Reid slams ‘witch hunt,’ complaints against nuclear agency chief Jaczko

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is leaping to the defense of Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko, his former aide, who is under attack from other NRC commissioners alleging Jaczko is undermining the agency.

Reid said the other four NRC commissioners – who have taken their case against Jaczko directly to the White House – are looking out for industry interests at the expense of safety.

“It is sad to see those who would place the interests of a single industry over the safety of the American people wage a politically-motivated witch hunt against a man with a proven track record of ensuring that nuclear power is produced as safely and responsibly as possible,” Reid’s office said in a statement Saturday.

Jaczko and the other members of the NRC, which regulates the nation’s nuclear reactors, have clashed over issues including the pace of improving safeguards in the wake of the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

“Senator Reid continues to support Chairman Jaczko, who has focused the NRC on its core mission of ensuring nuclear safety. His leadership during the Fukushima nuclear crisis was instrumental in ensuring the safety of Americans in the wake of that disaster, and his safety-oriented approach is what we need to protect the American people from a similar crisis in our own backyards,” Reid’s office said.

Reid’s defense of Jaczko follow Friday’s release of a mid-October letter from Jaczko’s NRC colleagues to White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley that includes a host of allegations about the NRC chairman's management and conduct. 

The letter alleges that Jaczko has created a “chilled work environment” and is causing “serious damage” to the NRC that could undermine its ability to protect health, safety and security.

The letter includes allegations that Jaczko has ordered staff to withhold or modify information intended for transmission to the other commissioners. 

While Reid is defending Jaczko, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Saturday called on President Obama to “immediately address” the concerns.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), in a statement Saturday, said there have been “signs for some time” that Jaczko was politicizing key matters before the NRC, including spent fuel disposal and responding to the Japanese disaster.

Obama designated Jaczko, who became in NRC commissioner in 2005, as chairman in 2009.

“Now, reports have surfaced that Chairman Jaczko intimidated senior agency staff and ordered them to withhold information from other members of the commission and from Congress. If true, these actions represent a serious breach of the public’s trust,” Murkowski said in a statement. 

“Such behavior is unacceptable at any level of government and a response from the president is long overdue. The president needs to immediately address the concerns raised by the four commissioners if he wants members of Congress and the public to have faith in the agency,” she said.

But Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) joined Reid in defending Jaczko, and criticized the other four NRC commissioners.

"Instead of applauding the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for his swift and effective response to Fukushima, his fellow commissioners are attacking him," she said in a statement Saturday. 

"We must move away from the ‘do nothing’ culture of the NRC and support Chairman Jaczko as he translates the lessons of Fukushima into an action plan that will make America’s nuclear plants the safest in the world," she said.

All five NRC commissioners are slated to appear before her committee Dec. 15 for a hearing on post-Fukushima safety recommendations.

This story was updated at 1:20 p.m. on Dec. 11

---