Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Kristine Svinicki said Tuesday the agency needs to be honest with itself as it works through Project Aim 2020 and avoid using euphemisms and pulling punches.
Initiated in 2014, Project Aim is NRC’s attempt to re-evaluate and reduce its staffing and workload to become a more efficient organization. The project includes reducing staff from 3,674 to 3,552 full-time employees by the end of 2016 and an even smaller target in 2020. Spokeswoman Maureen Conley said Thursday that the agency is on target to meet that goal. Svinicki, during a project update at NRC headquarters Tuesday, noted the common use of the term “rightsizing” when discussing staff reductions.
“I’m surprised I’ve lasted as long as I have in Washington because I’m just not a fan of euphemisms,” Svinicki said. “I think what we need is to speak really honestly and respect each other. I know we’ve always called this ‘rightsizing,’ but very early on we acknowledged that we had prepared and staffed for an amount of work that didn’t materialize. I don’t like using euphemistic terms like that. … Let’s not pull our punches with each other.”
Following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the agency grew significantly to increase its security and safety response capability for incidents at nuclear plants, as well as to prepare for expected growth in the U.S. nuclear industry. The projected growth, however, did not occur, as the industry actually headed in the opposite direction with numerous unplanned closures.
Svinicki said she agreed with an assessment from Victor McCree, NRC’s executive director for operations, who suggested taking the mindset established by Project Aim and using it as an ongoing evaluation for future agency efficiency and productivity. As part of Project Aim, staff provided a list of 150 activities that could be shed, deprioritized, or completed with fewer resources. Only 29 of those were included in the NRC’s proposed fiscal 2017 budget.
During the hearing, acting Chief Information Officer Fred Brown updated the commissioners on the progress of program activities. Two items, he said, still need to be addressed: security clearances and fitness for duty testing for NRC employees. Recommendations on those items are expected in a policy paper on April 6.
Brown said completion of the evaluation for regional corporate support functions is three weeks behind the original May 9 deadline. NRC is determining whether corporate support functions, such as contract support and human resource programs, can be standardized or centralized regionally to reduce overhead costs.
“The potential three-week delay was closely scrutinized and only approved by the steering committee after weighing the benefit of deliberation and coordination on the working group’s recommendations,” Brown said.
