Thomas Murley, director of the Federal commission's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, warned the utility that Federal regulators would be "very skeptical" of the company's plan because of the past problems.

After 10 years, he became the Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, a position he held until his retirement in 1998.

"Lilco can't transfer the plant until there is somebody ready to accept it," Thomas E. Murley, director of the commission's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, said after a meeting last month with Lilco officials.

At the NRC, the study is a joint effort among the Offices of Nuclear Regulatory Research, Nuclear Security and Incident Response, and Nuclear Reactor Regulation.

"This has been the most extensive license renewal review to date, including the first adjudicatory hearing of a license renewal application," said Eric Leeds, NRC's director of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.

Speaking on behalf of the N.R.C. staff, Thomas Murley, director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, today rejected that view.

The Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation is responsible for ensuring the public health and safety through licensing and inspection activities at commercial nuclear power plants.

The report called for a variety of steps, but another part of the commission staff, the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, eventually ordered more modest changes.

"We are not going to allow that plant to decommission itself," said Thomas E. Murley, the director of the commission's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.

Among the American experts who have examined the implications of Chernobyl is Harold R. Denton, the director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.