The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is an
independent agency of the United States government
Independent agencies of the United States federal government are agencies that exist outside the federal executive departments (those headed by a Cabinet secretary) and the Executive Office of the President. In a narrower sense, the term refers ...
tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy. Established by the
Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the NRC began operations on January 19, 1975, as one of two successor agencies to the
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President H ...
. Its functions include overseeing
reactor safety and security, administering reactor licensing and renewal, licensing
radioactive materials
A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess nuclear energy, making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transferr ...
,
radionuclide
A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess nuclear energy, making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transfer ...
safety, and managing the storage, security, recycling, and disposal of
spent fuel
Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor (usually at a nuclear power plant). It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor and ...
.
History
![NRC Briefing on Human Capital and EEO (51245895192)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/NRC_Briefing_on_Human_Capital_and_EEO_%2851245895192%29.jpg)
Prior to 1975 the
Atomic Energy Commission was in charge of matters regarding radionuclides. The AEC was dissolved, because it was perceived as unduly favoring the industry it was charged with regulating.
[John Byrne and Steven M. Hoffman (1996). ''Governing the Atom: The Politics of Risk'', Transaction Publishers, p. 163.] The NRC was formed as an independent commission to oversee
nuclear energy
Nuclear energy may refer to:
*Nuclear power, the use of sustained nuclear fission or nuclear fusion to generate heat and electricity
* Nuclear binding energy, the energy needed to fuse or split a nucleus of an atom
*Nuclear potential energy
...
matters, oversight of
nuclear medicine
Nuclear medicine or nucleology is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Nuclear imaging, in a sense, is "radiology done inside out" because it records radiation emitting ...
, and
nuclear safety and security
Nuclear safety is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "The achievement of proper operating conditions, prevention of accidents or mitigation of accident consequences, resulting in protection of workers, the public and the ...
.
The U.S. AEC became the
Energy Research and Development Administration
The United States Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) was a United States government organization formed from the split of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1975. It assumed the functio ...
(ERDA) in 1975, responsible for development and oversight of
nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...
s. Research and promotion of civil uses of radioactive materials, such as for nuclear
non-destructive testing
Nondestructive testing (NDT) is any of a wide group of analysis techniques used in science and technology industry to evaluate the properties of a material, component or system without causing damage.
The terms nondestructive examination (NDE), n ...
, nuclear medicine, and
nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
, was split into the Office of Nuclear Energy, Science & Technology within ERDA by the same act. In 1977, ERDA became the
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...
(DOE). In 2000, the
National Nuclear Security Administration
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is a United States federal agency responsible for safeguarding national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, and e ...
was created as a subcomponent of DOE, responsible for nuclear weapons.
[
Following the ]Fukushima nuclear disaster
The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...
in 2011, the NRC developed a guidance strategy known as "Diverse and Flexible Coping Strategies (FLEX)" That requires licensee nuclear power plants to account for beyond-design-basis external events (seismic, flooding, high-winds, etc.) that are most
impactful to reactor safety through loss of power and loss of ultimate heat sink. FLEX Strategies have been implemented at all operating nuclear power plants in the United States.
The origins and development of NRC regulatory processes and policies are explained in five volumes of history published by the University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
. These are:[
* ''Controlling the Atom: The Beginnings of Nuclear Regulation 1946–1962'' (1984).
* ''Containing the Atom: Nuclear Regulation in a Changing Environment, 1963–1971'' (1992).
* ''Permissible Dose: A History of Radiation Protection in the Twentieth Century'' (2000)
* '' Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective'' (2004)
* ''The Road to Yucca Mountain: The Development of Radioactive Waste Policy in the United States'' (2009).
The NRC has produced a booklet, ''A Short History of Nuclear Regulation 1946–2009'', which outlines key issues in NRC history. ]Thomas Wellock
Thomas Wellock (born 1959) is the American historian for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Trained as both an engineer and a historian, he writes scholarly histories of the regulation of commercial nuclear energy. His most recent book is ' ...
, a former academic, is the NRC historian. Before joining the NRC, Wellock wrote '' Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in California, 1958–1978''.
Mission and commissioners
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
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
and confirmed by the United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
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 Christopher T. Hanson
Christopher T. Hanson is an American bureaucrat and the current chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
He was sworn as a NRC Commissioner on June 8, 2020, and was reaffirmed by President Biden. He was previously a st ...
. President Biden designated Hanson as chairman of the NRC effective January 20, 2021.[
]
List of chairmen
List of commissioners
*Marcus A. Rowden Marcus, Markus, Márkus or Mărcuș may refer to:
* Marcus (name), a masculine given name
* Marcus (praenomen), a Roman personal name
Places
* Marcus, a main belt asteroid, also known as (369088) Marcus 2008 GG44
* Mărcuş, a village in Dobârl ...
January 19, 1975 – April 20, 1977
* Edward A. Mason January 19, 1975 – January 15, 1977
* Victor Gilinsky January 19, 1975 – June 30, 1984
*Richard T. Kennedy
Richard Thomas Kennedy (24 December 1919 – 12 January 1998)https://catalog.archives.gov/id/10568788 was a United States soldier and diplomat.
Biography
Richard T. Kennedy was born in Rochester, New York, on December 24, 1919. He was educated ...
January 19, 1975 – June 30, 1980
*Joseph M. Hendrie
Joseph Mallam Hendrie (born March 18, 1925) is a former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). On August 9, 1977 he was named to a four-year term on the Commission and designated as its chairman by President Jimmy Carter. August 9, 1977 – June 30, 1981
*Peter A. Bradford
Peter A. Bradford is a former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission who teaches energy policy and law at the Vermont Law School. He is the author of ''Fragile Structures: A Story of Oil Refineries, National Security and the Coast of Ma ...
August 15, 1977 – March 12, 1982
*John F. Ahearne
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
July 31, 1978 – June 30, 1983
* Nunzio J. Palladiono July 1, 1981 – June 30, 1986
* Thomas M. Roberts August 3, 1981 – June 30, 1990
* James K. Asselstine May 17, 1982 – June 30, 1987
* Frederick M. Bernthal August 4, 1983 – June 30, 1988
*Lando W. Zech Jr. Lando may refer to:
People
* Lando (name), a given name or surname of Italian origin
** Pope Lando (913–914)
Other uses
* Lando Calrissian, fictional character in ''Star Wars''
* Landó (music), a style of Peruvian music
* Lando, South Carolina, ...
July 3, 1984 – June 30, 1989
*Kenneth Monroe Carr
Kenneth Monroe Carr (March 17, 1925 – November 15, 2015) was a U.S. Navy vice admiral who was Deputy and Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief Atlantic Command and the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. He retired from the navy ...
August 14, 1986 – June 30, 1991
* Kenneth C. Rogers August 7, 1987 – June 30, 1997
* James R. Curtiss October 20, 1988 – June 30, 1993
* Forrest J. Remick December 1, 1989 – June 30, 1994
*Ivan Selin
Ivan Selin (born March 11, 1937) is an American businessman, and former Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Under Secretary of State for Management. Selin is a Fulbright Scholar and graduate of Yale University (PhD, Electrical Engi ...
July 1, 1991 – June 30, 1995
*E. Gail de Planque
Eileen Gail de Planque (also Eileen Gail de Planque Burke, best known as E. Gail de Planque; 1944 – September 8, 2010) was an American nuclear physicist. An expert on environmental radiation measurements, she was the first woman and first ...
December 16, 1991 – June 30, 1995
* Shirley Ann Jackson May 2, 1995 – June 30, 1999
* Greta J. Dicus February 15, 1996 – June 30, 2003
* Nils J. Diaz August 23, 1996 – June 30, 2006
*Edward McGaffigan Jr.
Edward is an English language, English given name. It is derived from the Old English, Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements ''wikt:ead#Old English, ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and ''wikt:weard#Old English, weard'' "gua ...
August 28, 1996 – September 2, 2007
*Jeffrey S. Merrifield
Jeffrey may refer to:
* Jeffrey (name), including a list of people with the name
* ''Jeffrey'' (1995 film), a 1995 film by Paul Rudnick, based on Rudnick's play of the same name
* ''Jeffrey'' (2016 film), a 2016 Dominican Republic documentary film
...
October 23, 1998 – June 30, 2007
* Richard A. Meserve October 29, 1999 – March 31, 2003
*Gregory Jaczko
Gregory B. Jaczko (; born October 29, 1970, Norristown, Pennsylvania) is a physicist who was chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from 2005 to 2012. January 21, 2005 – July 9, 2012
* Peter B. Lyons January 25, 2005 – June 30, 2009
*Dale E. Klein
Dale E. Klein was the Chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th preside ...
July 1, 2006 – March 29, 2010
*Kristine Svinicki
Kristine L. Svinicki (born September 6, 1966) is an American nuclear engineer and former chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Early life and education
Svinicki, who is one of seven siblings, was born in Jackson, Michigan. Both of her ...
March 28, 2008 – January 20, 2021
*George Apostolakis
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd President ...
March 29, 2010 – June 30, 2014
* William D. Magwood IV March 29, 2010 – August 31, 2014
*William C. Ostendorff
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
March 29, 2010 – June 30, 2016
*Allison Macfarlane
Allison M. Macfarlane directs the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia. She is the former director of the Institute for International Science and Technology Policy at George Washington University, where ...
July 9, 2012 – December 31, 2014
* Jeff Baran October 14, 2014 – Present
* Stephen G. Burns November 4, 2014 – April 30, 2019
*Annie Caputo
Annie Caputo is an American political advisor and government official. She most recently served as a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a five-year term that expired on June 30, 2021. She was formerly a senior policy advisor for Chairman ...
May 29, 2018 – June 30, 2021, August 9, 2022 – Present
*David A. Wright
David Austin Wright is an American businessman, politician, and energy policy advisor, and member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the remainder of a five-year term expiring on June 30, 2025 after being nominated by President Donald Tru ...
May 30, 2018 – Present
*Christopher T. Hanson
Christopher T. Hanson is an American bureaucrat and the current chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
He was sworn as a NRC Commissioner on June 8, 2020, and was reaffirmed by President Biden. He was previously a st ...
June 8, 2020 – Present
* Bradley R. Crowell August 26, 2022 – Present
Organization
The NRC consists of the commission on the one hand and offices of the executive director for Operations on the other.
The commission is divided into two committees (Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards and Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes) and one Board, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, as well as eight commission staff offices (Office of Commission Appellate Adjudication, Office of Congressional Affairs, Office of the General Counsel, Office of International Programs, Office of Public Affairs, Office of the Secretary, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Office of the Executive Director for Operations).
Christopher T. Hanson
Christopher T. Hanson is an American bureaucrat and the current chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
He was sworn as a NRC Commissioner on June 8, 2020, and was reaffirmed by President Biden. He was previously a st ...
is the chairman of the NRC. There are 14 Executive Director for Operations offices:
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, Office of Enforcement, which investigates reports by nuclear power whistleblowers
There have been a number of nuclear whistleblowers, often nuclear engineers, who have identified safety concerns about nuclear power and nuclear weapons production.
List
Other nuclear whistleblowers
* Chuck Atkinson
* Dale G. Bridenbaugh
* Jo ...
, specifically the Allegations Program, Office of Investigations, Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response, Region I, Region II, Region III, Region IV, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Office of Administration, Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer, and Office of Small Business and Civil Rights.
Of these operations offices, NRC's major program components are the first two offices mentioned above.
NRC's proposed FY 2015 budget is $1,059.5 million, with 3,895.9 full-time equivalents (FTE), 90 percent of which is recovered by fees. This is an increase of $3.6 million, including 65.1 FTE, compared to FY 2014.
NRC headquarters offices are located in unincorporated North Bethesda, Maryland (although the mailing address for two of the three main buildings in the complex list the city as Rockville, MD), and there are four regional offices.
Regions
The NRC territory is broken down into four geographical regions; until the late 1990s, there was a Region V office in Walnut Creek, California which was absorbed into Region IV, and Region V was dissolved.
* Region I, located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
King of Prussia (also referred to as KOP) is a census-designated place in Upper Merion Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 22,028. The community took its unusual name in the 18th ...
, oversees the northeastern states.
* Region II, located in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, oversees most of the southeastern states
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
.
* Region III, located in Lisle, Illinois, oversees the Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
.
* Region IV, located in Arlington, Texas
Arlington is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Tarrant County. It forms part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal city of the metropolis and region. ...
, oversees the western and south central states.
In these four regions NRC oversees the operation of US nuclear reactors, namely 94 power-producing reactors, and 31 non-power-producing, or research and test reactors. 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.
Recordkeeping system
NRC has a library, which also contains online document collections. In 1999 it started an electronic repository called ADAMS, the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System. for its public inspection reports, correspondence, and other technical documents written by NRC staff, contractors, and licensees. It has been upgraded in October 2010 and is now webbased. Of documents from 1980 to 1999 only some have abstracts and/or full text, most are citations. Documents from before 1980 are available in paper or microfiche formats. Copies of these older documents or classified documents can be applied for with a FOIA request.
Training and accreditation
NRC conducts audits and training inspections, observes the National Nuclear Accrediting Board meetings, and nominates some members.
The 1980 Kemeny Commission's report after the Three Mile Island accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor in Pennsylvania, United States. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979. It is the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclea ...
recommended that the nuclear energy industry "set and police its own standards of excellence". The nuclear industry founded the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations
The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), headquartered in Atlanta, GA, is an organization established in 1979 by the U.S. nuclear power industry in response to recommendations by the Kemeny Commission Report, following the investigation ...
(INPO) within 9 months to establish personnel training and qualification. The industry through INPO created the 'National Academy for Nuclear Training Program' either as early as 1980 or in September 1985 per the International Atomic Energy Agency
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 ...
. INPO refers to NANT as "our National Academy for Nuclear Training" on its website. NANT integrates and standardizes the training programs of INPO and US nuclear energy companies, offers training scholarships and interacts with the 'National Nuclear Accrediting Board'. This Board is closely related to the National Academy for Nuclear Training, not a government body, and referred to as independent by INPO, the Nuclear Energy Institute, and nuclear utilities. but not by the NRC, all of whom are represented on the board.
The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 is a United States federal law which established a comprehensive national program for the safe, permanent disposal of highly radioactive wastes.
* The US Congress amended the act in 1987 to designate Yucca Mou ...
directed NRC in Section 306 to issue regulations or "other appropriate regulatory guidance" on training of nuclear plant personnel. Since the nuclear industry already had developed training and accreditation, NRC issued a policy statement in 1985, endorsing the INPO program. NRC has a memorandum of agreement with INPO and "monitors INPO activities by observing accreditation team visits and the monthly NNAB meetings".
In 1993, NRC endorsed the industry's approach to training that had been used for nearly a decade through its 'Training Rule'. In February 1994, NRC passed the 'Operator Requalification Rule' 59 FR 5938, Feb. 9, 1994, allowing each nuclear power plant company to conduct the operator licensing renewal examination every six years, eliminating the requirement of NRC-administered written requalification examination.
In 1999, NRC issued a final rule on operator initial licensing examination, that allows companies to prepare, proctor, and grade their own operator initial licensing examinations. Facilities can "upon written request" continue to have the examinations prepared and administered by NRC staff, but if a company volunteers to prepare the examination, NRC continues to approve and administer it.
Since 2000 meetings between NRC and applicants or licensees have been open to the public.
Prospective nuclear units
Between 2007 and 2009, 13 companies applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for construction and operating licenses to build 25 new nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
reactors in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
However, the case for widespread nuclear plant construction was eroded due to abundant natural gas supplies. Many license applications for proposed new reactors were suspended or cancelled.[Eileen O'Grady]
Entergy says nuclear remains costly
''Reuters'', May 25, 2010. These will not be the cheapest energy options available, therefore not an attractive investment. In 2013, four reactors were permanently closed: San Onofre 2 and 3 in California, Crystal River 3 in Florida, and Kewaunee in Wisconsin. Vermont Yankee, in Vernon, was shut down on December 29, 2014. New York state eventually closed Indian Point Energy Center
Indian Point Energy Center (I.P.E.C.) is a three-unit nuclear power plant station located in Buchanan, just south of Peekskill, in Westchester County, New York. It sits on the east bank of the Hudson River, about north of Midtown Manhattan. Th ...
, in Buchanan, 30 miles from New York City, on April 30, 2021.[
In 2019 the NRC approved a second 20-year licence extension for Turkey Point units 3 and 4, the first time NRC had extended licences to 80 years total lifetime. Similar extensions for about 20 reactors are planned or intended, with more expected in the future. This will reduce demand for replacement new builds.]
Controversy, concerns, and criticisms
Byrne and Hoffman wrote in 1996, that since the 1980s the NRC has generally favored the interests of nuclear industry, and been unduly responsive to industry concerns, while failing to pursue tough regulation. The NRC has often sought to hamper or deny public access to the regulatory process, and created new barriers to public participation.
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
, when running for president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
in 2007, said that the five-member NRC had become "captive of the industries that it regulates".
Numerous different observers have criticized the NRC as an example of regulatory capture
In politics, regulatory capture (also agency capture and client politics) is a form of corruption of authority that occurs when a political entity, policymaker, or regulator is co-opted to serve the commercial, ideological, or political interests ...
The NRC has been accused of having conflicting roles as regulator and "salesman" in a 2011 Reuters article, doing an inadequate job by the Union of Concerned Scientists
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a nonprofit science advocacy organization based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. Anne Kapuscinski, Professor of Environmenta ...
, and the agency approval process has been called a "rubber stamp".
Frank N. von Hippel
Frank N. von Hippel (born 1937) is an American physicist. He is Professor and Co-Director of Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University and the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
He is Arthur von Hippel's s ...
wrote in March 2011, that despite the 1979 Three Mile Island accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor in Pennsylvania, United States. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979. It is the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclea ...
in Pennsylvania, the NRC has often been too timid in ensuring that America's commercial reactors are operated safely:
Nuclear power regulation is a textbook example of the problem of "regulatory capture" — in which an industry gains control of an agency meant to regulate it. Regulatory capture can be countered only by vigorous public scrutiny and Congressional oversight, but in the 32 years since Three Mile Island, interest in nuclear regulation has declined precipitously.
An article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists stated that many forms of NRC regulatory failure exist, including regulations ignored by the common consent of NRC and industry:
A worker (named George Galatis
George Galatis is a senior nuclear engineer and whistleblower who reported safety problems at the Millstone 1 Nuclear Power Plant, relating to reactor refueling procedures, in 1996.Shaw, William H. (2004)''Business Ethics'' pp. 267-268. The unsafe ...
) at the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant in Connecticut kept warning management, that the spent fuel rods were being put too quickly into the spent storage pool and that the number of rods in the pool exceeded specifications. Management ignored him, so he went directly to the NRC, which eventually admitted that it knew of both of the forbidden practices, which happened at many plants, but chose to ignore them. The whistleblower was fired and blacklisted.
Terrorism concerns and threats
Terrorist attacks such as those executed by al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
on New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, on September 11, 2001, and in London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
on July 7, 2005, have prompted fears that extremist groups might use radioactive dirty bombs in further attacks in the United States and elsewhere.[Averting Catastrophe](_blank)
p. 338.
In March 2007, undercover investigators from the Government Accountability Office
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal govern ...
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"; a bomb built with the materials could have contaminated an area about the length of a city block but would not have presented an immediate health hazard.
1987 Congressional Report
Twelve years into NRC operations, a 1987 Congressional report entitled "NRC Coziness with Industry" concluded, that the NRC "has not maintained an arms length regulatory posture with the commercial nuclear power industry ... ndhas, in some critical areas, abdicated its role as a regulator altogether". To cite three examples:
A 1986 Congressional report found that NRC staff had provided valuable technical assistance to the utility seeking an operating license for the controversial Seabrook plant. In the late 1980s, the NRC 'created a policy' of non-enforcement by asserting its discretion not to enforce license conditions; between September 1989 and 1994, the 'NRC has either waived or chosen not to enforce regulations at nuclear power reactors over 340 times'. Finally, critics charge that the NRC has ceded important aspects of regulatory authority to the industry's own Institute for Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), an organization formed by utilities in response to the Three Mile Island Accident.
Nuclear Reactor License Renewal Program
One example involves the license renewal program that NRC initiated to extend the operating licenses for the nation's fleet of commercial nuclear reactors. Environmental impact statements (EIS) were prepared for each reactor to extend the operational period from 40 to 60 years. One study examined the EISs and found significant flaws, included failure to consider significant issues of concern. It also found that the NRC management had significantly underestimated the risk and consequences posed by a severe reactor accident such as a full-scale nuclear meltdown. NRC management asserted, without scientific evidence, that the risk of such accidents were so "Small" that the impacts could be dismissed and therefore no analysis of human and environmental was even performed. Such a conclusion is scientifically indefensible given the experience of the Three Mile Island
3 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
3, three, or III may also refer to:
* AD 3, the third year of the AD era
* 3 BC, the third year before the AD era
* March, the third month
Books
* ''Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...
, Chernobyl
Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...
, and Fukushima
may refer to:
Japan
* Fukushima Prefecture, Japanese prefecture
** Fukushima, Fukushima, capital city of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
***Fukushima University, national university in Japan
*** Fukushima Station (Fukushima) in Fukushima, Fukushim ...
accidents. Another finding was that NRC had concealed the risk posed to the public at large by disregarding one of the most important EIS requirements, mandating that cumulative impacts
Environmental Impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term "environmental imp ...
be assessed (40 Code of Federal Regulations §1508.7). By disregarding this basic requirement, NRC effectively misrepresented the risk posed to the nation by approximately two orders of magnitude (i.e., the true risk is about 100 greater than NRC represented). These findings were collaborated in a final report prepared by a special Washington State Legislature Nuclear Power Task Force, titled, "Doesnt NRC Address Consequences of Severe Accidents in EISs for re-licensing?"
Post-Fukushima
In Vermont, the day before the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...
that damaged Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, the NRC approved a 20-year extension for the license of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant
Vermont Yankee was an electricity generating nuclear power plant, located in the town of Vernon, Vermont, in the northeastern United States. It generated 620 megawatts (MWe) of electricity at full power. The plant was a boiling water reacto ...
, although the Vermont state legislature
The Vermont General Assembly is the legislative body of the state of Vermont, in the United States. The Legislature is formally known as the "General Assembly," but the style of "Legislature" is commonly used, including by the body itself. The Ge ...
voted overwhelmingly to deny an extension. The plant had been found to be leaking radioactive materials
A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess nuclear energy, making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transferr ...
through a network of underground pipes, which Entergy had denied under oath even existed. At a hearing in 2009 Tony Klein, chairman of the Vermont House Natural Resources and Energy Committee had asked the NRC about the pipes and the NRC also did not know they existed.
In March 2011, the Union of Concerned Scientists
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a nonprofit science advocacy organization based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. Anne Kapuscinski, Professor of Environmenta ...
released a study critical of the NRC's 2010 performance as a regulator. The UCS said that over the years, it had found the NRC's enforcement of safety rules has not been "timely, consistent, or effective" and it cited 14 "near-misses" at U.S. plants in 2010 alone.
In April 2011, Reuters reported that diplomatic cables showed NRC sometimes being used as a sales tool to help push American technology to foreign governments, when "lobbying for the purchase of equipment made by Westinghouse Electric Company and other domestic manufacturers". This gives the appearance of a regulator which is acting in a commercial capacity, "raising concerns about a potential conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
".
San Clemente Green, an environmental group opposed to the continued operation of the San Onofre Nuclear Plant, said in 2011 that instead of being a watchdog, the NRC too often rules in favor of nuclear plant operators.
In 2011, the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami led to unprecedented damage and flooding of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The subsequent loss of offsite power and flooding of onsite emergency diesel generators led to loss of coolant and subsequent Nuclear meltdown
A nuclear meltdown (core meltdown, core melt accident, meltdown or partial core melt) is a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term ''nuclear meltdown'' is not officially defined by the Internation ...
of three reactor cores. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...
led to an uncontrolled release of radioactive contamination, and forced the Japanese Government to evacuate approximately 100,000 citizens.
Gregory Jaczko
Gregory B. Jaczko (; born October 29, 1970, Norristown, Pennsylvania) is a physicist who was chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from 2005 to 2012. was chairman of the NRC when the 2011 Fukushima disaster occurred in Japan. Jaczko looked for lessons for the US, and strengthened security regulations for nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a electric generator, generato ...
s. For example, he supported the requirement that new plants be able to withstand an aircraft crash. On February 9, 2012, Jaczko cast the lone dissenting vote on plans to build the first new nuclear power plant in more than 30 years when the NRC voted 4–1 to allow Atlanta-based Southern Co to build and operate two new nuclear power reactors at its existing Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia. He cited safety concerns stemming from Japan's 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster
The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...
, saying "I cannot support issuing this license as if Fukushima never happened". In July 2011, Mark Cooper said that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is "on the defensive to prove it is doing its job of ensuring safety". In October 2011, Jaczko described "a tension between wanting to move in a timely manner on regulatory questions, and not wanting to go too fast".
In 2011 Edward J. Markey
Edward John Markey (born July 11, 1946) is an American lawyer, politician, and former Army reservist who has served as the junior United States senator from Massachusetts since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representat ...
, Democrat of Massachusetts, criticized the NRC's response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...
and the decision-making on the proposed Westinghouse AP1000 reactor design.
In 2011, a total of 45 groups and individuals from across the nation formally asked the NRC to suspend all licensing and other activities at 21 proposed nuclear reactor projects in 15 states until the NRC completed a thorough post-Fukushima nuclear disaster
The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...
examination:
The petition seeks suspension of six existing reactor license renewal decisions (Columbia Generating Station
Columbia Generating Station is a nuclear commercial energy facility located on the Hanford Site, north of Richland, Washington. It is owned and operated by Energy Northwest, a Washington state, not-for-profit joint operating agency. Licensed by ...
, WA Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, OH, Diablo Canyon Power Plant
The Diablo Canyon Power Plant is a nuclear power plant near Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County, California. Since the permanent shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 2013, Diablo Canyon has been the only operational nuclea ...
, CA, Indian Point Energy Center
Indian Point Energy Center (I.P.E.C.) is a three-unit nuclear power plant station located in Buchanan, just south of Peekskill, in Westchester County, New York. It sits on the east bank of the Hudson River, about north of Midtown Manhattan. Th ...
, NY, Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station
Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station (PNPS) is a decommissioned nuclear power plant in Massachusetts in the Manomet section of Plymouth on Cape Cod Bay, south of the tip of Rocky Point and north of Priscilla Beach. Like many similar plants, it was co ...
, MA, and Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant, NH); 13 new reactor combined construction permit and operating license decisions ( Bellefonte Nuclear Generating Station Units 3 and 4, AL, Bell Bend, Callaway Nuclear Generating Station, MO, Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Generating Station
The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant (CCNPP) is a nuclear power plant located on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay near Lusby, Calvert County, Maryland in the Mid-Atlantic United States. It is the only nuclear power plant in the state ...
, MD, Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant, TX, Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station
The Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power plant on the shore of Lake Erie near Monroe, in Frenchtown Charter Township, Michigan on approximately . All units of the plant are operated by the DTE Energy Electric Company and own ...
, MI, Levy County Nuclear Power Plant, FL North Anna Nuclear Generating Station, VA, Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant
The Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant with a single Westinghouse designed pressurized-water nuclear reactor operated by Duke Energy. It was named in honor of W. Shearon Harris, former president of Carolina Power & Ligh ...
, NC, South Texas Nuclear Generating Station, TX, Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station
Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear and gas-fired power plant located on a site two miles east of Homestead, Florida, United States, next to Biscayne National Park located about south of Miami, Florida near the southernmo ...
, FL, Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant
The Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, also known as Plant Vogtle (), is a two-unit nuclear power plant located in Burke County, near Waynesboro, Georgia, in the southeastern United States. It is named after a former Alabama Power and S ...
, GA, and William States Lee III Nuclear Generating Station
The William States Lee III Nuclear Station was a planned two-unit nuclear power plant in Cherokee County, South Carolina. Duke Energy filed the Combined Construction and Operating License (COL) application for the plant on December 13, 2007 t ...
, SC);a construction permit decision (Bellefonte Units 1 and 2); and an operating license decision ( Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station, TN). In addition, the petition asks the NRC to halt proceedings to approve the standardized AP1000 and Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor
The Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) is a passively safe generation III+ reactor design derived from its predecessor, the Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (SBWR) and from the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR). All are designs ...
designs.
The petitioners asked the NRC to supplement its own investigation by establishing an independent commission comparable to that set up in the wake of the less severe 1979 Three Mile Island accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor in Pennsylvania, United States. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979. It is the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclea ...
. The petitioners included Public Citizen
Public Citizen is a non-profit, progressive consumer rights advocacy group and think tank based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a branch in Austin, Texas.
Lobbying efforts
Public Citizen advocates before all three branches of the Unit ...
, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace
San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace (SLOMFP) is a participant in the anti-nuclear movement in California which is depicted in the anti-nuclear documentary film Dark Circle during the early years of protest opposing the Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DC ...
.[
]
Intentionally concealing reports concerning the risks of flooding
Following the Fukushima disaster, the NRC prepared a report in 2011 to examine the risk that dam failures posed on the nation's fleet of nuclear reactors. A redacted version of NRC's report on dam failures was posted on the NRC website on March 6. The original, un-redacted version was leaked to the public.
The un-redacted version which was leaked to the public highlights the threat that flooding poses to nuclear power plants located near large dams and substantiates claims that NRC management has intentionally misled the public for years about the severity of the flooding.
The leaked version of the report concluded that one-third of the U.S. nuclear fleet (34 plants) may face flooding hazards greater than they were designed to withstand. It also shows that NRC management was aware of some aspects of this risk for 15 years and yet it had done nothing to effectively address the problem. Some flooding events are so serious that they could result in a "severe" nuclear accident, up to, and including, a nuclear meltdown.
This criticism is collaborated by two NRC whistleblowers who accused their management of deliberately covering up information concerning the vulnerability of flooding, and of failing to take corrective actions despite being aware of these risks for years. Richard Perkins, a second risk engineer with the NRC and the lead author of the leaked report, filed a complaint with the agency's Inspector General, asserting that NRC staff had improperly redacted information from the public version of his report "to prevent the disclosure of this safety information to the public because it will embarrass the agency." Perkins wrote. "Concurrently, the NRC concealed the information from the public."
Larry Criscione, a second NRC risk engineer also raised concerns about the NRC withholding information concerning the risk of flooding. He stated that assertions by NRC's management that plants are "currently able to mitigate flooding events," was false.
David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer and safety advocate with the Union of Concerned Scientists
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a nonprofit science advocacy organization based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. Anne Kapuscinski, Professor of Environmenta ...
: "The redacted information shows that the NRC is lying to the American public about the safety of U.S. reactors,"
The Oconee Nuclear Station
The Oconee Nuclear Station is a nuclear power station located on Lake Keowee near Seneca, South Carolina, and has a power output capacity of over 2,500 megawatts. It is the second nuclear power station in the United States to have its operat ...
has been shown to be at particular risk from flooding. An NRC letter dated 2009 states that "a Jocassee Dam failure is a credible event" It goes on to state that "NRC staff expressed concerns that Duke has not demonstrated that the ull Oconee Nuclear Station
Ull or ULL may refer to:
University:
* University of La Laguna, a university in Canary Islands, Spain
* University of Louisiana at Lafayette, a research university in the USA
Other:
* Ullr or Ull, a Germanic god
* Ull (Greyhawk), a political sta ...
units will be adequately protected."
NRC's 2011 leaked report notes that "dam failure incidents are common". NRC estimated the odds that dams constructed like Jocassee will fail is about 1 in 3,600 failures per year. Oconee is licensed to operate for another 20 years. The odds of the Jocassee Dam failing over that period are 1 in 180. NRC requires risks to be investigated if they have a frequency of more than 1 in 10,000 years. For a reactor operating over a period of 40 years, these risks must be evaluated if they have a chance greater than a 1 in 250 of occurring.
NRC identified 34 reactors that lie downstream from a total of more than 50 dams. More than half of these dams are roughly the size of the Jocassee dam. Assuming the NRC's failure rate applies to all of these dams, the chance that one will fail over the next 40 years is about one in four or 25 percent chance. This dam failure rate does not include risks posed by earthquakes or terrorism. Thus, the true probability may be much higher.
This raised a second and potentially larger issue. NRC recently completed its license renewal program which extended the operating licenses of the nation's fleet of nuclear reactors for an additional 20 years. NRC stated that the probability of a severe accident is so incredible that the consequences can be dismissed from the analysis of impacts in its relicensing environmental impact statements (EIS). Yet this conflicts with NRC's internal analyses which concluded that flooding presented a serious human and environmental risk. Critics charge that if these relicensing EISs failed to evaluate the risks of flooding, then how can the public be confident that NRC did not mislead stakeholders concerning other risks such as the potential for a nuclear meltdown.
NRC officials stated in June 2011 that US nuclear safety rules do not adequately weigh the risk of a single event that would knock out electricity from the grid and from emergency generators, as a quake and tsunami did in Japan. , and NRC instructed agency staff to move forward with seven of the 12 safety recommendations put forward by a federal task force in July 2011. The recommendations include "new standards aimed at strengthening operators' ability to deal with a complete loss of power, ensuring plants can withstand floods and earthquakes and improving emergency response capabilities". The new safety standards will take up to five years to fully implement.
, Jaczko warned power companies against complacency and said the agency must "push ahead with new rules prompted by the nuclear crisis in Japan, while also resolving long-running issues involving fire protection and a new analysis of earthquake risks".
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has also been criticized for its reluctance to allow for innovation and experimentation, even controlled for and purportedly safe methods of deploying nuclear power that countries such as Poland are approving before the United States. As reported by Reason magazine in May of 2022:
See also
* International Atomic Energy Agency
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 ...
* International Nuclear Regulators' Association The International Nuclear Regulators' Association (INRA) was established in January 1997 and is an association of the most senior officials of the nuclear regulatory authorities of the following countries:
https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/ip/intl-organ ...
* List of canceled nuclear plants in the United States
This is a list of canceled nuclear reactors in the United States.
History
The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a rapid growth in the development of nuclear power in the United States. By 1976, however, many nuclear plant proposals were no longer v ...
* Nuclear power in the United States
Nuclear power in the United States is provided by 92 commercial reactors with a net capacity of 94.7 gigawatts (GW), with 61 pressurized water reactors and 31 boiling water reactors. In 2019, they produced a total of 809.41 terawatt-hours of el ...
* Nuclear renaissance in the United States
* Nuclear safety in the United States
* Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations is one of 50 titles composing the United States Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and contains the principal set of rules and regulations issued by federal agencies regarding nuclear energy. It is availabl ...
* Atomic Safety and Licensing Board
References
External links
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(official website)
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
in the Federal Register
The ''Federal Register'' (FR or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices. It is published every weekday, except on feder ...
NRC public blog
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Policy and Governance Challenges: Joint Hearing before the Subcommittee on Energy and Power and the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session, February 28, 2013
The future of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Technical Report Archive and Image Library (TRAIL)
from technicalreports.org
{{Authority control
Governmental nuclear organizations
Independent agencies of the United States government
Nuclear energy in the United States
Nuclear regulatory organizations
Nuclear history of the United States
1974 establishments in the United States
Government agencies established in 1974
Rockville, Maryland