Although the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is planning to return to a pre-pandemic posture for its antiterrorism inspections at nuclear power plants, the agency will still allow exceptions to licensees who can prove the public health emergency is still causing problems, staff said at a public meeting this week.
NRC’s plan is to “implement the full inspection procedure” for force-on-force inspections in 2022, said Jefferson Clark, the agency’s security and evaluation branch chief, during a virtual meeting Thursday. The commission believes that licensees should be able to perform the antiterrorism exercises safely, he said.
Despite that, NRC plans to use a “tiered” approach to force-on-force inspections, allowing plant operators to be exempted if they can “justify why [they’re] not able to conduct the exercises safely,” Clark said.
“[T]he message is that we still want to protect the health and safety of site personnel and the inspectors,” Clark said.
NRC resumed some in-person force-on-force inspections in March — they had previously been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency said in February that it had been conducting the antiterrorism drills in a limited capacity, allowing site staff to participate as needed and simulating some exercises.
Since the pandemic began, NRC has made dozens of accommodations for nuclear plants facing COVID-related staffing challenges. Between March and November of last year alone the commission granted 48 exemptions to force-on-force inspections.
According to commission guidelines, force-on-force inspections include tabletop exercises and combat drills with nuclear plant security staff designed to prepare sites for sabotage or terrorist attacks.
NRC scheduled the update with federal agencies broadly mulling a full-scale return-to-the-office for most employees some time after New Year’s.
