ML20149M138

Forwards Article from Courant Written by M Remez & M Mcintire Re Oversight of Millstone & Other Nuclear Power Plants

ML20149M138
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Site:	Millstone
Issue date:	11/28/1996
From:	Blanch P AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
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NUDOCS 9612120335
Download: ML20149M138 (2)

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! From: PAUL BLANCH <PMBLANCHeix.netcom.com>

l To: WND2.WNP3(jaz),TWDl.TWP4(gam,wjs)

Date: 11/28/96 8:19am

Subject:

GO TO CHURCH & SAY YOUR PRAYERS l Nuclear regulatory panel on verge of major overhaul By MICHAEL REMEZ and MIKE McINTIRE This story ran in the Courant November 28, 1996 Struggling to reform an agency beset by criticism of its oversight of Millstone and other nuclear power plants, the nation's top nuclear regulator plans to announce a sweeping reorganization next week.

A notice went out Wednesday that Chairwoman Shirley A. Jackson would address the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's 3,200 employees at 1:30 p.m.

Monday, preceding a press conference at the agency's Rockville, Md.,

headquarters. Few details were released.

It's a major reorganization,' said William Beecher, the agency's director of communications.

Since being appointed chairwoman in July 1995, Jackson has been working to restore credibility to an agency long seen by many as too closely tied to the industry it regulates. Those criticisms escalated during the past year, as revelations of mismanagement and poor regulatory oversight at Northeast Utilities' three Millstone plants sparked a nationwide review of how the agency does its job.

An agency task force recently concluded that agency staff mishandled safety complaints at the Millstone plants, viewed whistleblowers as a burden and were generally unqualified to respond to the management issues at the heart of many of NU's problems.

The Millstone plants have been shut down since March and the agency added them to its watch list of troubled plants. In so doing, the agency cited years of mant.gement and safety problems, aggravated by its own failure to enforce its regulations and by overlooking serious problems.

Jackson has signaled her intention to shake up the old way of doing things. In an Oct. 17 speech to agency employees entitled Adjusting the Regulatory Balance, she implored the staff to derive lessons from their experience at Millstone.

An event like Millstone quite obviously suggests the need for change -

change in the industry and change at the NRC, and we should welcome the opportunity that Millstone affords to correct and improve our performance,

Jackson said.

Any organization must change over time, and in response to challenges 9612120335 961210 PDR ORG NRRA PDR

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of the moment. We are, in effect, learning as we go, and Millstone provides a timely lesson.'

Jackson gave some hints of changes to come during a speech to the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations in Atlanta on Nov.7.

There, she told plant operators that the commission had concluded preliminarily that it needs to be more flexible in assigning staff to inspect and monitor the nation's 100 nuclear plants; reassess how it judges plant performance; increase public involvement in nuclear safety oversight; refocus enforcement efforts toward the most serious safety issues; and learn lessons from other, better-run regulatory agencies.

To that end, Jackson has made several high level staff changes this year, including the transfer of the former top administrator for the northeast region to a lower-level job at headquarters. She has also scaled  !

back the practice of

enforcement discretion, the process whereby regulators in the past sometimes decided not to pursue sanctions against a utility that was found to be violating regulatibns.

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