Following Japanese Crisis, Senate May Reexamine U.S. Nuclear Energy Policy

Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), the chair of the Senate Energy Committee, said Tuesday that he may hold hearings on the future of U.S. nuclear energy policy in the wake of crises at Japan’s nuclear facilities.

“We will need to understand what failures in design could have contributed to the problems in Japan, whether they could have been prevented, and whether similar design flaws exist in reactors here in this country,” Bingaman said in a statement. “It is possible that we will learn some things from what’s happened in Japan that will persuade us to put in place additional precautions.”