ML17300B241
| ML17300B241 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Palo Verde  |
| Issue date: | 12/20/1989 |
| From: | Kirsch D NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION V) |
| To: | Conway W ARIZONA PUBLIC SERVICE CO. (FORMERLY ARIZONA NUCLEAR |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9001100097 | |
| Download: ML17300B241 (16) | |
Text
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UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION REGION V 1450 MARIALANE,SUITE 210 WALNUTCREEK, CALIFORNIA04596 December 20, 1989 Arizona Nuclear Power Project
'. 0.
Box 52034 Phoenix, Arizona 85072-2034 Attention:
Nr. M. F.
Conway Executive Vice President, Nuclear
Dear Mr. Conway:
Subject:
Operator Requalification and Initial Retake Examination In a telephone conversation between Nr. E. Firth, Training Manager, and Mr. L. Miller, Section Chief, arrangements were made for initial operator and requalification retake examinations at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating
- Station, Units 1, 2, and 3.
These examinations will be for one operator who failed the simulator examination during the October, November 1989 requalification examinations administered by the NRC, and an'other operator who failed the simulator portion of an initial examination administered by the NRC during August 1989.
The simulator examinations have been scheduled for March 20 and 21, 1990.
To meet the above schedule, it will be necessary for you to furnish an update to the current material which was used for the October/November 1989 requalification simulator examinations.
The updated material will be used for the initial and requalification examination development.
The complete-list of reference material is listed in Enclosure I, "Reference Naterial Requirements."
The updated material for the simulator examinations shall include new or modified simulation facility scenarios as well as revised procedures.
This material is required in the Region V
offices by January 22, 1989.
Before work is actually started on the specific requalification scenarios, by facility personnel, we require that the person(s) involved in examination preparation sign a "Pre-Exam Security Agreement".
This form is contained in the "Examiner Standards" ES-601.
Any delay in receiving approved, properly bound and indexed reference material, or the submittal of inadequate or incomplete reference material may result in the examination b'eing rescheduled.
Mr. Firth has been advised of our reference material requirements, and the address where it is to be mailed.
It is requested that an employee be provided to complete the requalification examination team.
The employee shall be an active SRO (per the requirements of 10 CFR 55.53(e) or (f)) from the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Stations Operations Oepartment.
If desired by the facility and agreed to by the Chief
- Examiner, an additional employee from the Training Oepartment may be a member of the examination team.
This employee shall preferably be an active SRO 9001100097 85'12 '0.
PDR ADOCh; 050005 '8 V
'I
Mr. W. F.
Conway December 20, 1989 (per the requirements of 10 CFR 55.53(e) or (f)) but may be a facility or INPO certified instructor.
These individuals may not be scheduled for the NRC administered examination during this visit, or participate as.instructors for the individuals being examined.
The facility representatives will be required to certify that they did not knowingly compromise any portion of the examination.
The facility representatives shall be restricted
( 1) from knowingly communicating by any means the content or scope of the examination to unauthorized persons and (2) from participating in any facility programs such as instruction, examination, or tutoring in which an identified requalification examinees will be present.
These restrictions shall apply from the time the representatives begin preparation of the examination material.
The facility management is responsible for providing adequate space and accommodations to properly develop and conduct the examinat'ion.
Enclosure 2,
"Administration of Requalification Examinations,"
describes our requirements for developing and conducting the examinations.
Mr. Firth has also been informed of these requirements.
Enclosure 3, contains the "NRC Rules and Guidance for Examinees" that will be in effect during the administration of the simulator examination.
The facility management is responsible for ensuring that the operator is aware of these rules.
This request is covered by Office of Management and Budget Clearance Number 3150-0101 which expires May 31, 1992.
The estimated average burden is 7.7 hours8.101852e-5 days <br />0.00194 hours <br />1.157407e-5 weeks <br />2.6635e-6 months <br /> per response, including gathering, xeroxing and mailing the required material.
Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to the Records and Reports Management Branch,,Division of Information Support
- Services, Office of Information Resources Management, U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D. C. 20555; and to the Paperwork Reduction Project (3150-0101), Office of Management and Budget, Washington, D. C. 20503.
Thank'you for your consideration in this matter.
If you have any questions regarding the examination procedures and requirements, please contact
'r.
Michael Royack, Operator Examiner, at 415-943-3790, or Mr. Lew Miller, Chief, Operations Section, at 415-943-3869.
Sincerely, ennis F. Kir h, Chief Reactor Safety Branch
Enclosures:
1.
Reference Material Requirements 2.
Administration of Requalification Examinations 3.
.NRC Rules and Guidelines for Examinees for the Simulation Facility (Requalification)
- ENCLOSURE I REFERENCE MATERIAL REQUIREMENTS 1.
For the written examination, the following items must be provided to the NRC 60 days prior to the examination date:
Proposed RO and SRO requalification written examination test items.
(A minimum of 350 per section of the examination.)
Since the written examination is open reference, examination items must meet the following:
a.
Items that require only memorization or recall are not permitted; b.
Items should require that the examinee comprehend, interpret, integrate, or apply available information; c.
Items should contain situations,
- aspects, or conditions that do not duplicate lesson plans or references; and d.
Items should require examinees to locate and use references.
The written examination will be composed of two sections, each designed to be completed in 1-1/2 hours.
Each section will be separate.
Section A will be administered on a static simulator; Section 8 will be administered in a classroom setting.
Section A is designed to evaluate the operator's knowledge of plant systems, integrated plant operations,
.and instrumentation and controls.
In addition, recognition of Technical Specification LCOs and the operator's ability to diagnose postulated events should be evaluated.
Section B of the written examination is designed to evaluate the ability of the operator to analyze a given set of conditions and determine the proper procedural and/or administrative guidance.
2.
All reference material and objectives for the proposed operating test items.
For the simulation facility, the following items must be provided to the NRC 60 days prior to the examination date:
a
~
A minimum of 15 scenarios The scenarios should sample areas such as LERs, emergency and abnormal procedures, and design and procedural changes that exercise the crew's ability to use facility procedures in accident prevention and mitigation.
The scenarios should evaluate each crew member as appropriate to his/her license, and shall exercise their ability in the use of Emergency Operating Procedures, Technical Specifications, and the Emergency Plan.
The scenario's net time.
(not including time spent on briefings, setup or simulation facility problems) should average 50 minutes, based upon real time performance.
III
,I f
I
Enclosure 1 (continued)
For the plant walk through examination, the following items must be provided to the NRC 60 days prior to the examination. date:
(1)
A list of systems and topics appropriate to the plant walk through examination that were covered during the requalification cycle and are important to safety.
All reference material required to support an examination on these topics should be provided.
= (2)
Seventy five (75) job performance measures.
These performance measures should be both in plant and control room operator functions, that are required for the safe operation of the facility.
They shall include acceptable performance criteria.
(3)
Any additional reference material required for examination preparation will be requested by the examination team.
3.
A sampling plan shall be provided by the facility which indicates the relative emphasis of topics which were included in the most recent requalification training cycle.
,t lii 4
1
ENCLOSURE 2
ADMINISTRATION OF REQUAL IF I CATION EXAMINATIONS Twenty percent of the facility licensed operators shall be selected for evaluation.
Normally the crew currently in the requalification cycle will be selected.
A random sample without replacement wi 1 1 be used to preclude a satisfactory operator from being subject-to reexamination by the NRC during the term of the license.
The sample will include other shift(s) made up of licensed personnel who are not routinely performing shift duties.
The simulator and a simulator operator(s) will be provided for examination development.
The date(s) and duration of time needed to develop the examinations will be agreed upon by the chief examiner and the facility.
The reference material used in the simulator will be reviewed by the chief examiner.
No material will be used that is solely used for training.
A single room shall be provided for completing Section 8 of the written examination.
The location of this room and supporting rest room facilities shall be such as to prevent contact with all other facility and/or contractor personnel during the duration of the examination.
Minimum spacing is required to ensure examination integrity as determined by the chief examiner.
Minimum spacing should be one examinee per table, with a 3-foot space between tables.
No wall charts,
- models, and/or other training materials shall be present in the examination room.
Copies of reference material for Section B of the written examination will be provided for each examinee.
The reference material will be reviewed by the chief. examiner and will consist of Technical Specifications, operating/abnormal procedures, administrative procedures, Emergency Plans as available to the plant operators.
Video taping capabilities may be utilized.
The facility should contact the chief examiner for restrictions related to its usage.
Since common tasks and detailed systems knowledge will be probed during the walk through portion of the opera'ting test, operators will be requested not to discuss the walk through with other examinees until after the complete examination has been administered.
An attempt will be made to distinguish between RO and SRO knowledge and abilities to the extent that such a distinction is supported by the facility training materials.
l, ti
ENCLOSURE 3 RE(UALI F ICATION SIMULATION FACILITY BRIEFING CHECKLIST The Primary responsibility is to operate the simulation facility as if it were'he actual plant.
Teamwork and communication between operators is evaluated.
It benefits the exam process to verbalize observations, analysis and reasons for actions more than normally would be done. during actual plant operations.
I If an operator recognizes an incorrect decision,
- response, answer,
- analysis, action taken, or interpretation of the team which the operator is a part of and fails to correct it, then the examiner may assume that operator agreed with the incorrect item.
A rough log may be kept during each exercise that would be sufficient to complete necessary formal log entries which may be evaluated under
'administrative topics.
A designated'facility instructor will act as the auxiliary operator, radiation health and chemistry technicians, maintenance supervisors, plant management, and anyone else needed outside the control room area.
The facility examiner will provide a shift turnover before the exercise begins.
The shift turnover will include present plant conditions, power history, equipment out of service, abnormal conditions.
Surveillance
- due, and instructions for the shift.
The control board switches will not be purposely misaligned.
Out of service equipment will be tagged or otherwise identified.
Operators will be allowed three to five minutes to familiarizes themselves with the status/conditions of the control boards prior to the start of the exercise.
The simulation facility part of the examination will consist of two exercises lasting approximately 50 minutes each.
There will be a short break between exercises -to set up the initial conditions for the next exercise.
If operators have any questions concerning the administration of the operating test, those questions should be answered prior to the start of the test.
Following each scenario, the facility evaluators will have an opportunity to ask any desired follow-up questions after which the NRC Examiners will be given the same opportunity.
The operator crew will then be excused from the simulator'hile facility evaluators and NRC examiners caucus independently and prepare for the next scenario.
This entire process is repeated for subsequent scenarios and upon completion of all scenarios the facility evaluators will debrief the operator crew.
t
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Part ENCLOSURE 3 INITIAL 8 - For test with simulation facilit available 2.
3.
5.
6.
The primary responsibility is to operate the facility as if it were the plant.
If the examiner asks questions, they should be answered
~onl if doing so will not interfere with simulation facility operations.
Team work and communication between applicants is evaluated.
If benefits the examination process to verbalize observations, analysis and reasons for actions more than normally would be done during plant operations.
If an applicant recognizes but fails to correct an erroneous
- decision, response, answer, analysis, action taken or interpretation made by the operating team/crew, then the examiner will assume that the applicant agrees with the incorrect item.
A rough log shall be kept during each. exercise that would be sufficient to complete necessary formal log entries.
This will be evaluated under administrative topics.
A designated facility instructor (or an examiner) will act as the auxiliary operators, radiation health and chemistry technician, maintenance supervisors, plant management and anyone else needed outside the control room.
7.
8.
Note:
The facility instructor (or examiner) will provide a shift turnover before the exercise begins.
The shift turnover will include present plant conditions, power history, equipment out of service, abnormal conditions, surveillances
- due, and instruction for the shift.
Control board switches may be misaligned to enhance a simulated scenario or transient wher e appropriate and is not part of the evaluation.
If misaligned, they will be tagged or otherwise highlighted as appropriate to the facility, and noted during the shift turnover.
The examiner will not misalign switches during the scenario.
The Chief Examiner has the option to tell the applicants that no control board switches will be misaligned on a given scenario or set of scenarios.
9e Candidates will be allowed three to five minutes to familiarize themselves with the status/conditions of the control boards prior to the start of the exercise.
10.
11.
~
The simulation facility part of the examination will consist of two or three scenarios lasting from 3 to 4 hours4.62963e-5 days <br />0.00111 hours <br />6.613757e-6 weeks <br />1.522e-6 months <br />.
There will be a short break between scenarios to set up the initial conditions for the next scenario.
If applicants have any questions concerning the administration of the operating test, those questions should be answered prior to the start of the test.
4I II
Mr.
W. F.
Conway December 20, 1989 cc w/enclosures (1), (2) and (3):
R. Cross, RV (2 copies) cc w/o enclosures (1), (2) and (3):
M. Davis, NRR/PDS T. Chan, NRR/PD5 D. Kirsch, RV L. Miller, RV M. Royack, RV T. Polich, SRI E. Firth, ANPP D. Craig, ANPP RV/jk U
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