| The United States is desperately in need of new | | | | company bought nuclear materials with the approval |
| plants. Every nuclear power plant in the United States | | | | of the NRC based on a paper application which |
| is rapidly approaching its end of life. While there are | | | | contained a post office box as its listed address. The |
| many solutions to this problem, the most obvious | | | | company was not investigated in any way by the |
| solution is to build more nuclear plants. Nuclear power | | | | NRC Bogus Company Gets Nuke License. While the |
| is a proven resource. The United States has an ample | | | | NRC debated the damage that could have been |
| supply of uranium. Nuclear power does not create | | | | done, they updated the policy which left the |
| any carbon-based pollution which supposedly | | | | responsibility of investigating companies requesting |
| contributes to the green house effect. | | | | this particular type of license up to the individual |
| What is the problem? | | | | analyst. If an analyst did not want to perform the |
| The Nuclear Power Industry is regulated by the | | | | additional task of investigating a company applying |
| Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The NRC has | | | | for the right to purchase nuclear materials license - |
| only received one application to build a nuclear power | | | | the analyst was not required to do so. The policy has |
| plant since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. | | | | been changed. Currently, if a nuclear power plant fails |
| With the 103 U.S. approaching their end of life, the | | | | to meet security standards, there is no fine. The |
| NRC needs a new generation of nuclear plants to be | | | | penalty is a terse entry on a website buried amongst |
| built in order to stay relevant. Without nuclear power | | | | hundreds of security results for every other nuclear |
| plants, the NRC's other roles of regulating nuclear | | | | power plants. In the case of the sleeping guards at |
| medicine, nuclear waste, and nuclear weapons are | | | | the Peach Bottom plant in Pennsylvania, the NRC on |
| either handled by other agencies or could be. The | | | | site representative was notified months in advance |
| NRC relies on the Nuclear Power Industry for its | | | | that guards were sleeping at critical areas within the |
| existence. | | | | plant. Nothing was done until a video of guards |
| When a huge bureaucracy relies on the group that it | | | | sleeping was made public. |
| regulates for its existence, is the bureaucracy | | | | The question is not whether nuclear power is the |
| effective? Some would say, like the Atomic Energy | | | | energy source for the future. The question is do you |
| Commission, the NRC is too large to be easily | | | | feel safe? Do you feel safe with guards sleeping at |
| disbanded and without Nuclear Power Plants the NRC | | | | plants? Do you feel safe with the level of oversight |
| would still survive. Regardless of whether the NRC | | | | the NRC is providing? Would you feel safer if the |
| would truly disappear if nuclear power plants the real | | | | NRC had to regulate the construction of large |
| question remains - is the NRC effective in their | | | | numbers of new nuclear plants constructed to meet |
| oversight? | | | | the energy needs of the United States for the next |
| The NRC has a history of weak oversight. For | | | | twenty years. |
| example, as part of a GAO investigation, a fake | | | | |