The Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses, inspects, and enforces regulations for the nuclear industry, including reactors and waste operations. NRC recovers about 90% of its budget by assessing fees for work done at NRC-licensed companies. Since 2017, NRC has altered some of its fee-setting, billing, and budgeting processes in response to previous audits. For example, NRC implemented an electro...

Cyberattacks and natural disasters can pose risks to the electric grid across the country, potentially resulting in blackouts and other disruptions to daily life. Nuclear microreactors are an emerging technology that could help affected areas get back up and running faster. Compact and mobile, fully-assembled microreactors could be transported by rail, truck, or plane to wherever they are needed...

To protect against cyber threats, federal agencies should incorporate key practices in their cybersecurity risk management programs. These key practices include: Designating a cybersecurity risk executive Developing a risk management strategy and policies Assessing cyber risks Coordinating between cybersecurity and enterprise-wide risk management functions All but one of the 23 agencies we r...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has reduced its staff since 2011after expected growth in the nuclear industry did not occur. However, we found that the agency hasn't used certain key practices that could improve how effectively it manages its workforce. Without using these practices, the NRC may not know what the appropriate size and composition of its workforce should be, now or in the future. ...

Power plants in 33 states store nearly 80,000 metric tons of radioactive waste. In 2008, the Department of Energy applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build an underground repository for this waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. In 2010, DOE reversed course and said Yucca Mountain was no longer a workable option. DOE and NRC then took steps such as eliminating funding and vacating NRC's...

In the United States, four light water small modular reactors (SMRs)—nuclear power reactors with a generating capacity of less than 300 MW of electricity—have been developed to the point that the reactor designers have begun discussing design certification and license applications with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and one SMR designer has established time-frames for applications to...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) overall cost estimating procedures incorporate some best practice characteristics identified in the GAO Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide (Cost Guide), but not others, and do not adequately support the creation of reliable cost estimates (see table). For example, while the procedures include the best practice of developing an estimating plan by outlinin...

Since the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Agreement was signed in 2006, the Department of Energy's (DOE) estimated cost for the U.S. portion of ITER has grown by almost $3 billion, and its estimated completion date has slipped by 20 years (see fig.). DOE has identified several reasons for the changes, such as increases in hardware cost estimates as designs and requirements...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) relies on its staff's professional judgment in implementing its processes for overseeing the safety of U.S. commercial nuclear power reactors. In implementing this oversight, NRC allocates specific roles and responsibilities to resident inspectors assigned to each plant, regional officials at one of four regional offices responsible for most oversight activi...

In November 2009, GAO reported on the attributes and challenges of a Yucca Mountain repository. A key attribute identified was that the Department of Energy (DOE) had spent significant resources to carry out design, engineering, and testing activities on the Yucca Mountain site and had completed a license application and submitted it to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has regulatory autho...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) periodically reviews licensees’ decommissioning funds and related licensee data to determine if licensees have provided reasonable assurance that they will accumulate adequate funds for decommissioning. For example, licensees must submit estimates to NRC of decommissioning costs throughout the life of the reactor and submit fund status reports at least...

The nation's commercial nuclear power plants are potential targets for terrorists seeking to cause the release of radioactive material. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), an independent agency headed by five commissioners, is responsible for regulating and overseeing security at the plants. In April 2003, in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, NRC revised the design basi...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspects and licenses nuclear power plants and other civilian uses of radioactive material. It charges licensees to recover the cost of these efforts. In fiscal 2016, for example, it collected about $321 million in related fees. We reviewed NRC's billing process and found it is taking steps to address problems that earlier audits and some licensees identified, su...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's budget increased 59 percent from fiscal year 2005 through 2010 in anticipation of growth in the commercial nuclear industry. When this growth did not occur, NRC began to reduce its budget, with a decrease of 6 percent since 2010. We found that some changes in NRC’s budget, such as how it budgeted for overhead, had the unintended consequence of appearing to in...

How does NRC calculate its fees? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission collects about 90 percent of its budget by charging fees to its licensees and applicants, such as nuclear power plant operators. However, we found that NRC’s fee calculations were complex and not well explained, which made it difficult for industry stakeholders to understand or comment on them. We also found that NRC took some...

The Department of Energy (DOE) achieved goals for two of its four key activities under the President's 2009 initiative to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials within 4 years. Specifically, from April 2009 through December 2013, GAO's analysis of DOE's records found that DOE exceeded its goal for removing or disposing of 1,201 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) or plutonium by more than...

All the nuclear regulatory bodies in the 16 selected countries in GAO's review—13 of which currently operate nuclear power reactors and 3 of which are developing or considering developing civilian nuclear power programs—have taken steps to strengthen nuclear safety in response to the Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan. Japan in particular has fundamentally restructured its nuclear regulatory...

The scope of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) license renewal process focuses on managing the effects of aging on a reactor and its associated systems, structures, and components (i.e. safety) and assessing certain potential environmental impacts of extending a reactor's operating-life. As a result, reviews done as part of this process are not required to address as many topics as reviews...

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are collectively responsible for providing radiological emergency preparedness oversight and guidance to commercial nuclear power plant licensees and local and state authorities around the plants. In general, NRC is responsible for overseeing licensees' emergency preparedness at the plant (on-site), and...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), together with plant operators, has made progress in resolving three fire safety issues raised in GAO's 2008 report by implementing GAO's recommendations or taking other actions. NRC implemented the recommendation on multiple spurious operations (malfunctions caused by fire that could cause safety-related equipment to malfunction) by issuing new guidance or...

The amount of spent fuel stored on-site at commercial nuclear reactors will continue to accumulate—increasing by about 2,000 metric tons per year and likely more than doubling to about 140,000 metric tons—before it can be moved off-site, because storage or disposal facilities may take decades to develop. In examining centralized storage or permanent disposal options, GAO found that new f...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and companies licensed to operate nuclear power reactors (or licensees) apply probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) to natural hazards at operating U.S. nuclear reactors to a limited extent. When the 104 operating reactors were originally licensed before 1997, NRC required licensees to assess natural hazards using deterministic analysis, which—informed by hi...