Punching above its weight

摘要

For Germany's nuclear safety authority - Gesellschaft fur Anlagen und Reaktor-sicherheit (GRS) - the political decision to phase out nuclear energy in Germany raised some important safety issues. How can it ensure safety is maintained in a shrinking industry, and one where increasing cost pressure is being brought to bear on the maintenance and engineering programmes that underpin safety performance? And how can it maintain its oversight when it is under the same pressures as the industry it regulates? The authority tackled the situation head-on in its annual report for 20002001, a period it described as "phases in transition towards a new orientation of GRS."