Preconditioning Out-of-the-Box (Simulator OBE) Examinations for Requalification
Recently a PWR near central IL was discovered to have been conducting training sessions before the OBE examinations. This conditioning practice had been going on for 12 years.
Does anyone else do this?
We generally minimize any simulator sessions before As-found exams (I believe that is your out-of-the -box) for the active crews. They may have some classroom time and some simulator labs. However, sometimes a staff crew and active crew have training during the same week and it is possible for some additional simulator time before the as-found.
During annual exams in the past, the crews were given an opportunity for a warm up. I haven't seen a crew ask for one in a long time, since they were nothing more than a straight reactor trip. I think that the times is was used was for newly assembled crews so that they could at least figure out each other's names.....
The definition of preconditioning really applies to performing the exact same test to influence the results. As long as there is no overlap in scenarios, I don't really see the issue. All crews end up doing multiple scenarios during annual exams so that they can be seen in other qualified positions. It is no different for initial license exams.
At Perry, we cannot have any simulator time for at least one week prior to the testing.