Nuclear R&D

Within the next 20 years, licenses will expire for 42 of the 113 nuclear power plants licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). At NRC's request, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences examined the future role of NRC's regulatory research, including research on the aging of nuclear power reactors and the possibility of extending their operating licenses for 20 years beyond the normal 40-year term. The Council issued a report in 1986 containing many recommendations on revitalizing nuclear safety research; only four of these recommendations were directed at research related to license renewal. GAO discusses the (1) actions NRC has taken to implement the Council's recommendations on the need for NRC research on reactor aging to support its license renewal efforts; (2) the research on reactor aging completed by the Department of Energy and the industry in response to the Council's recommendation that research be done to prove that license conditions set by NRC can be met, and whether the results have been provided to NRC; and (3) NRC's plan to refine the estimates of risks (or the probability of accidents) created by extending the life of the present generation of reactors.

GAO found that: (1) NRC did not formally respond to the National Research Council's recommendation that NRC conduct research to allow it to set new design margins and evaluate the adequacy of existing ones, because NRC considered existing design margins to be adequate; (2) DOE and the industry did not initiate any specific research on reactor aging, but funded a number of research projects in preparation for license renewal reviews; (3) DOE and industry submitted ten reports to NRC, which it believed were the basic analyses needed to support any possible license extension; (4) NRC pointed out that it employs selected probablistic risk assessment techniques in the evaluation of individual systems, structures and components and does not base its regulatory decisions on the probability of accidents occurring, but uses the engineering judgments to determine whether or not a plant can operate safely; and (5) NRC has no plans to use the results of its research on reactor aging or of research obtained from other government and industry sources to establish estimates of the risk that may be created if NRC renews a plant's license.