The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and its predecessor, the Atomic EnergyCommission (AEC) have received over time numerous concerns from external stakeholders aboutactivities associated with agency regulated licensees and facilities since the establishment of theAEC in the 1940s. Members of the public or workers performing activities associated with NRCregulated matters may report safety concerns to the NRC through various means (e.g., speakingwith NRC staff, calling the NRC Safety Hotline, submitting a concern in writing, submitting aconcern via the NRC public web site). Each regional and major headquarters office retains anOffice Allegation Coordinator (OAC) to manage allegation processing within that office.Allegations are evaluated by technical review, inspection, evaluation of information requested fromthe licensee or another NRC office, obtaining the results of investigations or evaluations conductedby the NRC Office of Investigations (OI), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department ofLabor (DOL), a State agency, or another Federal agency, or by any combination of these actions.Recognizing that licensees have the first responsibility for safety and are in the best position torespond promptly to a safety matter, the NRC encourages workers to first raise safety concerns withthe licensee. Workers should feel free to raise potential safety issues directly to management byway of established corrective action processes. The NRC recognizes that if workers are subjected toharassment, retaliation, or discrimination by management for reporting safety concerns, a “chilled”work environment may be created. If this happens, a valuable source of information for maintainingand improving safety is lost. In its simplest sense, when a worker at a facility chooses to submit anallegation to the NRC this provides an indication that, for some reason, the worker did not want toraise the concern internally, or the worker submitted the concern internally to management but wasnot satisfied with the actions in response. For this reason, the trending of allegation informationprovides input to NRC’s efforts to monitor whether licensees promote a work environmentconducive to employees raising safety concerns, i.e., a safety conscious work environment (SCWE).
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