Up & Atom

Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) announced on October 30 that the malware “Dtrack” had been found on the administrative network of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) in early September 2019. KKNPP is the largest nuclear power plant in India, equipped with two Russian-designed VVER pressurized water reactors, each with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts. Both reactor units feed southern India’s power grid.

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As noted in this article by Morgan Lewis antitrust lawyers, the role of antitrust laws in labor markets, including in the energy field, remains a key area of focus by enforcers, including the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and its Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) have been busy in recent weeks assessing issues related to the licensing of non-light water reactors (non-LWRs).

The US Department of Energy (DOE) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) in the October 3 Federal Register to establish procedures for imposing civil monetary penalties for violations of 10 CFR Part 810 (Part 810). Notably, DOE also proposes a maximum penalty, per violation, of $102,522.

As anticipated in our September 3 blog, the NRC on September 16 published in the Federal Register a proposed rule and request for comment regarding its amendment of 10 CFR Part 26, “Fitness for Duty Programs” (FFD). We reported on the Commission’s approval of the rulemaking and the NRC Staff’s Draft Regulatory Analysis and Backfitting and Issue Finality.

Licensees are required to report certain medical events that meet the criteria defined in 10 CFR § 35.3045, Report and Notification of a Medical Event.

NRC Staff has made publicly available copies of Draft Regulatory Guide 1341, Standard Format and Content for Applications to Renew Nuclear Power Plant Operating Licenses, and a supporting Regulatory Analysis.

The NRC will soon issue in the Federal Register a proposed rulemaking to amend the drug testing requirements of the Fitness for Duty (FFD) Program in 10 CFR Part 26. The proposed rule seeks to align the NRC’s drug testing requirements in Part 26 with the US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’s) 2008 Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs (the 2008 Guidelines).

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) Assistant Inspector General for Audits issued a memorandum on August 20 on the status of recommendations based on the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG’s) Audit of NRC’s Cyber Security Inspections at Nuclear Power Plants (OIG-19-A-13). As previously reported on Up & Atom, OIG recommended that the NRC work to close the critical skill gap for future cybersecurity inspection staffing, and develop and implement cybersecurity performance measures for licensees to use to demonstrate sustained program effectiveness. Based on the NRC’s July 3, 2019, response, OIG has issued this status of recommendations.