Top House Republicans are aligning with the nuclear energy industry in calling for a deliberate and cautious approach to reviewing and implementing far-reaching safety recommendations in the United States following the disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan and three other GOP committee members yesterday said they are spearheading an effort to ensure NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko follows "proper commission procedures" when considering safety recommendations from a task force the NRC assembled.

Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), Environment and Economy Subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) will join Upton in the oversight, according to a statement the committee released yesterday.

"Members of the Energy and Commerce Committee are concerned that regular NRC procedures for full and deliberate review may be circumvented, depriving the commission of the full information necessary to properly do its work," the lawmakers said in a statement.

The task force unveiled a set of reforms last week to revamp the NRC's oversight of nuclear power plants in the United States, as well as safety standards the plants must abide by (ClimateWire, July 13). The NRC launched the review to determine what could be learned from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, a six-reactor plant on the country's east coast that was severely crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in early March.

The report completes a short-term review conducted by the agency, which will now shift to a long-term review and public comment period, the timeline for which has not yet materialized.

Jaczko is pushing the review process forward quickly and yesterday called for the agency to digest the report within 90 days and make any needed changes within the next five years. The chairman later released a "road map" that calls for meetings through September to fully review and take comment on the short-term changes.

But the chairman's ambitious timeline clashes with industry officials who say such far-reaching regulatory changes could have a negative effect on plant operators and that Jaczko is acting too swiftly without sufficiently understanding what happened at the Fukushima plant.

Further bolstering that argument, Upton and his colleagues say the task force -- a small team of experienced NRC staff -- weren't given enough time to interact more broadly with the NRC technical staff, the commission's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS), or stakeholders. The Republicans want NRC technical staff to review the task force recommendations, and asked Jaczko by Friday to outline how long the NRC's review will take, what role the ACRS will play and how stakeholders will be involved.

"We believe it is essential that the commission have the benefit of the full and deliberate process of review, in accordance with established commission procedures, its principles of good regulation, and statutory requirements," the lawmakers said. "We will be conducting our own oversight of this process."

The Nuclear Energy Institute also sent a letter to Jaczko yesterday, saying the "task force report lacks the rigorous analysis of issues that traditionally accompanies regulatory requirements proposed by the NRC" (E&ENews PM, July 18). J. Scott Peterson, an NEI spokesman, also said part of the NRC task force's recommendations include regulatory changes that are unrelated to the Fukushima accident and need to be analyzed separately in a longer-term process with a cost-benefit analysis.

Edwin Hackett, the executive director of the ACRS, said the NRC task force had access to all members and resources within the agency, and that he's not aware the panel was limited in its review.

Jaczko is also attracting the support of Democratic lawmakers including Energy and Commerce ranking member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who says the task force recommendations flagged serious safety concerns that should be speedily implemented.

"The task force raised serious questions about the ability of America's nuclear power plants to adequately respond to catastrophic events, including prolonged blackouts," Waxman said in a statement. "NRC should act promptly to evaluate the task force's recommendations and strengthen nuclear safety protections."

Click here to read Jaczko's "road map."