Green: A Green NRC-identified non-cited violation (
NCV) of
10 CFR 55.49, Integrity of Examinations and Tests, was identified because the licensee engaged in an activity that compromised the integrity of examinations. Specifically, the licensee failed to ensure that current week simulator scenarios could not be predicted based on the previous weeks simulator scenarios during the annual operating exams required by
10 CFR 55.59, Requalification. While inspecting the annual operating examination schedules for the required simulator examinations for 2016 and 2017, the inspectors identified that one of the two scenarios that were administered during a single week of the annual exam cycle could be predicted for administration the following week. The licensee did not implement any immediate corrective actions because the exams were completed and there was no evidence of compromise. The licensee documented the issue in nuclear condition report (NCR) 2114313. This performance deficiency was more than minor because it was associated with the human performance attribute of the
mitigating systems cornerstone, and adversely affected the cornerstone objective of ensuring the availability, reliability, and capability of systems that respond to
initiating events to prevent undesirable consequences. Specifically, using predictable exam development and administration techniques adversely affected the integrity of the administration of the operating exams, which test licensed operator performance in order to ensure timely and correct mitigating actions during an event. Using the Licensed Operator Requalification
Significance Determination Process, this finding was determined to be of very low safety significance (Green) because no known compromise of the examinations occurred. The inspectors determined the finding had a cross-cutting aspect of resources in the cross-cutting area of human performance because the licensee failed to ensure that adequate training procedures were available to meet industry standards and ensure that the potential for the compromise of regulatory examinations did not exist. [H.1]
