The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s reactor regulation department is building a team to assess some key takeaways from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a draft mission statement.
NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) will designate a working group to investigate “lessons learned and best practices on the oversight of power reactors during the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health emergency,” according to a draft of the review team’s charter, viewed Wednesday by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. The working group will be made up of representatives from all four administrative regions and NRR headquarters staff, the charter said.
An agency spokesperson told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing Wednesday that NRR made the draft charter available so “the public and industry could offer their thoughts before everything is finalized.”
The planned review is a follow-on to an internal survey conducted by NRR staff in late 2020, the charter said. The first review team made recommendations based on information technology capabilities, remote inspection procedures and guidance for inspections. A second review, NRC said, should “include licensees and other stakeholders.”
Right now, the follow-on review is in early stages. According to a projected timeline, NRC should identify members of the NRR working group this month. An agency spokesperson told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing Wednesday that the group’s makeup and leadership are both “still under consideration.”
According to the charter, the review should wrap up in May 2022.
NRR staff will introduce the draft charter at the agency’s monthly meeting on reactor oversight processes Thursday, the spokesperson said. More in-depth discussion will happen at next month’s meeting “or another forum,” the spokesperson said.
Over the last year, NRC has made accommodations for nuclear power plants as they navigate the pandemic. In April the agency granted work-hour control exemptions to three nuclear plants and allowed another to skip a biennial emergency preparedness exercise, citing COVID-related staffing shortages.
The commission has also granted dozens of exemptions to force-on-force anti-terrorism exercises at power plants — NRC only just resumed those drills in March.
