WASHINGTON, DC - Concerned with two upcoming regulatory decisions, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and House Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY) today sent a letter to Stephen Burns, Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The leaders are worried that NRC staff are using “qualitative factors" when developing cost-benefit analysis for two pending regulatory decisions: “Proposed Mitigation of Beyond-Design-Basis Events" and “Evaluation of Containment Protection and Release Reduction for Mark I and Mark II Boiling Water Reactors Rulemaking Activities."
Recent inquiries by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office and NRC Inspector General have shown that the agency’s credibility comes into question when it bases its regulations on flawed cost-benefit analyses. Upton and Whitfield write, “GAO found that NRC relied on inaccurate cost estimating procedures that misinformed NRC’s regulatory analysis and recommended NRC align its procedures with relevant cost estimating best practices."
The leaders continued, “This disregard for commission direction opens the door for unfettered and unrestrained staff justification that contradict NRC’s rulemaking proces. … These actions could undermine the commission’s credibility as a fair and thorough regulator. We encourage the commission to carefully consider the extent that staff proposals rely on qualitative factors to justify the backfit rule."
