Relationship of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the Nuclear Industry

Statement Supporting The Nomination of
Victor Stello, Jr.

For The Rank of Distinguished Executive

Since April 1986, Victor Stello, Jr. has served as the Executive Director for Operations. He is the senior staff executive responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Agency's 3600 employees and an annual budget of about 400 million dollars.

In this capacity, he has the top responsibility for day-to-day management of the Agency's safety functions and operations. This job entails management of NRC's activities to monitor safe reactor operations, safety in the uses of nuclear materials, and safeguarding against theft or acts of sabotage. The regulated industry is a major factor in the U.S. economy, consisting of several hundred billion dollars in assets. His decisions are of substantial influence not only in the United States, but also in the international nuclear community.

Career Achievements

Mr. Stello has served his country as a Federal regulator for over 20 years with both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its predecessor the Atomic Energy Commission. His career has been dedicated to the highest standards of professional engineering in assuring the safety and stable regulation of nuclear power reactors. Mr. Stello has been in the front rank of NRC managers since the organization of this Agency. In 1975, he served as the first Director of the Division of Operating Reactors, which had responsibility for the safe regulation all operating reactors in the U.S. In 1979, he was appointed and served three years as Director of the Office of Inspection and Enforcement before his promotion to Deputy Executive Director for Regional Operations and Generic Requirements. He oversaw management of operations for NRC's five Regional Offices which together constitute a staff of over 1000 and had an annual operating budget of 69 million dollars. In this capacity, Mr. Stello was responsible for reviewing all proposed generic regulatory requirements to ensure that they were justified by their safety benefits. Mr. Stello's career is characterized by increasingly high levels of responsibility for the health and safety of the public. Mr. Stello's oversight has resulted in improvements in nuclear safety while reducing (by hundreds of millions of dollars) the associated regulatory burden through aggressive implementation of Presidential Executive Order 12291 and the Paperwork Reduction Act.

Personal Accomplishments

As Director of the Division of Operating Reactors, Mr. Stello built a new Division (which increased in size by about 100 to 200 positions during his tenure) composed of a variety of engineering disciplines, and coordinated and focused their efforts on a variety of safety and environmental issues. As Director of the Office of Inspection and Enforcement, he managed a major effort to increase inspection and enforcement efforts in the field and to institute the program for assigning full-time Resident Inspectors at each

nuclear power plant in the United States. During his tenure, a major upgrading of the technical capabilities of that office took place, especially in the areas of radiation protection, emergency preparedness, and the capability to respond to incidents at nuclear power plants. In 1979, Mr. Stello was second in charge of the team dispatched to the TMI-2 site and was responsible for many of the technical regulatory decisions which brought the plant to a safe shutdown.

As Deputy Executive Director for Regional Operations and Generic Requirements, Mr. Stello had an important leadership role in increasing the management efficiency of the Agency by decentralizing regulatory activities to the five NRC Regional Offices during a period in which the Regions increased in size by 30 percent. He is also primarily responsible for reducing the regulatory burden on power plant licenses on the order of 200 million dollars during the five years he was Chairman of the Committee to Review Generic Requirements. In this position he was the driving force redirecting emphasis from licensing nuclear power plants under construction to the safety of operating plants.

Cooperative Efforts

Mr. Stello has been in large part responsible for encouraging various industry groups to take initiatives independent of regulation to improve the excellence of industry safety standards through the Nuclear Utility Management and Resource Committee and the industry sponsored Institute for Nuclear Power Operations. His record of integrity as a fair regulator has been of importance in his serving as an effective mediator with industry on such critical matters as the resolution of fire protection safety issues, nuclear power plant equipment qualification, plant design for human factors consideration and emergency preparedness. Through his current efforts, the owners of Babcock & Wilcox-designed reactors have agreed to perform a major reassessment of the operational features of their reactors. As a result of these efforts, substantial safety improvements are being made to these facilities without imposition of formal additional regulatory requirements. Likewise, Mr. Stello has established a mutually beneficial relationship with the Electric Power-Research Institute (EPRI), the Department of Energy and reactor vendors to encourage development of advanced light water reactors (LWR) which, once developed, will be safer and more reliable than the current generation of nuclear power plants. This effort is currently underway as the EPRI Advanced LWR Program.

Savings and Efficiency

While serving as the Deputy Executive Director for Regional Operations and Generic Requirements, Mr. Stello was responsible for a decentralization of the agency from Washington to the Regions which has made it possible for the agency to increase its inspection efforts 20 percent and 20 million dollars without increasing its overall budget. His efforts to reduce the regulatory burden on licensees have been successful in saving the industry several hundred million dollars while at the same time enhancing overall plant safety. He has also been instrumental in working out with industry groups initiatives which have had greatly improved reactor safety with cost savings to the

Government on the order of 50 positions and 5 million dollars per year if the NRC were to use its resources to the same end. He recognized the major shift in the Agency's mission from licensing to operational safety and has implemented an agency-wide reorganization, with supporting training prograins, to adapt current agency personnel to the needs of the new mission without costly terminations of current employees and recruitment of new employees. These actions ensure that the agency will provide continuity in its mission, a concern that will benefit the safety of operating reactors, and will eliminate the need for a budget increase.

Human Resources and Affirmative Action

Mr. Stello expects and gets from his subordinates high levels of performance. He is respected through the Agency for his ability to motivate others. His Tong-term support of Affirmative Action has been recognized by an outstanding Achievement Award in 1981 from a Chapter of Federally Employed Women.

Honors and Awards

In addition to the above award, his efforts have been recognized by the Atomic Energy Commission's Distinguished Award (1974), the Presidential Meritorious Rank Award (1980), and the Bucknell University Engineering Alumni Award (1981). He has also received Senior Executive Service bonus awards, based on performance, each year since the establishment of that program, except in 1980 when he received the Presidential Rank award.

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