ML19256B668

Results of Survey to Determine Profile of Operators & Senior Operators & Comparison W/Profile of People in Other Regulated industries,(L-4-1,pt.55)

ML19256B668
Person / Time
Site:	Crane
Issue date:	05/29/1979
From:	Harold Denton Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To:
References
FOIA-81-131, TASK-TF, TASK-TMR SECY-79-330A, NUDOCS 7908200343
Download: ML19256B668 (12)

Text

.

umTro starts SECY-79-330A

'37 23. 1979 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSICN INFORMATION REPORT For:

The Commissioners Fron:

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

Executive Director for Operations Suoject:

A STATISTICAL PROFILE OF LICENSED OPERATCRS AND SENIOR OPERATORS AND A STATISTICAL PROFILE OF COU!ERCI AL AIRLINE PILOTS, AND MERCHANT MARINE ENGINEERING PERSONNEL Durcose:

To inform the Commission of the results of a survey to determine a profile of operators and senior operators and the comparison of this profile with a profile of people in other regulated industries.

Discussion:

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

Item 2 of the memorandum requested that we should determine by suitable statistical sampling of available records, an estimate of the yea. vf operating experience for currently licensed operators ano senior operators, and, if possible, provide the information sacarately for the reactor plants designed by each of :he major NSSS vendors.

Also, we were requested to provide s comparison of licensed reactor operators (age, educational level, salary) with people in other regulated industries with similar responsibilities (e.g., air traffic controllers, commercial airline pilots, etc.).

We reviewed the information contained in individual dockets of licensed individuals employed at nine sites with three sites having dua' units.

Three units at two sites were GE NSSS, five units at three sites were Westinghouse NSSS, two units at two sites A/, x.

Contact:

C -'

-[p P. F. Collins, NRR 7

J92-7486

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e r916 223 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 thRs because of its limited size.

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

The following 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 non-commercial (mostly naval).

The min-imum nuclear experience is three years.

The median age is 36 for currently licensed senior reactor operators, 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 important differences among vendors.

Salaries for operators varied from S13,600 to 526,000, depending upon geographic location and seniority.

Salaries for senior operators varied from $19,000 to 540,000, also depending upon geographic location and seniority. contains a detailed statistical analysis.

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

1916 224

' Commercial Airline Pilots Applicants for a commercial 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 expe sence and be a high school graduate.

However, most airlines require individuals to have two years of college and prefer to hire college graduates.

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 ex. -ience during the previous eight years, including night and instrt. ment flying.

The average age of currently licensed airlines pilots is 41 years.

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 Controllers 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 combination of both.

They are selected through the competitive Federal Civil Service System.

The average age of currently licensed air traffic controllers is 35 years.

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

Mechanical Marine Encineerina Department Personnel The 'iechanical 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 Coast Guard approved Maritime School.

An individual must be 21 years old to apply for a second engineer's and higher licenses up to Chief Engineer.

These officers are the only Mechanical Marine Engineering Dersonnel who require licenses.

Other members of the engineering department, firemen, oilers and junior engineers must be 19 years old and have six months sea service upon entry to the position.

l'916 225

4-The average salary for Chief Engineers is 550,000 a year and for second and third engineers between 525,000 to $30,000 a year.

Information regarding average age and average number of years of experience were not available.

Coordination:

This paper has been coordinated with the Office of Policy Evaluation and Office of Management and Program Analysis for statistical aspects.

The Office of the Executive Legal Director has concurred with this paper.

l Harold R. Denton, Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation

Enclosure:

Detailed Statistics DISTRIBTUION Commissioners Commission Staff Offices Exec Dir for Operations Regional Offices ACRS Secretariat i916226 f

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, iWormation should be provided separately for the reactor plants designed by each of the major NSSS vendors.

In addition, the staff should provide a statistical profile of currently licensed reactor operators (age, educational level,.

s a l a ry )... "

Samole Results Based on a sample of 12 licensed power reactors et nine sites, 202 senior operators (SR0s) have nuclear experience as follows:

SR0 Experience (Years)

Lower Upper Quartile 1 Mediant Quartile 1 Non-commercial (e.g., naval, other 0

2.5 5.9 military or test reactors): s Connercial h9 7.3 10.0 Total Nuclear 7.5 LO 12.1 Of the 82 SR0s for which records are complete, 66 (80".) have no conventional power plant experience.

For the 16 SR0s with some conventional power plant experience, the median conventional experience is 2.4 years.

J/

The median is the 50th percentile, i.e., half the data points are greater than the median and half are lower.

The lower and upper quartiles are, respectively, the 25th and 75th percentiles, i.e., one-quarter of the data points are less than the lcwer quartile while three-quarters are less than the upper quartile.

-2/

Based on 101 SR0s for which non-commercial experience is recorded.

Most of this non-commercial experience is naval.

J/

Of these 101 SR0s, 31 (317.) have no non-commercial nuclear experience.

1916 227 s

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

R0 Experience (Years)

Lower Upper Quartile Median Quartile Non-commerical (e.g., naval, other military or test reactors) * :

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 complete, 48 (89%) have no conventional power plar.: ex;erience.

Detailed breakdowns 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 on sample selection below.

Samole Selection 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 1069 R0s.

This sample consists of all SR0s and R0s at 12 licensed power reactor units at nine sites.

These 12 reactors were chosan from the 69 currently licensed LWRs to reflect the range of vendors and length of operation, as listed below.

4/

Based on 52 ROS for which non-commercial experience is recorded.

Most of this non-commercial experience is naval.

_5/

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

i916 228 Years of Operatian "ENDOR ABBREVIATION UNIT (as of 5/31/79)

GE PBM Peach Bottom 3 4.7 Peach Bottom 2 5.3 MSTN Millstone 1 S.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 werk at either unit.

Non-commercial nuclear and fossil data were not available for all the operators included in the sample.

Age and Education Ages of sampled SR0s and R0s by vendor are as follows:

AGES Operators Lower in Sample Quartile Median Quartile SRO R0 SR0 R0 SR0 R0 SR0 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 ih16229 The educational background of the operators whose records are complete is as follows.

All other operators have at least a high school or equivalent education.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND Operators High Some B.S.

in Samole School College B.A.

Masters SR0 R0 SR0 R0 SR0 R0 SR0 R0 SR0 R0 8%

GE 13 8

31%

88%

12%

61%

WEC 40 20 10%

35%

48%

60%

327, 5%

10%

B&W 20 11 40%

64%

30%

27%

25%

9%

5%

CE 10 13 20%

31%

40%

69%

305 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

$22,000

$18,600

$21,000 523,000 Operators to to to to

$26,000

$21,800

$22,000

$25,000

$27,000

$19,000 521,500

$28,000 Senior Operators to to to to

$40,000

$36,000

$35,000

$37,000 6/

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

'l9l6 230

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