Licensee contractor and vendor inspection status report: Quarterly report, January--March 1997. Volume 21, Number 1

A fundamental premise of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing and inspection program is that licensees are responsible for the proper construction and safe and efficient operation of their nuclear power plants. The Federal government and nuclear industry have established a system for the inspection of commercial nuclear facilities to provide for multiple levels of inspection and verification. Each licensee, contractor, and vendor participates in a quality verification process in compliance with requirements prescribed by the NRC`s rules and regulations (Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations). The NRC does inspections to oversee the commercial nuclear industry to determine whether its requirements are being met by licensees and their contractors, while the major inspection effort is performed by the industry within the framework of quality verification programs. This periodical covers the results of inspections performed by the NRC`s Special Inspection Branch, Vendor Inspection Section, that have been distributed to the inspected organizations during the period from January 1997 through March 1997