i believe we should all demand that the nrc commissioners commit to start action on recommendations within three months. delay is not an acceptable option. our look for to hearing from the commissioners. -- i look forward to hearing from the commissioners. >> senator alexander. >> thank you, chairwoman. thank you to the commissioners for their service. he is always useful to begin with a safety -- it is always useful to begin with a safety record -- no deaths on any nuclear reactor, navy reactor, and no one was hurt on three mile island. that is an enviable record. i would like to approach it differently. what if we did not have nuclear power? what if we did not have that at all? it is 20% of all electricity, 70% of all clean electricity. we use about one-quarter of all of the electricity in the world to power this country. what if we did not have nuclear power? we can look at japan and get an idea. there were a couple of articles last week that gave us a picture of it. "the wall street journal" article said the japanese are very patient people, so they will turn their air conditioners up

the nrc must act without delay. if it is not acceptable, not the we have the results of the task force review to merely call for more study and further delay. i look forward to hearing each of you make a commitment that you are ready to move on their recommendation. you must act now the you know some of the problems. it is your moral and legal responsibility. i call on senator in office. >> thank you. i would like to put into the letter from the president of the new killer of the nuclear institute -- the nuclear institute -- "the task force report lacks." i would like to enter that into the record. >> absolutely. what is and to go to this report, -- enjoy go to this report -- into gold to this report, chairman jaczko said "we always ask ourselves the question, a are theplants still safe, is there anything we can do to address that, and the answer is no. we want to have good information." i want to a three. frankly, we need to take time to insure that we learned the right lessons, that any regulatory changes have the

after 9/11, the nrc to seemingly decisive action. i want you to listen to this. i hope the public is listening to this. you ordered u.s. nuclear power plants to take a series of improved security measures, because we were about a terrorist attack. in my home state, they were passing out iodide pills. we had millions of people that live within 50 miles of power plants. the nrc later codified those orders in regulation with requirements by march 312010. from 2001 through 2010. now, i want assurances from each one of you that you will not allow that to happen. and i want to hear from you as to whether or not you believe we can move on these recommendations and put them in place within a year. >> i believe we can move in on them within 90 days and have full implementation with potentially long-term recommendations in five years. >> 90 days, if we can move on most of these recommendations and put them in place. a yes from the chairman. >> i do not believe that all can be enacted on -- >> how many? >> you do not know. next. >> we should disposition all of them within 90

the nrc's regulatory framework is inappropriate, realistic, an achievable goal." german jaczko, what is the problem? -- chairman jaczko, what is the problem? somebody used the word defective. i do not believe the regulatory system is defective. i hear they want to improve it. do we have a problem of improving the regulatory framework? second of all, let us be clear about what we're talking about. you have knowledgeable people that have made 12 recommendations. they want you to go forward. no one is saying you have to accept all 12 recommendations tomorrow. what they are saying is, look at them, analyze them, tell us what you like. mr. ostendorff has said he is ready to go on some of them. he has concerns on some of them, fine. what is your judgment about taking these recommendations and starting an immediate discussion to see what like and do not like? >> that is something we can do and something that we should be able to get done in 90 days. >> this svinicki, what is the problem of this? >> i voted within days to begin this task force. i do not see that my proposa

and what has been the nrc's experience? with expedited rulemaking and might it have a role to play with some of the recommendations adopted by the commission? >> well, i think everyone that comes in as chairman of the nrc and probably every commissioner at the nrc wants the rulemaking process to go forward faster. we have mixed success with that. and a lot of it, i think, comes down to the usual challenges of resources and focus and priorization. we did recently complete in start to finish in about four months, having to do with an issue related to how we deal with the over fatigue and tired of workers who may get tired at a nuclear power plant. i think there are ways to do it. it would cause us to change how we do our regulations. but i think it's doable if that were -- in my mind, that would be the most preferable way to some of these things is to do them in expedited rule makers that can be done in four or five months, rather than the two or three years that it takes. >> okay. the vote has started yet. and so we have what

and the fifth, improving the efficiency of nrc programs. i mean, we always want to be doing things like that. so i'm not going to use all my time. i want to get to the questions, madam chair, and i'd yield back at this point. >> next is -- i'll get my list. senator johanns. thank you so much for being here. >> thank you, madam chair. to the commissioners, let me just start out and tell you we appreciate you being here with us today. so many things were said by senator alexander that i concur with that it would almost be sufficient that i adopt his statement but let me offer a thought or two if i might. i'm very anxious to hear about the safety concerns. we have nuclear power as you know in the state of nebraska. it's been a good neighbor in our state. we feel it runs efficiently, smartly. we feel that the folks who are operating the facilities in our state are responsive to the community. i would be remiss if i didn't mention the quality jobs that go with the facilities. all of that has worked very well for us. the second thing i would say a

>> respectfully, my proposal asked that the nrc staff come back and provide us with the implementation path on these recommendations. before i made a final decision, i wanted to be informed by the final input by the nrc. >> all i can say is if i'm the people of california and i am watching this, right now, i am not sure if i want that plant to operate. because it is very simple. we have power plants out there coming in to be licensed. i urged them not to move forward until they studied it. you seem to be on my side, but then you have to be -- hear from everyone else. i would submit to you this is common sense. you should have more belief in what you say. this is common sense. i am just saying we have oversight over the work you do. mr. chairman, i want to compliment you and i want to say to the commissioners who are ready and willing to act in a timeframe of 90 days, thank you. if we do not do that, we are not going to see people supporting nuclear power. i take an opposite view of my friends on the opposite side today. the more you convince people you are doing your job, the more they

after 9/11, the nrc took decisive action. i want you to listen to this. i hope the public is listening to this. you ordered power plants to take it security measures. we worried about terrorist attacks. in my home state, they were handing out iodine pills. that is how worried they were. we have millions of people that live within 50 miles of power plants. they later codified those orders. you know when? march 31, 2010. from 2001 to 2010. i want assurances from each of you that you will not allow that to happen. i want to hear from you as to whether or not you believe we can move on these recommendations and put them in place within a year. >> i believe we can move within 90 days and have full implementation with recommendations in five years. >> 90 days to move on to most of these recommendations and put them in place. that is a yes. >> i do not believe that -- >> how many? >> i am not certain. i propose we receive an evaluation. >> you do not know. next. my time is over. kohen. >> i agree with the chairman there we should disposition of them. >> i think t

we have a public meeting just last thursday at the nrc. i think all of the commissioners your support the chairman's call for open, public meetings as being a key component. there was also the discussions that will happen outside a public meeting that will inform the prioritization of these individual recommendations. >> you said you did not believe the existing regulatory framework is broken. is this report larger in scope than you expected? >> if i can address that comment. i agree with all of what the chairman said a few minutes ago on his definition, or characterization of the patchwork comment. i think there has been a dynamic evolving buildup of regulations in response to events. and so, i don't think thae patchwork is a fair characterization. i think the chairman's characterization is correct. i think it is something we should look at, but i do not think it is something that is in immediate concern that would suggest existing regulations were not safe and proper. >> thank you very much. if i could, use that in your road, lacking the

tell me in lay mans terms what are some of the recommendations, what should the nrc be looking at right to prevent this sort of thing from turning into a major catastrophe? >> well, the nuclear regulatory commission right now is in the process of approving a new ap 1000 reactor, which one of its own scientists, one of its own engineers says will actually shatter like a glass cup in the event of an earthquake. some of those plants are being planned to be build in earthquake-prone areas. in addition, the nuclear regulatory commission is extending the licenses of theses plants. as your report said, these plants were only meant to operate 20 years, 40 years. well the nuclear regulatory commission is now in the process of approving extension of the life of these plants out to 60 years even 15 to 20 years before they hit 40 years. so i just think that the nrc has turned into a lap dog and not a watchdog and i think that mother nature, once again, today gave us a warning that we should be humble and we should spend the extra money, take the extra time to make sure that a catastrophic nuclear m

the nrc is monitoring it. here in mineral, there were two residential buildings that experienced complete collapse. no major injuries but we're getting an assessment of some of the damage right near the epicenter here, wolf. >> in mineral, a lot of our viewers will remember when you were in japan for that earthquake, the tsunami that followed the fukushima earthquake, that was destroyed not just by the earthquake but by the sun naum ma that devastated that nuclear power plant. theseth one the mineral s. it similar in design to the foouk reactor that caused so much destruction and damage in japan? >> wolf, i'm not sure what the similarities are just yet. with all of the nuclear power plants, you've got to take into an immediate consideration the spent fuel rods. of course, they have this on backup emergency pou we ever in order to cool those fuel rods down but that's the concern as it was at fukushima. the fuel rods melt down and then you have a real problem on your hands. you can have leakage and radioactive a

other nuclear up and down the east coast, ten plants in four different states that also shut down, the nrc will have to examine that before they go back skwhraoeupb. very lucky a cold front has come through the east coast at this particular time because if it was a heat wave you'd have to wonder where you'd be getting the electricity from with all those plants down. one quick footnote, i suspect and i'll make a prediction, this is going to be a quiet kind of disaster. we just had a woman approach us who was complaining about the national media coverage, saying all the focus is on public institutions like all of this, she says go into any homes around here, my son's house shifted off its foundation, she lost her chimney. a lot of people have lost important antiques or mementos in their lives. i expect it's going to be a quiet tsunami of insurance claims. we'll see as the weeks progress. jon: lucky it wasn't stronger than it was. doug mckelway, thanks. jenna: we're joined by seismologist dr. john ebil out of the east coast, did you feel this earthquake in massachusetts? >> unfortunately whil

they won't be back up today because they need approval from the nrc and fema in washington.that's just paperwork. it is fine, they should be able to power become up as soon as they get approvals from the nrc and fema. we had no problems with salem or hope creek on the nuclear plant side. last thing, i've watched over the last 72 hours most of which i've spent here on the extraordinary work of the folks in government. you know, -- >> martha: governor christie thanking everybody. two people dead as a result of hurricane irene in new jersey. a lot of flooding and more to come. a lot of pictures coming in from new jersey. tough situation there. he says that the cost of irene could run into the billions. if not the tens of billions. we'll keep you posted from new jersey as we go state to state. >> bill: a lot of people think we dodged a bullet, perhaps we have. some of these big storms can be wind makers or rain makers. right now this is a rainmaker which will lead to significant flooding. think about isabel 2003, floyd in '99, katrina six years ago tomorrow, everybody thought we

a new advisory from the nrc strongly discourages patients from going to any location other than a private residence. even so, doctors and patients do not have to follow it. in fact, a survey shows 14% of doctors actually recommend their patients stay in hotels! >> it's very troubling. it tells us that the doctors who really should know better are disregarding it. >> reporter: now, as for gretchen, ucsf specialists questioned her extensively about her home and family before they would even give her the radioactive drug. she sent her kids to stay with a friend for three days and she stayed in a bedroom upstairs until she knew it was safe to come out. a choice not taken by all. >> wise one. yeah. all right. kim, thank you. >>> not topping out with community service. >> i'm beginning to think that may have been, let's just pull the wool over her eyes kind of thing. >> the bay area judge who believes you do the crime, you pay the fine. how her hard-line approach on traffic offenses has a downside. >>> a missing rembrandt resurfaces. the odd place it turned up and how police believe it got ther

we're getting word from david mcentire, the nrc spokesman. n tell you a bit of information in case you were concerned about that situation. they're apparently monitoring the situation. trying to get as much information as quickly as they can. we're talking about lake anna, off -- it's the closest plant to the epicenter in mineral, virginia. both units were tripped. they were shut down automatically. the plant lost off site power. all diesel generators are working. they've declared an unusual event which the nrc says is the lowest of the four emergency categories. just a precaution there. two reactors taken off line. what do you want to do here? take a quick break? all right. we'll take a quick break and be back with much more on this earthquake. you don't have facetime on your phone, which makes it this easy to talk face-to-face with another iphone. this easy to talk with a mac and this easy to talk with an ipad. facetime. just one more thing that makes an iphone an iphone. you've been stuck in the garage, while my sneezing and my itchy eyes t

examples to look at, and i draw the contrast between kentucky and my own race where in kentucky we had the nrc and senator mitch mcconnell really campaigns against rand paul. you know, he was the worse thing to happen to politics until he won the primary. the day after he won the primary, the two, you know, mitch mcconnell and rand paul for arm-in-arm saying that's the past. we have to move forward to be sure this guy crosses the finish line. unfortunately, that didn't happen in delaware, but it's got to happen in order to win in 2012, so that's the message i hope people take away with them by reading this book. i tried to tell the story of how i got involved in politics, and what made me embrace the principles that i did and why i chose to become a republican, and i told it in a way that some political advisers have said was a little too honest, probably shouldn't have admitted some thing, but i did that again so that the reader can relate because it's not about how many mistakes we've made or if we've ever fallen because you simply can want pretend to be perfect. it's too exhausting to keep

that there is an emergency there or any concern of an emergency, but they have declared or notified the nrc of unusual events, and so they go through a number of steps to insure that the plants are safe. but the north anna plant at lake anna, virginia, that plant has two reactors and came online in 1978 and both reactors have tripped and shutdown au automatically and the plant has recorded unusual event and now beginning the procedures to assess any, any concerns whatsoever. and while i have you on the line, several airport control towers were evacuated. and they include jfk in new york as well as newark airport on the new jersey side of newark as they inspect the towers for potential concerns, but the a airstrips themselves to make sure there is no serious cracks in the foundations at that point. that is what i can give you at this moment. >> that is a lot. our colleague john harwood said he was on the amtrak fast train, if you will, that stopped outside of baltimore while amtrak checks the soundness of the track. that is the information i'm receiving from john harwood, and also according

there appears to be no damage, although the nrc continues its investigation there. lants in four different states shut down as a result of the earthquake yesterday. back to you. >> steve: live in mineral, virginia. >> juliet: were you ever in an earthquake before? >> steve: yeah, i felt them before in california. >> brian: the thing is, i was in a building that had rollers on it at a tv station. that was interesting. there was no rollers here. you knew you were swaying. >> steve: that's a problem with a lot of the buildings here in new york and washington, d.c they weren't designed to withstand big earthquakes. >> brian: i was about to head downtown. i felt it and i started the e-mails coming through. do you remember the first one? we don't believe it was a terrorist attack. you saw it coming in from the capitol. we're evacuated. we think it was an earthquake. i was interviewing michael shirt-off for something we're doing in 9-11. i asked him, when stuff like this happens, why is it that we always think terror? >> unfortunately the legacy of 9-11 is when there is any

think about that and feet the recommendation. i think it was nrc staff looking at the mechanisms we have in place to have across the table discussions in a public venue to hear details about the reactions to the recommendations. that is what we do every day in a larger respect. >> thanks. hi make two points. i asked how he thought we should proceed. those that work for him come back and give us an integrated process. the agency did not do that. we get more bang for the buck and make a real difference sooner. we call for that in 30 days. something should be done right now that requires more. >> thanks. >> a question on orders of versus regulatory process. can you describe or compare both processes for us? what type of opportunities are there for input from stakeholders? >> the orders have more limited for public involvement. i do believe we could be taken in a postured time for certain reasons for their response is to violations for recommendations. they are not a preferred tool, because they do not provide more in-depth -- more regulation would. on