More than 90 percent of nuclear regulators nationwide will be furloughed beginning Thursday.
In the absence of a federal budget bill to keep the government running, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is stripping down to a skeleton crew.
“Only about 300 of the normal 3,900 NRC staffers will stay on the job until the shutdown is over,” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said in a statement. “Our Resident Inspectors assigned to each operating nuclear power plant will be among those who will remain on duty.”
Sheehan says the NRC website “will essentially be static” after Wednesday. Daily reactor status reports and event reports will not be accessible to the public until after the shutdown, he added.
There were no specific details of any effect the furloughs would have on Entergy’s Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon.
All four regional offices will be closed and fewer than a handful of public relations officers will be on staff at the NRC’s headquarters. They will be available via e-mail at opa.resource@NRC.gov.
