IR 05000298/2011301
| ML111920322 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Cooper  |
| Issue date: | 07/08/2011 |
| From: | Mark Haire Operations Branch IV |
| To: | O'Grady B Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) |
| References | |
| 50-298/11-301 | |
| Download: ML111920322 (12) | |
Text
UNITED STATES NUC LE AR RE G UL AT O RY C O M M I S S I O N uly 8, 2011
SUBJECT:
COOPER NUCLEAR STATION - NRC EXAMINATION REPORT 05000298/2011301
Dear Mr. OGrady:
On June 10, 2011, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed an initial operator license examination at Cooper Nuclear Station. The enclosed report documents the examination results and licensing decisions. The preliminary examination results were discussed on June 9, 2011, with Mr. R. Penfield, Operations Manager, and other members of your staff. A telephonic exit meeting was conducted on June 21, 2011, with Mr. M. Barton, Operations Training Supervisor, who was provided the NRC licensing decisions.
The examination included the evaluation of four applicants for reactor operator licenses and four applicants for instant senior reactor operator licenses. The license examiners determined that all of the applicants satisfied the requirements of 10 CFR Part 55, and the appropriate licenses have been issued. There were no post-examination comments submitted by your staff.
The enclosure to this letter contains the details of this report.
No findings were identified during this examination.
In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter and its enclosure will be available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRCs document system (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room).
Sincerely,
/RA/
Mark S. Haire, Chief Operations Branch Division of Reactor Safety
Docket: 50-298 License: DPR-46 Enclosure 1 - NRC Examination Report 05000298/2011301 Attachment 1 - Supplemental Information Attachment 2 - Form ES-501 Simulator Fidelity Report cc w/enclosure:
Distribution via ListServ-2- Attachment 2
Nebraska Public Power District -3-Electronic distribution by RIV:
Regional Administrator (Elmo.Collins@nrc.gov)
Deputy Regional Administrator (Art.Howell@nrc.gov)
DRP Director (Kriss.Kennedy@nrc.gov)
Acting DRP Deputy Director (Jeff.Clark@nrc.gov)
DRS Director (Anton.Vegel@nrc.gov)
Acting DRS Deputy Director (Robert.Caldwell@nrc.gov)
Senior Resident Inspector (Jeffrey.Josey@nrc.gov)
Resident Inspector (Michael.Chambers@nrc.gov)
Branch Chief, DRP/C (Vincent.Gaddy@nrc.gov)
Senior Project Engineer, DRP/C (Bob.Hagar@nrc.gov)
Project Engineer, DRP/C (Jonathan.Braisted@nrc.gov)
Project Engineer, DRP/C (Rayo.Kumana@nrc.gov)
CNS Administrative Assistant (Amy.Elam@nrc.gov)
Public Affairs Officer (Victor.Dricks@nrc.gov)
Public Affairs Officer (Lara.Uselding@nrc.gov)
Project Manager (Lynnea.Wilkins@nrc.gov)
Acting Branch Chief, DRS/TSB (Dale.Powers@nrc.gov)
RITS Coordinator (Marisa.Herrera@nrc.gov)
Regional Counsel (Karla.Fuller@nrc.gov)
Congressional Affairs Officer (Jenny.Weil@nrc.gov)
OEMail Resource RIV/ETA: OEDO (John.McHale@nrc.gov)
DRS/TSB STA (Dale.Powers@nrc.gov)
SUNSI Review Completed: __KDC__ ADAMS: Yes No Initials: __BTL__
Publicly Available Non-Publicly Available Sensitive Non-Sensitive R:\ ADAMS ML SOE:OB SOE:OB SRI:PSB2 C:PBC C:OB KClayton GApger JDrake VGaddy MHaire
/RA/ /RA/ /RA/ /RA/ /RA/
6/ 22/11 7/05/11 7/06/11 6/22/11 7/8/11 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY T=Telephone E=E-mail F=Fax
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
REGION IV
Docket: 50-298 License: DPR-46 Report: 05000298/2011301 Licensee: Nebraska Public Power District Facility: Cooper Nuclear Station Location: 72676 648A Ave Brownville, NE 68321 Dates: June 6 - 21, 2011 Inspectors: K. Clayton, Senior Operations Engineer G. Apger, Senior Operations Engineer J. Drake, Senior Reactor Inspector Approved By: Mark S. Haire, Chief Operations Branch Division of Reactor Safety 1 Enclosure 1
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
ER05000298/2011301; June 6-21, 2011; Cooper Nuclear Station; Initial Operator Licensing
Examination Report.
NRC examiners evaluated the competency of four applicants for reactor operator licenses and four applicants for instant senior reactor operator licenses at Cooper Nuclear Station.
The licensee developed the examinations using NUREG-1021, "Operator Licensing Examination Standards for Power Reactors," Revision 9, Supplement 1. The written examination was administered by the licensee on June 13, 2011. NRC examiners administered the operating tests during the week of June 6, 2011.
The examiners determined that all of the applicants satisfied the requirements of 10 CFR Part 55, and the appropriate licenses have been issued.
NRC-Identified and Self-Revealing Findings
No findings were identified.
Licensee-Identified Violations
None.
2 Attachment 2
REPORT DETAILS
OTHER ACTIVITIES (OA)
4OA5 Other Activities (Initial Operator License Examination)
.1 License Applications
a. Scope
NRC examiners reviewed all license applications submitted to ensure each applicant satisfied relevant license eligibility requirements. The examiners also audited two of the license applications in detail to confirm that they accurately reflected the subject applicants qualifications. This audit focused on the applicants experience and on-the-job training, including control manipulations that provided significant reactivity changes.
b. Findings
No findings were identified.
.2 Examination Development
a. Scope
NRC examiners reviewed integrated examination outlines and draft examinations submitted by the licensee against the requirements of NUREG-1021. The NRC examination team conducted an onsite validation of the operating tests.
b. Findings
No findings were identified.
NRC examiners provided outline, draft examination and post-validation comments to the licensee. The licensee satisfactorily completed comment resolution prior to examination administration.
NRC examiners determined that the written examinations initially submitted by the licensee were not within the range of acceptability expected for a proposed examination.
There were 29 questions categorized as unsatisfactory per NUREG-1021 requirements, with the two most common issues being knowledge/ability mismatch or two or more distracters that were not credible. Additionally, there were 47 questions that needed editorial changes, and 24 questions that were satisfactory as originally submitted. This was the second unsatisfactory examination submittal on successive examinations.
Consistent with the corporate notification letter sent to licensees at the start of examination development for each examination, future unsatisfactory examination submittals may cause the examinations to be rescheduled or cancelled. Although the draft operating test submittal was not determined to be unsatisfactory, it required more revision than is typical for such flaws as poorly defined alternate path Job Performance Measures (JPMs), poorly defined critical tasks on scenarios for which there is detailed guidance in NUREG-1021, and JPMs of low discriminatory value.
During examination validation, the NRC examination team identified several procedure enhancement opportunities that were captured by CR 2011-06826.
.3 Operator Knowledge and Performance
a. Scope
This initial examination was originally scheduled to be given on February 25, 2011, with the operating test scheduled to be administered the week of February 28, 2011, as requested by the licensee staff. However, due to poor applicant performance on the audit examination the week January 31, 2011, the licensee requested that the operating test be rescheduled to June 6, 2011. The condition report and Apparent Cause Evaluation written to evaluate the root causes of this issue were captured in CR 2011-01084. In discussion with the regional operator licensing branch chief, the licensee agreed to new dates of June 6 for the operating test administration and June 13 for the written examination administration.
On June 13, 2011, the licensee proctored the administration of the written examination, analyzed the results, and presented their analysis and post examination comments to the NRC on June 20, 2011. There were no recommended changes to the written exam.
The ten questions that were missed by 50 percent or more of the applicants were analyzed by the licensee and determined to be knowledge weaknesses. Condition Report CR 2011-07036 was written to address these issues.
The NRC examination team administered the various portions of the operating tests to eight applicants from June 6 through June 10, 2011.
b. Findings
No findings were identified.
The final written examinations and post-examination analysis may be accessed in the ADAMS system under the accession numbers noted in the attachment. There were no post-examination comments as indicated in the licensee submittal. In a letter, dated June 16, 2011, reference number NLS2011065, the licensee requested and received approval by the NRC to withhold the written examinations from the public document room for two years after the administration date.
.4 Simulation Facility Performance
a. Scope
The NRC examiners observed simulator performance with regard to plant fidelity during examination validation and administration.
b. Findings
No findings were identified.
Two simulator fidelity issues occurred during the operating tests and they are documented in Attachment 2 of this report per NUREG-1021 requirements. The licensee entered these items into their corrective action program as CR 2011-06708, CR 2011-06713, and CR 2011-06705.
There were also several setup issues with the initial condition snap files created on the simulator for some of the Job Performance Measures (JPMs) that the licensee entered into their corrective action program as CR 2011-06711.
.5 Examination Security
a. Scope
The NRC examiners reviewed examination security during both the onsite preparation week and examination administration week for compliance with 10 CFR 55.49 and NUREG-1021. Plans for simulator security and applicant control were reviewed and discussed with licensee personnel.
b. Findings
No findings were identified.
4OA6 Meetings, Including Exit
The chief examiner presented the preliminary examination results to Mr. R. Penfield and other members of the staff on June 5, 2011. A telephonic exit was conducted on June 21, 2011, between Messrs. K. Clayton, Chief Examiner, and M. Barton, Operations Training Supervisor.
The licensee did not identify any information or materials used during the examination as proprietary.
ATTACHMENT 1 -
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
KEY POINTS OF CONTACT
Licensee Personnel
- R. Penfield, Operations Manager
- J. Kahanca, Operations Shift Manager
- D. Goodman, Assistant Operations Shift Manager
- J. Long, Assistant Operations Training Manager
- D. Sealock, Training Manager
- D. Van DerKamp, Licensing Manager
- D. Montgomery, Emergency Preparedness Manager
- M. Barton, Operations Training Supervisor
- D. Dea, Training - Simulator
NRC Personnel
- M. Chambers, Resident Inspector