Top US nuclear regulator has background in both physics and politics

MarketWatch : Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has been generating worldwide headlines since last week as he’s taken the lead in briefing US lawmakers and the public about the situation in Japan, writes Maggie McNeil for MarketWatch. The 40-year-old physicist has a background in both science and politics, having started his political career as a congressional science fellow on Capitol Hill while in graduate school at the University of WisconsinMadison. He became head of the NRC in 2009, after being picked by President Obama and having served as one of the agency’s five commissioners. The NRC was created in 1974 and is responsible for regulating the commercial nuclear power industry and other commercial uses of nuclear material in the US.