United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1999-03-19 monographic deposited born digital 32 p. GA 1.13:RCED-99-95 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-95 P0b002ee1803916da f:rc99095 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-95 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-95 RCED-99-95 Nuclear powerplant safety Electric utilities Safety standards Safety regulation Inspection Nuclear powerplants Strategic planning Competition NRC Nuclear Plant Safety Program Letter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined various issues related to the safe operation of commercial nuclear power plants, focusing on: (1) some of the challenges that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the nuclear power industry could experience in a competitive environment; (2) issues that NRC needs to resolve to implement a risk-informed regulatory approach; and (3) the status of NRC's efforts to apply a risk-informed regulatory approach to two of its oversight programs--plant safety assessments and enforcement.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) Congress and the public need confidence in NRC's ability to ensure that the nuclear industry performs to the highest safety standards; (2) as the electric utility industry is restructured, operating and maintenance costs will affect the competitiveness of nuclear power plants; (3) competition challenges NRC to ensure that safety margins are not compromised by utilities' cost-cutting measures and that the decisions utilities make in response to economic considerations are not detrimental to public health and safety; (4) NRC has not developed a comprehensive strategy that could move its regulation of the safety of nuclear plants from its traditional approach to an approach that considers risk information; (5) in addition, NRC has not resolved certain basic issues; (6) some utilities do not have current and accurate design information for their nuclear power plants, which is needed for a risk-informed approach; (7) neither NRC nor the nuclear utility industry has standards that define the quality or adequacy of the risk assessments that utilities use to identify and measure risks to public health and the environment; (8) furthermore, NRC has not determined the willingness of utilities to adopt a risk-informed approach; (9) according to NRC staff, they are aware of these and other issues and have undertaken activities to resolve them; (10) in January 1999, NRC released for comment a proposed risk-informed process to assess the overall safety of nuclear power plants; (11) this process would establish industrywide and plant-specific safety thresholds and indicators to help NRC assess plant safety; (12) NRC expects to phase in the new process over the next 2 years and evaluate it by June 2001, at which time NRC plans to propose any adjustments or modifications needed; (13) in addition, NRC has been examining its enforcement program to make it consistent with, among other things, the proposed process for assessing plant safety; (14) the nuclear industry and public interest groups have criticized the enforcement program as subjective; and (15) in the spring of 1999, NRC staff expect to provide the Commission with recommendations for revising the enforcement program. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-95/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-95.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-95/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-95.pdf GAO/RCED-99-95 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-95 Letter Report GAO/RCED-99-95; Nuclear Regulation: Strategy Needed to Regulate Safety Using Information on Risk; Nuclear powerplant safety Electric utilities Safety standards Safety regulation Inspection Nuclear powerplants Strategic planning Competition NRC Nuclear Plant Safety Program