Behavior-based rules for fitness-for-duty assessment of nuclear power plant personnel

The safe and reliable operation of nuclear power plants requires that plant personnel not be under the influence of any substance, legal or illegal, or mentally or physically impaired from any cause that in any way adversely affects their ability to safely and competently perform their duties. This goal has been formalized by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in their proposed rule for a fitness-for-duty program. The purpose of this paper is to describe a performance-based tool based on surrogate tests and dose equivalency methodologies that is a viable candidate for fitness-for-duty assessment. The automated performance test system (APTS) is a microcomputer-based human performance test battery that has been developed over a decade of research supported variously by the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, US Department of Energy, and the US Navy and Army. Representing the most psychometrically sound test from evaluations of over 150 well-known tests of basic psychomotor and cognitive skills, the battery provides direct prediction of a worker's fitness for duty. Twenty-four tests are suitable for use, and a dozen have thus far been shown to be sensitive to the effects of legal and illegal drugs, alcohol, fatigue, stress, and other causes of impairment