Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
1/24/2014
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Inspector General determined that the Commission’s process for addressing bankruptcy of NRC materials licensees needs improvement, according to a report released this week. The report concluded that the NRC’s initial efforts to learn of bankrupt licensees could be more effective and more efficient. “NRC’s methods for discovering bankrupt materials licensees are not as effective or efficient as they could be,” the IG report said. “NRC is aware that the majority of materials licensees do not self-report their bankruptcies as required. As such, NRC relies on other activities it has in place to help identify bankrupt licensees. Because these activities were established for reasons other than identifying bankrupt licensees, NRC does not obtain all the information it needs in a timely manner and there is some confusion regarding staff members’ roles, often causing duplication of their efforts.” The risk for nuclear materials to harm the public increases when the NRC does not know about licensee bankruptcies, so this effort needs to improve, the report concluded.
Currently, the NRC learns about bankruptcies from three sources: the fee collection process, materials inspection, and the Department of Justice bankruptcy listings. Both the fee collection process and materials inspection happen over the course of a year so the NRC may not find out about bankruptcy through these channels in a timely manner, the IG said, and the DOJ listings do not include many medical and academic organizations that the NRC licenses. The IG report estimated that the NRC receives information on less than 1 out of 20 bankruptcies occurring across the nation monthly, and the information it does receive from DOJ has to be checked through internet sources by NRC staff as to whether or not the bankrupt companies are NRC licensees.
The report goes on to suggest that an agency-wide guidance would help focus efforts to finding out about bankruptcies in a more timely manner as well as prevent staff from duplicating efforts. “For example, NRC’s current bankruptcy-related guidance does not provide staff with explicit directions on who should review bankruptcy information or how the review should be conducted for identifying NRC bankrupt materials licensees,” the report said. “Establishing agency wide guidance would assist in avoiding unnecessary duplication of effort.” The report also said that establishing a “comprehensive source/s of bankrupt entities” would go a long way in aiding the NRC’s efforts to learn about bankruptcies more quickly.
The NRC will take the recommendations under consideration, according to a NRC spokesman. “The NRC staff is pleased that the IG recognized how well the process works when NRC becomes aware of a licensee declaring bankruptcy, and the IG correctly recognizes the longstanding challenge the staff faces in discovering when licensees violate the regulatory requirements by failing to notify the NRC of a bankruptcy filing,” NRC spokesman Maureen Conley said. “As the report notes, there is no one avenue for learning of licensees’ bankruptcy filings. We believe the existing process identifies the majority of bankrupt licensees, but will consider the IG’s recommendations for possible enhancements.”
