Enhancing NRC's regulatory oversight by considering costs
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
Nuclear power plant licensees have resource constraints in the conduct of their operations as does the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff in the conduct of its function of regulatory review and oversight of electrical generating nuclear power plants. Prioritization of the workload is a necessary part of managing both activities. Traditionally, the staff determines the priority for a task on the basis of the safety significance to the affected facility. Recent experience has shown that, because of the resource constraints, many of the actions requested of the NRC experience long delays in being resolved because they do not pass the NRC's threshold for short-term actions. The NRC management has decided that those actions that can reduce licensee costs without adversely affecting safety should receive a higher priority staff review and closure. The NRC is taking this action in response to information from the industry that operation and maintenance costs are increasing inordinately without a commensurate improvement in plant safety. The Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, which has primary licensing responsibility, has set up a task group to identify the cost-beneficial licensing actions that are awaiting regulatory review, recommend a process to conduct the review, and provide a timely safety evaluation report that can serve as the basis for licensees to proceed with their proposed actions if the staff finds the proposed action justifiable under the regulations.
- OSTI ID:
- 6844710
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-931160--
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States), Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States) Vol. 69; ISSN 0003-018X; ISSN TANSAO
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
210700* -- Nuclear Power Plants-- Regulation & Licensing
210702 -- Nuclear Power Plants-- Regulation & Licensing-- Nuclear Ship Regulation & Licensing-- (1992-)
BUDGETS
BWR TYPE REACTORS
ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
LICENSING
MAINTENANCE
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
OPERATION
POWER PLANTS
POWER REACTORS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTOR LICENSING
REACTOR MAINTENANCE
REACTOR OPERATION
REACTOR SAFETY
REACTORS
REGULATIONS
SAFETY
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
THERMAL REACTORS
US NRC
US ORGANIZATIONS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS