As the Japan nuclear emergency continues into its third week, the NRC continues both to monitor the important events taking place across the Pacific and continue pursuing our ongoing responsibilities.
The NRC’s headquarters-based Operations Center continues to be staffed 24 hours a day with experts in nuclear reactors and protective measures, among others. NRC staffers who are part of a team in Japan continue to provide whatever assistance is requested, with some members of the team returning to the U.S. and fresh experts joining the team.
Today, NRC Chairman Jaczko arrived in Tokyo for a meeting with senior Japanese government and TEPCO officials. Afterwards, the Embassy in Tokyo issued a statement in which Jaczko said:
“Our nuclear experts are working closely with their Japanese counterparts, and we both continue to share expert analysis as we move forward to address this challenge. I reconfirmed in my meetings that we are prepared to provide any assistance we can in the days to come. The unprecedented challenge before us remains serious and our best experts remain fully engaged to help Japan address the situation.”
Meanwhile, the NRC issued its final supplemental environmental impact statement for a limited work authorization and the combined licenses for the proposed Vogtle Units 3 and 4 reactors. The press release can be found online.
And later this week, NRC staff will meet with representatives of the nuclear power industry to discuss issues with buried and underground piping at nuclear power plants. The public can participate through an audio bridge. The meeting notice is available online.
For the past two weeks the focus of this blog has been exclusively on Japan-related issues. Tomorrow, we’re transitioning back to our regular official bloggers, who will resume writing about the many different things this agency does. I will write about Japan-related activities when it’s warranted.
Come back this week for posts on an award we received for our support of minority engineers and a word from the NRC historian.
Eliot Brenner Public Affairs Director
U.S. NRC Blog 
Mr Haverly has a point.
you might remember last week i left you a note that the chlorine 38 and neutron reports would soon be noticed by the public and cause alarm.
well here’s the first wave.
old jim
I agree with Haverly. While the NRC does not regulate Japanese reactors, nor does it have direct access to Japanese plant information, particularly as translated into English, it seems to me that the NRC has an implicit obligation to the American public to provide relevant facts, updates and a reasonable perspective on the accident progression. The NRC staff has a contingent of BWR experts in Japan and has the Emergency Operations Center staffed 24/7. You can be assured that these staffers are providing the EDO and the Commission with updates. Why not provide such information to the public?
In my opinion, NRC Public Affairs has done an extremely poor job related to the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan. As for the NRC as a whole, what has it done? Two weeks ago we learned NRC was sending a team to Japan, but since then… barely any news or perspective from the NRC, and certainly nothing of substance.
The USNRC should have seized as much of a leadership role as possible in this disaster. Instead, the disaster has only worsened as days go by, and the silence from NRC is deafening. This “Japan Info” page has not been updated in a week! http://nrc.gov/japan/japan-info.html
This catastrophe obviously has international ramifications of all sorts – health, economic, environmental, humanitarian and more. With our short attention spans, it seems that people regard the Japan nuclear crisis as “yesterday’s news.” Well, it isn’t – it’s today’s news and, sadly, tomorrow’s news.
Where is NRC? What is NRC doing? What is NRC so silent? Why doesn’t NRC provide an onging technical assessment that would be readily understandable by the layman and useless for global nuclear organizations?
The NRC had an opportunity — and an obligation, as the world’s largest and most lavishly funded nuclear regulator — to step up to the plate on this Japanese catastrophe and it has failed. For shame! BTW, this useless quote from Commission Jazcko doesn’t count:
“Our nuclear experts are working closely with their Japanese counterparts, and we both continue to share expert analysis as we move forward to address this challenge. I reconfirmed in my meetings that we are prepared to provide any assistance we can in the days to come. The unprecedented challenge before us remains serious and our best experts remain fully engaged to help Japan address the situation.”