05000528/FIN-2007012-19
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Finding | |
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| Title | Routine Heavy Use of Overtime |
| Description | The team identified an unresolved item (URI) associated with Technical Specification 5.2.2.d. for the routine use of heavy amounts of overtime for operations personnel. Interviews with frontline personnel and managers in operations indicated that shortages of licensed operators and operator training personnel were perceived to be the most significant issue facing the operations organization. Interviewees reported that the licensed operator training pipeline was interrupted several times after 2000 with a resulting net loss of 20 licensed operators by 2007 (see chart below). This loss occurred concurrently with a reduction from 6 operator shifts to 5 self-relieving shifts (i.e., shift crews that have sufficient numbers of personnel to ensure that regulatory and administrative control room staffing requirements can be met without overtime or assigning a member of another shift crew to cover for an individuals absence). The continued loss of operators reduced shift staffing to a point where 13 of 15 shifts were not self-relieving. This meant that most control room shifts did not have a sufficient number of operators to make up for a temporary absence or permanent loss of either a reactor operator (RO) or SRO. The reductions had the effect of requiring personnel to work additional overtime and limited most licensed operators activities to standing watch in the control room. Interviewees indicated that career advancement opportunities for licensed operators were limited because of pressures to maintain shift crews; thereby, limiting the ability of licensed operators to integrate an operations perspective into other site activities. The team reviewed operations payroll data that summarized the cumulative regular and overtime hours for each operations department position and calculated the annual overtime rate for select positions. Since 2003, overtime, as a percent of regular hours worked, has increased steadily and substantively for control room and auxiliary operators. The team noted that the increase in overtime rates for operations department positions appeared to be largely the result of a decrease in staffing, rather than the result of an increase in the total number of person-hours expended. Specifically, from 2003 through 2006, the total number of hours worked annually by personnel in the control room supervisor (CRS), SRO, RO, and auxiliary operator (AO) positions remained relatively constant, or decreased, while the percentage of those total hours that were worked as overtime increased. As a result, the payroll data indicated that the licensee increasingly relied on the use of overtime to provide the person-hours necessary to operate the three units. Technical Specification 5.2.2.d requires administrative procedures to be developed and implemented to limit the working hours of unit staff that perform safety-related functions (e.g., licensed SROs, licensed ROs, radiation protection technicians, auxiliary operators and key maintenance personnel). The Technical Specifications further requires that the controls shall include guidelines on working hours that ensure adequate shift coverage shall be maintained without routine heavy use of overtime. Pending the completion of a review of the actual work hours by operations personnel, this issue is identified as URI 05000528, 05000529,05000530/2007012-19, Routine Heavy Use of Overtime. |
| Site: | Palo Verde  |
|---|---|
| Report | IR 05000528/2007012 Section 4OA4 |
| Date counted | Dec 31, 2007 (2007Q4) |
| Type: | URI: |
| cornerstone | Mitigating Systems |
| Identified by: | NRC identified |
| Inspection Procedure: | IP 95003 |
| Inspectors (proximate) | R Treadway P Elkmann G Werner L Carson J Melfi G Warnick M Hay J Bashore M Cattsg Wernerh Gepford J Drake M Schneider M Wilk P Elkmann R Kahler R Smith S Gillum T Pruett |
| INPO aspect | |
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Finding - Palo Verde - IR 05000528/2007012 | |||||||||||||||||||
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Finding List (Palo Verde) @ 2007Q4
Self-Identified List (Palo Verde)
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