§5844 Office of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards

Summary

Creates an Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards inside the Commission. A Director, picked by the Commission, will lead the Office, report to the Commission, and can be removed by the Commission. The Director must do the tasks the Commission gives, including leading licensing and regulation of facilities and materials licensed under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 that involve processing, moving, or handling nuclear materials, and keeping safeguards against threats, thefts, and sabotage. The Director must review safety and security, including checking and improving accounting systems, working with the Administration on contingency plans for threats to special nuclear materials, high‑level radioactive wastes, and nuclear facilities, and studying whether to create a security unit inside the Office with a report and recommendations to Congress within one year. The Director also recommends research to help the Commission. This does not reduce the Administration’s own safeguarding duties.