Nuclear Safety

The United States and 20 other nations and international organizations have contributed about $1.9 billion to improve the safety of Soviet-designed nuclear reactors; the United States contributed about $545 million of that amount. Nuclear safety experts from 32 countries and international organizations met in 1999 to assess the impact of nuclear safety assistance provided to countries operating Soviet-designed reactors. These experts concluded that progress has been made during the last decade in strengthening nuclear regulatory authorities, improving the operation of nuclear reactors, and establishing safety improvement programs. Nevertheless, they believed that further improvements were needed, particularly to strengthen the independence and effectiveness of nuclear regulatory authorities. Moreover, the extent of safety improvements varies from country to country. Although safety improvements have been made, a major goal of the international donor community has yet to be realized--the permanent shutdown of the highest-risk Soviet-designed reactors. Despite the favorable views of recipients of safety assistance from the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, some U.S. safety program officials have concerns about the management of both agencies' programs.

GAO noted that: (1) the United States and 20 other countries and international organizations contributed about $1.9 billion to improve the safety of Soviet-designed nuclear reactors; (2) the $1.9 billion includes contributions for improving operational safety by providing better training, procedures, and equipment and strengthening regulatory authorities; (3) the U.S. safety program, which provides most of its funding through DOE and NRC, has supplied assistance that includes safety evaluations and reactor upgrades, training, and fire safety equipment; (4) although DOE plans to complete its assistance efforts by 2005 at a projected cost of $709 million, the Commission has not determined when or at what cost it will complete its assistance efforts; (5) nevertheless, the Department of State believes that funding should continue for some time because the highest-risk reactors continue to operate; (6) nuclear safety experts from 32 countries and international organizations met in 1999 to assess the impact of the nuclear safety assistance provided to countries operating Soviet-designed reactors; (7) these experts concluded that progress has been made over the past decade in strengthening nuclear regulatory authorities, improving the operation of the nuclear reactors, and establishing safety improvement programs; (8) nevertheless, the experts maintained that further improvements are needed, particularly to strengthen the independence and effectiveness of nuclear regulatory authorities; (9) while safety improvements have been made, a major goal of the international donor community has not been realized--the permanent shutdown of the highest-risk Soviet-designed reactors; (10) although Ukraine decided to shut down one of its reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1996, the 25 reactors of greatest concern have continued to operate despite the efforts of the donor countries to obtain their closure; (11) many safety experts told GAO that countries will continue to operate these reactors as long as it is in their economic interests to do so; (12) DOE has funded several projects that may have worthwhile objectives but are not directly related to improving the safety of Soviet-designed nuclear reactors; and (13) in addition, DOE has funded several smaller projects or made other expenditures of program funds that some program officials believed were of questionable value in meeting the program's objectives.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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