According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, worker fatigue increases the risk for illness and injuries and has been a contributing factor in several industrial disasters. The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Nuclear Fatigue Rule (NFR) procedure establishes requirements for managing fatigue and controlling work hours in accordance with Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 26, Subpart I, Managing Fatigue. The regulation has (1) a maximum average work hour requirement for covered individuals which limits worker hours to an average of 54 hours per week while the unit is online and (2) a minimum days off requirement while the unit is in an outage.
Due to the importance of employees being able to safely and competently perform their duties, we performed an evaluation of the NFR at Sequoyah Nuclear Plant. Our objective was to determine if the Tennessee Valley Authority was in compliance with the NFR at Sequoyah Nuclear Plant. Our review of sampled employee and contract employee work hours and badging records for
April 1, 2025, through September 30, 2025, identified no violations of NFR work-hour limits. However, we identified opportunities for improvement related to (1) NFR work-hour tracking, and (2) fatigue assessment documentation.
