Press Release-99-071, NRC Plans Public Meeting on PERFORMANCE-BASED Approaches to Regulation
| ML003709396 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 04/09/1999 |
| From: | Office of Public Affairs |
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| Category:Press Release | |
| References | |
| Press Release-99-071 | |
| Download: ML003709396 (2) | |
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United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Public Affairs Washington, DC 20555 Phone 301-415-8200 Fax 301-415-2234 Internet:opa@nrc.gov No. 99-71 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Friday, April 9, 1999)
NRC PLANS PUBLIC MEETING ON PERFORMANCE-BASED APPROACHES TO REGULATION The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a public meeting Wednesday, April 14 in Rockville, Maryland, to seek comments on performance-based approaches to regulation.
At the meeting, panel members from organizations such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, Public Citizen, Scientech, and the Nuclear Energy Institute, will present their views on issues related to the meeting topic. Representatives from NRC technical program offices also will participate. There will be opportunity for attendees to ask questions and comment.
With a performance-based approach, regulators monitor data from several key areas important to safety. These areas include, among others, certain initiating events which could lead to more serious problems; the integrity of barriers to contain radioactivity; and emergency preparedness.
Through this emphasis on key indicators, the focus is on the most important safety issues, and less on prescriptive regulations which are sometimes subjective. The goal is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the regulatory process.
Some of the questions to be addressed at the April 14 meeting, are:
ÿ Can a performance-based approach provide a cost-effective way to address regulations in areas such as quality assurance, security, and fitness for duty?
ÿ How can performance-based approaches address non-reactor areas such as licensing of radioactive materials and radiation devices?
ÿ Are there sufficient methods, tools, and data in the NRC/licensee community to apply performance-based approaches effectively?
ÿ Are there additional areas where performance information could be used to support rule changes?
The meeting will be held from 9:00 a.m. until noon in the auditorium of the agencys Two White Flint North building, at 11545 Rockville Pike. The entire agenda and background information are available on the internet, at http://techconf.llnl.gov/cgi-bin/topics (scroll to the bottom of the page) where an electrical conference on performance-based approaches is in progress.