| June 29, 2010 |  |
Experts Urge Senate to Reject 'Streamlined' Approval Process for New Nuclear Reactors
Gulf Spill Highlights Need for Oversight of Risky Industries
Four nuclear power experts today issued a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) urging the Senate to reject proposals that would "weaken important safety protocols and impede the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission]'s ability to ensure that new reactors are safe to operate."
"If we've learned anything from the BP disaster in the Gulf," the letter opened, "it's that lax regulation and weak oversight of high-risk industries can prove disastrous to our environment."
The signatories on the letter were former Department of Energy Senior Policy Advisor Robert Alvarez, now a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies; former Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Commissioner Peter Bradford, now an adjunct professor at the Vermont Law School; Thomas Cochran, a physicist with the Natural Resources Defense Council; and Edwin Lyman, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists.
In the letter, the experts pointed out that Congress and the NRC already have "streamlined" the licensing process for new nuclear reactors, and maintained that any attempts to create more short-cuts would increase the likelihood of accidents and threaten public safety.
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