Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

Second, the severity of this accident and the halting,
indecisive actions of Soviet officialdom in acknowledging what
was going on just underscore the importance of openness in the
management of nuclear power. We in the United States benefit
from the give and take of open criticism of the way this
technology is managed in our country. This is not to say that
our management system is perfect of even adequate to the task it
faces and will face in the future. I am often a critic of the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and I expect I will continue to
be. But however we reform our licensing process we will want to
retain the opportunity for criticism of management to be heard.
Third, while this event is without doubt a tragedy, it should
not be taken as a sign that there is something so forbidding
about the technology of nuclear power as to turn us away from it
as a source of electricity. We need nuclear power now and we
will need it much more in the future.
Chernobyl shows us that if we do not do the job of managing
the technology right, there could be some very bad consequences.
But nothing I have seen suggests in any way that we cannot do the
job right. I remain an optimist where this technology is
concerned. We are now using nuclear power in the United States
to generate 16 percent of our electricity. Its safety record is
exemplary.