NRC releases Project Aim 2020 report

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) released its Project Aim 2020 report detailing a comprehensive look at the agency’s future on Wednesday.
Project Aim is designed to improve the NRC's agility, effectiveness and efficiency while ensuring its ability to protect public health and safety.
The report recommends 17 strategies to prepare the NRC for the future. The report concludes that in order to function more efficiently, the NRC should right-size the agency to retain appropriate skill sets needed to accomplish its mission; streamline agency processes to use resources more wisely; improve timeliness in regulatory decision-making and responding quickly to changing conditions; and promote unity of purpose with clearer agency-wide priorities.
The recommendations are merely a kickoff to the beginning of the NRC’s future positioning, NRC Chairman Stephen Burns said.
“This study gives us a starting point for our commission discussions about how to position the agency for a different environment and different challenges,” Burns said. “We will start that dialogue, but I want to be clear about one thing – in determining the size of this agency in the future we will not take any step that would compromise our mission of protecting the American people and our environment.”
The NRC will examine the Project Aim recommendations in the coming weeks and give staff initial direction on implementing the recommendations.