Two NRC officials with expertise in boiling water nuclear reactors have deployed to Japan as part of a U.S. International Agency for International Development (USAID) team. USAID is the federal government agency primarily responsible for providing assistance to countries recovering from disaster.
Even with “boots on the ground” in Japan it’s not appropriate for us to provide information on the status of that country’s nuclear power plants. Check back to this blog or www.nrc.gov for updates on what actions we’re taking. Other good sources of information are:
USAID — http://www.usaid.gov/
U.S. Dept. of State — http://www.state.gov/
FEMA — www.fema.gov
White House — www.whitehouse.gov
Nuclear Energy Institute — www.nei.org
International Atomic Energy Agency — www.iaea.org/press/
For those calling to offer your advice or guidance on how this situation should be handled, rest assured that some of the most expert people in this field in the world work for the NRC and we are here to help if asked.
Eliot Brenner Public Affairs Director
U.S. NRC Blog 
I was grateful to receive from the Office of Public Affairs a list of other sources to contact for information on the tragic event in Japan however, I must confess I’m verklempt as to why the list includes government agencies except forthe Nuclear Energy Institute. According to their mission statement: “The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) is the policy organization of the nuclear energy and technologies industry and participates in both the national and global policy-maiking process.” If you are going to present them as a source for additional contact information, then I think that in all fairness you also need to include other non-governmental nuclear organizations.
We have not made their names public.
Eliot can you let us know the names of the two BWR experts on their way to Japan? Many thanks. They are not named in the news stories.