The shrinking U.S. nuclear fleet was factored into the decreased number of violations found during security inspections last year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week in a report to Congress.
Of 176 inspections conducted at nuclear plants during the 2021 calendar year, NRC identified 66 security violations of mostly low severity, the agency said in its annual report to Congress published Thursday. That figure is about flat compared to NRC’s inspection findings in 2020, which the commission said represents “a stabilization of a downward trend in findings observed in previous years.”
Although NRC said in its report that there was no single reason for the ongoing reduction in violations found during its security inspections, a “reduced number of [nuclear power plants] due to some sites moving to decommissioning” was one contributing factor.
Just one nuclear plant shut down in 2021 — New York’s Indian Point Energy Center, which went offline April 30 of that year.
Changes to inspection approaches and reduced time spent on-site were also drivers of decreasing findings, the agency said in its report.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, NRC has had to adjust its inspection strategies to adhere to public health guidelines, such as conducting plant inspections remotely or monitoring local infection rates to determine whether to conduct in-person reviews.
The commission in November 2021 said it would begin ramping up its force-on-force antiterrorism drills in 2022 — the anti-terrorism drills had been conducted in a limited capacity throughout the pandemic.
NRC also made dozens of inspection accommodations last year for plant operators facing COVID-related staffing shortages.
