Applicants who propose to build and operate nuclear reactors are re­quired to include in their applications all technical information required to support the application. For instance, the application must include a safety analysis containing the technical information required for an evaluation of: the safety of the proposed activities, including the suitability of the site; the design of the proposed facility and all its appurtenances; reactor performance specifications and plan of normal operation; a detailed description of the op­erating organization and plans for quality control to be exercised during fabri­cation and construction; and the safeguards to be engineered into the facility to prevent the occurrence of accidents and to minimize the consequences of any accident which might occur.

Thus, the safety analysis must include: a description of the nuclear proc­esses to be performed; a description of the design of the facility pertinent to nuclear safety; the meteorological, hydrological, geological, seismological, and other data pertinent to an evaluation of the suitability of the site for the pro­posed facility; a description of the proposed operating procedures; and a de­scription of the emergency plans which would be observed in the event of an accident.

In addition, the safety analysis includes an accident analysis in which the applicant must postulate all credible accidents which could result in the re­lease of radioactivity to the environment. The application must contain infor­mation demonstrating that adequate safeguards have been engineered into the facility to prevent the occurrence of such accidents and must also demonstrate that even in the unlikely event such an accident occurs despite the engineered safeguards, there will be adequate protection for the general public. The re­
quired safety analyses are so detailed that they often consume several pounds of paper.

All information contained in the application and all correspondence be­tween the aec and the applicant, including additional information requested by aec, is placed in the aec’s Public Document Room in Washington where it may be examined by any interested member of the public.

Each application for a permit to construct a nuclear reactor is meticu­lously reviewed by the technical specialists in the aec’s regulatory staff and independently by the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. The acrs is an independent committee established in 1957 by Congress to advise the aec on matters of reactor safety. It is composed of scientists and engineers who are specialists in the various disciplines important to reactor safety.

The reports of the acrs and the technical analyses of the safety considera­tions relevant to a proposed reactor prepared by the aec’s regulatory staff are made public before the hearing on the construction permit application.

Next, an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is appointed to conduct a public hearing held on each application to construct a power reactor. The Board consists of two members who are technically qualified, and one of whom is experienced in the conduct of administrative proceedings. Due notice must be given to state and local officials in the area of proposed construction, who are afforded the opportunity to offer evidence, interrogate witnesses, and advise the aec as to the application without having to take a position for or against the granting of an application, although they may do so if they wish. Any affected person who wishes to express his views on the proposed plant may make an appearance and present his case. For his convenience the Board is required to hold its hearing in the vicinity of the proposed nuclear facility. The only thing asked of the witness is that he confine his evidence to the issues over which the aec has jurisdiction.

The Board has the responsibility of assuring that a complete review has taken place and that the health and safety of the public is fully protected. The decision of the Board is subject to review by the aec upon its own initiative or upon petition by a party to the proceeding. Recently, an Atomic Safety and Licensing Appeal Board was established by the aec to take responsibility for certain licensing proceedings. Like acrs, the aslab is composed of experts who, though compensated for their services by aec, are not, except in rela­tively few instances, government employees, but for the most part are inde­pendent experts acting in their capacity as consultants.

Before a construction permit is issued, the aec must first find that: there is reasonable assurance that the applicant will comply with the aec’s regula­tions; the health and safety of the public will not be endangered; the applicant is technically and financially qualified to engage in the proposed activities; and the issuance of the license will not be inimical to the common defense and se­curity or to the health and safety of the public.

All permits contain such terms and conditions, in addition to those gen­erally prescribed in the Atomic Energy Act and the aec’s regulations, as the aec considers necessary to protect health and safety. And permits are subject to amendment, revision, or modification by reasons of amendments to the Act or such further regulations or orders as the aec considers appropriate to pro­tect health and safety.

All steps to this point are required to get permission to construct a nuclear power reactor. At this point, about 1 and Vz years’ effort has been expended on the application by the aec regulatory staff and acrs, the licensing board, and possibly the aslab or the commissioners themselves. During the time the applicant has supplemented his original application several times in the form of responses to questions and clarification on points which may have arisen. The review has been extensive and intensive, drawing on a pool of highly skilled, multi-disciplinary personnel available nowhere else in the world, let alone in the country. A few of the kinds of scientists and engineers involved were physicists, chemists, nuclear engineers, mechanical engineers, civil en­gineers, metallurgists, health physicists, meteorologists, seismologists, geol­ogists, ecologists, hydrologists, and more. Today is a time of specialization. One needs not just chemists, but organic chemists, inorganic chemists, physical chemists, and radiochemists. One needs physicists, nuclear physicists, and so on. There is much that is known in these fields — and it all must be pulled to­gether into a cohesive, scientific judgment that A equals В or A does not equal B.

But what I have described so far is just the beginning. As construction proceeds, the aec’s Division of Compliance inspects constantly to assure that requirements of the construction permit are being met. During this period the applicant is submitting to the regulatory staff more and more details on its facility, including plans for operation and procedures for coping with emer­gency situations, and pertinent details on the final design of the reactor itself — such as containment design, nuclear core design, and waste disposal systems. Once again the Division of Licensing and Regulation makes detailed reviews of the information and presents an analysis of it to the acrs. Then the acrs re­ports, and its report is again made public.

Only after the acrs and the aec regulatory staff have completed all their preoperational safety reviews does the aec, at its discretion, issue a license for the reactor actually to operate. The aec may on its own motion, and it must upon the request of any affected person, schedule another public hearing be­fore final action on the operating license. If a license is issued, it may be made provisional for an initial period, at the end of which another review is made to determine conditions for the full term license.

Further, no individual may be the operator of a power reactor unless he is licensed to do so by the aec. Operators must pass an examination which in­cludes an operating test and a written examination on their knowledge of spe­cific details of the facility and the procedures used in its operation.

In summary then, the aec, pursuant to requirements of statute and imple­menting regulations, conducts a detailed examination of the multitudinous factors which affect the ultimate question of whether a particular reactor can be constructed and operated at a particular site within the standards and guides established by the United States government for the health and safety of the American public. These carefully meticulous aec procedures and the license which may be issued pursuant to them were arrived at following the expen­diture of hundreds of millions of dollars on biology, medicine, and reactor safety research and development. This matter does not end with the issuance of a license. The licensee remains subject to aec rules and regulations, and continuing inspection and reviews are made throughout the life of the reactor.

If ever conditions or circumstances are found which may be questionable, the aec has ample authority to shut down the reactor and order any and all safety measures which may be necessary.