This included not only SRO qualification but also significant on-shift operating experience. Management participation during requalification exams improved late in the period. Control room professionalism, awareness demonstrated by operators at the controls, and a minimum of lit annunciators or control room deficiencies indicated strong management support for plant operations. Management decisions to shut down Unit 1 for a short mid-cycle outage prior to the olympic games, and a decision to shut down Unit 2 prior to the arrival of hurricane Opal were considered conservative, and the evolutions were conducted without incident. Operations self-assessments and safety committee reviews were generally acceptable.
Root cause trending of human performance problems has improved.
Management typically supported sending shift crews to other facilities to benchmark good practices. The site audit program conducted by the Safety Audit and Engineering Review group was thorough and self-critical, and included extensive SRO expertise as well as other specialists when required. The Plant Operations area is rated Category 1. Management support and involvement were evident in the planning and conduct of plant maintenance activities. This involvement was demonstrated by the successful completion of three outages and many major maintenance evolutions.