Source: ABC News

Two Senate Democrats called today for a sweeping review of safety vulnerabilities at U.S. nuclear plants in light of the ongoing disaster in Japan. Senators Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Tom Carper, D-Del., Chair of the Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee, wrote a letter today urging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to “extensively investigate the risks posed to nuclear facilities in the United States as soon as possible.”

On Capitol Hill yesterday, Boxer had harsh words for NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko. She scolded him for not doing enough to evaluate the safety of U.S. reactors in light of the crisis in Japan and called on him to investigate nuclear plants in California.

“We want to have those plants inspected. We want reassurances. We want answers,” she said at a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “I can’t mince words. I’ve got two plants with millions of people within 50 miles that were designed in the ‘70s, new information about earthquakes, and I need you to take a look at it,” she concluded.

Boxer’s comments came just hours after the U.S. recommended that all American citizens in Japan evacuate a 50 mile radius surrounding the Fukushima nuclear reactors.

Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/03/s...