OPENING REMARKS OF NRC CHAIRMAN GREGORY B. JACZKO AT THEINFO

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OPENING REMARKS OF NRC CHAIRMAN GREGORY B. JACZKO AT THEINFORMATION BRIEFING ON THE FUEL CYCLE OVERSIGHT PROGRAMGood morning. We are meeting today to hear an update on efforts to revise the fuel cycle oversight process. The staff’s goal is to develop a new oversight process that is more risk-informed, performance-based, transparent, and predictable, with performance measurements or metrics leveraging the risk insights of the integrated safety analyses. Such an approach would allow the agency to focus its resources on the more risk-significant activities, and would also allow the public to more easily understand the performanceof a particular facility.Since the last Commission briefing in April 2010, the staff has completed a comparison of ISAs and PRAs, developed approaches for cornerstones for fuel cycle facilities, developed aprocess to provide incentives for licensees to maintain effective corrective action programs, and identified conceptual types for a fuel cycle significance determination process.There is currently a paper before the Commission on these matters, and we look forward to learning more today about the staff’s initiatives to revise the fuel cycle process and where theycurrently are, in order to inform the Commission’s decisions.We will hear from two panels today. The first panel will consist of stakeholders from theindustry and public interest groups, and they will be followed by presentations from NRC staff in the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards and Region II.###