ML19207A509

Informs NRC of Number of Plant Superintendents & Assistant Superintendents Holding Current Operator Licenses & How Many Licensed in past.(L-4-1,pt.55)

ML19207A509
Person / Time
Site:	Crane
Issue date:	05/14/1979
From:	Harold Denton Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To:
References
FOIA-81-131, TASK-TF, TASK-TMR SECY-79-330, NUDOCS 7908200330
Download: ML19207A509 (26)

Text

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UNITED STA TES

• May 14. 1979 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION SECY-79-330 INFORMATION REPORT For:

The Commissioners From:

Harold R. Denton, Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Thru:

Executive Director for Operations

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Subject:

PLANT SUPERINTENDENTS AND ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENTS WHO HOLD, OR HAVE HELD, CPERATOR LICENSES

?urcose:

To inform the Commission regarding the nur.ber of plant superintendents and assistant superintendents who have current operator licenses and hcw many were licensed in the past.

Discussion:

In a memorandum from Samuel J. Chilk to Lee V. Gossick dated April 30, 1979, NRR was requested to inform the Cccmission regarding seven items relating to procedures for qualifying.eactor operators.

Ite:n 3 of the memorandum requested tiaa't we determine hcw many plant superintendents and assistant superintendents have current operator licenses and how r.any were licensed in the past.

We have conducted a survey of the 70 nuclear pcwer plants with operating licenses at 48 sites and have obtained the follcwing information.

One hundred and seven individuals are employed as plant superintendents or assistant plant superintendents.

Sixty individuals (56") have senior cperator licenses in effect.

Seventeen individuals (16%) have had a senior operator license at the facility where they are presently employed.

Ten individuals (9%) have had.enior operator licenses at other nuclear ;cwer plants.

Twenty individuals e'0 2

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(19%) have not been licensed.

However, all of these individuals have nuclear power plant experience and

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have participated in comprehensive trainin1 programs.

l Coordination:

This action has been coordinated with the Office of the Executive Legal Director.

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HaroldR}.venton,01 rector

/J1 Office of :tuclear Reactor Regu ation DISTRIBUTION Cctrai s sioners Ccmmission Staff Offices Exec Dir for Operations Regional Offices ACRS ASLBP ASLAP Secretariat

9 umTto sTArss SECY-79-330A "ay 29, 1979 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMisSICN INFORMATION REPORT For:

The Ccrimissioners From:

Harold R. Denton, Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Thru:

Executive Director for Operations #

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Subject:

A STATISTICAL PRL' FILE OF LICENSED CPERATCRS AND SENICR CPERATORS i

AND A STATISTICAL PROFILE OF COM!!ERCIAL AIRLINE PILOTS, AND l

MERCHANT MARINE ENGINEERING PERSONNEL i

l Purcose:

To inform the Commission of the results of a survey to determine l

a profile of operators and senior operators and the comparison i

of this profile with a profile of people in other regulated i

industries.

Discussion:

In a memorandum from Samuel J. Chilk to Lee V. Gossick dated April 30,1979, NRR was requested to inform the Ccmmissicn regarding seven items relating-to procedures for qualifying reactor operators.

l l

Item 2 of the memorandum requested that we should determine by suitable statistical sampling of available records, an estimate i

of the years of operating experience for currently licensed operatcrs and senior operators, and, if possible, provide the information separately for the reactor plants designed by each of the major NSSS vendors. Also, we were requested to provide a comparison of licensed reactor operators (age, educational level, salary) with people in other regulated industries with similar responsibilities (e.g., air traffic controllers, ccomercial airline pilots, etc.).

We reviewed the information contair.ed in individual dockets of licensed individuals employed at nine sites with three sites having dual units.

Three units at two sites were GE NSSS, five units at three sites were Westinghcuse NSSS, two units at two sites

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were B&W NSSS, and two units at two sites were CE NSSS.

Sites selected were located in the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest and Western parts of the country.

Facilities possessed operating licenses for 0.4 years (Arkansas Unit No. 2) to 8.6 years (Point Beach, Unit No.1).

The sample consists of 303 licensed operators and senior operators, out of a total of 2552 currently licensed operators and senior operators.

This sample was not chosen at random but rather was selected from the 69 currently licensed LWRs to reflect the possible effects of vendor and length of reactor operation on operator characteristics. While we believe that results of this survey provide a useful profile, the sample chosen may not fully represent all possible features of the total population of operators of LWRs because of its limited size.

A fully accurate picture would necessjtate examining all of the currently licensed LWRs.

The follcwing findings are based on the sample data:

The median nuclear power plant experience for currently licensed operators and senior operators is about nine years, with about one-third ncn-ccmmercial (mostly naval).

The min-imum nuclear experience is three years.

The median age is 36 for currently licensed senior reactor cperators, and 33 for reactor operators, with all over 25 years of age. About 80% of the currently licensed senior reactor operators and about 50% of the reactor operators have formal education beyond high school.

There were no imrcrtant differences among vendors.

i Salaries for operators varied frca $18,600 to $26,000, depending I

upon geographic Iccation and seniority.

Salaries for senior operators varied frcm $19,0C0 to 540,0CO, also depending upon geographic locaticn and ser.iority.

, contains a detailed statistical analysis.

l The Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Department of Labor, has furnished us with the folicwing information regarding age, education and salary for other selected cccupations.

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Commercial Airline Pilots j

l Applicants for a ccmmercial pilot's license must be 18 years old and have at least 450 hours0.00521 days <br />0.125 hours <br />7.440476e-4 weeks <br />1.71225e-4 months <br /> of flight experienc2-and be a high school graduate.

Mcwever, most airlines requir': individuals to have two years of college and prefer to hire co'~.ege graduates.

j Applicants for a transport pilot's license (captains) must be 23 years old and have a minimum of 1,500 hours0.00579 days <br />0.139 hours <br />8.267196e-4 weeks <br />1.9025e-4 months <br /> of flying experience during the previous eight years, including night and instrument l

flying. The average age of currently licensed airlines pilots I

is 41 years.

l In 1976, the average salary for airline pilots was $46,253.

Some senior captains on the largest aircraft earned as much as $110,000.

Air Traffic Control'ers Applicants for Air Traffic Controllers must be less than 31 years old, have three years of general work experience or four years of college, or a ccmbination of both.

They are selected through the competitive Federal Civil Service System. The average a?e of currently licensed air traffic controllers is 35 years.

In 1978, the average earnings for all controllers was $25,400 a year.

Mechanical Marine Engineering Cecartment Personnel The Mechanical Marine Personnel Division, U. S. Coast Guard provided the following information.

Applicants for a third engineer's license must be 19 years old and have three years of sea service or be a graduate of a Ccast Guard approved Maritime School. An individual must be 21 years old to apply 9r a second engineer's and higher licenses up to Chief Engineer. These officers are the only Mechanical Marine Engineering Personnel who require licenses.

Other members of the engineerir.g department, firemen, oilers and junior engineers must be l? years old and have six months sea service upon entry to the pcsition.

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.4-and is 550,000 a year $30,000 a year.

i eers of years salary f or Chief Eng nes between $25,000 to number ginu and average for second and third en average age regarding averagenot available.

Officeram Analysis forl Director The of Policy Inf ormationof experience were coordinated with theof Management and P This paper has beenand Office The Office Ev aluationstatistical aspects. concurred with this pa Jination:

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l tor gulation Harold R. Denton, Direcof Nuclear Re Office Encicsure: Statistics latailed DI3Ryul0N Ccm3:st aners s

Ccmis.; ion Staff OfficeExec Dir for Operations Regicnal Offices ACRS Secretariat f-.

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ENCLOSURE 1 2.

" Determine by suitable statistical sampling of available records, an estimate of the years of operating experience for currently licensed operators and senior operators.

If possible, information should be provided separately for the reactor plar.ts dasigned by each of the major NSSS vendors.

In addition, the staff should provide a statist-profile of currently licensed reactor c,perators (age, ;ducaticnal le.

s a l a ry )... "

Samole Results Based on a sample of 12 licensed p; er reactors at nine sites, 202 s operators (SR0s) have nuclear experience as follows:

SR0 Excerience (Years)

Lcwer C

Quartile 1 Mediant C

Non-comercial (e.g., naval, other 0

2.5 military or test reactors):

3 Ccmmercial h9 7.3 Total Nuclear 7.5 LO Of the 82 SRCs for which records are ccmplete, 56 (80*,) have no conve pcwer plant experience. For the 15 SR0s with same conventional pcwer plant experience, the median ccnventional experience is 2.4 years.

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The median is the S0tn percentile, i.e., half the data points greater than the median and half are Icwer.

The icwer and uppe quartiles are, respectively, the 2sth and 7Sth percentiles, i.c quarter of the data points are less than the Icwer quartile wh-quarters are less than the upper quartile.

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3ased on 101 SR0s for which ncn-ccmercial experience is reccr

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Most of this ncn-ccmercial e<perience is naval.

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Of these 101 SR0s, 31 (31".) have nc ncn-ccmercial nuclear ex;c 0'

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4 At the same units, 79 operators (R0s) have nuclear experience as follcws:

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R0 Experience (Years)

Lcwer Upper Quartile "edian Quartile Non-commerical (e.g., naval, other military or test reactors)

• 3 0

4.4 5.5 Commercial 4.3 6.2 8.3 Total Nuclear

• 6.4 8.5 10.4 Of the 54 R0s for which records are ccmplete, 48 (89".) have no conventional gewer plant experience.

Detailed breakdcwns of nuclear experience of Senior Operators and Operators by unit and by vendor are depicted in Figures 1-4.

A key to the unit abbreviations is given in the section en sample selection belcw.

t Samole Selection i

i The above results were based on a manually retrieved and processed sample of 202 SR0s and 101 R0s from a total of 1483 currently licensed SR0s and IC69 Ros. This sample consists of all SR0s and R0s at 12 licensed pcwer reactor units at nine sites.

These 12 reactors were chosen frcm the 69 currently licensed LWRs to reflect the range of vendors and length Of operation, as listed belcw.

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3ased on 52 R0s for which non-ccmmercial experience is recorded.

Most of this non-commercial experience is naval.

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Of these 52 R0s, 20 (38%) have no ncn-commercial nuclear experience.

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Years of Operation VENDOR ABEREVIATION UNIT (as of 5/31/79)

GE PBM Peach Bottom 3 4.7 Peach Bottom 2 5.3 MSTN Millstone 1 3.5 WEC FRLY Farley 1.8 Turkey Point 4 5.9 TP Turkey Point 3 6.6 Point Beach 2 6.8 PTB Point Beach I 8.6 B&W DB Davis Besse 1 1.8 RS Rancho Seco 4.6 CE ARK Arkansas 2 0.4 FTCN Ft. Calhoun 5.8 Multiple units at the same site are included in the sample because operators at such units are cross-licensed and can work at either unit.

Ncn-ccamercial ruclear and fossil data were not available for all the operators included in the sample.

Age and Educatior, Ages of sampled SR0s and R0s by vendor are as folicws:

AGES Operators Lcwer in Samole Cuartile Median Quartile SR0 R0 SR0 R0 SRO R0 SRO R0 GE 49 20 35 32 40 35 46 36 WEC 93 31 31 30 35 32 39 36 B&W 39 15 32 31 35 32 40 37 CE 21 13 33 30 35 31 39 32 Total 202 79 32 30 36 33 41 36 p-u

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-L-i The educational background of the operators whose records are complete is as follows.

All other operatc;s have at least a high school or equivalent education.

EDUCATIONAL SACKGROUND Operators High Some B.S.

in Samole School Collece B.A.

Masters SR0 R0 SR0 R0 SR0 R0 SRO R0 SR0 R0 GE 13 8

31%

88%

12%

61%

8%

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'4 EC 40 20 10%

35%

48%

60%

32%

5%

10%

B&W 20 11 40%

64%

30%

27%

25%

9%

5%

CE 10 13 20%

31%

40%

69%

30%

10%

Total 83 52 22%

48%

35%

48%

35%

4%

8%

The salary range for licensed individuals based on a survey of twelve facilities is as follows:8 Northeast Southeast Midwest West

$22,C00

$18,600

$21,000 523,0C0 Operators to to to to

$26,000

$21,800

$22,000

$25,000 527,000

$19,000

$21,500 523,000 Senior Operators to to to to

$40,000

$36,000

$35,000 537,000 S/

Scae of these were different frca those facilities included in the age, education and experience survey.

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(N)UQ r

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GE Figure 2. Senior Reactor Operator Experience by Vendor Di '.

F.X P ERIEN CE (N)uQ r

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Figure 3. Reactor Operator Experience by Unit p;,

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N = NUMBER OF RO'S NON-COMMERCIAL 1 MED UQ = UPPER QUARTILE NUCLEAR 1 LQ MED = MEDIAN

P ERIEN CE (N)UQ LQ = LOWER QU ARTILE (YEARS)

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Raactor Operator Experience by Vendor C~'_v