an assessment of an experiment in accelerating the development of nuclear standards

Abstract

USEFULNESS OF FURTHER STUDYETIP has several options relative to the conduct of further study on the voluntary standards program:Option 1 : Terminate the research at the conclusion of the present review.Option 2 : Fund a limited research effort to gather additional background information about the experiments conducted and their impacts (e.g., the costs of the individual innovations, the quality of the standards produced) as well as about the "normal" development process and time requirements in the nuclear standards area, with which to compare the experimental results Option 3 :Fund a substantial research effort to identify the role of standards, if any, in accelerating nuclear plant licensing, using a research design and a contracting process which will address the difficulties experienced in the initial experiment. Assuming that standards are found to be a substantial factor in accelerating nuclear plant licensing, ETIP could consider the usefulness of investigating how and whether the voluntary standards process can be successfully accelerated to develop those standards.Option 4 : Fund an evaluability assessment of the usefulness of conducting further study of the voluntary standards process and the impact of standards on nuclear power plant licensing. This would involve collecting sufficient background information about the proposed research that the costs and likely resultsand benefits from pursuing the various research options could be assessed prior to committing funds to any particular research design.It is the conclusion of this assessment that if further research is contemplated, Option 4 is the most highly recommended. The conduct of an evaluability assessment would provide ETIP with guidance as to the areas where xi further research is desirable and likely to be fruitful. Option 1 is the alternative best choice if sufficient resources are not available to make it worthwhile to undertake an evaluability assessment.