Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

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b. By legislation, existing DOE reactors are exempt from NRC
licensing; however, DOE policy states that nuclear
facilities will meet standards, guides, and codes that are
applied to comparable licensed facilities. Exceptions are
granted only when the proposed alternative is judged by DOE
to provide equivalent or better protection, or when the NRC
requirement is clearly not applicable.
c. All DOE reactors did meet all NRC, or its predecessor
agency, safety standards when they were built; however, not
all DOE reactors could meet all NRC safety standards now.
The majority of DOE reactors were designed and built over
25 years ago, and many current NRC standards did not exist
at that time. Backfitting at DOE facilities, where
practical, has been performed to minimize the differences
between earlier and later plants. The DOE nuclear
facilities are continually being upgraded to meet the
intent of new and revised standards and lessons learned
from accidents and incidents such as TMI-II, the Browns
Ferry fire, etc.