When was nrc created

It also began focusing more on the matter of decommissioning old nuclear plants. Between and , a total of 50 nuclear plants, including five small experimental power reactors, were decommissioned. In response to an investigation by the General Accounting Office, Congressional hearings, and a petition from environmental organizations, the NRC drew up new, tougher rules for how to shut down and dismantle nuclear power plants.

The new procedures were adopted in Another key issue NRC had to deal with was the renewal of licenses for plants that were reaching the expected end of their operation.

The NRC deliberated over this issue for several years and eventually decided that the maximum length of an extended license would be 20 years. During the s a controversy arose over the operation of a nuclear power plant in Connecticut that wound up tainting the reputation of the NRC.

The uproar over the Millstone Power Station began in the early s when several plant employees claimed that they were harassed, intimidated and fired for calling attention to safety problems and violations of NRC regulations.

The NRC investigated the concerns raised by the whistleblowers and determined that the safety issues they raised were not of major significance and had been corrected. But the matter was far from over for the NRC. Things quieted down for the NRC until this decade. When President George W. Bush was in the White House, the nuclear power industry received a new lease on life as the Department of Energy invested millions into research and development of a new generation of nuclear reactors.

Since , the NRC has received applications to build 34 new reactor units in 16 states. President Obama has generally been a supporter of nuclear power plant development, although the nuclear plant crisis in Fukushima, Japan, has given Americans cause for concern about the safety of domestic power plants and plans for new plant construction.

The NRC re-inspected all nuclear power plants in the U. In June , DOE officials finally submitted their application for an NRC operating license so Yucca Mountain can begin taking in nuclear waste from around the country by Opposition from environmentalists has kept the project stalled, and candidate Barack Obama spoke out against it during his presidential campaign.

Republican Congressional investigators have charged that the attempted closure of the project may have been illegal, while Democrats have accused the Republicans of harboring political motives. A Short History of Nuclear Regulation, Licensed to Kill? Fukushima-type disaster inevitable in U.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC is an independent federal agency charged with keeping watch over the commercial nuclear power industry. The NRC regulates commercial nuclear power plants and other uses of nuclear materials, such as in nuclear medicine, through licensing, inspection, and enforcement of its requirements.

Before a nuclear reactor can begin operating, the NRC must first issue an operating license. The commission is also responsible for conducting inspections at nuclear plants to ensure that ongoing operations meet federal safety standards. Today, the NRC monitors the operations of nuclear reactors , including Three Mile Island 1 , the reactor not damaged in the accident. NRC provides a map of the United States showing the location of all reactors still operating.

NRC officials manage all commercial nuclear plants through one of four regions. The NRC is headed by five commissioners appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms. One commissioner is designated by the President to be the chairman and official spokesperson of the commission.

The commissioners are supported by numerous offices and boards within the NRC. Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards is made up of five members and has three primary responsibilities: review and report on safety studies and reactor facility license and license renewal applications; advise the NRC on the hazards of proposed and existing reactor facilities and the adequacy of proposed reactor safety standards; and initiate reviews of specific generic matters or nuclear facility safety-related items.

Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes advises the NRC on policy and technical issues related to the regulation of the medical uses of radioactive material in diagnosis and therapy. The ACMUI membership includes health care professionals from various disciplines who comment on changes to NRC regulations and guidance; evaluate certain non-routine uses of radioactive material; provide technical assistance in licensing, inspection and enforcement cases; and bring key issues to the attention of the NRC.

The panel, which has no fixed number of positions, is composed of administrative judges full-time and part-time who are lawyers, engineers and scientists and administrative law judges ALJ who are lawyers. Administrative judges and ALJs serve as single presiding officers or on three-member boards, which generally are chaired by a lawyer, for a broad range of proceedings.

A large pool of members make up those available to serve on the panel. The office monitors power reactors as well as research and test reactors , while providing information on operating reactors , operator licensing , new reactors , reactor coolant system weld issues , license renewal , potassium iodide in emergency planning , the reactor oversight process and reactor safety focus areas.

Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research addresses issues in the areas of nuclear reactors, nuclear materials and radioactive waste. Information gained from the research program is documented in the NUREG-series publications and is used in developing regulatory guides.

Some of these publications provide documentation and information on the use of technical computer codes that are used in research, modeling, and analysis.

Additional information is provided on safety research involving nuclear reactors , nuclear materials , radioactive waste safety and computer codes.

Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response oversees safeguards and security that guard nuclear reactors against theft and sabotage. The office deals with threats, thefts and sabotage relating to special nuclear material, high-level radioactive wastes, nuclear facilities and other radioactive materials and activities that the NRC regulates. Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs develops and implements rules for the use of special nuclear material in industrial, medical, academic and commercial activities, as well as rules that apply to decommissioning of nuclear plants, uranium recovery, and low-level waste sites.

Office of New Reactors is responsible for regulatory activities that pertain to the siting, licensing and oversight for new commercial nuclear power reactors. Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards oversees the safe storage, transportation and disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.

Some of the duties performed by the office include licensing, inspection, assessment of licensee performance, events analysis, and enforcement of NRC rules. Details on current issues and actions , enforcement authority and regulations , enforcement policy , upcoming conferences , enforcement guidance , sanctions for discrimination against whistleblowers , alternative dispute resolution and safety culture are available from the NRC.

So are documents regarding significant enforcement actions , notices of enforcement discretion and security orders. Office of Investigations develops policy, procedures and quality control standards for the conduct of all NRC investigations of alleged wrongdoing by nuclear power companies, contractors.

The office employs Special Agents who use conventional investigative techniques, as well as the laws of evidence, to conduct investigations.

Office of Commission Appellate Adjudication supports the NRC adjudication process by monitoring cases pending before presiding officers, conducting analyses of any adjudicatory matters requiring an NRC decision, drafting decisions and consulting with the Office of the General Counsel.

Office of Congressional Affairs serves as the liaison for NRC when it comes to dealing with Congress, its committees and staff. Office of the General Counsel handles all matters of law and legal policy for the NRC including providing opinions and advice. The office plans, develops and implements programs carried out in the international arena, including export and import licensing responsibilities. Establishes and maintains working relationships with individual countries and international nuclear organizations, as well as other involved federal agencies.

Office of the Inspector General conducts audits and investigations involving NRC operations to prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement. The IG recommends corrective actions to be taken, reports on progress made in implementing those actions and reports criminal matters to the Department of Justice.

Fact Sheets and Brochures. L-3 Communication Holdings Inc. Southwest Research Institute Inc. Information Systems laboratories Inc. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC in July contradicted its previous assertions after the Japanese nuclear crisis that American power plants would withstand a similar tragedy. One of the last nuclear plants to be licensed in the U. Also in , the Union of Concerned Scientists UCS , a government watchdog organization, obtained internal documents from the NRC through the Freedom of Information Act that indicated technical staff had questioned the effectiveness of key safety measures adopted for nuclear power plants.

The Union of Concerned Scientists reported the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had to send out special teams of experts 14 times as a result of something going wrong at a nuclear plant.

Of the 14 near misses in , only one required an AIT. That was at the HB Robinson plant in South Carolina, where a cooling system failure went unnoticed for 30 minutes. Rather than enforce safety regulations governing the operation of nuclear plants, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC has frequently permitted industry to avoid fixing problems that pose potential dangers.

Fires pose a serious threat to nuclear safety, as evidenced by the crisis in Japan, where explosions and fires after the tsunami crippled the control room, leaving operators unable to cool down reactors.

One of the more egregious examples of the NRC lax oversight involved the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama, where equipment still does not comply with fires rules—36 years after a conflagration prompted federal regulators to adopt new requirements for the industry. More than fires have broken out at nuclear plants since , according to NRC records. Despite these and other problems, the NRC has approved every application for a nuclear plant license renewal—63 for 63—since relicensing of old plants began in Nuclear power regulators also have allowed plant owners to extend the life of reactors beyond what was considered safe.

When plants went online in the s and s, companies insisted reactors were designed to operate for only 40 years. But instead of shutting down these aging reactors, industry has insisted they can continue for decades more. And the NRC has raised no objections. The problem with this decision, said government watchdogs, was that Wackenhut was responsible for guarding many of the plants that would be tested. Roy P. But the NRC would keep a close eye on the company going forward.

The inspector general said the internal leaks raised doubts about the value of the tests. Wald, New York Times. The Department of Energy DOE has been working since the s to get Yucca Mountain, a remote site in southern Nevada, ready to accept thousands of tons of nuclear waste from commercial nuclear power plants. Court of Appeals. Previously, Nevada had filed numerous lawsuits against the federal government to stop Yucca Mountain from moving forward, including a lawsuit claiming the NRC had illegally revised regulations to allow the project to continue.

A federal appeals court dismissed that lawsuit. President Barack Obama spoke out against the Yucca Mountain project during his presidential campaign. Republican Congressional investigators have charged that the attempted closure of the project may have been illegal because it was not approved by Congress, while Democrats have accused the Republicans of political maneuvering.

After completion of a seven-month investigation, the NRC inspector general—in June —issued a report accusing NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko of deliberately withholding information from his colleagues as part of a plan to stop work on the project.

The NRC has produced a three-volume report on the history and status of the Yucca Mountain project, the final installment of which was released in September The matter went to the U. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which said in August that it would order the NRC to resume evaluating the site unless Congress solves the issue by December Instead of lasting one hour in the event of a fire at a nuclear reactor, it survived only 23 minutes. The NRC decided to conduct its own testing of the fire barrier—in —and then only after more evidence of problems with the barrier arose in The NRC took even longer to respond to a petition filed by a community organization in Vermont regarding the full effects of nuclear power.

The agency declined the request. NRC officials believe some, but not all, commercial nuclear power plants should be protected to withstand terrorist attacks involving airplanes. In the fall of , the commission filed new rules that would require certain reactors under development to be built with an extra layer of protection so the core would remain intact if a plane were to crash into the building.

But the rules would not apply to the reactors already in existence. Some of the most vocal opposition to the NRC plan came from industry representatives who expressed concern that requiring protection for only some plants might shortcut the current rebirth in nuclear energy if the public loses confidence again in the safety of new plants. Critics of nuclear power also jumped on the NRC for not applying the requirement to existing reactors. Others said the new rules lack specificity on how to build a proper shield against air attacks.

Following the Fukushima plant disaster in Japan, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued 12 reforms for the commission to follow. Another recommendation suggested the NRC require power plants to upgrade protections for nuclear reactors and spent-fuel pools to further protect them from natural disasters. Yet another change involved the commission mandating nuclear power plants do a better job of preparing for power blackouts and events that affect more than one reactor. Ahlers, CNN.

Former NRC Commissioners. Kristine L. One of seven children, Svinicki was born September 6, , in Jackson, Michigan. She lost her parents, Emil and Jane, as a teenager. However, she was inspired by them to earn a degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan in , after studying at Jackson Community College.

Her father, Emil, grew up on a farm and later became an architect. She started as an energy engineer for the Wisconsin Public Utilities Commission. In May , she transferred to Washington D. While continuing to work as a nuclear engineer, Svinicki in January also began working in the office of Sen. Larry Craig R-Idaho. Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC is an independent agency created by Congress in to ensure the safe use of radioactive materials for beneficial civilian purposes while protecting people and the environment.

The NRC regulates commercial nuclear power plants and other uses of nuclear materials, such as in nuclear medicine, through licensing, inspection and enforcement of its requirements. One of them is designated by the President to be the Chairman and official spokesperson of the Commission.

The Commission as a whole formulates policies and regulations governing nuclear reactor and materials safety, issues orders to licensees, and adjudicates legal matters brought before it. The Executive Director for Operations EDO carries out the policies and decisions of the Commission and directs the activities of the program offices.

The offices reporting to the EDO ensure that the commercial use of nuclear materials in the United States is safely conducted. As part of the regulatory process, the four regional offices conduct inspection, enforcement, and emergency response programs for licensees within their borders.

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