NRC Hires David Lochbaum to Teach Them That Accidents Can Happen

Dear God,

David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer who spent 12 years with the Union of Concerned Scientists, has been hired by the NRC to teach boiling water reactor technology to NRC employees in classroom and control room simulator sessions.

You're not alone, God. No one here knows what to think either. It's not necessarily a betrayal of Entergy that the NRC hired him. They were entirely within their rights to engage him or any scientist who has built his reputation in nuclear safety. Safety is actually supposed to be the primary concern of the NRC.

Even the activists aren't sure what to think. Was participating in employment talks with the NRC a conflict of interest for David Lochbaum as he served on the Vermont Yankee Public Oversight Panel? Well, he wasn't on the NRC's payroll at the time that he served on the panel. And, anyway, the NRC and the panel were not technically in adversarial positions regarding Entergy.

I know, I know. By advocating safety for 12 years, he may have been acting against the best interests of Entergy's fast money investors. But grow up, God. The world is changing. You win some; you lose some. Forgiveness is the new black.

Still, this whole thing does make me nervous. For the past several decades, the NRC has mollified many (and infuriated some) by promoting the idea that, as long as engineers and plant operators conform to standard procedure, safety is assured. Entergy has said essentially the same thing. Fitting tidily within the bell curve of acceptable performance is what really matters. But now, according to the Reformer, this Lochbaum guy says that his classroom approach will be a "reverse bell curve" one. He will teach about "the times when things work worse or better than expected."

"Better than expected" I know what to do with. Safecleanreliablebetterthanexpected.com anyone? But "worse than expected" acknowledges that nuclear plant operation can involve disastrous surprises. That's a trade secret that we and the NRC have guarded for thirty years now, and that he's cavalierly disclosed.

It may be time to cue the storm clouds and lawyers.

Amen,

Fake-Rob