Obama on nuclear energy: "Nothing's completely failsafe"

President Obama acknowledged in an interview with CBS station KDKA Tuesday that there are risks to nuclear energy - even as his administration maintains in the wake of the disaster in Japan that nuclear plants in the United States are safe.

"Nuclear plants are designed to withstand certain levels of earthquakes, but having said that, nothing's completely failsafe, nothing is completely foolproof, and so each time these kinds of events happen, I think it's very important for us to examine how we can further improve the safety and performance of these plants," he said.

The president said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which regulates nuclear power in the United States, is constantly monitoring seismic activity for earthquake risks. He added that the NRC "thinks through all eventualities" when assessing risk.

"Obviously, all energy sources have their downside - I mean we saw that with the gulf spill last summer," he said. "But I do think it's important for us to think through constantly how can we improve nuclear technologies to deal with additional safety concerns that people have."

President Obama discusses nuclear power during an interview with CBS station KDKA in Pittsburgh, March 15, 2011.

/ CBS

On Tuesday morning, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in testimony before Congress that Americans "should have full confidence that the United States has rigorous safety regulations in place to ensure that our nuclear power is generated safely and responsibly."

The United States gets 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, making it by far the country's leading source of energy that does not contribute to greenhouse gasses.

In the KDKA interview, Mr. Obama was also asked if he was worried that radiation from Japan would reach U.S. shores. The president responded that he is not.

"I'm deeply worried about radiation effects in Japan," he said. "Obviously, first of all, our hearts go out to the people of Japan. They are dealing with a triple whammy - the earthquake, the tsunami, and now this nuclear accident. So we're providing them all the support that we can. We want to make sure that they know that we have their backs and are one of our closest allies and closest friends."

"And there are some dangers for radiation release that could affect the immediate vicinity of nuclear plants and potentially could drift over other parts of Japan," he continued, "but I've been assured that it - any nuclear release dissipates by the time it gets even to Hawaii, much less the mainland of the United States."

More video from the interview:
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Complete Coverage: Disaster in Japan
Calif. nuke plant questions after Japan quake
Obama administration stands by nuclear power

[thomasmc1957]

"Nothing's completely failsafe"

Which is EXACTLY why we can't risk our families to nuclear energy!

[sneak_up_on_you]

I predicted some coward republican would make a snarky remark. Prediction confirmed. Republicans have less value than excrement. Excrement can be used as fertilizer.
I am disappointed in Obama because I had expectations.
I expect nothing from Republican vermin except to continue being enemies of real Americans.
You probably think I am "kidding around."
Now make another snarky remark, anonymous POS Republican.

[sjc_1]

San Onofre is an older plant that should be decommissioned. Since California has laws preventing new nuclear plants, we can use combined cycle natural gas, solar, wind and geothermal to make up the difference. If all the homes in the state used all CFL lighting we could get by without the San Onofre plant.

[sneak_up_on_you]

I am the biggest liberal in the USA. I am to the left of Bernie Sanders.

I want my vote for Obama back.
It was bait and switch. He's a Republican.

I know, Republicans will use my comment to for spew and snark. Get it out of your system.
VERY DISAPPOINTED IN THE PRESIDENT

[Empire--George---]

awwwww, isn't that special.....I'm hoping for change too.....in 2012

[CarloCaraluzzo]

Its about money. Nuclear energy isnt as big a money as big oil but its up there. For the president to say all energy sources have risks is the worst kind of trickery. How dangerous will a solar satillite be if it falls out of orbit? Will lt lay waste to several thousand miles of landscape, poison the environment making it unfit for life for about 1,000 years? Will a solar energy satillite do all that Mr. President? How about a whole wind farm? Lots of damage from them? Long history of lots of deaths with solar and wind energy hasnt there been Mr. President? This is an opportunity for you to press the platform you RAN on, green energy and environmental change, and you are abandoning that to back a dirty polluting industry that now can endanger the lives of hundreds of thousands of people? How many people live on the california coast Mr. President? 40 million? The Japanese tsumai ravaged 1300 miles of Japanese coastline. That is an area from San Diego to Portland. How many nuclear reactors sit on that strip, 3, 4, 20, 100? How much of our economy depends on the wealth we draw from the land and sea on that coast? Yeah, until we can get wind and solar up to speed we might not be able to listen to our iPod all day long. But those plants on the west coast need to be shut down immediately. This is NOT a time to play political games. There are millions of lives and a big chunk of our gross national product at stake here.

[Empire--George---]

There are about 200 million cars on the road today, that 99% use internal combustion engines, requiring oil and gas and millions of diesel trucks ....not to mention those that are being sold today/tomorrow that are expected to last for a decade or more.....sorry, but a wind farm won't lubricate and fuel these vehicles and trucks.....neither will a "solar satellite" whatever that is....does it have a long power cord reaching down to earth, I mean come on already.....come back down to earth and deal with what's practical, not in your dream world of a liberal utopia.

[JavMD]

watch out San Diego California people near the San Onofre nuke plant, Obama is willing to sacriface you guys. I wonder how he would feel if it was Chicago.

Its a shame it takes a disaster to get high up people to do the 'right' thing, ie BP and their safety valves, Shuttle disaster over Texas, yet years later we still send up those antiques with poorly designed fuel tank insulation and heat tiles on the shuttle. Those poor astronauts had no idea there was a hole in the shuttle until re-entry... because NASA officials didn't want to bother to check even though an engineer was persistent to get them to check but got overruled. Funny, not one NASA manager was held accountable... all in the name of space exploration risk.. ha.. some risk, the shuttle was flying for years as a routine, the only risk was poor management judgement, it now is not even space exploration but a 'taxi' service to the space station.

That California plant is now on OBAMA and the NRC chair should 6 months from now the big one hits California and the wall of water breaches San Onofre. Even the Germans aren't taking a chance on theirs and shut them down, losing 15-20% capacity. Don't here any blackouts yet in Germany, do you?