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10 CFR 55.21, Medical Examination, requires, in part, that licensed operators shall have a medical examination and a physician shall determine that the licensed operator meets specified requirements every two years. The licensee typically conducts annual medical examinations of their licensed operators in October. A reactor operator initially received a medical examination and results evaluated by a physician on October 15, 2010. The reactor operator was enrolled in an initial license class in June 2011 in order to obtain an upgrade license to senior reactor operator. This circumstance resulted in the individual not being scheduled to have a physical examination in October 2011. The next medical examination was performed in October 2012; however, the physician did not complete evaluation of the medical examination until November 2, 2012, which exceeded the 2-year requirement. As such, this was a violation of
10 CFR 55.21. The NRC determined this issue was a very low safety significance issue (Green). The inspectors determined that the failure to complete the operators medical examination review within the two-year timeframe did not adversely affect the safety of the facility because the October 2010 and 2012 physical examination results were satisfactory, with no change in medical status. In addition, during the operators time in initial license training, the individual was administratively restricted from license duties until completing the class and did not attend requal training or perform on-shift proficiency watches. As such, the NRC determined this to be an
NCV. The corrective actions included revising the licensee policy to disallow exemptions from the yearly license operator medical examination requirement for attendance in the Initial License Training class, documenting the issue in condition report (
CAP 1392377), and performing an apparent cause evaluation.
