Lawmakers Raise Nuke Plant Concerns

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Thursday February 25 5:44 PM ET 

Lawmakers Raise Nuke Plant Concerns

WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers asked the U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission on Thursday to investigate whether low 
staffing levels and high overtime demands at commercial nuclear 
power plants are causing safety hazards.  

``We believe that staffing and overtime are serious safety issues, 
and have concerns both about specific plant practices and about 
current NRC regulations,'' Democratic Reps. Edward Markey of 
Massachusetts, John Dingell of Michigan and Ron Klink of 
Pennsylvania, wrote to NRC Chairwoman Shirley Ann Jackson.  

Joe Gilliland, an NRC spokesman, said the agency had no 
immediate comment. ``We will respond to their letter,'' he said.  

The lawmakers did not identify plants where they thought safety 
could be jeopardized. They also acknowledged the difficulty of 
determining whether operator error is caused by fatigue.  

They said, however, that they had heard reports, some from 
whistleblowers, of routine use of overtime that could exceed 
standards set by the NRC in a 1982 policy statement. The issue of 
staffing and safety at the Byron nuclear plant in Illinois was also 
raised in a February article in Inside N.R.C., a trade publication.  

The lawmakers said they were worried that overtime and staffing 
problems could get worse if the commercial nuclear industry tried 
to cut costs due to increased competition in electricity markets.  

They asked Jackson for a broad investigation into the prevalence of 
overtime at the nation's 104 federally licensed plants and its safety 
significance, suggesting a half-dozen areas for inquiry, including:  

-Whether there are any examples of errors in performing safety-
related functions at nuclear plants in the past five years that the 
NRC thinks may be attributed to operator fatigue, staffing levels or 
staffing overtime.  

-How staffing levels of safety-related personnel have changed over 
the past year and over the past five years.  

-How often safety-related personnel at nuclear plants worked longer 
than normal hours last year and how often they took breaks.  

The lawmakers also asked whether the NRC has enforceable 
regulations on staff overtime and shift staffing, and why there is no 
explicit ban on excessive hours, as exists for airline pilots and 
truck drivers.  

Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an 
industry trade group, noted that plants could incur federal penalties 
if they jeopardize safe operations by cost-cutting.  

``If you really want to perform well, you're going to do the right 
thing,'' he said. ``To do the wrong thing is where you run into the 
expenses.''  

The 1982 policy statement, which is not enforceable, states that 
plants should employ enough operating personnel to adequately 
cover shifts without ``routine heavy use of overtime.''   

It sets out guidelines for using overtime on a temporary basis and 
states that deviations from guidelines in ``very unusual 
circumstances'' should be authorized by plant managers and 
documented for possible NRC review.

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Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

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