Antinuclear

(Bloomberg)—Nuclear power plants can now implement longer shifts for workers and delay some inspections, raising concerns that as the coronavirus pandemic upends basic operations the industry may be bending the rules too far.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is already allowing six U.S. power plants to extend workers’ shifts, to as long as 12 hours a day for two weeks, and more may be coming. That’s up significantly from current standards that require people to get two-to-three days off a week when pulling shifts that long. Employees can also work as many as 86 hours in a week now, up from 72 hours.

To curb transmission of the virus, utilities also say they want to delay inspections that require people to work in close proximity. Environmental groups, though, warn the changes could have disastrous results, and worry they could lead to further deviations from safety rules.

“This is a step backward,” said Eric Epstein, chairman of Three Mile Island Alert, a Pennsylvania non-profit group. “It’s not a good idea to stretch workers and marginalize safety standards.”

The new rules come as at least 42 construction workers have tested positive for the coronavirus at a nuclear plant in Georgia where Southern Co. is building two new reactors. Last week, the utility and its partners announced they would reduce the 9,000-person workforce by 20 percent to slow the spread of the virus. The government considers nuclear power plants to be essential, and reactors will supply almost 21 percent of the country’s electricity this year…….

watchdog groups are concerned that employees may be overworked, leading to fatigue and potentially errors. “You want an alert workforce,” said Paul Gunter, a director at Beyond Nuclear. “You don’t do this with bus drivers, but they’re saying it’s OK for nuclear power plant workers.”

he NRC is also granting utilities utilities permission to defer some inspections as dozens of reactors go through the annual spring refueling cycle. These projects can involve more than 1,000 people converging on a power plant for a month or more of maintenance and testing.

Postponed Inspection

Pinnacle West Capital Corp. also has approval for longer hours and is postponing an inspection of components on the bottom of the reactor vessel at the 3.9-gigawatt Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona, the biggest U.S. nuclear plant. The company had initially planned to conduct the evaluation during its refueling outage this spring, but has now pushed that out until the next one, in late 2021. The utility owner determined that the task posed a potential risk of spreading the deadly virus, and could be safely delayed…….

Entergy Corp. is planning to defer some leak tests at pipes at its Grand Gulf reactor in Mississippi. The tests typically are due every 11 1/2 years, but will now be rescheduled for the next refueling outage in 18 months. Pushing that period out to 13 years won’t affect safety, the company said by email. And at the Indian Point facility north of New York City, Entergy is also seeking permission to postpone annual physical evaluations for firefighters……..https://www.chicagobusiness.com/utilities/new-rules-nuclear-plant-workers-12-hour-days-two-weeks-straight