The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday announced receipt of its first request from a nuclear power plant for an exception to the federal limits for work hours during the COVID-19 crisis.
Exelon Generation filed the request Thursday for its two-reactor Limerick Generating Station in Montgomery County, Pa. “By implementing the alternate work hour controls, LGS is proactively taking steps to complete necessary work, testing, and inspections in a manner that supports worker and neighboring community safety to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus,” David Gudger, Exelon Generation senior manager for licensing, wrote in a letter to NRC project manager Venkataiah Sreenivas.
A decision was expected later Monday, NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said this morning. No other requests had been filed at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
The exception would cover five positions at Limerick: operator, health physics and chemistry, fire brigade, maintenance, and security. The letter does not say how many employees might be impacted.
In a March 28 memo, the NRC laid out temporary revisions to its work-hour limits to ensure nuclear power plants remain operational even if staff levels are reduced amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In the letter, Gudger said Limerick personnel would remain within the limits set by the federal regulator: not working over 16 hours in a 24-hour period, maintaining 10-hour breaks between expanded shifts, conducting 12-hour shifts for no more than 14 days, and taking at least six days off in any 30-day period.
Limerick began a refueling outage of reactor Unit 1 on March 27, and one contract worker on the project has tested positive for infection by the novel coronavirus 2019, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday. Two other full-time employees confirmed to have contracted the respiratory disease were last at the plant on March 20, Exelon Generation told the newspaper.
Local officials raised concerns about Exelon Generation proceeding with the refueling, which involves 1,400 contract and company workers, according to the Inquirer. The subsidiary of the Chicago-based power company says it has taken measures to safeguard personnel, including separating them on buses used to take to and from the job and spreading them out on-site.
