Barack Obama seeks to reassure on nuclear crisis

By DARREN SAMUELSOHN | 3/17/11 4:44 PM EDT

The White House sought Thursday to show it is on top of the Japanese nuclear crisis with a Rose Garden statement and a presidential-ordered review to ensure nothing like the Fukushima Daiichi disaster happens here at home.

Summing up a series of pronouncements his administration has made in recent days, President Barack Obama said in a midafternoon speech that the stricken Japanese power plant “poses a substantial risk” to people nearby, prompting U.S. authorities to contradict Japanese officials and recommend an evacuation for Americans living within 50 miles of the facility.

“This decision was based on careful scientific evaluation and the guidelines that we would use to keep our citizens safe here in the United States or anywhere in the world,” Obama said.

As cable television remains in 24/7 mode on the Japanese crisis, Americans on the West Coast are reportedly hoarding potassium iodide pills to protect themselves from radiation poisoning.

But Obama said that was not necessary. Repeating himself twice for emphasis, the president said he did not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska or U.S. territories.

The Centers for Disease Control and public health experts, Obama said, “do not recommend that people in the United States take precautious measure beyond staying informed.”

“Going forward, we will continue to keep the American people fully updated,” the president added. “Because I believe you must know what I know as president.”

Obama also ordered the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review the information coming in from Japan and examine the setup at the U.S. nuclear plants with similar design features to the Fukushima Daiichi power plant

In his remarks, Obama said nuclear power, which produces about 20 percent of U.S. electricity, is “an important part of our own energy future, along with renewable sources like wind, solar, natural gas and clean coal.

“Our nuclear power plants have undergone exhaustive study and have been declared safe for any number of extreme contingencies,” he added. “But when we see a crisis like the one in Japan, we have a responsibility to learn from this event and to draw from those lessons to ensure the safety and security of our people.”

Obama isn’t the only one trying to show he’s on top of the situation.

For a second time in four days, NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko and Energy Department deputy secretary Dan Poneman used the White House daily briefing as their megaphone to ease Americans’ concerns about the unfolding disaster across the Pacific Ocean.

Like Obama, Jaczko emphasized that radiation from Japan poses no threat to the United States.

“The basic physics and basic science tells you there can’t be any risk or harm to anyone here in the United States or Hawaii or any other territories,” he said. “It’s just based on the facts and science that’s involved here.”

The New York Times reported Thursday that a plume of radioactive material originating from the damaged reactors is expected to reach California by late Friday. The forecast, generated by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, suggests that the plume will miss Hawaii and sweep the Aleutian Islands on Thursday before registering at a station in Sacramento, Calif., but that the radiation levels will be extremely low.

In Japan, the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant remains at a critical stage after attempts failed Thursday to drop water from helicopters over the stricken reactors.

Jaczko said he stands behind his warning that water from the spent fuel pools at the Unit 4 reactor may have drained completely. Japanese officials played down Jaczko’s remarks, which quickly crossed the Pacific on Wednesday evening, but his comments underscored what could be the highest-risk scenario for releasing more radioactive elements into the atmosphere.

Several dozen U.S. nuclear and energy experts on the ground in Tokyo provided the intelligence that led to Jaczko’s remarks. That intelligence was collected from airplanes and helicopters flying over the power plant.

“It’s not just people talking to people, we’re collecting the information to help us form policy,” Poneman said.

“There’s a lot of conflicting information around this, but the bottom line is there clearly appears to be a challenge keeping the spent fuel filled with sufficient water,” Jaczko added. “It’s really a dynamic situation.”

The United States also stands behind its decision to contradict the Japanese government in recommending American citizens within a 50-mile radius of the power plant evacuate. That order, Jaczko said, stems from the information that U.S. officials have been picking up on the ground, independent of the Japanese government.

“We think it’s a prudent measure to follow the evacuation based on how we’d handle the situation in the United States,” he said.

The State Department is also making arrangements for family members and dependents of U.S. government personnel to evacuate areas in northern Japan and is warning that all U.S. citizens should consider leaving the country.

Back in the United States, top congressional Democrats have been ramping up pressure on the NRC to explain whether the nation’s 104 nuclear reactors are safe from earthquakes, tsunamis and other disasters.

“I think we need to have a complete safety assessment, particularly plants that are vintage, plants that are close to faults, plants that are close together. It appears to me that’s the most emerging no-no,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

“Look, I think there are many lessons to be learned for what’s happened in Japan and that we’re pretty stupid if we don’t learn them,” Feinstein added.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer and Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee Chairman Tom Carper also wrote the NRC on Thursday urging it to study its safety standards.

The Daiichi reactors are boiling water reactors with Mark I containment systems. There are 35 such reactors in the United States, including 23 with similar setups. But there are also slight variations to the boiling water reactor design, which the Nuclear Energy Institute notes is the reason why there are only six reactors in the United States with the exact same base design.

NRC officials have also been regularly in touch with lawmakers and the White House. Jaczko briefed Obama on Wednesday and stayed late into the night in the Situation Room, Jay Carney said.

Mike Johnson, director of NRC’s Office of New Reactors, is scheduled to conduct a phone briefing Thursday afternoon, for a bipartisan and bicameral slate of lawmakers and congressional staff, about the situation in Japan as well as concerns and safety considerations for U.S. nuclear plants.

There also was a high-level briefing for committee and leadership staff on Tuesday covering the situation in Japan and domestic nuclear safety. And the White House has also coordinated daily calls with USAID, Energy Department, NRC, National Nuclear Security Administration, U.S. Geologic Service, State Department, NOAA and HHS.

Darius Dixon contributed to this report.