Safety Rules and Precautions in a Power Plant

By
Steve Malaro

The United States nuclear energy industry leads the world in safety
and experience. There are one hundred and three nuclear power plants in the
country and they all play a key role in providing twenty percent of our
electricity and are the largest source of emission free agency.
The NRC has attempted incremental reform, but the agency must
embark on a comprehensive plan for regulatory reform that recognizes forty
years of safe nuclear plant operation and better focuses on those aspects of
plant operation most directly connected to safety. The NRC also must
established safety standards that are informed by industry experience so that
the agency can focus resources on systems and components that are
important to preserving plant safety. Improvements in reliability and safety
during the past fifteen years indicate that the nuclear energy industry has
acquired great experience from improving plant operations.
There is always need for improvement. Some areas that need to be
improved are regulatory requirements and guidance should be based on
objective standards of plant performance and experience, thereby
eliminating subjunctive and inconsistent interpretations. Another area is
elimination the use of informal regulatory instruments that often result in
utilities complying with NRC staff directives in ways that often exceed
formal NRC regulations. Another improvement they must make is

streamlining its licensing processes. The NRC must be responsive to market

forces that require abrupt action on license transfer requests when a plants
ownership changes or when nuclear plant operators seek to extend the
operating period of their reactors. A competitive market is also called for an
efficient, predictable and timely license renewal process and oversight
procedures.
The NRCs regulatory actions often do not provide enough
added safety benefit to justify the cost of implementation and
enforcement. The NRC must focus its regulatory requirements
on those areas that provide the greatest safety benefit and
reduce unnecessary burden on plant operators. Emphasizing
strict adherence to all NRC requirements, some of which may
not be safety significant, results in an ineffective use of federal
resources at a time when the White House is focusing on
streamlining government.
In response to congressional oversight, the NRC also is altering its
enforcement program so that is spends less resources on level IV violations
those of minimum safety significance. Nuclear plant operators have been
penalized because of a zero defect threshold at a time when industry safety,
reliability and economic performance are at an all time high. The NRC

should keep on revising its enforcement policy to better focus on matters of

importance to maintaining public safety. The agency should particularly
establish a method for identifying minor discrepancies in a non violation
category.
The nuclear energy industry is one of the safest industries in America.
Nuclear energy is the nations biggest source of emission free electricity, and
will continue to be vital to the nations energy portfolio as United States
leaders strive to meet energy and environmental goals that are inextricably
linked.

Bibliography
Nuclear Power Plant Regulation Must Be Safety Focused, Informed by
Experience. Internet Explorer. 26 May 2004.
<http://www.nei.org/doc.asp?docid=152>.
Basic Operating Precautions. Internet Explorer. 26 May 2004,
<http://www.tpub.com/content/construction/14027/css/14027_60.htm>.