The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Needs To Aggressively Monitor and Independently Evaluate Nuclear Power Plant Construction

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has a program for inspecting the construction of nuclear power plants and a related program for inspecting firms that supply safety-related components for the power plants. The vendor inspection program was started in 1974 when NRC determined that 63 percent of nuclear power plant construction and operation problems were traceable to vendor errors and that utility companies were not properly inspecting the vendors.