Dive Summary:

• Former chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory B. Jaczko, wants to phaseout all 104 nuclear power reactors in the U.S.
• American reactors are operating 20 years past their 40-year license, Jaczko said at the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference in D.C. on Monday. In turn, Jaczko rejects a new commission proposal to extend reactor licenses for a total of 80 years.
• “I was just thinking about the issues more, and watching as the industry and the regulators and the whole nuclear safety community continues to try to figure out how to address these very, very difficult problems,” the former commissioner said.

From the article:
“Dr. Jaczko cited a well-known characteristic of nuclear reactor fuel to continue to generate copious amounts of heat after a chain reaction is shut down. That “decay heat” is what led to the Fukushima meltdowns. The solution, he said, was probably smaller reactors in which the heat could not push the temperature to the fuel’s melting point.