Dr. Marcus' Room No. 11

11. U.S. Organizations Active on Nuclear Issues(Part I: Government Agencies,Professional Societies and Industry Organizations)
Gail H. Marcus, Consultant, USA

Profile (January 2008)
Dr. Gail H. Marcus is presently an independent consultant on nuclear power technology and policy.
She recently completed a three-year term as Deputy Director-General of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency(NEA) in Paris. In this position, she was responsible for the program of work and budget for the agency.
From 1999 through 2004, Dr. Marcus served as Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Nuclear Energy,
Science and Technology. There she provided technical leadership for DOE’s nuclear energy programs
and facilities, including the development of next-generation nuclear power systems. Other responsibilities included production and distribution of isotopes for medical treatment, diagnosis andresearch, and oversight of DOE test and research reactors and related facilities and activities.
From 1998-1999, Dr. Marcus spent a year in Japan as Visiting Professor in the Research Laboratory
for Nuclear Reactors, Tokyo Institute of Technology. She conducted research on comparative nuclear
regulatory policy in Japan and the United States.
Previously, Dr. Marcus had been in the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). She served in a varietyof positions including Deputy Executive Director of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards/Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste; Director of Project Directorate III-3, providing
regulatory oversight of seven nuclear power plants in the Midwest; and Director of the Advanced
Reactors Project Directorate, where she was responsible for technical reviews of advanced reactor
designs.
She also served as technical assistant to Commissioner Kenneth Rogers at the NRC for over four years,
providing advice and recommendations on a broad range of technical and policy issues of interest tothe Commission. From this position she was detailed for five months to Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry, where she was NRC’s first assignee to Japan, studying Japan’s
licensing of the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor.
Prior to her service at NRC, Dr. Marcus was Assistant Chief of the Science Policy Research Divisionat the Congressional Research Service (1980-1985). In this position, she was responsible for policy
analysis in support of Congress covering all fields of science and technology, and played a lead rolein policy analysis and development for energy, nuclear power, and risk assessment and management.

Organization:
From 2001-2002, Dr. Marcus served as President of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), an 11,000 member
professional society. She is a Fellow of the ANS and of the American Association for the Advancementof Science (AAAS). She is a former member of the National Research Council Committee on the Future
Needs of Nuclear Engineering Education, and served three terms on the MIT Corporation Visiting
Committee for the Nuclear Engineering Department. She is just completing a term as the elected Chairof the Engineering Section of AAAS.
Publication:
Dr. Marcus has authored numerous technical papers and publications. Her research interests include
nuclear regulatory policy, energy technology and policy, risk assessment and management, international nuclear policy, and advanced nuclear technologies.
Education:
Dr. Marcus has an S.B. and S.M. in Physics, and an Sc.D. in Nuclear Engineering from MIT. She is thefirst woman to earn a doctorate in nuclear engineering in the United States.

1

Copyright © JAPAN NUS CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved

Dr. Marcus' Room No. 11

One of my readers in Japan has pointed out to methat my personal blog occasionally refers to organizations whose purpose and activities may not bewell known to all readers, especially those outside
the United States. She thought it might be useful
to talk about these and other such groups. I am
therefore going to use my final two essays of thisseries to try to provide a brief tutorial on organizations in the United States that are either heavily
involved with nuclear power activities, or that havea broader mission, but contribute significantly tothe nuclear dialogue.
I should say at the outset that the essay will notcover every single organization that deals with
nuclear issues and it will not cover organizations
outside the United States. I’m afraid all of thatmight take a book! There are far too many organizations to cover, and however many I try to include,
there will always be some I forget about, or am
unaware of, or that come and go over time, or thatchange missions and focus over time. My main focus for these essays, therefore, will largely be on
U.S. organizations that are national in scope (i.e.,not organizations that have a regional mission)and that have had a significant role in the nuclear
dialogue. I will cover both pro- and anti-nuclear
organizations. I will cover both organizations
whose primary missions and agendas involve nuclear power, and those with broader mandates thathave had a significant voice on nuclear issues.
For convenience, I will try to group the organizations according to their basic type and role. The
organizations I will cover will go beyond ones I
have mentioned to date in my blog, but will include
ones that I believe I could reference in the future.

U.S. Government Agencies
I believe that the major U.S. government agencies responsible for domestic nuclear-power related
issues―the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) andthe U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission(NRC)―are well known to most Japanese professionals in the field, so I do not plan to address themin any detail. However, they are both so importantthat it is difficult to write an essay about U.S. organizations in the nuclear arena without mentioning them first.
DOE, as most readers know well, has many responsibilities across all energy technologies―andbeyond! In the nuclear area, it is responsible foradvanced reactor technology development, management of initiatives to encourage new-build, national nuclear waste programs, and oversight ofnational laboratory activities and facilities. TheNRC, on the other hand, is charged with the li-2

censing, regulation, inspection, and oversight of
the nation’s commercial nuclear reactors and othernuclear facilities. Neither mission is quite that
simple, of course, but that’s a good start in distinguishing their roles. Historically, the two functions
were once under the same roof―the old AtomicEnergy Commission―but the roles were separated
in the 1970s.
Before we leave the subject of U.S. government
agencies, I should mention that a number of otherU.S. government agencies have roles in nuclearpower. For example, the U.S. Department of State
oversees international bilateral and multilateral
cooperative activities with other countries andparticipation in international bodies such as theInternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) andthe OECD/Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), and approves the transfer of nuclear materials andequipment between the United States and othercountries. Under the Clean Air Act of 1989, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has responsibility for setting standards to limit radionuclide emissions from industrial and governmentalfacilities. EPA also sets environmental standards
for offsite radiation due to the disposal of spent
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and theFederal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
are both concerned with the security of nuclear
facilities. In particular, FEMA evaluates off-site
emergency response plans and the emergency
preparedness exercises that are conducted periodically at commercial nuclear power plants. However, it is state and local authorities who develop andmaintain these plans and coordinate them with theon-site emergency response plans of nuclear facilities, and who conduct the periodic off-site emergency response exercises. In addition, other U.S.
government agencies may play a role from time totime in coordinating their responsibilities withthose of NRC and DOE in the nuclear area.

Two Key Non-Government Nuclear Organizations in the U.S.
Perhaps the two organizations in the UnitedStates that people associate most with nuclear
power are the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) andthe American Nuclear Society (ANS). These twoorganizations have very different, but complementary, roles, so it is worth taking a few moments
to explore the basic characteristics of each organization.
NEI traces its origins to the formation of theAtomic Industrial Forum (AIF) in 1953―severalyears before the operation of the first commercial
nuclear power plant in the United States. Its first
Copyright © JAPAN NUS CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved

Dr. Marcus' Room No. 11

activities, in fact, were to work to help ensure thepassage of legislation in the U.S. Congress thatwould allow for private ownership of nuclear fueland nuclear facilities, thus enabling the start of acommercial nuclear power industry. NEI’s objective
is to ensure the development of policies that promote the beneficial uses of nuclear energy andtechnologies in the United States and around theworld. It also plays a major role in explaining thebenefits of nuclear energy to policymakers and thepublic. It is composed of about 350 organizations
from the United States and 19 countries, spanninga range of commercial nuclear technologies.
ANS, on the other hand, is a not-for-profit scientific and educational organization. It was established in 1954 to unify the professional activities
within the diverse fields of nuclear science andtechnology and to serve as a venue for the supportand education of its members. Its membershipconsists of approximately 11,000 engineers, scientists, educators and others from more than 1,600
corporations, educational institutions, government
agencies and national laboratories. About 10% of
its membership is from outside the United States.
Japanese members are prominent among the foreign members. The ANS is often called an “industry group,” but it is not. The ANS operates underU.S. laws for not-for-profits which limit its organizational lobbying efforts. However, it is permitted
to help inform the public and policymakers byproviding objective, unbiased scientific information,and its members, as individuals, may use information developed by the ANS to support theirpersonal efforts to engage the public and policymakers.

Other Industry Groups
Readers of this article may be aware of other industry groups that deal with nuclear issues, including the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations(INPO) and the Electric Power Research Institute(EPRI).
The mission of INPO is to promote the highest
levels of safety and reliability in the operation ofcommercial nuclear power plants. They do this byestablishing performance objectives, criteria andguidelines for the nuclear power industry, conducting on-site evaluations of nuclear power plants,
providing assistance to help nuclear power plants
improve their performance, conducting training
and industry accreditation, performing events
analyses, and facilitating information exchange
between nuclear power plant operators. INPO wasestablished in 1979 following the accident at Three
Mile Island to help address the needs identified by
the Kemeny Commission that investigated that3accident. All U.S. companies that operate commercial nuclear power plants are members of INPO.
INPO also cooperates with the World Association of
Nuclear Operators (WANO), a worldwide organization started for similar purposes following theChernobyl accident in Russia.
EPRI was started in 1973 as an independent,
non-profit company performing research, development and demonstration in the electricity sector
for the benefit of the public. EPRI’s R&D programspans virtually every aspect of generation, power
delivery and use, power markets, and environmental issues. In the nuclear area, it works to develop safe, reliable, and economical technologies
that can enable the long-term operation of existing
nuclear plants and the deployment of advanced
nuclear power plants. EPRI’s research is funded byits member organizations, which represent morethan 90% of the electricity generated and deliveredin the U.S. More than 1000 organizations fromsome 40 countries also participate in its research.
EPRI is similar in purpose and function to theCentral Research Institute of the Electric Power
Industry (CRIEPI) in Japan, which was established in 1951.

Other Professional Societies
It might surprise some readers to learn that theANS is not the first professional society to work onnuclear issues, nor is it the only professional society in the U.S. interested in nuclear issues today.
Several existing societies began to engage in nuclear activities as early as about 1947. These included the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Institute of ChemicalEngineers (AIChE), the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), the latter two of which ultimately joined to become the Institute of Electricaland Electronics Engineers (IEEE). All three ofthese societies maintain an interest in the nuclear
area, and other professional technical societies,
such as the American Physical Society (APS) andthe American Association for the Advancement ofScience (AAAS), also cover nuclear technology developments in their publications and at their conferences.
Perhaps the most well known of the activities ofthese professional societies is the codes andstandards work of the ASME, which addresses
many aspects of the systems in nuclear power
plants and other facilities. The Nuclear Engineering Division (NED) of the AIChE is the oldest
technical division of the AIChE, organized in 1953
and chartered by the AIChE Board of Directors in
1954. It is still active, and it works to encourage

Copyright © JAPAN NUS CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved

Dr. Marcus' Room No. 11

the application of new technologies developed in
the nuclear industry, and support activities byAIChE in the field of nuclear energy. The IEEE’s
nuclear activities are conducted through their Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society, which is currently sponsoring sessions at conferences reflecting
the growing resurgence of interest in nuclear power throughout the world. The topic is also of interest to segments of the IEEE membership that workon technologies related to the production of electricpower.
The APS has a Panel on Public Affairs (POPA)
that, at the direction of the APS Council, occasionally undertakes in-depth studies on topics of national interest, such as energy, the environment,and security. In the last decade, for example, POPA
reports in the nuclear area or of interest to the nuclear field have included reports on present nuclear
technology, safety and future directions (2001), thehydrogen initiative (2004), nuclear power and proliferation resistance (2005), interim storage ofcommercial spent nuclear fuel (2007), electricity
storage technologies (2007), and readiness of thenuclear workforce (2008). These reports generally
receive wide dissemination and are influential in
the U.S. government. Likewise, the AAAS operates
a Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy that organizes seminars in Washington, often
on Capitol Hill, that policymakers and their staffs
attend. For example, this past year, the AAAS
sponsored a luncheon discussion of nuclear power’srole in the U.S. energy mix that was held in theRayburn House Office Building in May. Because ofits Washington presence, as well as the stature ofsome of its presidents (past presidents have included John Holdren, now President Obama’s science advisor, and Nobel Prize winners such as Peter Agre, David Baltimore, and Glenn Seaborg), theAAAS is also very influential in the U.S. government.

4

In the next installment of this essay, I will coverother types of organizations that have a role in thenuclear dialogue. These will include the so-called“think tanks,” a couple of the more influential, national anti-nuclear organizations, and any others
that don’t fit neatly into a single category.
**I welcome comments on this essay. My e-mailaddress isghmarcus alum.mit.edu.
（ An image charactor is used intentionally for@-sign. Please cut the image and put a keystroke@-sign.)February 2011

Copyright © JAPAN NUS CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved