U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who serves as Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, led an oversight hearing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to discuss updates to the agency’s mission statement and opportunities for greater efficiency.
During the session, Capito questioned NRC commissioners about how they plan to make the revised mission statement actionable and sought input on streamlining reporting requirements. The senator noted that while Congress had required a report from the NRC on updating agency guidance in line with its new mission statement—mandated by the ADVANCE Act—the report was due in July but has not yet been received.
“I want to talk about the mission statement, making it actionable. We’ve all kind of alluded to the fact that the mission statement was realigned for the first time in many, many years, and to achieve its greatest impact, the Commission has to, with the staff, has to rewrite the guidance so that further actions can adhere to the vision that’s outlined in that statement. The ADVANCE Act required the Commission to describe to Congress how it will update agency guidance to reflect the new mission statement. The report was due in July, but we have yet to receive that report. So, what are your observations about how the agency has reflected the spirit of the revised mission statement in its activities to implement the ADVANCE Act, and where do you see us going from here?” Capito asked.
Chairman Wright responded: “The mission statement is something that we work very hard on, especially with colleague here to my left, we worked very hard on that over the holidays last year. And finally, the whole Commission, as you know, adopted it in January. The mission statement outlines exactly what we do as an agency every day. It hits every factor and even with the executive orders that are out there, as I see it right now, it supports the executive orders as well.”
Commissioner Crowell added: “I think the mission statement we’ve worked out on a bipartisan basis was well received by this Committee. I think it reflects the current goals and mission of the agency.”
Capito also raised concerns about regulatory efficiency regarding non-emergency event reporting requirements for licensees—a process she described as burdensome and sometimes redundant.
“Congress passed the ADVANCE Act to direct the NRC to be more efficient in its regulation, we’ve all talked about it, to focus on issues that are most important to safety. Prime example of unnecessary regulations is what is known as ‘non-emergency event reporting,’ which is some-300 issues that require licensees to notify the NRC. There are issues that are subsequently, these are issues that are captured either in oversight activities or reports. So, after more than eight years of work, last summer, the career NRC staff submitted a proposed rule to the commission to eliminate a small subset of those issues. So I’d like to ask each of you, briefly, do you support this straightforward, simple proposal that career NRC inspectors and staff endorsed, and if so, while the rule making proceeds would you support providing a temporary compliance relief for licensees?” she said.
Chairman Wright replied: “My position for a long time has been, that effort to eliminate these requirements is a good example of risk-informing our regulations and improving them. So yes I would support.”
Commissioner Crowell stated: “Yes I think what we can do to reduce burden on our inspectors for doing potentially needless paperwork exercises is a valuable part of our efficiency goals.”
Commissioner Marzano concluded: “There’s definitely room for improvement. I support staff’s work here. In any way that we can ensure that NRC remains situationally aware of what’s going on fleet at any given time—that is a valuable aspect of this type of reporting. But I do support streamlining making process more efficient.”
