Facility relocation: NRC based its decision to move its technical training center on perceived benefits--not costs: report to the Chairman

Original publisher: Washington, D.C. : The Office, [2000] OCLC Number: (OCoLC)47248484 Subject: Employee training facilities -- Tennessee -- Chattanooga. Excerpt: ... of time. According to the Commissioner, a university-type approach would allow the staff time to think about and better understand the training they receive. Most of NRC's Commissioners and many senior managers believe that if the Using Simulators to Center were in Rockville, the agency would use the simulators more Investigate Technical Issues frequently to investigate technical issues related to commercial nuclear Will Be Limited power plants. However, the Center's staff and one Commissioner told us that using the simulators in this manner would be limited because their design impedes these types of analyses. In its decisionmaking documents, NRC said that if it relocated the Center to Rockville, the agency's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation could use the simulators to model events at nuclear power plants, such as the rupture of the steam generator tube at the Indian Point 2 plant in New York, and to assist in the staff's review of license amendment applications submitted by utilities for NRC's approval. The document also noted that the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research could use the simulators for research on such technical issues as digital instrumentation and control, accident scenarios, and risk analysis. In another document, NRC's Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards said that it would use the simulators to train those staff who participate in emergency response activities. NRC's use of the simulators for other regulatory activities has been limited. For example, the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation asked the Center to conduct accident scenario simulations and to evaluate the effectiveness and acceptability of nuclear power plant operators'actions to the changes in emergency procedures proposed by a utility group. In addition, NRC's Office of Nuclear Regulatory Resea...