Re[2]: DOE regulation

[Steven.Rima@DOEGJPO.COM (Steven Rima)]

     Not true! DOE contractors are the "licensees" under the Price-Anderson 
     Amendments Act (PAAA), not the DOE, and are the ones subject to 
     enforcement action and fines. (DOE has levied a number of fines in the 
     last couple of years against contractors, a few of which were quite 
     large. They haven't fined themselves yet. ;-) It's not legal to pass 
     the fine back to the DOE for payment.
     
     Under the present laws that DOE operates under, the DOE is generally 
     NOT liable for compliance! For example, in 10 CFR 835 (DOE's 10 CFR 
     20) it states that "With respect to a particular DOE activity, 
     CONTRACTOR MANAGEMENT shall be responsible for compliance with the 
     requirements of this part." (emphasis mine)
     
     Further, in 10 CFR 820, Appendix A (DOE's PAAA enforcement policy) it 
     states "With regard to the issue of funding, however, DOE does not 
     consider an asserted lack of funding to be a justification for 
     noncompliance with DOE Nuclear Safety Requirements."
     
     Bottom line: DOE funds sites and activities and sets priorities, but 
     the contractor is responsible for compliance, including enforcement 
     actions and fines, even if the noncompliance resulted from a lack of 
     DOE funding. It gets interesting sometimes.... :-)
     
     Steven D. Rima, CHP, CSP
     Manager, Health Physics and Industrial Hygiene
     MACTEC-ERS, LLC
     steven.rima@doegjpo.com


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: RE: DOE regulation
Author:  "William D. Ulicny" <wulicny@atlintl.com> at Internet
Date:    11/17/98 3:44 PM


If I am not mistaken (I very well could be) NRC would regulate the 
"licensee", which would be, I presume, DOE and NOT the contractor.  If DOE 
is the licensee, let them manage their contractors however they want, as 
long as operations are within license conditions and regulations.  DOE will 
have to make business decisions the same as commercial licensees.  The only 
difference is, it is our tax money they are making decisions about, so we, 
as citizens, should make sure that they are in compliance AND making sound 
business judgements.
     
     
William D. Ulicny
     
ATL International, Inc. wulicny@atlintl.com 
20251 Century Blvd.     301-515-6799 (Direct) 
Suite 200       301-972-4430 (Main)
Germantown, MD 20874    301-972-6904 
http://www.atlintl.com
     
The facts expressed here belong to everybody, the opinions to me. The 
distinction is yours to draw...
     
************************************************************************ 
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription 
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html