MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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You are the ranking Democrat on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Congress I believe, are you not, congressman?

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D), OHIO: That"s right, Ed. It"s the oversight subcommittee --

SCHULTZ: Yes.

KUCINICH: -- of government reform and oversight. And it has jurisdiction over the NRC, our subcommittee.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, where are we at this hour, in your opinion, as we re-evaluate as a country where we are, not so much where we"re going, but the facilities that we have right now and the licensing that"s taking place. Are you concerned about it?

KUCINICH: I am. Because of that, Ed--you know, you"re going to hear it first here on THE ED SHOW. I"ll be sending a letter tomorrow in my capacity as ranking Democrat on the Oversight Subcommittee that has jurisdiction over the NRC, a letter to the NRC asking them to come to Capitol Hill and give us a full briefing on the full scope of these issues that are being raised in Japan, as it relates to nuclear reactors in the United States.

In particular, I say in the letter to the NRC that any plant operator that has had any difficulty because of, let"s say, dishonesty in their handling of a plant, that they should not have their license renewed. They should actually be shut down. We cannot put the public at risk anywhere in America.

And I cite in particular a plant in Ohio, the Davis Bessie (ph) Nuclear Power Plant, which you may remember in 2002 was discovered to have a hole in the head of the reactor. It was covered up by First Energy. And it presented a--the possibility of a catastrophe that could have been close to a level of Three Mile Island.

So we have to make sure that all the bad actors in the industry are sorted out very quickly. And all these other plants that are up for relicensing, there"s going to have to be a very close inspection and examination that is probably unprecedented in the history of the industry.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, is it easy to get these facilities relicensed? Are you satisfied with the oversight when it comes to the relicensing of this--of these facilities in America, where there are documented leaks, consistent leaking? What do you think?

KUCINICH: Well, generally, relicensing is a perfunctory thing. You have so many--as Dr. Makhijani pointed out, there are so many of these nuclear facilities that are past the stage--they are operating past the stage at which they"re intended to operate.

SCHULTZ: Life expectancy, yes.

KUCINICH: Right. And as has been pointed out, the longer these machines--these plants are operating, they"re more prone to break down. Except when you"re talking about breakdowns with respect to nuclear power plants, the consequences are quite severe.

So the plants were not meant, Ed, to last more than 40 years. And so the nuclear industry trying to wring every last dime of profit out of these plants--you can understand from their perspective, but from a public policy perspective, there are safety issues that have to be raised. And that"s why I"m asking the NRC to come to Capitol Hill and to give Congress a full briefing, so that members will have the opportunity to ask the NRC detailed questions on plants across this country.

And also in my letter, I talk about the Mark One reactors, which are GE designed. And there are some questions that have been raised about Mark One with respect to the events in Tokyo--or rather in Japan.

SCHULTZ: Congressman Kucinich with us here on THE ED SHOW tonight. Congressman, would you advocate, based on what you know, shutting down any of these facilities in America?

KUCINICH: Well, I"ve consistently advocated shutting down the Davis Bessie Nuclear Power plant in Ohio.

SCHULTZ: OK.

KUCINICH: It is no secret that the Perry Nuclear Plant is built--was built in an earthquake area. They had a 5.0 earthquake a couple decades ago there.

SCHULTZ: Has the NRC been honest brokers in all of this?

KUCINICH: I think the NRC is going to have to step up right now. It"s a whole new--what happened in Japan changes everything. And it"s going to require the NRC to look at nuclear safety through the prism of what happened in Japan.

Now some people will say, well, they had an earthquake and a tsunami. Look, we have two nuclear power plants in Ohio on Lake Erie, which is part of a chain of lakes that is the largest supplier of fresh water in the world. Could you imagine if we had an event there that would cause a compromise of any of those reactor vessels?

We have to be concerned now with public safety. We have to look at what happened in Japan as a cautionary tale. And so that"s why I"m asking the NRC to come forward.

SCHULTZ: OK.

KUCINICH: And it"s time that they laid out all the cards on the table for Congress and answered all of our questions. It is a whole new day. And we have to be very concerned about the people in Japan. My heart goes out to them. This is a--what a difficult, difficult series of circumstances.

SCHULTZ: It is very difficult. And this country is facing some difficult situations as well. But, congressman, I want to ask you one more thing. Former Governor Bill Richardson said on MSNBC earlier today that this country is not prepared. The states aren"t prepared. And the federal government may not be prepared.

And with budget cuts taking place, how concerned are you, if something like this were to happen in America, that we don"t have a readiness?

KUCINICH: Well, Bill Richardson would be in a position to know. I think that we have to be concerned about readiness. This is going to cause a reappraisal of things like evacuation plans in states where they have nuclear reactors in very populated areas.

SCHULTZ: So the budget cuts is what I"m focusing on. The budget cuts really are--should be a priority list. We should not be cutting the preparedness if we could be facing something like that.

KUCINICH: Of course we shouldn"t be cutting preparedness, Ed. You know what those budget cuts are about? It"s not because of the deficit. They"re cutting the budget in some areas so they can give tax dollars to their friends in other areas. That"s another calamity.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, thanks for joining us tonight. I appreciate your time. Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

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