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Operator Licensing Examination Report Four NRC examiners evaluated the competency of six applicants for reactor operator licenses, seven applicants for instant senior reactor operator licenses, and two applicants for senior reactor operator upgrade licenses at the R. E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant. The facility licensee developed the examinations using NUREG-1021, "Operator Licensing Examination Standards for Power Reactors," Revision 10. The NRC examiners administered the operating tests on March 13 - 21, 2017. The written examinations were administered by the facility on March 24, 2017. The NRC examiners determined that one reactor operator applicant did not satisfy the requirements of 10 CFR Part 55 in that he failed the written examination. Also, one instant SRO license applicant passed the examination but his license is being held based on his written examination grades. Licenses for applicants with overall written exam passing grades of 82 percent or below or with SRO-only written exam passing grades of 74 percent or below are normally held for review until those applicants who failed the examination have had an opportunity to appeal their license denials. The appropriate licenses have been issued for the other 13 applicants. | Operator Licensing Examination Report Four NRC examiners evaluated the competency of six applicants for reactor operator licenses, seven applicants for instant senior reactor operator licenses, and two applicants for senior reactor operator upgrade licenses at the R. E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant. The facility licensee developed the examinations using NUREG-1021, "Operator Licensing Examination Standards for Power Reactors," Revision 10. The NRC examiners administered the operating tests on March 13 - 21, 2017. The written examinations were administered by the facility on March 24, 2017. The NRC examiners determined that one reactor operator applicant did not satisfy the requirements of 10 CFR Part 55 in that he failed the written examination. Also, one instant SRO license applicant passed the examination but his license is being held based on his written examination grades. Licenses for applicants with overall written exam passing grades of 82 percent or below or with SRO-only written exam passing grades of 74 percent or below are normally held for review until those applicants who failed the examination have had an opportunity to appeal their license denials. The appropriate licenses have been issued for the other 13 applicants. | ||
===NRC-Identified and Self-Revealing Findings=== | ===NRC-Identified and Self-Revealing Findings=== | ||
| Line 52: | Line 50: | ||
No findings were identified. | No findings were identified. | ||
=== | ===Licensee-Identified Violations=== | ||
None. | None. | ||
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=REPORT DETAILS= | =REPORT DETAILS= | ||
==OTHER ACTIVITIES (OA)== | ==OTHER ACTIVITIES (OA)== | ||
{{a|4OA5}} | {{a|4OA5}} | ||
Revision as of 08:14, 3 November 2019
| ML17129A501 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Ginna  |
| Issue date: | 05/08/2017 |
| From: | Diane Jackson Operations Branch I |
| To: | Bryan Hanson Exelon Generation Co, Exelon Nuclear |
| Shared Package | |
| ML16210A441 | List: |
| References | |
| ER 2017301 | |
| Download: ML17129A501 (9) | |
Text
May 8, 2017
SUBJECT:
R. E. GINNA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT - NRC INITIAL OPERATOR LICENSING EXAMINATION REPORT 05000244/2017301
Dear Mr. Hanson:
On March 21, 2017, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed an examination at R. E. Ginna Nuclear Plant. The enclosed examination report documents the examination results, which were discussed on April 17, 2017, with Mr. Paul Swift, Plant General Manager, and other members of your staff.
The examination included the evaluation of six applicants for reactor operator licenses, seven applicants for instant senior reactor operator licenses and two applicants for senior reactor operator upgrade licenses. The written and operating examinations were developed using NUREG-1021, "Operator Licensing Examination Standards for Power Reactors," Revision 10.
The license examiners determined that 14 of the applicants satisfied the requirements of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulation (10 CFR), Part 55, and the appropriate licenses were issued on April 17, 2017.
No findings were identified during this examination.
One reactor operator license applicant failed the written examination and was denied a license.
One instant SRO license applicant passed the written examination but his license is being held based on his examination grades. Licenses for applicants with overall written examination passing grades of 82 percent or below or with SRO-only written exam passing grades of 74 percent or below are normally held for review until those applicants who failed the examination have had an opportunity to appeal their license denials. In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter and its enclosure will be available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRCs Agencywide Documents Access Management System (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC website http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room).
Sincerely,
/RA/
Donald E. Jackson, Chief Operations Branch Division of Reactor Safety Docket No.: 50-244 License No.: DPR-18 Enclosure: Examination Report 05000244/2017301 w/Attachment: Supplementary Information cc w/encl: Distribution via ListServ
SUMMARY
ER 05000244/2017301; 03/13/2017 - 03/21/2017; R. E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant; Initial
Operator Licensing Examination Report Four NRC examiners evaluated the competency of six applicants for reactor operator licenses, seven applicants for instant senior reactor operator licenses, and two applicants for senior reactor operator upgrade licenses at the R. E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant. The facility licensee developed the examinations using NUREG-1021, "Operator Licensing Examination Standards for Power Reactors," Revision 10. The NRC examiners administered the operating tests on March 13 - 21, 2017. The written examinations were administered by the facility on March 24, 2017. The NRC examiners determined that one reactor operator applicant did not satisfy the requirements of 10 CFR Part 55 in that he failed the written examination. Also, one instant SRO license applicant passed the examination but his license is being held based on his written examination grades. Licenses for applicants with overall written exam passing grades of 82 percent or below or with SRO-only written exam passing grades of 74 percent or below are normally held for review until those applicants who failed the examination have had an opportunity to appeal their license denials. The appropriate licenses have been issued for the other 13 applicants.
NRC-Identified and Self-Revealing Findings
No findings were identified.
Licensee-Identified Violations
None.
REPORT DETAILS
OTHER ACTIVITIES (OA)
4OA5 Other Activities (Initial Operator License Examination)
.1 License Applications
a. Examination Scope
The examiners reviewed all 15 license applications submitted by the licensee to ensure the applications reflected that each applicant satisfied relevant license eligibility requirements. The applications were submitted on NRC Form 398, Personal Qualification Statement, and NRC Form 396, Certification of Medical Examination by Facility Licensee. The examiners also audited the eligibility of a sample of the applicants to confirm their qualifications. This audit also focused on control manipulations that provided significant reactivity changes.
b. Findings
No findings were identified.
.2 Operator Knowledge and Performance
a. Examination Scope
On March 24, 2017, the licensee proctored the administration of the written examinations to all 15 applicants. The licensee staff graded the written examinations, analyzed the results, and presented their preliminary analysis to the NRC on March 31, 2017.
The NRC examination team administered the various portions of the operating examination to all 15 applicants from March 13 - 21, 2017. The six applicants for reactor operator (RO) licenses participated in two or three dynamic simulator scenarios, in a control room and facilities walkthrough test consisting of 11 system tasks, and an administrative test consisting of four administrative tasks. The seven applicants seeking an instant senior reactor operator (SRO) license participated in three dynamic simulator scenarios, a control room and facilities walkthrough test consisting of 10 system tasks, and an administrative test consisting of five administrative tasks. The two applicants seeking an SRO upgrade license participated in two dynamic simulator scenarios, a control room and facilities walkthrough test consisting of five system tasks, and an administrative test consisting of five administrative tasks.
b. Findings
All of the applicants passed all parts of the examination except one RO applicant failed the written examination. The RO applicants average score was 86.0 percent and ranged from 77.0 to 94.6 percent. The SRO applicants average score was 88.9 percent and ranged from 80.4 to 92.8 percent. The overall written examination average was 87.7 percent. The text of the examination questions may be accessed in the ADAMS system under the accession numbers noted in Attachment 1. In accordance with current NRC policy, the release of this written examination, post-examination comments, and the operating test in ADAMS to the public will be delayed for two years.
Chapter ES-403 and Form ES-403-1 of NUREG 1021 require the licensee to analyze the validity of any written examination questions that were missed by half or more of the applicants. The licensee conducted this performance analysis for six questions that met these criteria and submitted the analysis to the chief examiner. This analysis assessed the technical accuracy of the question, whether the questions were supported by training objectives and materials, and the recommended resolutions by the licensee. The examiners determined that the analysis was appropriate.
The licensee submitted three post-examination question comments on March 31, 2017.
The licensee recommended changing the answer of Question 22 and deleting Questions 85 and 87. The NRC reviewed the facilitys post-exam comment submittal package and disagreed with the licensees recommendation for Question 22 but accepted licensees recommendation to delete Questions 85 and 87. The NRC decided to delete all three of these questions. This decision was based upon a closer review of the supporting reference material that determined there were no correct answers provided among the choices. A detailed explanation of the NRCs resolution, the licensees post-examination comments, the text of the questions, and supporting references may be accessed in the ADAMS system under the accession numbers noted in the Attachment 1.
.3 Initial Licensing Examination Development
a. Examination Scope
The facility licensee developed the examinations in accordance with NUREG-1021, Revision 10. All licensee facility training and operations staff involved in examination preparation and validation were listed on a security agreement. The facility licensee submitted both the written and operating examination outlines on December 9, 2016.
The chief examiner reviewed the outlines against the requirements of NUREG-1021, and provided comments to the licensee. The facility licensee submitted the draft examination package on January 20, 2017. The chief examiner reviewed the draft examination package against the requirements of NUREG-1021, and provided comments to the licensee. The NRC conducted an onsite validation of the operating examinations and provided further comments during the week of February 20, 2017.
The licensee satisfactorily completed comment resolution on the week of March 6, 2017.
b. Observations The NRC approved the initial examination outlines and advised the licensee to proceed with the operating examination development.
The examiners determined that the written and operating examinations initially submitted by the licensee were within the range of acceptability expected for a proposed examination. However, with the deletion of questions 22, 85 and 87, it was determined that greater than 20% of the submittal for the SRO-only written examination questions were unsatisfactory. Two SRO-only questions (85 and 87) were deleted from the exam based upon the review of comments submitted by the licensee because there were no correct answers provided among the choices. (Four of the 25 initially submitted SRO-only questions were determined to be unsatisfactory due to not meeting the SRO-only criteria or having a second correct answer.) Therefore, the overall submittal of the SRO-only portion of the written exam was outside of the acceptable quality range expected by the NRC. In accordance with ES-501Section E.3.a of NUREG-1021, the licensee should incorporate any lessons learned from this examination into future examination submittals. The licensee has entered this issue into their corrective action program (Exelon Issue Number 04000275).
With two or more SRO-only questions deleted from the written examination, the examiners conducted a review of the remainder of the examination, in accordance with ES-501 Section C.2.c, to ensure that it still satisfies the test outline sampling requirements in ES-401. The examiners concluded that with the three questions that were deleted (22, 85, and 87), the examination remained a valid sample of at least one of the required knowledges, abilities, or generics for the given tiers and groups.
.4 Simulation Facility Performance
a. Examination Scope
The examiners observed simulator performance with regard to plant fidelity during the examination validation and administration.
b. Findings
No findings were identified.
.5 Examination Security
a. Examination Scope
The examiners reviewed examination security for examination development and during both the onsite preparation week and examination administration week for compliance with NUREG-1021, Revision 10 requirements. Plans for simulator security and applicant control were reviewed and discussed with licensee personnel.
b. Findings
No findings were identified.
4OA6 Meetings, Including Exit
The chief examiner presented the examination results to Mr. Paul Swift, Plant General Manager, and other members of the licensee's management staff on April 17, 2017. The licensee acknowledged the findings presented.
The licensee did not identify any information or materials used during the examination as proprietary.
ATTACHMENTS:
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
KEY POINTS OF CONTACT
Licensee Personnel
ITEMS OPENED, CLOSED, AND DISCUSSED
Opened
NONE
Opened and Closed
NONE
Closed
NONE
Discussed
NONE