“If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well. Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone. Everything should be as simple as it can be, yet no simpler.”
– -Albert Einstein
Any journalist who has covered the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission knows that the agency, heavy with engineers and scientists, is also addicted to acronyms and abbreviations. Commission Jeff Baran touched on this in a riff during his address to the agency’s 31st annual Regulator Information Conference (RIC) on Tuesday.
In fact, the agency is so burdened by burdened by alphabet soup, too often designed to conceal, obfuscate, and keep outsiders outside, it has published what amounts to an acronym and initialization dictionary. It’s titled “Collection of Abbreviations,” NUREG-0544, now in its fifth edition, published in late 2016.
The document includes a section distinguishing acronyms from initialisms. Acronyms are pronounceable, such as NASA for National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or LOCA, for loss of coolant accident, the bete noir light water reactors. With initialisms, each letter is pronounced separately, such as LWR for light water reactors.
There is also a section on “plain language,” observing, “The NRC regularly communicates with its own staff, the public, stakeholders, industry, other government agencies, the legislative and executive branches, international regulatory bodies, and representatives of foreign governments. The NRC relies on plain language to support its mission in many ways.” Would that it were so.
Here are some highlights of NRC’s acronym addiction, several pointed out by Baran:
* BADGER, not a short-legged omnivorous mammal that is the mascot for the University of Wisconsin, but “Boron-10 Areal Density Gauge for Evaluating Racks.”
* CAMP, not a place to pitch a tent and enjoy the outdoors, but “Code Application and Maintenance Program.”
* COLA, not a surgery soft drink, but “combined license application.”
* COSMOS, not the universe but “Consortium of Organizations for Strong-Motion Observation Systems.”
* ELECTRA-FIRE, not an elderly Buick en fuego, but “Electrical Cable Test Results and Analysis during Fire Exposure.”
* FAST, not rapid, but “Free and Secure Trade Program.”
* ISSO, is not, but “information system security officer.”
* LAW, not codified rules, but “low-activity waste.”
* MOST, not least, but “Method of Splitting Tsunami.”
* NORM, not the guy at Cheers, but “naturally occurring radioactive materials.”
And so it goes.
— Kennedy Maize