Skip to main content  42 USC § 9703 - Research, development, and
demonstration program; establishment; purposes; implementation
(a) The Secretary shall establish a research, development, and
demonstration program to carry out the purpose of this chapter.
As part of such program, the Secretary shall at a minimum— (1)
refine further the assessment of risk factors associated with
the generic design and operation of nuclear powerplants to
determine the degree and consequences of propagation of failures
of systems, subsystems, and components, including consideration
of the interaction between the primary and secondary systems;
(2) develop potentially cost-beneficial changes in the generic
design and operation of nuclear powerplants that can (A)
significantly reduce the risks from unintentional release of
radioactive material from the various engineered barriers of
nuclear powerplants and (B) reduce the radiation exposure to
workers during plant operation and maintenance; (3) develop
potentially cost-beneficial g