RP Contractor program

[Tony Hedges <loui19@mail.dreamscape.com>]

RADSAFERs,
    My manager has asked me to share a program that several New York power
plants have been working on the past year:

Background: In the fall of 1995 Niagara Mohawk Unit 1 and 2, New York Power
Authority's
James A. Fitzpatrick Power station and Rochester Gas & Electric under took
an initiative to reduce the time it takes to bring in RP Contractor
Technicians for a plant outage.  The RP Managers at these facilities
commissioned a curriculum committee to determine common tasks at the units
and develop a qualification system that could be used at each of the four
units.  They charged the committee with developing an economical efficient
process of in-processing technicians taking advantage of the training
performed at each of the participating units.

The committee worked through the winter of 1995 developing a qualification
card that
addressed each plant need.  The committee consisted of training and plant
personnel that
reported directly to the RP Managers.  The system developed and implemented
in May of 1996 contained the following innovative ideas:

  - RP Technicians qualified at one unit are now qualified to perform the
common tasks at the other units.  Previous practice was to train (or
evaluate) a new technician at a facility though the technician had just
completed work at another plant. (Note: each utility is still required to
provide the technician with the site specific knowledge associated with each
task.)

  - Provisions for training junior RP Technicians was written into the
program.  Using the qualification card developed by the committee, aspiring
ANSI RP technicians now have specific tasks, skills and knowledges to obtain
to become ANSI RP Technicians.

  - Reduction in the time it takes to bring RP contractors into the plant to
support an outage. Depending how the utility evaluated a new technicians
skills, significant savings in contractor fees, and staff time could be
realized.

  - Program based on each plant's accredited training program (INPO).  A
matrix of New York RP Contractor tasks to utility tasks was developed to
allow an easy auditable trail of technician qualification.

  - One of the participating utilities maintains NY RP contractor
qualification database allowing for easy retrieval of qualification status
for technicians showing up for an outage.  RG&E maintains this database and
has several security protocols to prevent inaccurate and corrupted records
from occurring.

    To date all three companies participating in the program have used the
program in an outage. Adjustments to the program have been made based on
feedback from end users.

   If you are interested in joining the program or have additional questions
please feel free to contact me by e-mail or one of the curriculum committee
members listed below:

    Dan MacDonald                       Tony Hedges
    Nuclear Learning Center             Ginna Station - Training
    Niagara Mohawk                      Rochester Gas & Electric
    450 Lake Road                       1517 Lake Road
    Oswego, New York 13126              Ontario, NY 14519
    (315) 349-2594                      (716) 771-6607

    Mike Hedrick                        John Solowski
    Nuclear Learning Center             James A. Fitzpatrick Power Plant
    Niagara Mohawk                      New York Power Authority
    450 Lake Road                       PO Box 41
    Oswego, New York 13126              Lycoming, NY 13093

    Dave Crisafulli
    James A. Fitzpatrick Power Plant
    New York Power Authority
    PO Box 41
    Lycoming, NY 13093


      _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/  
     _/                          _/ 
    _/      Tony Hedges         _/    
   _/     RPT Instructor       _/   
  _/  loui19@dreamscape.com   _/  
 _/                          _/  
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/