![Lauren Gibson]()
Lauren Gibson
Lauren Gibson
Licensing Project Manager
A
licensing project manager for an operating reactor has a lot of
responsibilities. We coordinate technical reviews, interface with the
licensee, support the regional staff and the resident inspectors,
respond during any incidents, and serve as the headquarters point of
contact for anything related to the plant. We’re basically expert
generalists who need a solid understanding of all the operational and
licensing situations for each plant– and, importantly – the ability to
communicate about it all.
I’ve been a licensing project manager for about three years, currently for the
Palo Verde nuclear facility in Arizona and
Columbia Generating Station
in Washington State. The majority of my time is spent coordinating the
review of license amendment requests. A plant’s license is much more
complicated than your driver’s license. It does far more than just grant
permission to operate a nuclear facility. The license also specifies
how it is to be run.
Imagine
having a driver’s license that required you to keep the gas tank more
than half full and all four tires inflated to a certain pressure. If you
wanted to wait until only a quarter of a tank remained to get more gas
or you wanted to change the pressure level in your tires, you’d have to
apply to amend your license. I am the person who receives those
equivalent requests for my particular sites.
Those
requests are then reviewed by a team of appropriate scientists,
engineers, and experts, with the project manager responsible for
engaging those experts and keeping an eye on the entire review. The
project manager is in charge of coordinating schedules, interfacing with
the licensee (the operator of the plant), ensuring that public
documents are written in plain English, and packaging the final approval
or denial of the request with a clear justification. In my experience,
licensees have four to12 such requests at the NRC at a time. The project
manager needs to understand the technical aspects of each one.
The
project manager also needs to be aware of conditions at the site. The
project manager serves as the headquarters point of contact for all
matters related to the site, so it’s very important to know what’s going
on. Every workday, I participate in a conference call with the resident
inspectors and the region to discuss plant status and concerns. If the
region or the residents need any headquarters support, I am there to
provide it directly or to arrange it.
One
of the most important and, thankfully, infrequent duties of the project
manager is to respond in case of an incident at the site. If the
headquarters operations center is activated, I will report there and
provide site specific information. Having someone there who is familiar
with the site, the conditions at the site, and any licensing and
operational issues is important.
We
also have the pleasure and responsibility of ensuring that the NRC is
being open and transparent to the public. Licensing project managers run
many of the site-specific headquarters public meetings.
So,
while licensing project managers need to understand the highly
technical aspects of a review or a performance issue, we also need to
see the big picture, and how one issue may relate to other issues or
actions at the plant. And we have to communicate it to all stakeholders –
both inside and outside the NRC. It’s a great job, and one I’m happy to
be doing. But it’s not easy being an expert generalist.
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