The current May 12 issue of Rolling Stone uses the timing of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's relicensing of the Vermont Yankee plant to question the agency's independence -- and sanity.

The piece, by Jeff Goodell, notes that the U.S. is home to 31 reactors that share a basic design with the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan that now stands at the center of catastrophe.

"Indeed, 10 days after the earthquake in Japan, the NRC extended the license of the 40-year-old Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor — a virtual twin of Fukushima — for another two decades," Goodell reports. "The license renewal was granted even though the reactor's cooling tower had literally fallen down, and the plant had repeatedly leaked radioactive fluid."

Goodell's piece explores the NRC's record on approving license requests for old nuclear plants, notes the lobbying muscle of this industry and questions why President Obama wants to offer $54 billion worth of federal loan guarantees to this industry.

He writes of the agency: "The NRC has done its part to boost profitability by allowing companies
to 'uprate' old nukes — modifying them to run harder — without requiring
additional safety improvements. Vermont Yankee, for example, was
permitted to boost its output by 20 percent, eroding the reactor's
ability to cool itself in the event of an emergency. The NRC's own
advisory committee on reactor safety was vehemently opposed to allowing
such modifications, but the agency ultimately allowed the industry to
trade safety for profit."