Just two days after officially completing the reorganization of its nuclear materials office, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday announced it had combined two offices that provide oversight for nuclear power reactors.
As of Sunday, the federal agency has merged its Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation with its Office of New Reactors. The new branch, still called the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, “will improve internal coordination, better balance the staff’s workload, and provide greater flexibility to respond to evolving issues at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants,” according to a press release.
Among the responsibilities of the office: licensing of new and operational power reactors, licensing of advanced reactor technologies, regulatory oversight of reactors, incident response for power plants, and managing updates to regulations for reactors.
The operation will be directed by Ho Nieh, who headed the previous iteration of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. He will have three deputies: Mirela Gavrilas, for reactor safety programs and mission support starting in December; Andrea Veil, for engineering programs and mission support starting in December; and Robert Taylor, for new reactors.
The NRC on Sunday also formalized changes to its Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS), including combining its Division of Fuel Cycle Safety, Safeguards, and Environmental Review and Division of Spent Fuel Management into a single Division of Fuel Management. “Centers of Excellence” on financial and environmental issues have also been established within NMSS.
In a report filed in May, NRC staff said the changes to NMSS “will lead to resource savings and anticipated efficiencies in workload distribution, collaboration, knowledge transfer, agility of critical skill sets, decision-making, and cross-office standardization,” according to an Oct. 10 letter from the agency to state and tribal officials. That report has not been made public.
