March, 2012

Every once in awhile, one of our public meetings will outgrow its original location and we have to find a different venue. This sort of situation gets more complicated when there’s not much time to find a new location, and that’s what happened with our...

As you would expect, the NRC employs technical staff in various engineering and science fields, from materials engineering to hydrology. We frequently recruit at colleges and universities to publicize our opportunities and find talented students who can...

What caused the cracks in the shield building at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant and what needs to be done to ensure the building’s long-term safety? The NRC’s current inspection is focused on making sure we are satisfied with FirstEnergy’s answers to these...

Once again, we are looking to hear from the public about proposed changes to our fee rule. The agency is required by law to recover approximately 90 percent of our budget through fees to licensees and applicants. To accomplish this, each year we publish...

Staff members from the NRC’s Office of New Reactors (NRO) and other agency employees got a first hand and up-close look at the future during the recently held IT Shadow Day. What they happily learned is that if the participating students are any indication...

Yesterday, NRC announced it was sending a team of additional inspectors to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station to more fully understand why steam generator tubes are failing a pressure test. The tubes were isolated to Unit 3, which was safely shutdown...

The NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board plays a very important part in the agency’s consideration of requests for licenses to build and operate new facilities. The Board’s administrative law judges conduct independent hearings to consider arguments...

In order to ensure nuclear power plants in the U.S. are safe, we continually inspect them and rate their performance. If a plant’s performance declines, we increase our inspections and oversight to make sure the plant operator corrects the situation....

It is hard to believe that one year has passed since the tragedy in Japan on Friday, March 11, 2011. The actual earthquake and ensuing tsunami occurred in the middle of the night in this time zone, and the first call I received was early Friday morning...

Anticipating the public’s need to understand what’s going on at the Palisades nuclear plant, the NRC held a public meeting in South Haven, Michigan, on February 29, to provide members of the public with a forum to discuss the decline in the plant’s performance...

Among the many interesting and challenging jobs at the NRC is that of an Instrumentation and Controls (I&C) engineer. I&C systems are important because they monitor all aspects of the plant, make adjustments to the plant’s protection and control...

He’s got a list of accomplishments as long as your arm – a fellow in four nuclear, science and engineering organizations, a PhD in nuclear engineering, an NRC Meritorious Service Award and an appointment as a Colonel in the Maryland Defense Force’s 121st...