Public concern moves Members of Congress to demand nuclear safety upgrades

As the Associated Press reports in the wake of its own hard-hitting multi-part investigative series "AGING NUKES," public concern about nuclear power safety -- or lack thereof -- has increased dramatically in the ongoing aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in Japan. AP reports "The website of Beyond Nuclear, an anti-nuclear group, has been bombarded with tens of thousands of additional visitors in recent months, according to Paul Gunter, the group's director of reactor oversight. He said nuclear safety has primarily concerned specialists in recent years. 'Now it's mothers and housewives who are concerned about fallout from Fukushima and from reactors in their own neighborhood,' Gunter said." Such grassroots concern and public pressure has moved Members of Congress to take action. Joined by Robert Menendez (D-NJ), U.S. Senators serving on the Environment and Public Works Committee, which has direct oversight on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Environmental Protection Agency, including committee chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Bernie Sanders (Independent-VT), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), have requested that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO, Congress's investigative arm) launch an investigation into nuclear safety regulation. U.S. House Members Ed Markey (D-MA) and Peter Welch (D-VT) this week released a report they requested from GAO on the epidemic of radioactivity leaks from underground pipes at atomic reactors. The GAO report requested by Markey and Welch contains this zinger on page 5: "NRC has concluded that all 65 reactor sites in the United States have experienced a leak or spill of radioactive material into groundwater."