Licensing procedures as seen by industry

The licensing procedures for nuclear power plants, which had been characterized until the mid-seventies by a high, but acceptable, level of time and engineering expenditure, subsequently suffered an escalation of requirements which led to a drastic increase in expenditures and a considerable prolongation of licensing procedures, giving rise to a flood of additional expert opinions and objections. The responsible authorities, anxious not to commit any procedural errors, stopped granting construction permits altogether over a period of several years. This negative development reached its culmination around the late seventies, which was gradually followed by the recognition that this kind of energy policy had negative consequences not only for the construction of nuclear power plants, but especially also for the whole national economy. This awareness fostered the growing willingness to think about ways and means of speeding up licensing procedures and ask for improvements among those participating in the procedure. The turn of affairs was also helped by such developments as the convoy concept of Kraftwerk Union, with its standard planning for all site-independent parts of plants, and by the safety characteristics of plants. (orig.)