The NRC has given a license to " every single reactor requesting one " , according to Greenpeace USA nuclear policy analyst Jim Riccio to refer to the agency approval process as a " rubber stamp " . In Vermont , ten days after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that damaged Japan 's Daiichi plant in Fukushima , the NRC approved a 20-year extension for the license of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant , although the Vermont state legislature had voted overwhelmingly to deny such an extension . The Vermont plant uses the same GE Mark 1 reactor design as the Fukushima Daiichi plant . The plant had been found to be leaking radioactive materials through a network of underground pipes , which Entergy , the company running the plant , had denied under oath even existed . Representative Tony Klein , who chaired the Vermont House Natural Resources and Energy Committee , said that when he asked the NRC about the pipes at a hearing in 2009 , the NRC did n't know about their existence , much less that they were leaking . On March 17 , 2011 , the Union of Concerned Scientists ( UCS ) released a study critical of the NRC 's 2010 performance as a regulator . The UCS said that through the years , it had found the NRC 's enforcement of safety rules has not been " timely , consistent , or effective " and it cited 14 " near-misses " at U.S. plants in 2010 alone . Tyson Slocum , an energy expert at Public Citizen said the nuclear industry has " embedded itself in the political establishment " through " reliable friends from George Bush to Barack Obama " , that the government " has really just become cheerleaders for the industry . " Although the exception , there have been instances of a revolving door . Jeffrey Merrifield , who was on the NRC from 1997 to 2008 and was appointed by presidents Clinton and Bush , left the NRC to take an executive position at The Shaw Group , which has a nuclear division regulated by the NRC . However , most former commissioners return to academia or public service in other agencies
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
Regulatory capture