Gregory Jaczko

Gregory B. Jaczko (; born October 29, 1970, Norristown, Pennsylvania) is a physicist who is the 13th and former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from 2009 to 2012. While at the NRC, he voted against the opening of new nuclear plants; an inspector general report found that he sought unilaterally and improperly to block the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project from advancing. After leaving the NRC, Jaczko called for a global ban on nuclear power.

Early life and education Jaczko was raised in Albany, New York, He studied physics and philosophy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; he earned a bachelor in the two disciplines there in 1993.

Political career Jaczko served as a Congressional Science Fellow in the office of U.S. Representative Ed Markey in Washington, D.C., on the basis of an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship. He also worked as an adjunct professor for Physics and Public Policy under Dr. Francis Slakey at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

He later advised the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on issues regarding nuclear power. its principal executive officer and official spokesperson.

Management style and resignation A report by Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspector General Hubert T. Bell found that Jaczko "strategically" withheld information from his colleagues in an effort to keep plans for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository from advancing.

In October 2011, all the other four NRC commissioners—two Democrats and two Republicans—sent a letter to the White House expressing "grave concern" about Jaczko's actions at the NRC. On December 14, 2011, Commissioner William Ostendorff, a Republican, told a House oversight committee that Jaczko's "bullying and intimidation... should not and cannot be tolerated."

At a House Government Reform and Oversight Committee hearing on December 14, 2011, NRC Commissioner William Magwood, a fellow Democrat, testified about what he called Jaczko's abusive behavior towards employees, especially female subordinates. “One woman told me that she felt the chairman was actually irritated with someone else, but took it out on her,” Magwood said. “Another said she was angry at herself for being brought to tears in front of male colleagues. A third described how she couldn’t stop shaking after her experience. She sat, talking with her supervisor until she could calm down sufficiently to drive home.”

A report by the Government Reform and Oversight Committee detailed incidents indicating what was cited as Jaczko's "propensity for angry outbursts and aggressive behavior." A 2012 NRC Office of Inspector General report identified multiple examples where his behavior was not supportive of an open and collaborative work environment. Top House Republicans called on President Obama to dismiss Jaczko.

Jaczko said problems at the agency were not his fault but instead stem from "lack of understanding" on the part of others. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid defended Jaczko, saying his critics are attacking him because "they’re concerned about the nuclear industry. He’s concerned about the American people."

Peter A. Bradford, who was a commission member from 1977 to 1982, has also defended Jaczko. Bradford said it was not unusual for the commissioners to disagree strongly, and added that he did not believe that "the chairman is somehow raging around the agency and intimidating the staff".

On May 21, 2012, he announced his resignation pending the confirmation of the next person to fill this role.

By May, he had raised $113,000 and Politico described his bid as a "long-shot" compared to councilmembers Robert White and Brooke Pinto. His stated campaign goals included boosting the federal workforce, improving federal agencies' work with city residents and government, exempting the city from federal income taxes, and electricity affordability through renewable energy build-out. He placed 5th in the June primary election with 2.88% of the vote.

In media Gregory Jaczko has an important cameo appearance in the 2023 documentary film SOS: The San Onofre Syndrome, directed by James Heddle, Mary Beth Brangan and Morgan Peterson. In a recent interview producer Mary Beth Brangan stated that it was the Fukushima nuclear disaster that set her and her life partner, James Heddle, into the making of the film. The film documents a special visit prime minister Naoto Kan made to San Diego on June 4, 2013 in order to participate in a panel entitled "Fukushima: Ongoing Lessons for California", along with Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Gregory Jaczko, former NRC Commissioner Peter A. Bradford, and nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, where they discussed nuclear power's risks.

In the film, which issues a critical warning that America's 55 nuclear power plants, each of which has tons of intensely radioactive waste that lasts millennia—in inadequate temporary storage containers with no plans to repair them—are putting their local communities and national security at grave risk. In archival footage from a KPBS news program, Jaczko stated: "But frankly once they get loaded, I don't see them ever taking those canisters out of there. Realistically, they're not going to move them out. So those permits will be extended. The operational period will be extended repeatedly, and you will have a de facto burial site."