Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator

Gregory B. Jaczko. Simon & Schuster, $26 (208p) ISBN 978-1-4767-5576-2

A shrill, defensive tone mars this career memoir from Jaczko, chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the Obama years, in which he argues that “nuclear power is a failed technology” “more hazardous than it is worth.” Presenting himself as an optimistic, science-centered political outsider, Jaczko tells a story of crusading for strengthened safety standards in the face of nuclear industry opposition. He details his battle against long-standing “enforcement discretion” for fire safety, his contribution to defeating a controversial proposed waste disposal site in Nevada, and his part in the American response to the Fukushima disaster. Jaczko’s tone turns personal in his outraged depiction of being ousted from the commission in 2012, framing his colleagues and staff as conspiring against him, their description of him as an “out-of-control bully” as a misunderstanding of his passionate intensity, and his hotheadedness as a loss of patience for “coddling the nuclear power industry.” Jaczko’s descriptions of plant processes are clear, but don’t convey any great interest in the underlying scientific principles, and the internal government politics he discusses come across as, sadly, business-as-usual, making it difficult to read the book as anything but a disgruntled, self-justifying polemic. Agent: Rob Weisbach, Rob Weisbach Literary Management. (Jan.)