Bernie Sanders announced today that he will oppose an Obama administration reappointment to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Senator Sanders is opposing reappointment of Commissioner Kristine Svinicki, in light of her inaction to implement safety measures based on the lessons learned from Fukushima.

“With Commissioner Svinicki’s vote, the NRC approved Vermont Yankee’s license extension a week after the Fukushima disaster, without even pausing to consider the safety implications for the Vermont plant which shares the same design as the Fukushima reactors that melted down….The Commissioner has not supported full implementation of all post-Fukushima safety reforms recommended by an NRC task force, and has in fact voted to approve licenses for two new nuclear reactors without requiring them to implement these safety reforms.’

Svinicki, whose current term is set to expire on June 30, is a former aide of top Republican lawmakers. She has been a key figure in the embedded culture of industry influence prevailing at the NRC; and has conspicuously bumped horns with NRC Chair Gregory Jackzo in his attempts to mitigate the undermining effect of that culture.

Together with a laundry list of complaints of unethical behavior, such as misrepresentations concerning the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, Svinicki’s reappointment is of particular concern to Vermonters:

“Commissioner Svinicki also voted in secret to recommend that the Department of Justice side with Entergy in its federal preemption lawsuit against the state of Vermont, despite admitting at a Senate hearing she had not read the seminal 1983 U.S. Supreme Court decision on federal nuclear preemption. The NRC’s job is to ensure safety, not to promote nuclear power.

‘Time to send some election-year letters of protest to the President?