Nuclear safety and safeguards
Two precedents: separating promotion from regulation (AEC split in 1974), and industry-funded confidential peer review that works because insurance and a public regulator sit behind it.
Path signature
M mandate A access/publication I independence A access/publication V voluntary T trigger A access/publication
Similarity of its opening to frontier AI: 0.22 (matched opening MAIAVTA)
Stages reached
| Voluntary | 1979 |
| Trigger | 1979 |
| Mandate | 1957 |
| Standards | not reached |
| Oversight | not reached |
| Independence | 1974 |
| Access | 1970 |
Mechanisms
| Before reform | Now | |
|---|---|---|
| pays | A | A |
| selects | R | R |
| access | deep | embedded |
| publishes | public | public |
| oversees | regulator | regulator |
Licensees pay NRC fees; resident inspectors sit on site; INPO peer reviews stay confidential and are tied to insurance.
Payer, access, publication
Who pays. Operators fund INPO; states fund IAEA and national regulators.
Access. IAEA inspections by state consent; Additional Protocol expands access; INPO peer reviews on site.
Publication. INPO reports confidential to the operator and insurers; NRC findings public; IAEA reports to member states.
Milestones
| Year | Kind | Event | Strength | Harm | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | mandate | IAEA established. | 2 | source | |
| 1970 | access expansion | NPT safeguards agreements give the IAEA inspection rights in signatory states. | 3 | source | |
| 1974 | independence rule | Energy Reorganization Act splits the AEC into the NRC (regulation) and ERDA (promotion). | 4 | source | |
| 1978 | access expansion | NRC resident inspector program places regulator staff permanently on site at every operating plant. | 3 | source | |
| 1979 | trigger | Three Mile Island accident. | integrity_failure: Partial meltdown; oversight failure documented by Kemeny Commission | source | |
| 1979 | voluntary assurance | INPO founded: industry-funded peer evaluations with confidential reports tied to insurance. | source | ||
| 1991 | trigger | Iraq's undeclared program discovered after the Gulf War. | integrity_failure: Undeclared program missed by safeguards | source | |
| 1997 | access expansion | Additional Protocol expands IAEA access to undeclared sites and information. | 3 | source |
seed; secondary sources; verify each milestone against a primary source before citing in the paper Data: data/industries/nuclear.json