This is the fifth Annual Report of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It is submitted to the President for transmittal to the Congress as required by Section 307(c) of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974.

This report highlights major NRC activities in fiscal year 1979 under headings which correspond with the various facets of the agency's statutory responsibility. This introductory chapter presents a brief overview of these activities and provides updating on significant events and actions extending into early 1980.

The accident at Three Mile Island had a profound effect on the public, the utilities, the nuclear industry, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The signs of change in the regulatory area are evident throughout this report as external and internal examinations of NRC have resulted in new policy directives. The chapters dealing with reactor regulation, inspection and enforcement and safety research discuss these changes in some detail. While the primary goals of nuclear regulation-protecting the public health and safety, safeguarding nuclear materials and facilities, and preserving environmental values-remain the same, the means needed to achieve these goals are changing to reflect the lessons of Three Mile Island.

If there is a common thread revealed in the ongoing reassessments, it is a complacency that has served to undercut the many conscientious efforts to assure nuclear safety. Current reappraisals must be seen as opportunities to orient nuclear regulation away from that complacency and toward an outlook befitting a technology that combines remote possibilities of fatal accidents or catastrophes with substantial day-to-day benefits. It is the Commission's philosophy that nuclear regulation must reflect a continuing commitment to come to grips with the realities of nuclear technology and its relationship to those who control it, to those who work with it, to those who live near it, and to the public at large.

As part of this commitment, the Commission is in the process of reappraising its priorities. It has decided to give explicit guidance to the staff for use in preparing plans, budgets, and programs over the next few years. As this Annual Report was being prepared, the Commission-for the first time-was developing a Policy, Planning, and Program Guidance document. The document includes the Commission's direction as to which regulatory areas need greater emphasis in planning for future agency activities such as:

• To define more clearly the level of protection of the public health and safety that the Commission believes is adequate based on statutes, public input, and NRC's subjective and quantitative evaluations.

• To increase efforts to describe to the public the risks of nuclear activities and the uncertainties in the judgments of risk.

• To regulate nuclear activities in a manner to achieve and maintain adequate protection of public health and safety. Licensees who cannot do this will not be permitted to operate.

To give priority in reactor regulation, in terms of resources and schedules, to those activities that are expected to have the greatest effect on reduction of risks to the public health and safety. First priority will be assigned to operating facilities. Priorities of NRC activities involving those resources not engaged in assuring adequate levels of protection for operating facilities will be assigned according to risk reduction potentials. To organize and plan a waste management program to achieve in a timely fashion the ultimate objective set forth in the President's Policy Statement of February 12, 1980 on waste management. The NRC waste management program is critical to the success of this urgent national task.