NRC continues to monitor the Japanese Nuclear reactor problems from the U.S. around the clock. Direct action is politically difficult.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission or NRC has sent nine additional experts late yesterday to Tokyo to provide assistance requested by the Japanese government. On Saturday two members had been dispatched to Japan. Acting as part of a U.S. Agency for International Development assistance team, NRC now has 11 staff members in or on the way to Japan as the nuclear reactor crisis worsens.
There are at least 15 reactors of a similar design to those used at the Fukushima plant operating in the U.S. The 2012 budget of President Obama includes $36 billion in loan guaranteed to subsidize growth in nuclear industry. Environmentalists are outraged, claiming the technology is too dangerous.
In what is a politically sensitive area in Japan – the result of the U.S.’s deployment in 1945 of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima, Mazda’s home, and Nagasaki, which ended WW2 – NRC said “only if asked would it be part of the Japanese government’s decision making process” on the out of control reactors.
The NRC says the team has been instructed to conduct all activities needed to understand the status of efforts to safely shut down the Japanese reactors. The team is also to look at the potential impact on people and the environment of any radioactivity releases.
The additional NRC team members of the team left the United States Monday evening and were due to arrive in Tokyo Wednesday afternoon.
The team includes additional reactor experts, international affairs professional staffers, and a senior manager from one of the NRC’s four operating regions. The team members come from the NRC’s headquarters in Rockville, Md., and from offices in King of Prussia, Pa., Chattanooga, Tenn., and Atlanta.
“The team will be in communication with the Japanese regulator, the U.S. Embassy, NRC headquarters, and other government stakeholders as appropriate,” NRC said.
The team is led by Charles A. Casto, deputy regional administrator of the NRC’s Center of Construction Inspection, based in NRC’s office in Atlanta. Casto has worked in the commercial nuclear power industry at three different nuclear power plants, including Browns Ferry, which has three boiling water reactors, operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority in Alabama. He has also worked as a licensed reactor operator and operator instructor.
Casto will provide a single point of contact for the U.S. Ambassador in Japan on nuclear reactor issues.
