The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is continuing to weigh licensees’ requests for temporary exemptions from regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic while its staff begins to return to their offices after months of telework.
Ninety-eight percent of the regulator’s nearly 3,000 full-time employees began teleworking in the middle of March, a measure intended to help curb the spread of the viral disease. Their work has largely proceeded remotely and unabated since then, including continued oversight of nuclear power plants and spent-fuel storage installations.
Phase 1 of the NRC reoccupancy plan began Monday. Some initial personnel have voluntarily returned to their jobsites, according to David Castelveter, NRC director of public affairs. He could not say how many are working on-site at agency locations, but noted they might not be coming in every day.
“We are not recalling specific personnel or job categories back to the buildings in Phase 1 of our re-occupancy plan,” Castelveter said by email. “A move from mandatory to maximum telework will occur on June 21, at which time any employee who wishes to return to one of our buildings to work will be able to do so.”
As of Wednesday, there had been five confirmed cases of COVID-19 within the NRC workforce. The nunber was unchanged from last week.
In an internal memo first reported by RadWaste Monitor last week, NRC Executive Director for Operations Margaret Doane offered details on the four-part plan for restaffing NRC facilities that aligns with the White House framework for resuming near-normal operations across the federal government. It covers the NRC’s primary six locations: headquarters in Rockville, Md.; regional offices in Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Texas; and a training facility in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Discussing Phase 1, Doane wrote that “At the outset, we will remain in mandatory telework status for 2 weeks during which time occupancy will gradually increase as individuals are notified that they will be returning to their NRC worksites. If you are not informed that you are included in Phase 1, then you will remain in mandatory telework status and continue to work remotely for the time being.”
The restaffing is scheduled to advance Sunday to “maximum telework status,” which generally would allow personnel to continue working remotely at their discretion. However, they would need a telework agreement with their employer to do so, Doane wrote.
The timeline for progression to roughly normal on-site staffing will depend on the local and state health situations around the NRC facilities, along with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Castelveter said.
The regulator since March has offered expedited reviews of requests from licensees for temporary exemptions to nuclear regulations to ensure they can sustain operations and not place their personnel at risk of infection.
Among the approved exemptions: Eight nuclear power plants have received breaks on work-hour limits to prevent insufficient staffing at reactors even if some employees become sick. Other licensees have been authorized to delay security training that would put personnel in close quarters and medical exams from healthcare providers who might not be available as they focus on the pandemic.
The agency has identified five requests for exemptions for independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSIs). Three have been approved and two remained under consideration at deadline Thursday for RadWaste Monitor.
On May 14, Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Co. requested a waiver on the deadline for physicals for security staff at the decommissioned Haddam Neck nuclear power plant. The company committed to completing the physical requalifications “at the first reasonable opportunity,” no later than the cessation of emergency declarations by local, state, and federal authorities.
Most recently, on May 20, Yankee Rowe Electric Co. also asked for a delay on annual physical requalifications for security at the ISFSI for the decommissioned Yankee Rowe nuclear power plant in Massachusetts. It asked that the requirement not be reinstated until the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, as “signified by suspension of the emergency declaration at the local, state and federal level.”
Only one nuclear power plant undergoing decommissioning has to date received any exemption. On May 20, the NRC authorized Holtec International to push back quarterly and security training exercises at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey, due to social distancing concerns. The exemption is good through Dec. 31 of this year or the point at which the state lifts its pandemic restrictions, whichever happens first.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday conducted a teleconference with nuclear industry representatives to discuss the agency’s security oversight of nuclear power plants during the pandemic. Industry representatives argued against resuming the NRC-managed, triennial force-on-force inspections until certain health safety conditions are met.
All licensed nuclear power facilities are required every three years to undergo an NRC inspection involving an attack by a mock terrorist force. The drills support the agency’s work to evaluate the security team and technologies at its licensees.
A total of 17 force-on-force inspections were scheduled through the end of this year, according to the NRC presentation Tuesday. Inspections scheduled through June have been delayed, with the NRC eyeing resumption in July. The agency said it would make decisions on conducting the exercises based on the situation at each location, with a “graded approach” for facilities that continue to operate under state or regional health restrictions.
A complicating factor is that new COVID-19 cases are still increasing in the United States, which makes it difficult to predict when the federal health emergency will be under control. Ken Peters, representing the Nuclear Energy Institute, noted that a surge of new cases is expected in the fall or winter. As of Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control had recorded over 2.1 million cases and nearly 117,000 deaths.
“The COVID pandemic is the most unpredictable of anything I’ve encountered in my career,” Peters said.
