§5844 Office of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards

Summary

Creates an Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards inside the Commission and requires the Commission to appoint a Director to lead it. The Director can report directly to the Commission under section 5849 and may be removed by the Commission at any time. The Director handles licensing, regulation, and security for facilities and materials licensed under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, including those that process, transport, or handle nuclear materials. The Director must review safety and safeguards, check and improve accounting systems for special nuclear and other nuclear materials, work with the Administration on contingency plans for threats, thefts, and sabotage involving special nuclear materials, high-level radioactive wastes, and nuclear facilities, and study whether to create an in-office security agency and send a report with recommendations to Congress within one year of this chapter taking effect. The Director also recommends needed research. Nothing here reduces the Administration’s own safeguarding duties.