The Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted four nuclear power plants exemptions to federal regulations governing employee work hours and training during the month of April, according to a notice published by the agency this week.
Between April 6 and April 29 NRC granted work-hour control exemptions to: Fermi Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan; Clinton Power Station in Illinois; and Limerick Generating Station in Pennsylvania, according to a Federal Register notice published Tuesday. The commission waived federal regulations that dictate nuclear plant employees can’t work more than 72 hours a week after the plants said the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is still causing staffing shortages.
The commission started allowing nuclear plants to request work-hour exemptions back in April.
NRC also gave Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Ohio permission to skip this year’s biennial offsite emergency preparedness exercise, the Tuesday notice said. The exemption won’t affect the site’s ability to respond to emergencies since “the licensee has conducted numerous drills, exercises, and other training activities that have exercised the licensee’s emergency response strategies,” the notice said.
The commission has given nuclear plants plenty of regulatory relief since the beginning of the pandemic. The agency only recently resumed its force-on-force anti-terrorism inspections after granting 48 COVID-related exemptions to the exercises between March and November of last year.
