Nuclear waste expert tapped as top US nuclear regulator

[bananas]

I posted a couple of other articles in LBN yesterday: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014128626

This one has comments from several people who know and work with her, such as Frank von Hippel:

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/nuclear-waste-expert-tapped-as-top-us-nuclear-regulator

Nuclear waste expert tapped as top US nuclear regulator

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:35 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters


* Expert on nuclear waste, described as independent

* Would replace Jaczko, who had stormy term

* Reid: will move quickly on nomination (Adds comment from House Republicans)

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON, May 24 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday he will nominate Allison Macfarlane, an expert in nuclear waste, as the nation's top nuclear safety cop, seeking to turn the page on a period of bitter acrimony at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

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"She's not anti-nuclear, but she's certainly not going to take her instructions from the industry," said Frank von Hippel, a nuclear nonproliferation expert at Princeton who has written academic papers with Macfarlane.

"I've argued that the NRC has been subject to regulatory capture. Allison is certainly not captured by the industry," he said.

PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS

Married to an anthropologist who has studied nuclear weapons scientists and anti-nuclear activists, Macfarlane is an academic who teaches at George Mason University. She has also worked at Harvard, Georgia Tech and Stanford.

<snip>