Performance-based training: industry commitments

During the 1980s the nuclear industry has made a major commitment to performance based training, investing in excess of one thousand person-years in the process. This commitment is evidenced in a variety of initiatives including: 1) the Institute of Nuclear Power Operation's (INPO's) training accreditation program; 2) the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) ''Commission Policy Statement on Training and Qualifications of Nuclear Power Plant Personnel, which,''; 3) the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Order endorsement of ANSI/ANS 3.1 for Category A reactors and the initiation of Technical Safety Appraisals; 4) INPO's conduct of job and task analyses for nuclear power plant personnel and development of an on-line computer system to make the information available to all utilities; and 5) NRC's use of the INPO data base to develop performance-based licensing examinations for reactor operators. Each of the efforts is described briefly and some of the lessons learned through these efforts that can be applied to criticality safety training are discussed. Finally, it is shown how performance-based training is particularly related to the use of computers and simulators in training because the structured approach that is inherent in performance-based training provides the organization and sequencing of the training program and measurablemore » standards of performance that are necessary to develop computer-based training.« less