Several key figures in the recent history of nuclear power — including the former Japanese prime minister who presided over the Fukushima disaster two years ago — are scheduled to speak at a public event Tuesday in downtown San Diego.
Naoto Kan, who reversed Japan’s decades-long expansion of nuclear power after a devestating earthquake and tsunami in 2011, will share the stage with leading American nuclear experts who have questioned the safety of U.S. reactors.
Participants in the panel-style discussion are expected to include Gregory Jaczko, who served as chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission until July 2012. He oversaw the U.S. regulatory response to the partial meltdown of three reactors in Japan.
Peter Bradford, an attorney who served as an NRC commissioner during the Three Mile Island nuclear plant crisis in 1979, and nuclear consultant Arnie Gundersen also are scheduled to joint the seminar. The event is titled, “Fukushima Daiichi Accident: Lessons for California.”
The talk is taking place as Southern California wrestles with uncertainties surrounding a 16-month outage at the seaside, twin-reactor San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which once provided one-fifth of the surrounding area’s power.
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