Nuclear Regulatory Commission

U.S. Government agency (formerly the Atomic Energy Commission) responsible for regulating the nuclear energy industry. The commission also provides supplemental insurance for nuclear facilities to augment coverage by private insurance pools.

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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was created by Congress in 1974 with the passage of the Energy Reorganization Act. The NRC is an independent regulatory agency directed by five commissioners who are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Commissioners serve five-year terms; no more than three of the five appointees may be members of the same political party, and one of the five commissioners is designated by the President to serve as the agency's chairperson. When the NRC was established, it replaced the Atomic Energy Commission, which was simultaneously abolished.

In addition to contributing to the defense and security of the nation by regulating the nuclear weapons program, the NRC has proclaimed that its mission is also to regulate the use of nuclear materials so as to protect the environment and public health and safety. To this end, the NRC regulates commercial nuclear power reactors and oversees reactors that are used for research, testing, and training purposes. In addition, the NRC regulates medical, academic, and industrial uses of nuclear materials and the transportation, storage, and disposal of nuclear materials and nuclear waste.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), created by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, licenses and regulates most commercial nuclear activities in the United States, including nuclear power reactors and the use of radioactive materials in industry, medicine, agriculture, and scientific research. The origins of the NRC trace back to the immediate aftermath of World War II, when its predecessor agency, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), was created by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 to establish and to operate the nation's military and civilian atomic energy programs. A new law, the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, eased the government monopoly on information relating to atomic energy and for the first time allowed the use of the technology for commercial purposes.

The Nuclear Power Debate

The 1954 act assigned the AEC the dual responsibilities of promoting and regulating the commercial applications of nuclear energy. This became a major issue in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the AEC stood at the center of a major national controversy over nuclear power. At that time, the nuclear industry experienced a boom in which orders for nuclear power plants rapidly increased. The expansion of the industry spawned a corresponding growth in opposition to it. Environmentalists raised a series of objections to nuclear power, which led to highly publicized controversies over thermal pollution, radiation standards, radioactive waste disposal, and reactor safety. Nuclear opponents claimed that the industry and the AEC had not done enough to ensure the safe operation of nuclear plants and that the agency's statutory mandate to encourage nuclear development made it a weak and ineffective regulator. They maintained that the technology was unsafe, unreliable, and unnecessary. Nuclear supporters took sharp issue with that position; they insisted nuclear power was safe (though not risk-free) and essential to meet the energy requirements of the United States. They argued that the benefits of the technology far outweighed its risks.

The Creation of the Nrc

Both proponents and critics of nuclear power agreed that the AEC's dual responsibilities for promoting and regulating nuclear power undermined its credibility. In 1974, Congress passed the Energy Reorganization Act, which abolished the AEC and replaced it with the NRC and the Energy Research and Development Administration (which later became a part of the U.S. Department of Energy). The NRC began its existence in January 1975 as the national debate over nuclear power increased in volume and intensity, and within a short time, its policies and procedures became a source of controversy.

The NRC tried to cast off the legacy it inherited from the AEC by stressing that its first priority was safety, but critics were unconvinced. While the nuclear industry complained about the rising costs of building plants and the time the NRC required to review applications, anti-nuclear activists campaigned against the construction or licensing of nuclear power facilities. Several key issues surrounding the growth of nuclear power attracted widespread media attention and generated a great deal of debate. One was the effectiveness of the NRC's regulations on "safeguards, " which were designed to make certain that enriched uranium or plutonium that could be used to make nuclear weapons did not fall into the wrong hands. In response to fears that the expanded use of nuclear power could result in terrorist acquisition of a nuclear weapon, the NRC substantially tightened its requirements for the protection of nuclear fuel and nuclear plants from theft or attacks.

The NRC at the same time was the focal point of controversies over radiation protection standards, the export of nuclear materials to other nations, and the means for estimating the probability of a severe accident in a nuclear power plant. Reactor safety remained a subject of acrimonious dispute, which gained new prominence after a major fire at the Browns Ferry nuclear plants near Decatur, Alabama, in March 1975. In the process of looking for air leaks in an area containing trays of electrical cables that operated the plants' control rooms and safety systems, a technician started a fire. He used a lighted candle to conduct the search, and the open flame ignited the insulation around the cables. The fire raged for seven hours and largely disabled the safety equipment of one of the two affected plants. Nevertheless, the plants were safely shut down without releasing radiation to the environment.

The Three Mile Island Accident

The Browns Ferry fire did not compare in severity or in the attention it commanded with the most serious crisis in the history of nuclear power in the United States. The crisis occurred at Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island nuclear generating station near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on 28 March 1979. As a result of a series of mechanical failures and human errors, the accident, researchers later determined, uncovered the reactor's core and melted about half of it. The immediate cause of the accident was a valve that stuck open and allowed large volumes of reactor coolant to escape. The reactor operators misread the signs of a loss-of-coolant accident and for several hours failed to take action to cool the core. Although the plant's emergency core cooling systems began to work according to design, the operating crew decided to reduce the flow from them to a trickle. Even worse, a short time later the operators turned off the large reactor coolant pumps that circulated water through the core. By the time the nature of the accident was recognized and the core was flooded with coolant, the reactor had suffered irreparable damage.

The credibility of the nuclear industry and the NRC fared almost as badly. Uncertainty about the causes of the accident, confusion regarding how to deal with it, conflicting information from government and industry experts, and contradictory appraisals of the level of danger in the days following the accident often made authorities appear deceptive, inept, or both. Press accounts fed public fears and fostered a deepening perception of a technology that was out of control.

Nevertheless, in some ways the Three Mile Island accident produced reassuring information for reactor experts about the design and operation of the safety systems in a large nuclear plant. Despite the substantial degree of core melting, the pressure vessel that held the fuel rods and the containment building that surrounded the reactor, cooling systems, and other equipment were not breached. From all indications, the amount of radioactivity released into the environment as a result of the accident was small.

Those findings were overshadowed by the unsettling disclosures from Three Mile Island. The incident focused attention on possible causes of accidents that the AEC–NRC and the nuclear industry had not considered extensively. Their working assumption had been that the most likely cause of a loss-of-coolant accident would be a break in a large pipe that fed coolant to the core. But the destruction of the core at Three Mile Island resulted not from a large pipe break but from a relatively minor mechanical failure that operator errors drastically compounded. Perhaps the most distressing revelation of Three Mile Island was that an accident so severe could occur at all. Neither the AEC–NRC nor the industry had ever claimed that a major reactor accident was impossible, despite the multiple and redundant safety features built into nuclear plants. But they had regarded it as highly unlikely, to the point of being nearly incredible. The Three Mile Island accident demonstrated vividly that serious consequences could arise from unanticipated events.

The Response to Three Mile Island

The NRC responded to the Three Mile Island accident by reexamining the adequacy of its safety requirements and by imposing new regulations to correct deficiencies. It placed greater emphasis on "human factors" in plant performance by imposing stronger requirements for training, testing, and licensing of plant operators. In cooperation with industry groups, it promoted the increased use of reactor simulators and the careful assessment of control rooms and instrumentation. The NRC also devoted more attention to other problems that had received limited consideration before Three Mile Island. They included the possible effects of small failures that could produce major consequences and the prompt evaluation of malfunctions at operating nuclear plants. The agency expanded its research programs on a number of problems the accident had highlighted. And, in light of the confusion and uncertainty over evacuation of areas surrounding the Three Mile Island plant during the accident, the NRC sought to improve emergency preparedness and planning. Those and other steps it took were intended to reduce the likelihood of a major accident and, in the event that another one occurred, to enhance the ability of the NRC, the utility, and the public to cope with it.

In the immediate aftermath of Three Mile Island, the NRC suspended granting operating licenses for plants in the pipeline until it could assess the causes of the accident. The "licensing pause" ended in 1980, and in the following nine years, the NRC granted full-power operating licenses to more than forty reactors, most of which had received construction permits in the mid-1970s. The NRC had received no new applications for construction permits since 1978, and as more plants were completed and went on line, the agency shifted its focus to regulating operating plants rather than reviewing applications for new ones.

Bibliography

Balogh, Brian. Chain Reaction: Expert Debate and Public Participation in American Commercial Nuclear Power, 1945–1975. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Duffy, Robert J. Nuclear Politics in America: A History and Theory of Government Regulation. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997.

Walker, J. Samuel. Containing the Atom: Nuclear Regulation in a Changing Environment, 1963–1971. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

———. Permissible Dose: A History of Radiation Protection in the Twentieth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.

Wellock, Thomas Raymond. Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in California, 1958–1978. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

Winkler, Allan M. Life Under a Cloud: American Anxiety About the Atom. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

An independent regulatory agency that oversees the civilian use of nuclear power in the United States.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licenses and regulates the uses of nuclear energy to protect the public health and safety and the environment. The NRC's prime responsibility is to ensure that the more than one hundred commercial nuclear power plants in the United States conform to its regulations. It also regulates the use of nuclear materials used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, in sterilizing instruments, in smoke detectors, and in gauges used to detect explosives in luggage at airports.

The NRC was established under the provisions of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C.A. 5801) and Executive Order No. 11,834 of January 15, 1975 (40 F. R. 2971). These actions dissolved the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and transferred the AEC's licensing and regulatory functions to the NRC. The AEC, which had both regulated and promoted nuclear power, fell out of favor because of these conflicting roles. Congress believed that the NRC, which has only a regulatory function, would better protect public health and safety, because it has no direct interest in the promotion of nuclear energy. The 1974 act also created the Energy Research and Development Administration to handle the promotion of nuclear energy. This agency became part of the Department of Energy in 1977.

The major components of the NRC are the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, and the Office of Enforcement. The agency has its headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, and it has four regional offices. The president appoints the five members of the commission.

NRC fulfills its responsibilities through a system of licensing and regulation. The Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation licenses the construction and operation of nuclear reactors and other nuclear facilities. It regulates site selection, design, construction, operation maintenance, and the decommissioning of facilities.

The Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards licenses and regulates the processing, handling, and transportation of nuclear materials. This office ensures the safe disposal of nuclear waste and is responsible for reviewing and assessing the safeguards against potential threats, thefts, and sabotage for all licensed facilities.

The Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research performs research to confirm reactor safety and to confirm the implementation of established safeguards and environmental protection policies. This office develops regulations, criteria, guides, standards, and codes that govern health, safety, the environment, and safeguards that pertain to all aspects of nuclear facilities.

The Office of Enforcement develops policies and programs that ensure the enforcement of NRC requirements. The office has the power to give violation notices, enforce fines, and order license modification, suspension, or revocation.

In the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, almost half of the reactor's core melted. Radioactive steam escaped, but no major injuries were reported. The credibility of the nuclear industry and the NRC fared badly after the accident. NRC responded by reexamining safety requirements and imposing new regulations to correct deficiencies. It also required each nuclear plant to create a plan for evacuating the population within a ten-mile radius of the plant in the event of a reactor accident. Plant owners must work with state and local police, fire, and civil defense authorities to devise an emergency plan that is then tested and evaluated by the NRC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

See: Energy Department; Public Utilities; Solid Wastes, Hazardous Substances, and Toxic Pollutants.

An agency of the United States government responsible for licensing and regulating nuclear power plants. Created in 1974, along with the Energy Research and Development Administration, it replaced the Atomic Energy Commission.

NRC headquarters in North Bethesda, MD.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (or NRC) is a United States government agency that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act in 1974, and was first opened January 19, 1975. The NRC took over the role of oversight of nuclear energy matters and nuclear safety from the AEC, or Atomic Energy Commission. The oversight of nuclear weapons, as well as the promotion of nuclear power, was transferred to the Energy Research and Development Administration by the same act, thereby eliminating the AEC (in 1977, ERDA became the United States Department of Energy).

Like its predecessor, the AEC, the NRC oversees reactor safety, reactor licensing and renewal, material safety and licensing, and waste management (storage and disposal).

The NRC's mission is to regulate the nation's civilian use of byproduct, source, and special nuclear materials to ensure adequate protection of public health and safety, to promote the common defense and security, and to protect the environment.

The NRC's regulatory mission covers three main areas:

• Reactors - Commercial reactors for generating electric power and research and test reactors used for research, testing, and training
• Materials - Uses of nuclear materials in medical, industrial, and academic settings and facilities that produce nuclear fuel
• Waste - Transportation, storage, and disposal of nuclear materials and waste, and decommissioning of nuclear facilities from service

The NRC is headed by five Commissioners appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate for five-year terms. One of them is designated by the President to be the Chairman and official spokesperson of the Commission. The current chairman is Dr. Dale E. Klein. He has been confirmed with a term ending June 30, 2011.

Currently Headquartered in North Bethesda, Maryland, the NRC previously had five regions. In the late 1990s, the Region V office in Walnut Creek, California was absorbed into Region IV and Region V was dissolved. The NRC is broken down into 4 regions:

Map of the NRC Regions

• Region I, located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, oversees the north-eastern United States.
• Region II, located in Atlanta, Georgia, oversees the south-eastern United States.
• Region III, located in Lisle, Illinois, oversees the northern mid-western United States
• Region IV, located in Arlington, Texas, oversees the southern midwestern and the western United States.

These four regions oversee the operation of 104 power-producing reactors, and 36 non-power-producing reactors. This oversight is done on several levels, for example:

• Each power-producing reactor site has Resident Inspectors, who monitor day to day operations
• Numerous special inspection teams, with many different specialties, routinely conduct inspections at each site
• Whistleblower reports are investigated by special teams
• The NRC's chairman is Dr. Dale E. Klein.

The NRC recognizes the industry's training and accreditation through the Training Rule ^[1], which was issued in 1993. The NRC observes the National Nuclear Accrediting Board accrediting board meetings, and conducts audits and training inspections. In addition, the NRC nominates some members of the National Nuclear Accrediting Board. The National Nuclear Accrediting Board is not a government body, but related to the National Academy for Nuclear Training, created in 1985, which integrates and standardizes the training efforts of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) and all U.S. nuclear power plants.

Terrorism threats

Terrorist attacks such as those executed by Al Qaida in New York on September 11, 2001 and in London on July 7, 2005 have prompted fears that extremist groups might use radioactive dirty bombs in further attacks in the United States and elsewhere.

In March 2007, undercover investigators from the US Government Accountability Office set up a false company and obtained a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that would have allowed them to buy the radioactive materials needed for a dirty bomb. According to the GAO report, NRC officials did not visit the company or attempt to personally interview its executives. Instead, within 28 days, the NRC mailed the license to the West Virginia postal box. Upon receipt of the license, GAO officials were able to easily modify its stipulations, and remove a limit on the amount of radioactive material they could buy. A spokesman for the NRC said that the agency considered the radioactive devices a "lower-level threat," even though a bomb built with the materials could have contaminated an area about the length of a city block.^[2]

References

1. ^ NRC - Related Documents and Other Resources
2. ^ A Nuclear Ruse Uncovers Holes in U.S. Security

See also

• Nuclear safety in the U.S.
• Nuclear power in the United States
• List of nuclear reactors in the United States
• Nuclear and radiation accidents
• Gerald W. Brown, nuclear Passive fire protection whistleblower
• Nuclear Information and Resource Service
• Institute of Nuclear Power Operations

External links

• NRC website
• List of power-producing nuclear reactors
• List of non-power-producing reactors
• American Nuclear Society
• Nuclear Energy Institute
• Nuclear Protection Academy, Inc. (NuclearPro) security officer training academy
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission Meeting Notices and Rule Changes from The Federal Register RSS Feed

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