Nuclear Regulation

Stricter Controls Needed for Radioactive Byproduct Material Licenses Gao ID: RCED-89-15 October 12, 1988

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) licensing, inspection, and enforcement program for the use of radioactive materials.

GAO found that NRC usually did not: (1) verify license application information; (2) visit facilities before granting licenses; (3) have specific, detailed criteria for its license reviewers to determine when a denial was warranted; or (4) ensure that applicants and licensees could pay to clean up facilities contaminated by spills or releases of radioactive material. GAO also found that NRC: (1) sometimes took over a year to renew licenses, possibly allowing licensees to operate in an unsafe manner; (2) did not have specific criteria directing the use of financial penalties against licensees who repeatedly violated training, radiation monitoring, and recordkeeping regulations; and (3) has been slow to establish a certification program for industrial radiographers.

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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