PUBLIC HEARINGS

Then, turning to charts 7 and 8, these are rather busy charts, but they give you an impression of the hearings that are going on.

They show that virtually ever case that we have in-house is contested, some for shorter periods of time than others, but they are contested and the public hearings are an additional reason why we do have extensive manpower requirements in order to meet these obligations.

In addition to this, I would like to point out some of the things that we have done in order to try to streamline and bring greater efficiency to the regulatory program.

REORGANIZATION OF REGULATION

Chart 9 shows a reorganization which has been put into place. This eliminated seven divisions and replaced them with three principal directorates which you can see there in the middle of the chart, the Licensing Directorate, the Regulatory Standards and Regulatory Operations, and there are other offices in connection with the operations, with other deputy directors shown on the chart.

We believe this has streamlined the process and brought a greater sense of responsibility and authority to the right places.

It has also been designed to do in parallel what used to be done in sequence. When we can do many things in parallel, we find time can be saved.

CHART 10-REGULATORY Management IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS

Development of engineering standards.
Completion of zero-based manpower study.

Preparation of a guide for safety analyses-Environmental reports.

Adoption of restructured rules.

Use of public rulemaking hearings.

Development of a licensing project manager's handbook.

Comparative analysis of the use of analytical techniques.

Study of documentation and reporting requirements in the inspection process.

MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENTS

Chart 10 shows additional areas in which we have been taking steps to improve our efficiency. They are somewhat slower in development than we would like, but progress is being made.

We are doing a number of things here all designed to see whether the way we do it cannot be done better so that we can keep, even though we have the increasing volume, a tight lid on the minimum manpower that we need.

Now, I would like to show you chart 10a and I think this is a chart in which the committee will be extremely interested. It shows that since last appearing before this committee there have been 11 operating licenses issued. Actually this chart is already out of date. Since we made it up a 12th one has been issued in Florida on April 10, so between the last time we were here, at which point we had not issued a license for about 17 months, we have turned the corner and with your support we have been able to issue at this point 12 operating licenses.