On March 20, 2020, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) convened the first of a series of telephonic public meetings between the NRC staff and nuclear industry representatives to manage “regulatory issues” emerging out of the fast moving Novel Coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic. Central to those issues is the potential impact of widespread absenteeism from a highly contagious and debilitating virus on the industry’s highly specialized workforce and the challenges it presents to the reliability of the nuclear industry’s electricity production and the protection of the public safety from a nuclear accident.
This was not the first industry gathering to publicly discuss planning and preparedness for a global pandemic that can impact nuclear power safety and productivity. In July 2007, representatives from seven U.S. nuclear utilities gathered to prepare a report that summarized, “It is possible that there will be a pandemic, potentially severe, in the foreseeable future” and recognized, “The prospect of a pandemic is not widely cast as a true strategic matter in the energy/utilities sector.” But what we are now witnessing, nearly thirteen years later, is that severe pandemic has arrived, akin to a 50-foot tsunami, revealing the nuclear industry and its regulator anchored to a bias that has too long discounted the threat because it had not yet happened.
The brunt of the March 20th teleconference was spent with industry representatives seeking assurance from its regulator that reactor operators will not be strictly held to licensing agreements and technical specifications that require nuclear power stations maintain adequate security staffing levels, limits on control room operator hours to prevent errors by fatigue and scheduled inspections, maintenance and repairs to assure the reliable function of nuclear safety-related systems, structures and components. The NRC responded that it was ready to prepare blanket exemptions from requirements and “notices of enforcement discretion” from regulatory compliance.
Clearly, the NRC is anticipating dealing with a large number of requests from nuclear plant operators to streamline relief from a "regulatory burden" of safety and security requirements because of widespread absenteeism. Staffing shortages and fatguing hours on shift can adversely impact reactor safety and security if not checked. But rather than provide blanket exemptions and “enforcement discretion” from safety and security requirements, The NRC has an alternative during the pandemic. The Commissioners could chose to power down certain U.S. reactors where there is already a reduced electricity demand and a significant excess of electricity generating capacity. Nuclear reactors in cold shutdown provide a pool of highly specialized control room operators and other essential onsite personnel who if sequestered to persevere their health provide a reserve to reinforce operating units hit hard by an absent work force.
Even before the pandemic, public concern with "regulatory capture" was already high. The industry and NRC have for several years dismantling NRC-led inspections and oversight and substituting industry “self-inspections” and “voluntary initiatives” that have depleted enforceable industry accountability. More NRC exemptions and relaxed enforcement, now, to relieve industry of noncompliance with fitness for duty requirements builds on those safety and security concerns.
There are additional areas of the public health, safety and security issues arising out of virus-stressed reactor operations that remain unaddressed and in need of more transparency.
Another issue is degraded emergency preparedness if a nuclear accident occurs during or as a result of the pandemic. According to the NRC, the agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will have to balance the risks associated with radiological exposure and pandemic exposure. Similarly, Japan emergency authourities abandoned tsunami victims in the ruins following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. The NRC points out, “An emergency response recommendation for the public in the event of a nuclear power plant emergency, sheltering might be preferred over evacuation because evacuation would incur additional risks due to increased transmission of the flu in evacuation shelters.” The public, at present, has no due process to address the diminishing radiological emergency preparedness as the NRC goes about the potentially broad issuance of pandemic-related regulatory relaxation, exemptions and enforcement discretion.
Subsequent NRC public meetings are being scheduled by the NRC to update the status of nuclear power operations during the pandemic. The NRC has scheduled the next two public meetings by a telephone bridge line for Thursday, March 26, 2020 (dial 1-800-475-4934, enter passcode 6561658#) from 2:00 to 3:30 pm ET to discuss the deferral of upcoming steam generator tube inspections and repairs, and Friday, March 27, 2020, from 9:30 to 11:00 am ET, (dial 1-800-779-9063 enter passcode 9646384#) to discuss methods for industry to request more temporary regulatory changes from NRC requirements.
Paul Gunter and Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear appeared on a podcast of "Nuclear Hotseat" to comment on their participation in the March 20th NRC public meeting along with Eric Epstein with Three Mile Island Alert. You can listen to that podcast here.