Environment

Barbara Boxer Speaks In Support Of Obama's Nomination For NRC Chair

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published June 13, 2012 at 8:52 AM PDT

This story was published more than 11 years ago.

California Senator Barbara Boxer spoke today at a hearing to consider the next head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Barbara Boxer Speaks In Support Of Obama's Nomination For NRC Chair

California Senator Barbara Boxer spoke today at a hearing to consider the next head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Boxer, chair of the Senate committee that oversees commercial nuclear power plants, cited the concerns of people living near San Onofre in her address in support of the nomination of Allison Macfarlane.

She supports the President’s nomination of Allison Macfarlane to replace Gregory Jaczko, who resigned under pressure recently from his role as chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

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Jaczko visited California in April to listen to community concerns about the San Onofre nuclear power plant. San Onofre has been shut down since January and the NRC has not yet issued its report about the root cause of the problems with the steam generators.

Boxer called the disaster at Fukushima a wake up call and said without Jaczko’s leadership, the NRC would be “even more behind on safety than we are.”

She quoted the Union of Concerned Scientists, which says it expects Macfarlane to be “a strong advocate for practical steps to enhance nuclear power safety and security.” Macfarlane is a geologist from George Mason University.

Boxer does not support the reappointment of NRC commissioner Kristine Svinicki. Svinicki opposed Boxer’s call for an investigation into the NRC oversight of the replacement of San Onofre’s steam generators.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.