News

The combined USA / STARs Mid-Cycle Self-Assessment (MCSA) staffing support process had another busy year in 2023 supporting MCSAs at six participating stations. We started off the year at Cooper followed by Susquehanna, Callaway, a scaled-down version at Prairie Island, and we have two MCSAs scheduled for the remainder of 2023 at Monticello and Diablo Canyon. One of the challenges we face when staffing the MCSA Teams is when stations have to move their originally scheduled dates after the MCSA Team is already full, as we have to verify that the original tram members are still available to support the new dates, and then fill any vacancies as needed. Fortunately, because of the efforts of the staff at our participating stations through the monthly MCSA Team call and our Site Representatives, we were successful in ensuring our MCSA Teams were fully staffed. Looking ahead to 2024, STP, Columbia, Fermi, Cook, Comanche Peak, Wolf Creek and Palo Verde are all slated for MCSAs. We are working to establish the dates and team member requests so we can start the process of staffing our teams. Thanks again to our USA Member stations and our partners at STARs for their continued support!

Shifting gears to Nuclear Safety Culture Assessments (NSCAs), in February we conducted a NSCA at Cook Nuclear Station with the remainder of our NSCAs at Wolf Creek (non-USA Member), Comanche Peak and Susquehanna scheduled for later in the year. In July, we were contacted by our peers at Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) requesting that we conduct NSCAs at Watts Bar, Browns Ferry, Sequoyah and their corporate offices, TVA Fleet Center. The dates have been established for those NSCAs and we are in the process of staffing those teams, so we will have a very busy fall schedule! If you would like to participate in a NSCA, please let me know or contact your USA Site Representative!

As you may recall from one of my previous NSCA updates, our USA Member stations provide staff members to serve as NSCA Team Leaders. One of our new Team Leaders, Karen Jones from Comanche Peak will be leading her first NSCA at Susquehanna later this year and Michelle Chowning from Cooper is participating in two NSCAs as Team Leader Under Instruction. In addition, Rob Hammons from Columbia is leading two NSCAs this year and Nick Davis from Susquehanna is leading one.

Looking ahead to 2024, are planning on conducting NSCAs at the following USA Member Stations:

• Columbia
• Xcel Energy (Monticello and Prairie Island)
• Fermi
• Cooper
• STP

We are also working with our industry peers at Oak Ridge National Labs, Vogtle, Paragon, PSEG and other facilities to potentially schedule NSCAs at their locations.

The USA NSCA Process continues to be viewed as the Gold Standard for how to evaluate Nuclear Safety Culture which continues to be of the utmost importance to the long-term success of our industry.