Lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee continued their investigation into Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko’s leadership of the agency, sending a letter Friday to Jaczko suggesting that his actions have created a hostile workplace at the agency. “You yourself have often spoken of the NRC’s [open collaborative work environment] as a critical element of the NRC’s vibrant safety culture. However, there is evidence that this is not the case at present, and that a chilled work environment exists at the NRC because of your leadership practices,” Republican leaders on the committee said in the letter to Jaczko. The letter claimed that Jaczko’s management practices may go against safety culture policy imposed by the agency on its licensees by creating an environment in which NRC employees do not feel free to raise concerns without fear of reprisal.
The lawmakers list a number of concerns raised last October by the NRC’s four other commissioners in a letter to Jaczko about his management practices, in which they state that he has withheld information and sought reprisal for staff that did not support his views. “When we compare the examples listed above to the factors that contribute to a chilled work environment, it appears that the Commission would receive a Chilling Effect Letter if it were subjected to the same scrutiny as it imposes on its licensees. However, there doesn’t appear to be a similar procedure under which the NRC would hold itself accountable,” the lawmakers’ letter states. It asks for Jaczko’s response to a number of questions related to his management by May 11.
