Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko wants his agency to decide within 90 days how to proceed with far-reaching safety changes recommended for the industry, much faster than the agency's typically years-long rulemaking process.

Up until now, a cost-protection rule has essentially barred NRC from instituting major improvements without an analysis proving that the human health benefits justify the cost.

The recommendations came from an NRC task force formed after Japan's nuclear disaster in March and represent the most significant changes to nuclear industry safety since the 1979 Three Mile Island disaster (ClimateWire, July 13). The report made a broad critique of the current federal nuclear safety program, saying that the agency used a "patchwork" of requirements and voluntary measures at the nation's 104 commercial reactors.

The move to swiftly implement changes "reflects the obvious conclusion that our understanding about what is necessary for safety changed with Japan," a senior NRC official said.

Jaczko called the recommendations "comprehensive and well done," but his approach has some industry officials and their congressional allies on edge. Making changes through a formal rulemaking, with time for public comment, typically takes two to five years.

The industry has said regulators should wait to adopt some of the recommendations until more is known about what caused the Japan disaster.

"We've got to figure out more about what happened at Fukushima before we start making changes to facilities in our country," said Tony Pietrangelo, senior vice president at the Nuclear Energy Institute (Power/Smith, Wall Street Journal, July 18). -- AS