As Japanese technicians fought to stop tsunami-damaged nuclear reactors from melting down, Sen. Bernie Sanders called today for a congressional investigation of nuclear safety in the United States. He asked for a full investigation "to determine what we can learn from the disaster in Japan and the implications for the United States' nuclear reactors."

The Fukushima reactors in Japan are the same design as General Electric boiling water reactors currently operating at 23 plants throughout the United States, including the Vermont Yankee reactor at Vernon, Vt. "The containment design of this type of plant has been long criticized by federal nuclear safety officials," Sanders noted in a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer, the chairman of the Senate panel that oversees the nuclear power safety in this country.