U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Eight years ago, a trained chemist at the NRC was crowned Miss USA in Las Vegas. Kara McCullough competed as Miss District of Columbia and would go on to compete in the Miss Universe pageant. Her job with us at the time, in our Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response, was to review emergency plans at nuclear plants. Here, she’s visiting her former workplace sometime after the win to talk about her experiences. #ThrowbackThursday

NRC staff from our Region II and HQ were recently #OnTheJob at the Kairos Power’s Hermes site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. They were there to discuss our construction oversight for the Hermes Unit 1 demonstration reactor. This visit marked the start of our inspection oversight program for the project, following the issuance of the construction permit in late 2023. These inspections ensure construction activities meet strict safety requirements from the earliest stages through operation. Kairos is building a low-power test reactor to support development of fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor technology. #AdvancedReactorReady

Every year, beginning in the spring, we visit communities around nuclear power plants and either hold or participate in a meeting or event to discuss the plant’s performance. But these meetings are all very different – tailored for each community. Sometimes, they are fully virtual or hybrid. Other times, like this meeting around the Dresden plant, in Morris, Illinois, we hold an in-person public meeting. These are great opportunities for residents, neighbors, students and their families to chat one-on-one with NRC inspectors to ask questions and learn more about the plant’s performance for the past year. In addition to the meetings, each plant’s “report card” is posted on our website here:  https://lnkd.in/eMc8kFZY

Our resident inspectors Martin Mondou and Erin Tinger were recently #OnTheJob presenting during a health physics class at Arkansas Tech University. Martin and Erin serve with senior resident inspector Brian Tindell (behind the camera) at the Arkansas Nuclear One plant in our Region IV. Our resident inspectors live in the communities around the plants they help oversee and outreach is an important part of their work. Their talk with students covered the NRC’s mission, what resident inspectors do, and how radiation protection fits into our regulation at the plant. We hope discussions like these inspire the next generation of NRC professionals. 

It’s time for another ADVANCE Act update! We’re continuing to make significant progress implementing the landmark, bipartisan legislation passed last summer. We recently updated our progress tracking dashboard to help folks follow our progress on the actions we’re reporting to Congress. One new report, responding to Section 203, outlines how our existing regulatory framework allows for flexible and efficient licensing for novel nonelectric uses of nuclear energy. And our new ADVANCE Act lead, Sabrina Atack, is taking over the reins and keeping us on track to meet deadlines for all the deliverables due over the summer. Keep up with what we’re doing via this webpage: https://lnkd.in/geTuyrQt #ADVANCENRC

Our security inspectors, like Region I’s Ken Hussar, are often on the road and #OnTheJob inspecting the facilities we regulate. He was accompanied by his branch chief, Brice Bickett, at a recent inspection at the Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland. Nuclear power plants are required to maintain well-trained and armed security officers, physical barriers, and intrusion detection and surveillance systems to defend against possible threats. Our security inspection program is the primary way the agency verifies the plants are operating according to our security regulations. 

Our Chairman Wright was #OnTheRoad last week to meet with the International Nuclear Regulators Association. INRA meets twice a year and includes the head regulators from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S. France hosted last week’s meeting in Paris with a side visit to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, an international nuclear fusion engineering and research demonstration facility.

Happy #NationalLimerickDay! May 12th is the birthday of Edward Lear, an English poet who popularized the limerick. This day celebrates him and the humorous poetry he created. Just for fun, we have four original limericks about us and what we do. Pick your favorite in the comments!

In 1959, as the junior U.S. senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy visited the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and received a briefing from the ORNL Director Alvin Weinberg, who would later receive the Atoms for Peace Award and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Enrico Fermi Award. Accompanying the future President, but quite unfortunately not in this photograph, was the future First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. #ThrowbackThursday

Everyone knows about the REAL ID Act, which sets security standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards. But did you know this Act also relates to nuclear power plant access? Access to nuclear power plants is carefully controlled and a government-issued ID is one step in the access process. As permitted by the Department of Homeland Security, we’re using a phased enforcement plan to apply the Real ID Act requirements for those IDs – impacting plant staff, visitors, contractors and vendors. We’ve published our plan and are working with nuclear power plant operators as they make any necessary changes to their procedures, and as they conduct training and outreach to ensure their personnel are Real ID ready. Get more information about our plan here: https://lnkd.in/eSf-nwHM