An updated version of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s guidance for preventing workplace sabotage and other insider threats at nuclear power plants should come out this month, the agency said this week.
NRC staff are “in the final steps” of revising the commission’s Insider Mitigation Program (IMP), an agency spokesperson told RadWaste Monitor via email Monday. A public version of the final revision should be published later in October. The commission okayed the revision in July.
The IMP advises reactor licensees on procedures for ensuring the trustworthiness of individuals who are allowed to access vital areas of nuclear power plants. The aim is to prevent sabotage or other bad acts by insiders.
A draft of the revised protocol, dated December 2015 and made public Monday, added additional guidance for licensees decommissioning their reactors. Specifically, the document clarifies that fitness-for-duty standards for plant personnel are “necessary elements” of safety protocol, and should still apply even after the reactor ceases operation.
The revised IMP also clarifies that cyber-security protocols at operating reactors should still remain in place when a plant is undergoing decommissioning.
The initial IMP guidance was issued in March 2009, the NRC spokesperson said.
