Change To NUREG-1021, "Operator Licensing Examiner Standards" (Generic Letter No. 84-05)

                               UNITED STATES 
                       NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 
                          WASHINGTON, D. C. 20555 

                                April 2, 1984

TO ALL POWER REACTOR LICENSEES AND APPLICANTS FOR OPERATING LICENSES 

SUBJECT:  CHANGE TO NUREG-1021, "OPERATOR LICENSING EXAMINER STANDARDS" 
          (Generic Letter 84-05) 

Generic Letter 83-44 notified licensees of the availability of NUREG-1021. 
Recently the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has revised NUREG-1021, ES-201, 
Section H to improve the security of the written operator and senior 
operator licensing examination administration procedure while maintaining a 
meaningful review by facility representatives. A copy of this change is 
enclosed for your information and for your use in keeping your copies of 
NUREG-1021 current. 

Comments on NUREG-1021 are welcome and will be considered in future 
revisions. Comments should be directed to Mr. Don Beckham, Chief, Operator 
Licensing Branch, Division of Human Factors Safety. 

                                   Sincerely, 


                                   Darrell G. Eisenhut, Director 
                                   Division of Licensing 
                                   Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation 
Enclosure: 
Revision 1, ES-201, Section H 




8404020019 
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                      FACILITY EXAM REVIEW PROCEDURE 
                  AMENDMENT TO EXAMINER STANDARD ES-201 

ES-201, Section H, "Facility Staff Review of Examination" 

A review of the written examination by facility personnel may be appropriate
to ensure that plant specific questions in the examination are correct and 
up-to-date. When the Examination Question Bank is operational and the 
questions have been culled and identified by content area, the examination 
review may be eliminated. Until that time, an examination review as 
described below will be conducted. 

The facility review of the examination shall be conducted as follows: 

No type of facility review of the written examination shall be allowed prior
to or while the written examination is in progress. After all of the 
candidates have completed the examination and all examination materials and 
notes have been turned in to the examiner, the Chief Examiner should have 
knowledgeable member(s) of the facility staff (training coordinator, 
operations supervisor, etc.) review the written examination and the answer 
key to identify any inappropriate questions and to ensure that the questions
will elicit the answers in the key. Discussions may be necessary for 
clarification. 

Normally the examiner who prepared the examination should be present 
throughout the review to explain questions, sources of answers and to ensure
that the facility reviewers' questions about, the examination are answered 
to the extent possible. The examiner should be capable of providing 
clarification on examination questions. Therefore, if the person waiting the
examination is not available, the other examiners must be certain that they 
are familiar with the intent of the questions. A maximum of one facility 
staff member per section per examination may be present during the review. 
The review is limited to a maximum of 2 hours (elapsed time). The Chief 
Examiner may extend this limit only if approved by the appropriate Regional 
Section Chief or his.designee. All questions and comments made by the 
facility (other than questions asked to facilitate the review) shall be 
noted by the examiner. Although resolution of comments should be reached, if
possible, the major emphasis of the review should be to identify all 
facility concerns rather than to reach agreement on resolution. 

After the review, all copies of the examinations and answer keys will be 
collected by the examiner(s) and no other comments will be accepted by the 
examiner(s). Any additional comments should be provided in writing to the 
appropriate Regional Branch Chief, not later than five (5) working days 
following the end of the site visit. 
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                                     -2- 

Guidance on conducting the debriefing session (exit interview) with the 
facility staff before leaving the site is contained in Standard ES-104, 
Section B. 

Prior to grading the examinations, the examiner who conducted the review 
shall resolve all facility comments, shall correct the examination questions
and answer key, if appropriate, and shall document all facility comments, 
whether or not he considered them appropriate, and his resolution of the 
comments. This documentation, the revised master examination and answer key,
and examination results shall be sent to the facility. 

The examiner shall include on the master copy of the examination the names 
of the persons who reviewed the examination and answer key. The examiner 
shall complete appropriate sections of Table ES-201-6. 

Upon completion of examination grading, the Regional Office shall send an 
examination report to the utility. The report shall document the examination
review meeting with the licensee. Copies of this report will be sent to 
PDR's. Copies of examination summary sheet, which are currently provided to 
utilities pursuant to ES-104, could be enclosed with this letter, but shall 
be withheld from public disclosure for privacy reasons. A sample examination
report is included as Attachment 4 to this standard. 
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