As the electric utility industry is deregulated, operating and maintenance costs will affect the competitiveness of nuclear power plants. 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 the plant and structures, systems, and components within it and final safety analysis reports that reflect changes to the design and other analyses conducted after NRC issued the operating license. Furthermore, NRC has not developed a comprehensive strategy that would move its regulation of nuclear plant safety from its traditional approach to an approach that considers risk. Utilities Do Not Have Accurate and Reliable Design Information for Some Plants

Design information provides one of the basis for NRC’s safety regulation. Yet, neither NRC nor the industry has a standard or guidance that defines the quality, scope, or adequacy of risk assessments. NRC Has Not Determined Whether Compliance With Risk-Informed Regulations Would Be Mandatory or Voluntary

NRC has not determined whether compliance with revised risk-informed regulations would be mandatory or voluntary for utilities. In December 1998, NRC’s staff provided its recommendations to the Commission. Rather, NRC has developed an implementation plan, in conjunction with its policy statement on considering risk, that is a catalog of about 150 separate tasks and milestones for their completion. Although NRC’s implementation plan sets out tasks and expected completion dates, it does not ensure that short-term efforts are building toward NRC’s longer-term goals; does not link the various ongoing initiatives; does not help the agency determine appropriate staff levels, training, skills, and technology needed and the timing of those activities to implement a risk-informed approach; does not provide a link between the day-to-day activities of program managers and staff and the objectives set out in the policy statement; and does not address the manner in which it would establish baseline information about the plants to assess the safety impact of a risk-informed approach. The Status of NRC’s Assessment and Enforcement Processes: Many Unanswered Issues Remain

For many years, the nuclear industry and public interest groups have criticized NRC’s plant assessment and enforcement processes because they lacked objectivity, consistency, and predictability. In January 1999, NRC proposed a new process to assess overall plant performance based on generic and plant-specific safety thresholds and performance indicators. Beginning in June 1999, NRC expects to pilot test the use of risk-informed performance indicators at eight plants, by January 2000 to fully implement the process, and by June 2001 to complete an evaluation and propose any adjustments or modifications needed. Major Management Challenges and Program Risks

In January 1999, we provided the Congress with our views on the major management challenges that NRC faces. We believe that the management challenges we identified have limited NRC’s effectiveness.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the actions the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has taken to move from its traditional regulatory approach to an approach that considers risk in conjunction with engineering analyses and operating experience-termed risk-informed regulation, focusing on the: (1) issues that NRC needs to resolve to implement a risk-informed regulatory approach; (2) status of NRC's efforts to make two of its oversight programs--overall plant safety assessments and enforcement-risk-informed; and (3) major management challenges that NRC faces.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) since July 1998, NRC has accelerated some activities needed to implement a risk-informed regulatory approach and has established and set milestones for others; (2) however, NRC has not resolved the most basic of issues; (3) that is, that some utilities do not have current and accurate design information for their nuclear power plants, which is needed for a risk-informed approach; (4) also, neither NRC nor the nuclear utility industry have standards or guidance that define the quality or adequacy of the risk assessments that utilities use to identify and measure the risks to public health and the environment; (5) furthermore, NRC has not determined if compliance with risk-informed regulations will be voluntary or mandatory for the nuclear utility industry; (6) more fundamentally, NRC has not developed a comprehensive strategy that would move its regulation of the safety of nuclear power plants from its traditional approach to an approach that considers risk; (7) in January 1999, NRC released for comment a proposed process to assess the overall safety of nuclear power plants; (8) the process would establish generic and plant-specific safety thresholds and indicators to help NRC assess overall plant safety; (9) NRC expects to phase in the new process over the next 2 years and evaluate it by June 2001, at which time NRC would propose any adjustments or modifications needed; (10) in addition, NRC has been examining the changes needed to its enforcement program to make it consistent with, among other things, the proposed plant safety assessment process; (11) for many years, the nuclear industry and public interest groups have criticized the enforcement program as subjective; (12) in the spring of 1999, NRC staff expect to provide the Commission recommendations for revising the enforcement program; (13) in January 1999, GAO identified major management challenges that limit NRC's effectiveness; (14) the challenges include the lack of a definition of safety and lack of aggressiveness in requiring utilities to comply with safety regulations; and (15) NRC's revised plant safety assessment and enforcement initiatives may ultimately help the agency address these management challenges and carry out its safety mission more effectively and efficiently.