Up & Atom

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).

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced new key dates for companies considering applying for funding for its Advanced Reactor Demonstration (ARD) program.

The NRC Staff released specific guidance to operating and decommissioning reactor licensees on requesting exemptions from fire protection requirements during the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency (PHE) on May 14. The guidance supplements the NRC’s April 29 teleconference, during which it contemplated such regulatory relief pathways. Morgan Lewis reported on the teleconference earlier this month.

The NRC Staff released specific guidance to all licensees on how to request exemptions from emergency preparedness (EP) biennial exercise requirements on May 14. The guidance supplements the NRC’s April 30 teleconference, during which it acknowledged that there may be instances in which licensees are unable to comply with certain EP requirements, including required training and drills, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency (PHE).

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently held a public stakeholder meeting to discuss its Whistleblower Protection Program and how it can improve its administration of the 20-plus whistleblower protection provisions it is responsible for enforcing, including Section 211 of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (ERA).

The US Department of Energy (DOE) released a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for its Advanced Reactor Demonstration (ARD) program on May 14. The program seeks to accelerate advanced nuclear reactor technologies through private-sector cost sharing, with the goal of commercially demonstrating at least two advanced reactor designs by the mid-2020s, and reducing risk for technologies that would be ready to deploy in the 2030s.

The NRC recently issued its Allegation Program Annual Trends Report analyzing regional, national, and site-specific allegation trends for calendar year 2019. The report shows a decrease of almost 50% in total allegations between 2015 and 2019.

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s recent favorable decision in Lemon v. Norfolk Southern Railway Corporation, announced its rejection of the chain-of-events theory of causation in whistleblower cases. In doing so, the Sixth Circuit joins the DOL’s Administrative Review Board (ARB) in rejecting this theory of causation. These decisions, while announced in cases brought under the Federal Rail Safety Act (FRSA), will also apply to cases under Section 211 of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (ERA) because it contains the same “contributing factor” causation standard as the FRSA.

One threshold issue in whistleblower cases involving alleged retaliation is whether a complainant who is not a direct employee is nonetheless a “covered employee.” Under the employee protection provisions found in the several environmental statutes administered by the US Department of Labor (DOL), including, but not limited to, the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Solid Waste Disposal Act, and Toxic Substances Control Act (collectively, the Environmental Statutes), the DOL’s Administrative Review Board (ARB) has applied two tests to answer this question.

The NRC Office of Enforcement recently published its Enforcement Program Annual Report for calendar year 2019, revealing that the total number of enforcement actions in 2019 remained below the five-year average but increased slightly compared to 2018.