Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and John Barrasso (R-WY) sent a letter to the comptroller general at the Government Accountability Office requesting information regarding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s use of requests for additional information.
Inhofe is the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, while Capito chairs the Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety.
“As part of several licensing processes, staff working in the various Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) program offices have the authority to make requests for additional information (RAI),” the Republican senators said in the letter. “RAIs are designed to enable staff to obtain all relevant information needed to make a regulatory decision that is fully informed, technically correct, and legally defensible.”
The letter also says NRC guidance directs the staff, in the case of license amendment requests to limit the scope of RAIs to issues that have a regulatory basis, to avoid issuing RAIs if the information is already available.
According to the senators, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee oversight activities unearthed concerns regarding the excessive use of RAIs resulting in unnecessary increased costs and schedule delays during the late 1990s.
