New Training Rule for Nuclear Power Plant Personnel

HPPOS-325 PDR-9308260260

See the memorandum from L. J. Cunningham to J. Joyner (and others) dated August 9, 1993.

The NRC has published a final rule, "Training and Qualification of Nuclear Power Plant Personnel," on April 26, 1993 (58 FR 21904) and also published a correction of a date on July 21, 1993 (58 FR 39092). A review of the final rule and supporting supplementary information by NRR's Radiological Protection Branch (PRPB) and earlier Regional feed back on the new rule has resulted in several questions. After discussions with NRR's Human Factors Assessment Branch, PRPB developed the following health physics position that summarizes the questions and answers. HPPOS-247 contains a related topic.

Question: Regarding the "Engineering Support Personnel" category listed as requiring training and qualification under the rule, are health physics (radiation protection) professionals such as radiation protection managers, ALARA engineers, and professional support technical staff (including foremen) included in this category?

Answer: No. The only radiation protection job category covered under 10 CFR 50.120 is the "Radiation Protection Technician" (or HP technician). The training and retraining requirements for the HP professionals are contained in the plant technical specifications - administrative controls section.

Question: Does the training rule cover contract HP or chemistry technicians?

Answer: Contract Health Physics / Chemistry technicians providing short-term support (e.g., outage work) and not filling a regular position in the permanent plant staff are not required to take part in the training program required by the rule [systems approach to training (SAT)]. However, all contractors assigned to work independently must be qualified to do the assigned tasks. As an example, the ongoing training and qualification programs, which are not part of the facility SAT program, are focused to task-qualify incoming outage workers.

On the other hand, contractors filling permanent plant staff positions that require them to work independently are covered by the rule. They should be included in the next scheduled session of the staff SAT training for that position.

Regulatory references: 10 CFR 50.120, Technical Specifications

Subject codes: 1.2

Applicability: Reactors