ML20091K274

Speech Entitled, Industry Evaluation of Operating Shift Experience Requirements, Presented at 840224 Meeting Before Commissioners in Washington,Dc

ML20091K274
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Site:	Comanche Peak
Issue date:	02/24/1984
From:	John Miller GEORGIA POWER CO.
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NUDOCS 8406060470
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DOUSTRY EVAWATICN OF r

OPERATDG SHIFT EXPERIENCE ha&G2ES k

BY:

J. H. Miller, Jr.

President, Georgia Power C a pany For: NRC Ccenissioners lith Floor Conference Roan

'l 1717 H. Street, Northwest Washington, D.C.

t February 24, 1964 t

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19 4-INIielu.TICN Good afternoon Chaianan Paladino, Ccanissioners, Staff Menbers and fellow utilib/ representatives.

My nane is J.

H.

Miller, Jr. and I.

appreciate the opportunity c addressing you today.

As the President of 3

Georgia Power Company, I have a great professional and personal interest in

'the future of the nuclear industry.

Georgia Power has ccanitted major resources to nuclear generation and currently has a two-unit BWR in e:rnercial operation and a two-unit PWR under construction scheduled for a In addition, I serve as the Chairman of the Association of 1586 startup.

Edison Illtninating Ccapanies ccmnittee on power generation.

Today, however, I an acting not only as a representive of Georgia Power Ccapany, industry represe'ntative for utilities with current NRC but also as an Operating License Applications on the subject 'of operating shift experience.

'Ibe list of utilities which support our position is included in your

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handout.

At this point, I'd like to introduce several utility executives who have expertise associated with shift operating experience levels.

Hal '1beker, VP Duke Power Cordell Reed, VP Ccanonwealth Edison Don Schnell, VP Union Electric t

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. mwu In addition, a nunber of executives frm utilities seeking an operating license are menbers ot~ our audience, and several executives frm other utilities who have interest in nuclear cperatiens are also present.

FEPSFECTIVE Before presenting the industry position on operating shift experience, I want to put the issue in proper perFgctive.

Past operating experience is Other weuents only one cmponent in the qualifications of operators.

to involve selection of very that all of us counit substantial resources extensive formal classroan education talented individuals to be operators, and training, observation and participation at similar nuclear plants away fran our service areas, professional simulator training on normal evolutions to develop proficiency and on abnormal evolutions that can not be an operating pland, direct involvenent of our operations experienced at personnel in own plant testing an'd hot functionals, demanding written and oral examinations administered by both the utilities and NRC, extensive i

requalification training including exaninations and simulator retraining and r

continuing management involvement to assure that our qualification prograns provide high quality professional operators to help assure protection of the t'

health and safety of the public and the envirorroent.

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To highlight our continuing extensive cannienent to having very professional operators manipulate the controls of our plants, I will briefly f

describe sane of the elenents of Georgia Power's Plant Vogtle operator l.

qualification progran.

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This progra is typical of NICL's.

Recently Georgia Power interviewed and tested more than 400 applicants for positions that lead to operator licensing.

Less than 8 percent of the applicants passed our selection jobs after shift testing and only 5 percent were interested in operator rs;uirenants were explained.

mis selecticn process results in the

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But it is retention of people with the special talent to becme operators.

The Plant vogtle Training Center has only the first step in a long process.

more than 40,000 sq. ft. dedicated to training.

This modern facility Even supports emprehensive classrom training programs for our operators.

Georgia Power's four year degreed engineers who are scheduled to be licensed for the startup receive more than 600 hours0.00694 days <br />0.167 hours <br />9.920635e-4 weeks <br />2.283e-4 months <br /> of classrom instruction in the fundmentals of nuclear theory and Vogtle Plant systen operation.

Our To date we have progras are demandiny and our examinations are tough.

reoved 30% of the initial class of degreed personnel from our operations progrms for failing to meet our standards.

Plant specific simulator training on the Vogtle simulator will have been used by Georgia Power to develop operator knowledge and proficiency during the four years prior to fuel load.

Our Vogtle specific simulator has been in operation since mid 1982.

Extensive participation training and These experience has started for our operators at similar operating plants.

progras are structured and scheduled to ensure that our operators will be Then, our operators involved with the important a.wts of hot experience.

return to Plant Vogtle to directly participate in the extreely valuable preoperational testing progre. Operators manipulate controls of Vogtle 3

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When equipnent is equipnent when plant systens are first placed in service.

started for the first t5ne, problens are encountered and resolved'.

Having our operators involved with test supervisory personnel provides the startup experience to our operators and enables then to receive hands-on expe to becme intimately faciliar with Vogtle specific squipnent and systens.

Further, during this period the operators will use and correct procedures our procedure developnent effort will.

which they helped develop.

In fact, first check o'ut our procedures by 'having our operators use then on the simulator before they are used in the plant.

Like other utilities, Georgia Power feels that we have structured a very for our operators.

When empleted, cmprehensive qualification progran Georgia Power will have operators who know how to manipulate Vogtle q

i to produce power safely and efficiently.

With that perspective, I an now' going to present the industry position concerning the much narrower issue of operating shift experience.

BAGGROQO -

During the past few months, the NRC expressed concern over the opera shift experience levels for Near Term Operating License (NIOL) plants.

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Such concerns led to a NRC staff meeting with the NIOLS on January 26, As a cesult of that meeting 33 representatives frm 21 utilities met.

1984.

INPO in Atlanta on February 2 to discuss operating shift experience.

at During this meeting an Industry Work Group was formed which consisted of 16.

a representatives fra 15 utilities.

@e mission of the Industry Work Group was to define ecmponents of operating shift experience and establish acceptable methods of meeting this experience.

Se group also reviewed the availability of the industry's licensed personnel and evaluared the potential effects of implenenting the NRC staff objectives, provided in the January 26 meeting in Bethesda.

After accmplishing its mission, the fibings to representatives of the NICL working group presented its w @ lies.

PURPOSE (SLIDE 2 PURPOSE) t My purpose in addressing you today is to present the industry position on the level and type of operating shift experience required for the safe In order to do f

startup and initial operation of a nuclear generating plant.

this, I will discuss the various considerations examined by the group in light of the NRC Staff Cbjectives.

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e There are several general areas which I will address in censidering shift experience.

'Itese are:

first, elments cf experience; second, types i

of nuclear experience and weighting factors;

third, operating shift experience requirments, and finally, evaluation of staff objectives.

i ruar saIn zxrsnIzxz a>sImA2ms (SIJIE 3 EE2MENIS OF PUNI EXPERIENCE)

A way to describe shift experience necessary to startup a nuclear power plant and place it in service is to consider five el ments of experience.

First, licensed members of the operating shift must have experience with power plant machinery and controls; but it is not necessary for that type of Much of knowledge and experience to be gained only in nuclear power plants.

the equipent in a large nuclear power plant is very similar to that used in t

Very valuable power plant e:[uipent experience can also other power plants.

be gained through pre 5perational testing of equipent at the operators' own nuclear power plant.

Military plant experience also provides a good base for hands-on equipent experience.

A second elment of experience, which is considered essential is knowledge of the plant-specific layout and design parameters.

Participation program using plant specific procedures and in the preoperational test.

equipent is an excellent way to assure thorough plant and equipent knowledge. ' Itis is the preferred way to obtain such experience.

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mird, licensed operators should be able to respond quickly and effectively to plant transients.

We believe that the most effective way

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shift crews can acquire this skill is through the use of plant simulators.

2e reason is that many transients can be simulated and resimulated in a short timer unlike " hot" plant experiaice where, in one year, relatively' few transients might occur while pusonnel are on shift. Even time spent on 1

a non-plant specific simulator can provide valuable experience in reacting

' to transients.

Furthermore, simulators are the only way operators can be trained to react to and correctly handle many transients which would not be possible to schedule during plant operation.

Fourth, previous experience in a highly-disciplined, tightly-controlled enviroment is important in assuring shift empetence.

Licensed personnel should acquire and denonstrate skill working within the confines of a i

tightly-controlled plant, including technical specifications, procedures,. '

f quality assurance and radiation protection.

Obviously, working on shift at f

an operating ccmnercial plant would establish this experience.

But this is not the only way; experience can also be gained at military and other reactors.

Fifth, an SRO must have supervisory experience in managing events and people. Although this experience can be obtained at a nuclear plant, it can also be obtained in the military, and to a great extent, frm other plant supecvisory experience.

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-m Finally, these alments of plant experience when cmbined in a shift This shift tem experience team provide effective nuclear shift managenent.

concept is much preferred to the one-man concept of plant " experts".

NUCEAR EXPERIENCE AND WEIGfrING FACICRS (SLIDE 4 -TYPES OF NUC2AR EXPERIENCE AND WEIGITING FX'IORS)

.r we believe that sme types of experience are more effective in helping to provide operating empetence than others.

To appropriately cmbine different types of nuclear experience, the Industry Working Group developed The fomula weighting factors and a method of applying then to experience.

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Nuclear Experience = (Type of Nuclear Experience ) x (Weighting Factor)

Itilowing my presentation Don Schnell will present the details of and background of' the weighting factors. The Working Group considered the full e

range of experience and the more significant types of nuclear experience were listed on this slide.

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h OPERATING SHIFT EXPERIEN"E NEww.t.6 e

r 5 4 (Slide 5 - CPERATING SHIFT EXPERIENCE REUIREMENTS) l t

Slide 5 silows the experience that the License Applicants consider would help assure protection of the health and safety of the public and enviroment.

Be experience figures were derived in part frm appropriate _

elements of ?NS 3.1-1981 supplemented to provide a practical solution to the s

" Hot" experience concern.

It rsquires a minimm of 13 years total power plant experience and six years nuclear plant experience on each shift.

By applying experience factors that Mr. Schnell will describe, the industry's position is that each shift will have the experience empetence necessary to provide a high level of operator proficiency. Further, as the unit operates over time, the people on shift will' becme more and 'more experienced. Seir performance will, in the normal cburse of business, be monitored by the plant managenent so that their competence should improve with operation of

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the unit.

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1 SHIIT ADVISOR For :any of the near term plants, the NBC has required that an experienced advisor be assigned to each shift.

This advisor was to auament the utility organization until suitable experience could be developed by the l

utility staff. 7b strengthen the advisor role and to provide an approach to replace advisors with utility personnel, the industry has - developed the

.i folicming.

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Mvisors will have standard qualifications which include previous " Hot" j

q to be started up.

licmsed experience, and utility training on the unit They will be There will be a clear definition of the advisor's duties.

experienced people and will receive formal training as rs;uired, with a,nd the shift specific trai~.ing about their duties and responsibilities, crews will also receive training on the advisor's duties and unless j

They will not perform licensed operator duties ra=rww=ihilities.

Mr. Schnell will also present they are licensed on that specific reactor.

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, :, r the details of the advisor qualifications and duties.

D_ TALCATICN OF STAFF C&t.unVES (SLICE 6 - NRC STAFF CELW.)

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The Industry Working Group h s reviewed the NRC Staff Objectives and We do not agree that considered their potmtial impact on the industry.

meeting these objectives would necessarily improve.the safety margin of the industry's plants.

5, (SLIDE 7 - m. rr.A.T OF NRC STAFF CBJr.UnVES) in a large we believe. that meeting the staff objectives would result movement of licensed personnel fran operating plants to NIOL plants which would obviously dilute the operating plants' level of shift expertise.

Alternatively, the movenent of sone of the license candidates in training at MI NTCLs to operating plants for the purpose of undertaking a

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3; license / experience progran would cause those candidates to miss important 1

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portions of preoperational testing at their bme planc.

21s loss of preoperational test experience would in our opinion reduce the margin of safety for plants in startup.

De overaL1 margin of safety for both operating and startup plants would therefere be adversely impacted.

Also, plant startups could be delayed by the need to acquire, train, and license people not previously identified to fill the shift experience levels Bis would result in very large capital specified in the staff objectives.

costs without apparent offsetting benefits.

SONARY In sumary the owners and operators of nuclear power plants with current i

NRC Operating License Applications are crmnitted to providing a high level mis will help assure safe operation of of on-shift operating experience.

our plants.

(SLIDE 8 - SGNARY)

We endorse stated experience rquirenents shown in the previous slide #5 which Mr. Schnell will discuss.

In addition, we recognize the need for defining the types of experience contributing to fulfilling such requirements ard we plan to use weighting factors as Mr. Schnell will also j

discuss.

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4 We plan to provide two SRos per shift, one of whan has at least six months of " Rot" participation.

For those plants that cannot provide the

" Hot" participation requirenents for SRCs, a qualified adviter would, be used until such time as their shift personnel are qualified.

Of course, these advisors would be trained as Mr. Schnell will describe.

Th shiEt crews will also be trained on the duties and responsibilities of such advisor.

Ebrther, we would like to eliminate advisors by meeting the stated shift-experience levels with our own people within three years of acceptance of this position by the NRC.

It conclude, each of us has a large investment in our facilities.

We are addressing today the subject of' operating shift experience.

This is only one canponent in the lengthy,iccmplex, and denanding job of qualifying our operators.

Each of us is detecnined to place these units in operation safely. We believe that the position we have outlined today will accanplish our mutual goals and will result in improved safety margins, and help assure the protection of the health and safety of the public.

Don Schnell V. P. Nuclear, thion Electric Canpany will present Nuclear Operating Experience Rs;uirenents, Plant Experience Weighting Factors and the Shift Advisor qualifications.

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