Licensure at facilities with planned New Units

[shipoffools]

I'm curious as to how the training and licensing for personnel at a Brand Spanking New reactor will likely be handled.  Specifically with the new generation of reactors that are planned, how can the practical on-site experience requirement for SRO and RO licensure (and other personnel, for that matter) be met prior to these new units going online?

Another question for you wise elder statesmen of the biz - if you were starting out your career at a site with an existing unit and a couple of planned new units, what would be the pros/cons of working in ops at the existing vs. new units (once built)?  Given the choice of the old reliable reactor, or the shiny brand new one, which would you choose and why? I'm assuming that Operators would be dedicated to one unit only - maybe not true?   

[tr]

Licensing will probably be somewhat similar to those who got cold licenses back in the 80's.  If you have zero commercial experience, you'll get sent to some plant for 3-6 months to get commercial experience (this happened to a lot of the operators who were straight from the Navy).  If you have commercial experience (much more likely, given that the new plants are generally associated with established nuclear companies), they'll build a simulator along with the plant, and develop and give the training as the plant is built.

Supposedly,for a lot of the front runner new plants, getting operators licensed is on the critical path.  This is due to the need to have a design sufficient to build a simulator, build the simulator, have a frozen enough design to write operating procedures, train to the operating procedures, followed by the 1-2 year license cycle, and so on.

Another interesting question is if someone is licensed at one AP1000 plant, could they be authorized to operate an essentially identical AP1000 plant at a different utility?

[Creeker]

A license to operate at Wolf Creek does not carry over to Calloway, and vice-versa.