Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator

Gregory B. Jaczko

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781476755779
• eBook ISBN:
  9781476755786
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: American Government
• Index: Politics & International Relations

A shocking exposé from the most powerful insider in nuclear regulation about how the nuclear energy industry endangers our lives—and why Congress does nothing to stop it.

Gregory Jaczko had never heard of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission when he arrived in Washington like a modern-day Mr. Smith. But, thanks to the determination of a powerful senator, he would soon find himself at the agency’s helm. A Birkenstocks-wearing physics PhD, Jaczko was unlike any chairman the agency had ever seen: he was driven by a passion for technology and a concern for public safety, with no ties to the industry and no agenda other than to ensure that his agency made the world a safer place.

And so Jaczko witnessed what outsiders like him were never meant to see—an agency overpowered by the industry it was meant to regulate and a political system determined to keep it that way. After an emergency trip to Japan to help oversee the frantic response to the horrifying nuclear disaster at Fukushima in 2011, and witnessing the American nuclear industry’s refusal to make the changes he considered necessary to prevent an equally catastrophic event from occurring here, Jaczko started saying aloud what no one else had dared.

Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator is a wake-up call to the dangers of lobbying, the importance of governmental regulation, and the failures of congressional oversight. But it is also a classic tale of an idealist on a mission whose misadventures in Washington are astounding, absurd, and sometimes even funny—and Jaczko tells the story with humor, self-deprecation, and, yes, occasional bursts of outrage. Above all, Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator is a tale of confronting the truth about one of the most pressing public safety and environmental issues of our time: nuclear power will never be safe.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Prologue
• Chapter 1: Dr. Jaczko Goes to Washington
• Chapter 2: Forget and Repeat: A Brief but Necessary History of Accidents
• Chapter 3: The Burning Issue: The Battle to Prevent Nuclear Fires
• Chapter 4: Nevada Roulette: Ending the Yucca Mountain Charade
• Chapter 5: Accidents Do Happen: The Tragedy of Fukushima
• Chapter 6: Visiting Tokyo: Crises Reveal Human Beings at Their Best
• Chapter 7: Tsunamis in the Heartland: A Scenario for an American Fukushima
• Chapter 8: Fukushima Effects: The Fight over Essential Industry Reforms
• Chapter 9: Express Lane: The Nuclear Industry Licensing Juggernaut
• Chapter 10: Cleanup Is Forever: Visiting Fukushima
• Chapter 11: Going Nuclear: Confrontation over the Building of New Atomic Plants
• Chapter 12: Out of Time: My Departure from the Agency and the Future of Nuclear Power
• Appendix: A Peek at the Science of Nuclear Reactors
• About the Author
• Notes
• Index
• Copyright