Because of the potential impact on plant safety, the staff suspended all NRC requalification examinations until it could evaluate the concerns and change the program. Additional pilot examinations were conducted in each of the other regions through July 1988 in an effort to refine the process for evaluating operator performance for license renewal and the facility licensees' requalification programs. The Commission requested an option paper on alternatives to further improve the NRC's requalification examination program and a status briefing after the pilot examinations were complete. The Chairman requested quarterly status reports on the new requalification program. The staff briefed the Commission on the results of the pilot requalification examinations and lessons learned.
Concerns arise regarding the resources necessary to implement the program.
The revised NRC requalification examination program was implemented on a full-scale basis. The Commission directed the staff to prepare a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to amend Part 55 to make FFD a condition of the operator's license and Part 2 to incorporate appropriate enforcement sanctions. The GFE program was formally implemented by Generic Letter 89-17. The Commission approved the proposed FFD amendment to Parts 2 and 55 for publication. OIG had two major concerns involving the use of contract examiners to perform an inherent governmental function and the appearance that the staff was using personal services contracts to avoid personnel ceilings.