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NRC Seal NRC NEWS
U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov

No. 98-67

May 11, 1998


NRC PUBLISHES REVISION OF ENFORCEMENT POLICY

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published, and is taking public comments on, a new revision of its Enforcement Policy, based on the NRC staff's experience since the policy was comprehensively revised nearly three years ago.

The newest version does not change the central thrust of the June 1995 revision, which resulted from a major re-examination of the NRC's enforcement program by a team of senior managers.

As a result of that study, the Enforcement Policy was amended to emphasize the importance of licensees identifying problems before they happen and promptly correcting them once they are found. It also focused on licensees' current performance and directed NRC attention to licensees which had multiple enforcement actions in a relatively short time.

Since the adoption of the revised policy in 1995, the Commission has received public comments on it. Also since then, the NRC staff, with Commission approval, has made 10 further changes, many of them editorial corrections and language clarification.

The civil penalty schedule was adjusted to reflect more accurately risks of various violations and to treat more equitably large and small licensees. The policy was further amended to deal with instances when nuclear power plant licensees violate commitments made in the plant safety analysis report.

The new, comprehensive Enforcement Policy revision--together with supplementary information and background--will be published shortly in the Federal Register and will be available for inspection and copying for a fee at the NRC Public Document Room, 2120 L Street, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

Persons who wish to comment on it may submit written comments to David L. Meyer, Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, Mail Stop T6D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Comments may be hand-delivered between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays to 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md. Comments will be accepted for 45 days after Federal Register publication.

A summary of the staff's review of the revised Enforcement policy, conducted between July 1995 and July 1997, has been published as NUREG-1622, NRC Enforcement Policy Review. It is also available at the NRC Public Document Room and may be purchased from the Government Printing Office.