§ 26.207 - Waivers and exceptions.

§ 26.207 Waivers and exceptions.

(a) Waivers. Licensees may grant a waiver of one or more of the work hour controls in § 26.205(d)(1) through (d)(5)(i) and (d)(7), as follows:

(1) To grant a waiver, the licensee shall meet both of the following requirements:

(i) An operations shift manager determines that the waiver is necessary to mitigate or prevent a condition adverse to safety, or a security shift manager determines that the waiver is necessary to maintain site security, or a site senior-level manager with requisite signature authority makes either determination; and

(ii) A supervisor assesses the individual face to face and determines that there is reasonable assurance that the individual will be able to safely and competently perform his or her duties during the additional work period for which the waiver will be granted. The supervisor performing the assessment shall be trained as required by §§ 26.29 and 26.203(c) and shall be qualified to direct the work to be performed by the individual. If there is no supervisor on site who is qualified to direct the work, the assessment may be performed by a supervisor who is qualified to provide oversight of the work to be performed by the individual. At a minimum, the assessment must address the potential for acute and cumulative fatigue considering the individual's work history for at least the past 14 days, the potential for circadian degradations in alertness and performance considering the time of day for which the waiver will be granted, the potential for fatigue-related degradations in alertness and performance to affect risk-significant functions, and whether any controls and conditions must be established under which the individual will be permitted to perform work.

(2) To the extent practicable, licensees shall rely on the granting of waivers only to address circumstances that could not have been reasonably controlled;

(3) Licensees shall ensure that the timing of the face-to-face supervisory assessment that is required by paragraph (a)(1)(ii) of this section supports a valid assessment of the potential for worker fatigue during the time the individual will be performing work under the waiver. Licensees may not perform the face-to-face assessment more than 4 hours before the individual begins performing any work under the waiver; and

(4) Licensees shall document the bases for individual waivers. The documented basis for a waiver must include a description of the circumstances that necessitate the waiver, a statement of the scope of work and time period for which the waiver is approved, and the bases for the determinations required in paragraphs (a)(1)(i) and (ii) of this section.

(b) Force-on-force tactical exercises. For the purposes of compliance with the minimum days off requirements of § 26.205(d)(3) or the maximum average work hours requirements of § 26.205(d)(7), licensees may exclude shifts worked by security personnel during the actual conduct of NRC-evaluated force-on-force tactical exercises when calculating the individual's number of days off or hours worked, as applicable.

(c) Common defense and security. When informed in writing by the NRC that the requirements of § 26.205, or any subset thereof, are waived for security personnel to ensure the common defense and security, licensees need not meet the specified requirements of § 26.205 for the duration of the period defined by the NRC.

(d) Plant emergencies. Licensees need not meet the requirements of § 26.205(c) and (d) during declared emergencies, as defined in the licensee's emergency plan.

[73 FR 17176, Mar. 31, 2008, as amended at 76 FR 43549, July 21, 2011]