the n.r.c. in that discussion? is it appropriate for the n.r.c. to get involved with one of the largest utility companies in the united states of america, entergy, a $14 billion a year coming, pays his c.e.o. $18 million a year. entergy wants to stay open. they want to make more money. i understand that. the people of vermont want to shut it down. i agree with that. why should you be involved in that in what disturbs me very much, and i want to purse this later, is my understanding is that yesterday by a 3-2 vote, this commission decided to urge the department of justice to get involved in that fight. now i don't care what your view is on what vermont yankee should or should not be doing, in my strong opinion, it is not your business to get involved in that fight. you have to worry about the safety issues of nuclear power. it is not your business to tell the people of vermont that they have to keep open a nuclear power plant that they don't want. that is not your business. so i am going to purse

the n.r.c. to get involved in this debate. i want to thank my colleague from oregon and i yield back my time to him. >> the remaining two minutes. >> absolutely. >> you're welcome. three minutes. >> thank you, madam chair. i will just briefly note if anyone has any comments why the hydrogen exploded. obviously the venting process is to avoid the plant damage. obviously that didn't happen in japan with the three hydrogen explosions. i also wanted to note that i think it is very important that a lot of research be done on different models of nuclear reactors and particularly on mod ular systems. that would have made it irrelevant whether power had been knocked out to a plant or irrelevant whether it was flooded with a tidal wave. i doubts about nuclear power being competitive when you take into account costs and potential terror threats, natural disasters and human error. i also think it is very important to look at all options as we wrestle with ways to generate non-carbon power. any comments in t

they pose a real risk as equipment fell into disrepair and no longer satisfied safety standards the n.r.c. would actually lower the standards so that the plants could remain open because of this lax oversight the report noted that seventy five percent of all u.s. nuclear power plants have leaked radio after active substances a corporate capture of government regulators as officially spread to the nuclear industry the most dangerous of all industries in america we saw a corporate capture of oil drilling watchdogs due to the gulf of mexico with the b.p. disaster and with coal and the massey mine disaster sadly it may only be a matter of time before we learn the same lesson with our very own question. it's the good the bad of the very very orion curiously oddly first good sergeant major michael barrett the top noncommissioned officer in the united states marine corps spoke at a military base in south korea last week on the issue of repealing don't ask don't tell and sergeant major barrett's words were to the point and poignant he told the troops stationed at the base to. get over it let's ju

the n.r.c. would do anything to interfere with the state's process." i believe the chairman's position is correct. the n.r.c. regulates safety -- safety -- although some vermonters believe that they don't do that very well. nevertheless, it is not the arbiter of political or legal disputes between a powerful energy company and the state of vermont. that is not the business of the n.r.c. so i was very plied to learn last -- so i was very surprised to learn last week that the energy voted in skeet by secret by a 3-2 margin to tell the department of justice to intervene on entergy's behalf. when i requested the n.r.c.'s commissioner at a hearing last week, they refused to tell us how they voted. several of them admitted that they are not even -- they have not even read the major 1983 supreme court opinion on this issue. a case between pg & e versus california where the supreme court said, and i quoted, an important quote regarding states' rights and nuclear energy from the supreme court. "the promot

and in fact, according to your report, the n.r.c. staff, including the e.d.o. assumed as late as mid nept the c.r. guidance would continue the licensing review with those available fun as you said. so the draft c.e.o. them as of mid september bear it out. despite the chairman's instructions to slow down, staff plans to continue work usinghose f.y.i. 2010 funds. but the chairman changed that, that's where we are, right? >> the senior staff always anticipated they would be able to complete certain volumes and theyere relying on f.y. 2010 funds to do that. >> this was the chairman's policy, to slow walk these critical reports to october, early november, and use his budget authority to ensure the staff findings would not be made public, is that correct? >> i think the report is reflective of the fact once it got into budget space you'd have to use another mechanism to change the course and since you did have the budget guidance memorandum everyone was complying with, it would have taken a calm at that juncture to move it over. >> my time is almostp. let me ask this

weeks or even months to know that these floodwaters were coming to put protections in place luckily the n.r.c. did its job last year over the last couple years they cited for calhoun for a major safety violation they were not prepared for flooding that condition had persisted since one thousand nine hundred seventy eight one nine hundred seventy eight two thousand and nine and arcee busted and fortunately they have a lot more protections in place because of that and the other nuclear plant on the missouri river what's what's going on with the tonic reactor is an identical twin difficulty my daiichi units one through four it's a general electric boiling water reactor of the mark one design incredibly they are not shut down they are at full power they're operating a way full steam ahead with the floodwaters rising they have about a foot and a half of margin before they would have to shut down under safety regulations so they're running that thing at full steam and they have as well put in flood barriers on the river. does it is that it is the river continuing to come up or is the river nose has

nuclear regulatory commission received a notification of an unusual event the lowest level warning on the n.r.c. is for stage disaster classification system no big deal as he would know droids in this car but it does seem a little odd that since june sixth the f.a.a. has been enforcing a no fly zone above the crippled plant when asked about the no fly zone the f.a.a. responded by saying it was put in place for security reasons that we can't reveal just like the no fly zone over the b.p. oil spill which successfully stopped both news reports and scientific analysis of the water over the spill you know whatever's going on in nebraska this is a warning that fukushima could happen here in the united states with three little warning. not only do we operate nuclear plants in flood basins and brassica but we also have plants built on fault lines in california and in the path of tornadoes in the american midwest and for those who are more superstitious there's the diablo canyon power plant in california it's not only named after the devil but it also sits on top of an indian burial ground so is it real

path where the plants are approved for insurance but then never inspected by the insurance company the n.r.c. bad as it is at least occasionally conducts a actual physical inspections of nuclear power plants. yes i forgot to include that point about nuclear power plants being uninsured well that means i'm a true free market we wouldn't have to worry about them at all until the technology improved enough to make them safe and reliable enough to ensure it in the government involved takes away the liability and as always allows people to proceed with unsafe technology like what we're enjoying now but you missed the mark about the n r c because it's already demonstrated to be complete failure insurance companies will inspect exactly as much as they have to in order to minimize their financial liability and therein lies the genius of the free market you know find a way to do things with peaceful cooperation not the coercion of government and finally a brilliant insight from one of our very sharp viewers matt writes out on what i saw your segment on the teachers creating false facebook accounts to

i am pleased to see that the n.r.c. reevaluating the safety and security of nuclear power plants in the u.s. in light of what has happened in japan. these are the things i am pleased about -- inspectors have inspected and issued reports on the 104 operating nuclear reactors and their readiness to address power losses or damage following an extreme event and the n.r.c. is reviewing its processes and regulations in light of the situation in japan. i want to talk about the two nuclear power plants in california. the most recent inspections of california's two nuclear power plants turned up numerous problems that need to be corrected. among other things, the inspections at diablo canyon found that state highways and access roads needed to reach be sold fuel and an alternative seawater's source may be inaccessible after an earthquake. pose is needed to get cooling water from the reservoir to the plant were blocked by a security fence. i want to correct myself. diablo i have not visited in a while. the other a recently visite

in the n.r.c. atomic safety and licensing board rejected the department of energy's request to withdraw the license application, it noted -- and i quote -- "conceding that the application is not fraud nor the site unsafe, the secretary of energy seeks to withdraw the application with prejudice as a 'matter of policy because the nevada site is not a workable option.' in fact, according to the house report, the n.r.c. staff review of d.o.e.'s yucca mountain application agreed overwhelmingly with the department of energy on the scientific and technical issues associated with the site, ultimately concluding that the application complies with applicable nuclear regulatory commission safety regulations necessary for the site to proceed to licensing for construction. the political interference orchestrated by the administration comes with a very real cost. as of 2010, the taxpayers have spent $15 billion to research and develop the yucca mountain site. in addition, even while the administration is attempti