Institutional change versus institutional persistence? : the transformation of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission since Three Mile Island.

Bibliography: p. 37-43

This paper attempts to show that while environmental shocks can lead to major institutional change, typically this change is not radical. Even in situations of institutional breakdown, due to violent and disruptive events such as disasters, it is possible to find institutional persistence which constraints and shapes the process of change. Focusing on the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, the paper examines forms of major institutional change that originated from it, but have also revealed themselves as consistent with institutional persistence. A new path in nuclear safety regulation developed after the accident at Three Mile Island (TMI). Yet, this new path has been consistent with an old path in nuclear safety regulation that TMI did not break down, and to a certain extent strengthened. Emphasising institutional persistence, the paper takes a historical perspective, paying attention both to the long-term institutional implications of the nuclear plant accident at TMI, and to its historical roots. History represents a basic framework for understanding the kind of institutional transformation developed in nuclear safety regulation after TMI