A shocking exposé from the most powerful insider in nuclear regulation about how the nuclear
energy industry endangers our lives-and why Congress does nothing to stop it. Greg Jaczko never
planned things to turn out this way. A Birkenstocks-wearing physics PhD he had never heard of
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) when he came to Washington and-thanks to the
determination of a powerful senator-found himself at the agency's head. He felt like Dorothy
invited behind the curtain at Oz. The problem was that Jaczko wasn't the kind of leader the NRC
had seen before: he had no ties to the nuclear industry few connections in Washington and no
agenda other than to ensure that nuclear technology was deployed safely. And so he witnessed
what outsiders like him were never meant to see including an agency overpowered by the
industry it was meant to regulate and a political system determined to keep it that way. After
the shocking nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan and the American nuclear industry's
refusal to make the changes necessary to prevent a catastrophe like that from happening here
Jaczko started saying something aloud that no one else had dared: nuclear power has fatal
flaws. Written in a tone that's equal parts self-deprecating puzzled and passionate
Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator tells the story of a man who got pushed from his high
perch for fighting to keep Americans safe. Never before has the chairman of the world's
foremost nuclear regulatory agency challenged the nuclear industry to expose how these
companies put us at risk. Because if we (and they) don't act now there will be another
Fukushima. Only this time it could happen here.
