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	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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No. 98-231

December 29, 1998

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has streamlined its organizational structure to increase its effectiveness, achieve savings and improve its ratio of supervisors to staff. As a result of these changes and anticipated retirements in the coming weeks, NRC will eliminate 25 senior executive staff positions, trimming its ranks from 199 to 174, or about 12 percent.

The reorganization eliminates the Office for Analysis and Evaluation of Operational Data by consolidating its functions into other existing offices. The plan makes the following changes:

--The Office of the Executive Director for Operations will assume responsibility for incident response, ensuring that NRC is prepared to respond appropriately as the lead federal agency to reactor, fuel cycle facility, and nuclear materials emergencies involving NRC and agreement state licensees. This responsibility also includes support of federal responses to other significant radiological events, and investigations of safety significant events at licensed facilities. This office also will be responsible for the NRC Committee to Review Generic Requirements, which screens proposed new rules and other significant regulatory changes affecting licensees.

--The Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research will assume responsibility for the analysis and evaluation of nuclear power plant performance data and use of nuclear materials. Included are all event assessment activities, support for the agency's licensee performance assessment program, the performance indicator program, the program for reporting abnormal occurrences, the accident precursor program, system reliability studies, studies of initiating events, the common-cause failure database, and the nuclear materials events database.

--The Office of Human Resources will assume responsibility for technical training of NRC staff and overseeing operations of the Technical Training Center in Chattanooga, TN., where nuclear power plant simulators are used to train NRC personnel.

--The Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR), will assume responsibility for reviewing licensee event reports on operating events, oversight of the NRC backfit program and all reactor-related rulemaking.

In concert with these organizational changes, NRR will be structured with five divisions, instead of the current seven, consisting of approximately 61 managers reporting to two Associate Directors. This is intended to establish clear lines of responsibility and accountability in aligning the office with the major program areas.

The Associate Director for Project Licensing and Technical Analysis will be the program manager for reactor licensing and responsible for project management, engineering analysis, and systems analysis. The Associate Director for Inspection and Programs will be responsible for all headquarters inspection-related functions and specialized programs with a new Enforcement Coordinator reporting directly to the associate director to ensure effective oversight.

The Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards also has reorganized slightly to achieve efficiencies.

Documents concerning the reorganizations (SECY-98-228, COMSECY 98-31 and associated Staff Requirements Memoranda) are available on the NRC Internet homepage at http://www.nrc.gov under the heading "Commission's Activities."