The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is continuing preparations for bringing staff back to their offices amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a spokesman said Tuesday.
Ninety-eight percent of the federal regulator’s personnel have been working remotely since March to help prevent the spread of novel coronavirus 2019.
The agency’s “COVID Task Force continues to review plans for a phased approach to a return to the workplace. We have no firm timeline at this time,” David Castelveter, director of the NRC Office of Public Affairs, said by email.
Castelveter said it was too early to discuss details of the plan, including any similarities to the Department of Energy’s framework for staffing up its own headquarters buildings. That document, issued last week, involves four distinct phases: From Phase 0, preplanning, to Phase 3, with workplace staffing levels similar to those before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has nearly 3,000 full-time equivalent employees, most working at its headquarters in Rockville, Md.; regional offices in Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Texas; and a training site in Tennessee. Even the 130 resident inspectors at nuclear power plants have been working from home, with regular visits to their assigned facilities.
In April, Castelveter said there had only been one likely case of the viral disease among the NRC workforce. At deadline Wednesday, he said there did not appear to have been any additional cases.
The NRC has taken a number of steps to assist licensees during the health crisis, including expediting consideration of applications for regulatory relief.
