[ RadSafe ] Trustworthiness and Reliability requirements, was: Open HP Position at Harvard

[Clayton J Bradt]

Dr. Ring wrote:

"The successful candidate will complete pre-employment drug, reference &
background screening as well as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's
Trustworthiness and Reliability requirements."

Actually, the NRC doesn't specify what constitutes a trustworthy and 
reliable employee.  The only "requirement" per se, is placed upon the 
licensee to check an applicant's background and use the results as a part 
of  it's own determination of the applicant's trustworthiness and 
reliability.  The NRC has pointedly refused to state what it is that the 
licensee is supposed to look for in an applicant's background that would 
disqualify him/her.  I suspect that NRC's Office of General Counsel has 
warned the commission that to specify disqualifying criteria (e.g. 
previous felony convictions, unpaid parking tickets, or whatever) would 
expose them to discrimination-type law suites by persons denied 
employment.  So instead of sticking their own necks out, the commission 
has ordered its licensees to assume the risk and to use their own 
judgement as to what makes a person untrustworthy and unreliable. 

Of course, what employer would ever hire somebody that it thought was not 
trustworthy and reliable?  Since there are no criteria to go by, and since 
every employer already makes it's own judgements as to who to hire anyway, 
what is the purpose of this rule? (This is just rhetorical, the answer is 
obvious.)

To any lurking NRC representatives on the list another question (this one 
non-rhetorical): How many terrorists or potential terrorists have ever 
been identified by this screening process?

Clayton J. Bradt
Principal Radiophysicist
Laboratory for Inorganic & Nuclear Chemistry
NYS Dept. of Health
518-474-1993
IMPORTANT NOTICE: This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential or sensitive information which is, or may be, legally privileged or otherwise protected by law from further disclosure. It is intended only for the addressee. If you received this in error or from someone who was not authorized to send it to you, please do not distribute, copy or use it or any attachments. Please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and delete this from your system. Thank you for your cooperation.