Its mandate includes four main areas: The office is charged with the priorities to protect the public health, safety, and the environment.
[4] In 1979, the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation played a key role in the Three Mile Island accident that occurred in Pennsylvania.
This direct liaison is notable in that it was NRC Chairman Joseph Hendrie, Denton's superior, who interacted with Pennsylvania's governor Dick Thornburgh.
Given this context, President Carter was advised to walk into the crisis zone in person in order to demonstrate that the dangers were not as high as many believed.
[6] These events occurred at approximately the same time as the beginning of the J. Samuel Walker term of service as the official historian of the NRC[7] and are documented by him in Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective.