The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will resume force-on-force inspections in March with new COVID-19 guidelines for social distancing during exercises and advance notice about virus conditions on site two weeks prior to inspections, the agency said in a Wednesday webinar.
NRC officials from the agency’s security operations division said during the webinar that the agency will keep a consistent line of communication with their licensees to assess possible threats to personnel congregating on site with the pandemic still raging.
Under these guidelines, licensees will provide the commission with a report on COVID-related conditions 14 days prior to the first week of exercises. Depending on the situation, the inspection will continue as planned or be rescheduled for a later date, the officials said.
The webinar was a chance for commission staff to publicly socialize the new inspection guidelines, which were issued about a month ago, on Jan. 14. Steve Ruffin, acting chief of the agency’s security performance evaluation branch, said that these procedures were designed to adapt to the volatile conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic that may change from site to site. The commission will also take scenario-specific information into account when planning and executing inspections, he said.
“We’re trying to be flexible in this approach to make sure we can adapt to the right inspection, given the circumstances that the site is experiencing at the time,” Ruffin said.
During every step of the inspection procedure, the commission will minimize close contact between personnel, they said. Staff at inspection sites will participate only as needed, and some exercises can be simulated where possible, the officials said. In addition, the commission will implement “time-out” procedures to reposition personnel between exercises, they said.
Force-on-force inspections are set to resume in March, although some sites may be ready to start them up again sooner, commission officials said Wednesday. The agency granted 48 pandemic-related force-on-force exemptions to licensees between March 2020 and November.
