Frank N. von Hippel wrote in March 2011 , that despite the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania , the NRC has often been too timid in ensuring that America 's 104 commercial reactors are operated safely : Nuclear power regulation is a textbook example of the problem of " regulatory capture " — in which an industry gains control of an agency meant to regulate it . Regulatory capture can be countered only by vigorous public scrutiny and Congressional oversight , but in the 32 years since Three Mile Island , interest in nuclear regulation has declined precipitously . An article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists stated that many forms of NRC regulatory failure exist , including regulations ignored by the common consent of NRC and industry : A worker ( named George Galatis ) at the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant in Connecticut kept warning management , that the spent fuel rods were being put too quickly into the spent storage pool and that the number of rods in the pool exceeded specifications . Management ignored him , so he went directly to the NRC , which eventually admitted that it knew of both of the forbidden practices , which happened at many plants , but chose to ignore them . The whistleblower was fired and blacklisted . In Vermont , the day before the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that damaged Japan 's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant , the NRC approved a 20-year extension for the license of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant , although the Vermont state legislature voted overwhelmingly to deny an extension . The plant had been found to be leaking radioactive materials through a network of underground pipes , which Entergy had denied under oath even existed . At a hearing in 2009 Tony Klein , chairman of the Vermont House Natural Resources and Energy Committee had asked the NRC about the pipes and the NRC also did not know they existed
Three Mile Island accident
Three Mile Island accident
Nuclear Regulatory Commission