Senators clash over pace of agency's post-Fukushima work

摘要

The Republican chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee butted heads today over whether federal regulators are doing too much -- or too little -- to bolster U.S. nuclear safety in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered three reactor meltdowns in Japan. Sen. Barbara Boxer, the committee's top Democrat from California, accused the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of having a "horrible record" and failing to implement a dozen safety recommendations that an internal task force released following the 2011 disaster. She also asked whether the failure was a matter of lacking funds or mismanagement. "You haven't done, really, anything," Boxer said at a hearing focused on the commission's fiscal 2016 budget request. "I'm concerned you're not living up to your mission."