is wind, solar and other sources, but the key-- >> what about natural gas bob? >> the key to it, david, how we get it. it has to be gotten in a responsible way. we can't continue to put our communities, our ranchers, our farmers at risk and we can't continue to kick down the road the transition we need to make for the sake of our economy, for the sake of our national security for the sake of our-- >> we're not kick it go down the road. this isn't a fiscal cliff kick down the road. they're improving techniques all the time. they're not kicking the problem down the road. >> most are. and those that aren't need to be required to do so. we need to improve the public oversight. right now they don't have to comply with our foundational safeguards, david. like the clean water act. safe drinking water. that needs to be changed so that all of these companies are fracking in the most responsible way possible.

i could not believe after all that the nrcs ended up funding todd akin. what did you make of it?u know what? business as usual. even at the time i felt they were hedging their bets a little bit because it was not realistic to me that they would give up the shot. if he wasn't going the get out, they were not going to give up the shot of potentially taking back that senate seat. there was no way politically. and they knew frankly the fec reports wouldn't come out until after the report. and then we could all get exercised about it. whatever happened, happened. >> did whatever happened, happen? does the republican party see any blowback from this? this is the democratic senatorial campaign response. s it is not only wrong that the nrsc would provide funds to support a dangerous extremist like todd akin, it was underhanded and dishonest that they would purposely mislead the public about their actions. >> i think where they'll have to answer to it is in the bigger picture. and not surprisingly, i disagree with ann coulter on this one, even though she has been saying some rather sensic

the study was prompted by -- prompted to nasa and the nrc.he issue of the longer-term peace, i think that would be an enduring fame -- theme, regardless of other events. >> dr. pace, if you would not mind your thoughts on how these conclusions would be different if the program had not been cancelled. >> i think there are two parts to the disruption that occurred. one is the consolation program itself impact. we would have maybe a slightly different tenor of the program had not been cancelled. but the deeper problem really is the policy. the national space policy in 2010 is quite a good document. it is very balanced. there is a lot of good material. the part that sticks out for me is the section on civil space exploration. the asteroid and mars aspect of it. which to my mind really comes out of left field. it did not have an international context, a commercial context. it was not my fault of industrial base realities. it is distinct from the rest of the policies. i think if that mistake had not been made, you could have had a more rational dis

senator to anti-yucca mountain senator harry reid, he withheld information from his colleagues on the nrc. from "the wall street journal," strategically withheld information from his colleagues in an effort to stop work on a controversial proposed waste dump according to a report by the agency's internal watchdog. this occurred, by the way, four months after barack obama took office. he had no intention on dealing with nuke hard policy. not a priority, and he shut down yucca mountain because harry reid was in a tough battle in 2010 which he won narrowly against sharron angle. and then, final hi -- i think this is finally for barack obama, on solar power. obama says he wants to promote green energy. well, he has two very bad policies if that's the case. one was playing venture capitalist with your money. solyndra, which we all know went bust and lost $500 million, was a technology that actually might work. it's called sigs, these are expensive panels, but they're more efficient than the cheap solar panels we get from china. china uses amorphous silicone. so he decided, well, look, the pric

he was the head of the nrcs at the time and he took a chance on me and i have always been grateful. he has been a friend ever since. a lot of hoosiers cross the ohio river every day to work in kentucky, but it's not often a hoosier senator crosses it to help a kentuckian making his first bid for the senate. since we're from neighboring states, our work in the senate has often overlapped over the years. i have really lucked out. dick has always been helpful and coopive and a perfect gentleman. with his six terms in the senate, senator lugar is the longest serving member of congress in indiana history. he ranks tenth on the list of senators who have cast the most roll call votes. he is the long-time chair or ranking member on the foreign relations committee. he has become one of america's most respected voices on matters pertaining to foreign policy. indeed, senator lugar commands the highest respect not only from his peers here in the senate but around the world for his deep knowledge of foreign policy, national security, agriculture and trade. now, to a lot of liberals, he is a walk

. >> i was the chairman of the nrc. my son was entering high school. we made the decision not to move here to not disruptive. we left him in the school he was in. that means my husband during the week did everything. as much as i could, i went home every weekend. i did not participate in the washington social scene all the time. but we felt it was important to do the public service, but especially important we kept stability in our son's life. >> we will take another question. go ahead. >> i was wondering if being a female it changes the perspective of how people look at you. >> because you are a woman, are you perceived differently? >> i would say yes. i worked at bell labs doing theoretical physics research for a number of years. >> were there a ton of women? [laughter] >> no. the vice president of research was a nobel prize winner. he sat down to talk to me one day. he said you are always going to have this halo effect, not because you are an angel. when you get up to talk, there will be a lot of light on you. people will really what you. you can ei

that question is complicated, and nrc leaders put together a panel of people that represented a broadge of disciplines. they convene the leaders from business and industry, academy, and government and the national laboratories. i had the privilege of being a member of that panel. because congress asked for 10 actions that to be taken to shore up universities, restructured our report around 10 recommendations with a time frame of the next 5-10 years. one recommendation focused on policies affecting the flow of international scholars and students to the u.s. more and more international students are inclined to come to our research universities. uva has had a 60% increase in such applications in the last three years alone. that has been fueled largely by applications from chinese students. the u.s. benefits when talented students and faculty come to the country to study and conduct research. the benefit even more if they stay in the u.s. to work after they graduate. it is in our national interest to attract and keep talented people. but many current policies are burdensome for students a