Are NRC’s processes focused on safety? Competition Presents a Challenge for NRC

Commercial nuclear power plants will continue to generate electricity for some time in the future. As the electric utility industry is restructured, operating and maintenance costs will affect the competitiveness of nuclear power plants. Competition challenges NRC to ensure that utilities do not compromise safety through cost-cutting measures. NRC Has Not Resolved Many Issues Needed to Implement a Risk-Informed Regulatory Approach

NRC staff estimate that it could take 4 to 8 years to implement a risk-informed regulatory approach and are working to resolve many issues to ensure that the new approach does not endanger public health and safety. Although NRC has issued guidance for utilities to use risk assessments to meet regulatory requirements for specific activities and has undertaken many activities to implement a risk-informed approach, more is needed to ensure that utilities have current and accurate documentation on the design of each plant and its structures, systems, and components and safety analysis reports that reflect changes to the design and other analyses conducted after NRC issued the plant’s operating license; ensure that utilities make changes to their plants on the basis of complete and accurate design and safety analysis information; determine whether and what aspects of NRC’s regulations should be develop standards on the scope and detail of the risk assessments needed for utilities to determine that changes to their plants’ design will not negatively affect safety; and determine the willingness of utilities to adopt a risk-informed approach. Yet neither NRC nor the industry has a standard that defines the quality, scope, or adequacy of risk assessments. As part of its risk-informed initiatives, in January 1999, NRC proposed a new process to assess overall plant safety using industrywide and plant-specific safety thresholds and performance indicators. Under this approach, it plans to begin pilot testing the use of risk-informed performance indicators at 13 plants in June 1999, fully implement the process by January 2000, and complete an evaluation and propose any adjustments or modifications needed by June 2001. According to NRC staff, they met with various stakeholders in December 1998 and February 1999 to discuss issues related to the enforcement program. NEI has proposed a revised enforcement process. Recommendation

To help ensure the safe operation of plants and the continued protection of public health and safety in a competitive environment, we recommend that the Commissioners of NRC direct the staff to develop a comprehensive strategy that includes but is not limited to objectives, goals, activities, and time frames for the transition to risk-informed regulation; specifies how the Commission expects to define the scope and implementation of risk-informed regulation; and identifies the manner in which it expects to continue the free exchange of operational information necessary to improve the quality and reliability of risk assessments. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also commented that the report raises issues that it, the nuclear industry, and other stakeholders are addressing. 1. 2. What is the status of NRC’s efforts to apply a risk-informed regulatory approach to two of its oversight programs—plant safety assessments and enforcement?
Why GAO Did This Study

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.

What GAO Found

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.