License Class Candidate Selection
What is the criteria your plant uses to select candidate for Initial License Class?
If your plant is union, is the criteria strictly based on seniority or is there additional selection criteria such as qualifying test or management recommendation?
 Example: Diablo Canyon is a union plant. Selection for initial license class is based on seniority in the Nuclear Operator classification. Additional critera are a valid pre-bid for Control Operator and having maintained an 85% average on weekly tests in the continuing training program for the previous year.Â
The RO class is made up of union represented operators. The offer to go to class is based strictly on seniority assuming that they meet all qualifications. Often the equipment operators have to teach the instant SRO's the basics about the plant, like where the equipment is located.
In the last few years there has been little to no RO's moving up to SRO (which I will discuss, just email me). In fact we have had several RO's give up their licenses and return to the EO ranks after several years in the control room. These reason are mostly personal like burnout, medical, or tried of the testing. This has been a comfort to those EO's who were not sure about life and the job pressures in the control room. They knew that they could always step back. The company is now warning that they may not permit this anymore. (Why you would want to force someone to be at the controls of a nuclear reactor is beyond me.)
If this happens then the career path for EO will be to RO and out the gate since the company has made it clear that they value more instant and new hires as SRO instead of experienced RO's moving up. I doubt they will get the numbers of EO's needed to volunteer to move to RO's positions.
This will lead to instant RO's, hired off the street without spending anytime as plant EO's. As it stands now the company claims it can't find EO's who can pass the entrance test so this could get interesting in a few years with the project labor shortages.
By the union contract, I guess they can force an EO to RO class. It has never been done. If they do not pass on two tries they can be transferred out of operations by the contract. The funny thing is those presently who would like to transfer are being held back by operations management or offered very low starting wages in other departments in order to keep them in operations.
We just graduated a License Class, 8 for 8 passed of those we put up. We started with 4 Instant SROs (1 passed, 1 transferred to another department, 1 dropped before the exam for performance and dropped 1 for personal reasons), 2 upgrades (both passed), 1 Direct SRO (passed) and 6 RO candidates (dropped 1 before the exam for performance, 1 transferred to another department). This gives us 100% pass but only 61% through put, which may be average but still stinks. We are looking toward our next class and have only had 2 put in for upgrade and 5 apply for RO. I'm disappointed that we didn't have more interest, but don't know how to encourage them. Pay isn't really an issue anymore as SROs generally make about 10% more than ROs, and ROs make about 15% more than NSOs/EOs. We do not have an "up or out" policy and hope we never get there. Forcing people into the Control Room is a poor plan on many levels, in my opinion. We now have a gentlemen's agreement with Engineering to identify 2 candidates a year in advance for Instant SRO, to allow us time to tutor them sufficiently prior to going to class.
Alex Partridge
Supervisor Operations Training
Wolf Creek
I was never selected to do the job.. but did it well for 12 years
then went on to be a simulator instructor for an addition 10 years both here and abroad...
in general ,, the industry is trying to find the engineer in the operator.. and guess what.. you cant find an engineer in an operator,,you find a employee with a good understanding of basic principles,, and a desire to adhere to company regulations, and operating constraints,, and a man/women .. who has the desire to do the right thing,, then you make them the operator.. of course they must pass the exams.. but these are the qualities your looking for , when a person in control is thinking about changing the current configuration of the plant ,, and they don't ask themselves if anyone can be hurt by this action .. as a first question .. ... until they learn that.. they can't operate a plant, it's one step at time.. I have produced some excellent operators of the plant with the training they have received from the simulator portion of the training program .. cause they know they don't operate alone.. they have resource,, to refer to when time permits.. and when it doesn't they know how to do the right thing
sincerely .. RWM
At Wolf Creek one of the techniques we use is to have all of the RO's and SRO's rate the potential candidates on various points with a 1-5 scale. The results are not binding, but have flagged some questionable candidates in the past. While we are a Union plant, our contract specifically states that the RO is a 'slotted' position and that Management reserves the right to select whomever they want.
Alex Partridge
Wolf Creek Nuclear Station