Comparison of the inspection practices in relation to the control room operator and shift supervisor licenses

The CNRA believes that safety inspections are a major element in the regulatory authority's efforts to ensure the safe operation of nuclear facilities. Considering the importance of these issues, the Committee has established a special Working Group on Inspection Practices (WGIP). The purpose of WGIP, is to facilitate the exchange of information and experience related to regulatory safety inspections between CNRA Member countries In 1996, members of WGIP discussed various ways in which regulatory inspectors look at and evaluate how licenses are given to control room operators and shift supervisors in the Member countries. As a result of these discussions it was proposed to put together a short comparison report on this issue. The CNRA approved work on this at its annual meeting that year. This CNRA/WGIP study concentrates on the regulatory inspection of control room operator competence and authorisation. As noted in the text, fourteen Member countries supplied input by responding to the questionnaire. This report presents a comparison of inspection practices in participating OECD countries relating to control room operator and shift supervisor licenses. The report has been derived from answers to a questionnaire on the basis of guidance given in Appendix 1.1 with the detailed answers being given in Appendix 1. Key questions for this comparison were 'What are the regulatory or licensee requirements for holding and up-keeping a license or authorisation' and 'How does the regulatory body inspect the training and competence of shift teams and individual operators'. The main conclusion from the comparison is that the general practice within the participating countries for ensuring the competence of operators is broadly similar although regulatory practices differ markedly. For example, the regulatory bodies in some countries are actively involved in the examination and licensing process of individual operators whereas other regulatory bodies leave detailed work in this area to the operating organisations but monitor the process on a sample basis. There are however a number of other detailed differences highlighted in the report which could provide background material to those who work in this area. There are two other recent studies on training activities of nuclear power plant personnel, namely OECD/NEA PWG 1 study and a study made by the IAEA. These studies give a broader view on training activities and offer good background material also for this study. This CNRA/WGIP study concentrates on the regulatory inspection of control room operator competence and authorisation. In many countries licensing of the control room operators is made by the regulatory body