Up & Atom

The NRC staff recently provided the Commission with their annual Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) Self-Assessment for Calendar Year 2021 (SECY-22-0029). These annual self-assessments have been part of the ROP since the ROP was implemented in 2000 and are used by the Commission, the NRC staff, and stakeholders to monitor the performance of the ROP and identify areas for improvement.

The NRC’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recently released a report (OIG-21-A-13) discussing the results of its audit of the NRC’s pandemic oversight of nuclear power plants. The purpose of the audit was to “assess the NRC’s policies and procedures for conducting reactor inspections during the COVID-19 public health emergency and to identify best practices that could be applied during future pandemics or other public health emergencies.” In short, the OIG found that:

Read a LawFlash published by our colleagues in the tax practice, explaining the implications of the new Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021—which includes the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020—on various industries, including the “green” energy and technology industries.

The NRC held a public meeting with industry on November 2 to discuss approaches for performing supplier oversight during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The NRC held a public meeting on November 17 to review regulatory relief currently available to medical and other materials licensees, and to identify potential additional relief that the Staff is currently considering.

Under the assumption that the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency (PHE) will continue into 2021, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Staff hosted a public meeting via teleconference on October 15 to discuss future requests for relief from regulatory requirements.

The US Department of Labor’s chief administrative law judge (ALJ) issued an administrative order and notice on June 1, indefinitely suspending all in-person hearings before the Office of Administrative Law Judges (OALJ).

The NRC’s Office of Enforcement (OE) recently issued Attachment 3 to Enforcement Guidance Memorandum (EGM) 20-002, providing guidance to NRC Staff to disposition violations of emergency preparedness (EP) regulations during the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency (PHE). The guidance applies to entities licensed under 10 CFR Parts 30, 40, 50, 52, 70, and 72.

The NRC issued a letter to holders of licenses other than operating power reactor licenses (separate information regarding requests for temporary exemptions from certain security requirements at operating reactors has been issued) to possess Category 1 or 2 quantities of radioactive material (RAM) as defined in Appendix A to 10 CFR Part 37. The letter contains guidance on the NRC’s expedited review process for requests for temporary exemptions from certain requirements contained in 10 CFR Part 37, Physical Protection of Category 1 and Category 2 Quantities of Radioactive Material, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency (PHE), and finalizes its April 30 draft guidance on which we reported to reflect input from stakeholders received during a recent public meeting.

The NRC’s Office of Enforcement (OE) recently issued Attachment 2 to Enforcement Guidance Memorandum (EGM) 20-002, providing guidance to NRC inspection staff for exercising enforcement discretion for certain byproduct material licensees that suspended their use of licensed material and are maintaining the licensed material in safe storage because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency (PHE).