NRC outsources part of nuclear power plant permitting process

Published 26 September 2007

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects a flood of applications for new nuclear power plants in the United States; to cope with the extra work, agency outsources portions of application review process

Talking of new power plants: Did you know that the Bush administration has outsourced part of the permitting process for federal nuclear power plants? Representative Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) says this is illegal. Markey’s comments follow a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) decision to award a five-year, $34 million contract to San Diego, California-based Information Systems Laboratories to review applications for nuclear-reactor construction. The company says the contract is the largest of four awarded. The NRC yesterday received an application from Princeton, New Jersey-based NRG Energy for two new reactors in Texas, and the agency expetcs a flood of applications from other companies during the next year and half.

Markey said the outsourcing may have violated the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act of 1998, which prohibits outsourcing of “inherently governmental” functions. “It’s clear to me that assuring the safety of nuclear power plants falls well within the definition of an ‘inherently governmental’ function,” he said. “I am therefore alarmed that this contract may violate the law and, as a consequence, result in a danger to public health and safety.” Markey, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and cochair of the Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation, said he had “serious concerns that allowing private contractors to perform such critical analyses could result in conflicts of interest and a degradation of nuclear safety. “If Congress had intended to turn oversight of the extraordinarily sensitive nuclear sector over to private companies, we would not have established the NRC, ” he said. “The responsibility to thoroughly and fairly review applications for nuclear reactor construction is a central duty of the NRC, and I am shocked that they would be willing to farm out such a vital function,” he added. The NRC did not comment.

It’s my understanding that they have not enough personnel to handle the work,” said Bill Gang, the chief operations officer at Information Systems Laboratories. He said that the federal government will “be controlling our work.” The company said in a press release it will be “supporting the NRC activities aimed at ensuring the overall safety and adequacy of nuclear power plant design, construction, and operations.” The company said that under the terms of the contract, it will lead a team of subcontractors to provide assistance to the NRC in a number of areas involving licensing of a pressurized water reactor plant application. The work will include the review of environmental impacts related to plant licensing as well as technical reviews of the applications themselves, it said. Additionally, the company said its team will “review site hazards, radiation protection, materials sciences and fracture mechanics, and other engineering technical areas which cover a broad range of technical skills.”