Uneven enforcement suspected at nuclear plants

[Ksheed]

"The number of safety violations at U.S. nuclear power plants varies dramatically from region to region, pointing to inconsistent enforcement in an industry now operating mostly beyond its original 40-year licenses, according to a congressional study awaiting release."

http://news.yahoo.com/uneven-enforcement-suspected-nuclear-plants-191626989--finance.html

[Fermi2]

Nothing new there.

[RDTroja]

Agreed. It has always been a case of which Region you were in. Because of the way the NRC was set up it was almost impossible to be any other way.

[HydroDave63]

Perhaps we should do a poll on the slackest or hardest Region?

[Fermi2]

4 regions, same exam NuReg yet 4 different standards.

[AP1000Ops]

Having just moved from Region 4 (where I earned RO and Upgrade SRO licenses) to Region 2 (where I am currently enrolled in an ILT program), I am slamming right into this truth almost daily. 

And when you question the whys of this or that all you get in return is baffled looks like you are a heretic or flat out batsh*t crazy.    The smarter members of training will say the Region requires it this way.  When you ask if we can ask for an explanation from the Region of their reasoning, you get terrified looks, "Oh no! We can't go there.  It is what it is."

[Fermi2]

Actually I was at a utility that asked. The answer was because we interpret the standard this way and because they are allowed to interpret... They do share their interpretations with the utility if asked. Region 2 has by FAR the most deranged interpretations I have ever seen and may the hardest in which to license.

[Contract SRO]

4 regions, same exam NuReg yet 4 different standards.

And then there is that other industry group we all love.

[Fermi2]

The Institute? You know back in days of old all Mad Houses were known as Institutions...

[AP1000Ops]

Regarding different interpretations of the ILO Nureg...

The strangest (and most annoying IMHO) item is  this exam question writing methodology of "2-by-2" questions.  What I mean is an exam question that has 2 blanks in each of the 4 answers.  And you must get both "halves" of the answer correct to receive credit for the question.  

Region 4 specifically limited the number of these "2-by-2" questions to less than about 10% of the overall number of questions on the written exam.  Region 2 seems to encourage every question on an exam to be structured like this.  

The problem is some of the (even a lot of the time it seems) the two halves of the answer are only tenuously linked.   This effectively makes a 100 question SRO written exam a 180-200 question SRO exam.   IIRC the regulation and the Nureg talks about a 100 question exam.  When I pointed out to training that it appears the Region is being overly rigorous in the exam question creation expectation, and thus making the written exam not appear to conform to the Nureg expectation, their reply was the standard "well the NRC has the hammer and we are the egg...."

Really annoying.

[Fermi2]

I never minded 2 by 2. If you got the first half then you couldn't miss the second half.

My issue with Region 2 was their interpretation of an SRO level Question had to be the answer always had to come out of an RNO Column.

[AP1000Ops]

"If you got the first half then you couldn't miss the second half."

IF and it's not a given, the two halves are about the same thing or the second part is a consequence of the first part.  If they are unrelated or only tenuously related it really turns into two different questions that are "linked".  You earn credit for both or you earn credit for neither.  Like I said, annoying.

I agree with you about the RNO column.  As if SRO's only use RNO columns.

[Fermi2]

If you don't get the first half you probably don't know your s**t anyway.  (I don't mean you specifically!)

My SRO Exam in region 2. Something came up in the Random Sample Plan. TVA said we do not expect this to be required knowledge for an SRO. NRC said tough it's in the Random Sample plan so submit a question. They can't go back and teach it now or they get into trouble. Lucky I believe an SRO should know everything so it wasn't a big deal to me but it shows how out of whack they are with reality.

Another had to do with a fire on the PRT and which TS instruments did you lose. About a day before the exam freeze we changed the TS to eliminate one of the instruments. The test reflected it but honestly that is such peon miniscule stuff it ain't even funny. As I used to say they teach us all about bugs then test us on bug crap.

I get that SROs should display deeper knowledge but being able to remember Step 36 RNO from E-3 isn't deeper knowledge, it's trivial.