Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Recent effective and proposed improvements in the nuclear power plant licensing process in the United States of America

Conference ·
OSTI ID:4053596
In his 18 April 1973 message to Congress on energy the US President noted that nuclear technology represented an indispensable source of energy for meeting current requirements and stated the need to avoid unreasonable delays in developing nuclear power by streamlining licensing procedures and by reducing overlapping jurisdictions. The Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 abolished the Atomic Energy Commission and transferred its licensing and regulatory functions to an independent regulatory commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; a new Energy Research and Development Administration was concurrently established, vested with central responsibility for the planning, management and conduct of the Government's energy research and development. A number of administrative and legislative reforms that have been taken or are under way to improve and shorten the present nuclear facility licensing and regulatory process are described. It is estimated that full implementation of the ''standardization'' and ''early site permit'' concepts could reduce the overall time required to bring a nuclear power plant on line from the current ten years to six years or less. And this is being aimed at without compromising the thoroughness of the safety, environmental or antitrust licensing reviews, or sacrificing public participation in the licensing process. (auth)
Research Organization:
Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, DC
NSA Number:
NSA-33-028263
OSTI ID:
4053596
Country of Publication:
IAEA
Language:
English