NRC Generic Letter 84-05, Change to NUREG-1021, "Operator Licensing Examiner Standards"

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WASHINGTON, D. C. 20555

April 2, 1984

TO ALL POWER REACTOR LICENSEES AND APPLICANTS FOR OPERATING LICENSES

SUBJECT: CHANGE TO NUREG-1021, "OPERATOR LICENSING EXAMINER STANDARDS" (Generic Letter 84-05)

Generic Letter 83-44 notified licensees of the availability of NUREG-1021. Recently the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has revised NUREG-1021, ES-201, Section H to improve the security of the written operator and senior operator licensing examination administration procedure while maintaining a meaningful review by facility representatives. A copy of this change is enclosed for your information and for your use in keeping your copies of NUREG-1021 current.

Comments on NUREG-1021 are welcome and will be considered in future revisions. Comments should be directed to Mr. Don Beckham, Chief, Operator Licensing Branch, Division of Human Factors Safety.

Sincerely,

Darrell G. Eisenhut, Director Division of Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Enclosure:

Revision 1, ES-201, Section HFACILITY EXAM REVIEW PROCEDURE AMENDMENT TO EXAMINER STANDARD ES-201

ES-201, Section H, "Facility Staff Review of Examination"

A review of the written examination by facility personnel may be appropriate to ensure that plant specific questions in the examination are correct and up-to-date. When the Examination Question Bank is operational and the questions have been culled and identified by content area, the examination review may be eliminated. Until that time, an examination review as described below will be conducted.

The facility review of the examination shall be conducted as follows:

No type of facility review of the written examination shall be allowed prior to or while the written examination is in progress. After all of the candidates have completed the examination and all examination materials and notes have been turned in to the examiner, the Chief Examiner should have knowledgeable member(s) of the facility staff (training coordinator, operations supervisor, etc.) review the written examination and the answer key to identify any inappropriate questions and to ensure that the questions will elicit the answers in the key. Discussions may be necessary for clarification.

Normally the examiner who prepared the examination should be present throughout the review to explain questions, sources of answers and to ensure that the facility reviewers' questions about, the examination are answered to the extent possible. The examiner should be capable of providing clarification on examination questions. Therefore, if the person waiting the examination is not available, the other examiners must be certain that they are familiar with the intent of the questions. A maximum of one facility staff member per section per examination may be present during the review. The review is limited to a maximum of 2 hours2.314815e-5 days <br />5.555556e-4 hours <br />3.306878e-6 weeks <br />7.61e-7 months <br /> (elapsed time). The Chief Examiner may extend this limit only if approved by the appropriate Regional Section Chief or his.designee. All questions and comments made by the facility (other than questions asked to facilitate the review) shall be noted by the examiner. Although resolution of comments should be reached, if possible, the major emphasis of the review should be to identify all facility concerns rather than to reach agreement on resolution.

After the review, all copies of the examinations and answer keys will be collected by the examiner(s) and no other comments will be accepted by the examiner(s). Any additional comments should be provided in writing to the appropriate Regional Branch Chief, not later than five

(5) working days following the end of the site visit.

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Guidance on conducting the debriefing session (exit interview) with the facility staff before leaving the site is contained in Standard ES-104, Section B.

Prior to grading the examinations, the examiner who conducted the review shall resolve all facility comments, shall correct the examination questions and answer key, if appropriate, and shall document all facility comments, whether or not he considered them appropriate, and his resolution of the comments. This documentation, the revised master examination and answer key, and examination results shall be sent to the facility.

The examiner shall include on the master copy of the examination the names of the persons who reviewed the examination and answer key. The examiner shall complete appropriate sections of Table ES-201-6.

Upon completion of examination grading, the Regional Office shall send an examination report to the utility. The report shall document the examination review meeting with the licensee. Copies of this report will be sent to PDR's. Copies of examination summary sheet, which are currently provided to utilities pursuant to ES-104, could be enclosed with this letter, but shall be withheld from public disclosure for privacy reasons. A sample examination report is included as Attachment 4 to this standard.

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