RE:RCT training

["Siddoway, Shelly" <ssiddo@sandia.gov>]

I am a RCT and have worked at several DOE installations.  All the DOE   
sites do about the same thing--DOE mandates the training format, even to   
the point of determining the question contents.  (I hope Robert Augdahl's   
management asked DOE to okay not to test on core academics.  And if they   
okayed it then I need to get on our management and get it dropped here   
too!)  I think I have a problem with not testing on the core that just   
'cause someone passed the NRRPT.  The NRRPT is a once in a lifetime   
thing--who knows what the RCT who passed the test 20 years ago and hasn't   
worked rad con since remembers?  And think of how much has changed.  I   
think not retesting because of ongoing training should be allowed.

As to Kurt Myers question about if someone fails the re-quals--I have   
seen it happen.  On this issue each installation has their own way of   
"fixing" the problem.  One place just took all the old-timers who   
couldn't pass and made them HPTs.  Perfectly legal by DOE standards--they   
just have to have a RCT countersign everything they do.  Some times, with   
the techs who has worked a facility for 20-30 years, their knowledge is   
more important than whether or not they do well on written and oral   
tests.  They also do this for the new hires who hadn't taken the training   
yet. I have also seen extensive one-on-one training for the techs who   
don't pass and then retesting.  At least one installation allows the RCT   
three chances to be successful.

The integrity of past work by a RCT who fails a requal has never came up   
at any of the places I worked (that I ever heard of anyway).  The tech is   
just limited in what they can do in the future.

My first response to the training we RCTs receive is that we are   
re-trained to death.  How many times does a RCT have to "demonstrate the   
correct procedure for smear (swipe) surveys" before someone will   
acknowledge they know how to do it?  Some of the basics should be done   
one time only, just to make sure management has hired a real RCT.

At Sandia applicants, except those who had already achieved RCT rating   
from another installation, are given a comprehensive test before offered   
employment.  When I came here a year ago all new hires then had to take 6   
weeks (+ or -) of training, then the core and site-specific testing, the   
JPMs and the oral boards (in that order).  After that we were allowed to   
go do the work.

Shelly Siddoway
Radiological Control Technician
Sandia National Laboratories
Albuquerque, New Mexico
ssiddo@sandia.gov
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