Management Weaknesses Affect Nuclear Regulatory Commission Efforts To Address Safety Issues Common to Nuclear Power Plants

GAO examined the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) efforts to address safety issues common to nuclear power plants and determined if NRC has corrected earlier management weaknesses highlighted in investigation reports of the March 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island (TMI) power plant.

GAO found that NRC, as a result of the earlier identified safety issues, has increased the rate at which it develops regulatory solutions for these issues. This more vigorous pace, however, has been overshadowed by the identification of new issues from the TMI accident and other sources. As a result, a larger backlog of unresolved issues exists now than before the accident. GAO also found that NRC has improved its methods for identifying safety issues and determining their importance to safety. NRC does not, however, have sufficient management controls in place to ensure the timely resolution of issues and implementation of appropriate changes to affected nuclear plants and to NRC regulatory procedures.

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.

Director: Keith O. Fultz Team: General Accounting Office: Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division Phone: (202) 512-3678