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Appendix A Sponsors of Commercial Nuclear Research and Development This Appendix provides a brief overview of the programs of the major sponsors of nuclear research in both the public and private sectors. The discussion principally centers on the programs of the NRC, the DOE, and the electric utility industry. GOVERNMENT SPONSORSHIP OF NUCLEAR RESEARCH The majority of the nuclear safety research funded by the fed- eral government is sponsored by the NRC. Statutory responsibility for the NRC's research program, funding for which in fiscal year 1986 will be about $108 million, resides with the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. A small amount of safety research is also conducted by other NRC program offices. For example, the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) funds about $30 million of "technical assistance," of which the committee estimates at least $10 million is safety research. The NRC's budget for nuclear safety research is slightly more than half of what DOE will spend in FY 1986 on civilian nuclear R&D. However, the entire NRC program is safety research in sup- port of current reactors, whereas DOE's program is principally aimed at the development of advanced reactors. There have been significant reductions in congressional appropriations for NRC re- search over the past five years; so although in current dollars the program is twice the size it was a decade ago, it is less than half what it was at its peak in 1981. In terms of true buying power (i.e., constant dollars), the reductions have been even more dramatic. 75