The regulatory processes following an application for a construction or an operating license involve judges, juries, witnesses, plaintiffs, and the respective counselors and it is important to get the interrelationship of the various bodies into perspective.

* Note: this notation indicates volume percent per day, abbreviated throughout this volume as vol%/day.

6.2.1 Bodies Concerned with Safety for Nuclear Power Plants in the USA

6.2.1.1 Atomic Energy Commission

The AEC is involved at many stages of plant design and licensing through its Division of Reactor Development and Technology and through its Division of Reactor Licensing and the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards.

(a) Division of Reactor Development and Technology (RDT). This divi­sion deals with the technical side of fast reactor technology rather than with licensing. It places contracts for all aspects of safety research with industry and the National Laboratories. It is concerned with the promotion of Nuclear Power. It is also available as an expert witness during licensing.

(b) Division of Reactor Licensing (DRL). This division, which deals with standards, licensing and compliance, checks the safety submission for formal compliance with safety criteria.

(c) Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS). This committee makes the prime decision on the safety of the nuclear power plant. It receives the presentation of the safety evaluation from the applicants and after advice from DRL makes recommendations to the AEC Commissioners.

Fig. 6.2. United States Atomic Energy Commission organization (1971).

in 1971. It has been suggested that in the future the licensing process (DRL) should be separated from the technical promotional side of the AEC work (RDT).

The ACRS is composed of a set of independent non-AEC experts from a very wide range of disciplines. In 1971 they included: a professor of nuclear engineering, a physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a consultant in metallurgy at Battelle Memorial Institute, a consultant in mechanical reactor engineering, a professor of chemical engineering, a consultant in hydraulic engineering and lake biology, the chairman of the board of Crown Central Petroleum Corporation, a senior engineer at Ar — gonne National Laboratory, a consultant in industrial chemistry, a pro­fessor of civil engineering, a consultant in chemical engineering, a physicist at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, a director of the Sanitary Engineering Research and Radiological Research Laboratory, a professor of nuclear engineering, and a senior physicist at Argonne National Laboratory.

The chairman of the committee is changed annually from among the committee members. The 14 members encompass a wide range of talents, and it is clear that such a committee makeup is liable to produce a very balanced outlook of the overall safety of any given nuclear plant under consideration.

Within RDT there is a technical organization led by a director (Milton Shaw for the year 1971) and assistant directors in charge of reactor en­gineering, nuclear safety, project management, reactor technology, plant engineering, program analysis, engineering standards, and army reactors.

Within the nuclear safety department there are groups working on research and development, engineering and tests, analysis and evaluation, and environment and sanitary engineering, although almost all departments have interests within the safety field.

RDT in practice has a dual function. As the technical advisory arm of the AEC, the division will enter the licensing process as the AEC expert advisor and, therefore, the division must keep abreast of technical develop­ments in all the relevant fields. RDT also places contracts for safety research and development with national laboratories and industry and the division is therefore in a position to direct national research and development to a large extent as it administers the available funds. It bears great responsibility for the direction of the LMFBR program.