The proper training of staff for nuclear power station operation has been given full priority by the CEGB from the start of the civil nuclear power programme, with the station manager of each nuclear power sta­tion being directly responsible for ensuring that his staff are adequately trained for their work and for uti­lising both local and national training facilities. At present, with one exception, there are no formal train­ing requirements specified in the statutory nuclear regulations but there is a duty on the CEGB to give instruction to all persons employed, and authorised to be on site, on the radiological risks associated with the plant and its operation, and the precautions and actions in the event of an emergency. The one excep­tion referred to is a requirement for the CEGB to have its nuclear emergency training arrangements ap­proved by the HSE. Such arrangements are formally audited by the Nil site inspectors.

The nuclear training needs of the CEGB are re­garded as quite separate from that required for fossil — fired plants, and the potential hazards of nuclear plants make safety the primary aim of training for operating staff in particular. The initial training of staff for all types of power station does, however, follow a general pattern with high priority being given to thorough training in all areas in line with the Elec­tricity Supply Industry Training Committee (ESITC) recommendations. The policy is continued for the nuclear operations with special emphasis on the radio­logical safety aspects.

The training programmes for CEGB nuclear power station staff cover the existing wide range of gas — cooled reactors and the future requirements for the pressurised water reactor which will be built at Size — well. The level of basic nuclear training is essen­tially the same for all operations engineers, but higher levels of training are plant and station orientated for individual nuclear stations and are divided into ‘on­site’ and ‘off-site’ training. Following the incident at Three Mile Island (USA) in 1979, the CEGB carried out a comprehensive review of nuclear training. The review indicated that, whilst the training was adequate, there was a need for a more structured approach and subsequently a CEGB standard nuclear training spe­cification was issued to all operating locations. The specification was not mandatory, but gave firm guid­ance to the nuclear station managers on the way to attain satisfactory training levels. Following the issue of the training specification, which was fully endorsed by CEGB senior management, each nuclear station produced a station training document setting out its nuclear training arrangements.

The organisation of training varies from station to station, but all stations have a full-time training officer/ engineer with clearly defined responsibilities and strong formal links with senior management. An essential part of the training arrangements is the preparation of comprehensive and up to date records, these are compiled at each station and there is steady progress towards more centralisation and computerisation.

On-site training is a most important part of the training pattern, ranging from site familiarisation, with its application to all people on site, to the more de­tailed and technical training for operations engineers. The more specific ‘on-job’ training forms a most im­portant part of the operations engineers’ education and is carried out in a properly structured manner with formal assessment on completion. One most important element in the on-site training programme is the emer­gency training. In order to maintain a high level of preparedness to cope with any possible emergency on site, a comprehensive on-site training programme is fulfilled at each nuclear station; this includes periodic training in first aid and fire fighting, the use of breath­ing apparatus, and assembly point procedures. Spe­cialist training is also given on such duties as damage control and rescue measures, VHF radio operation, and off-site data plotting and health physics control room duties. Although such training is now required by the site licence it has been an integral part of the CEGB emergency training measures from 1960. In order to maintain this high level of training and to ensure that all shift staffs are suitably exercised, it is the practice for each station to hold five full rehearsals per year based on a postulated serious incident on the plant, and designed to test every facet of the com­prehensive emergency arrangements.

An essential part of the training of nuclear power station operations staff is off-site training. This is mainly carried out at the CEGB’s National Nuclear Power Training Centre (NPTC) at Oldbury, which provides a mixture of theoretical and simulator-based training on a wide range of nuclear related subjects. The NPTC is administered directly by the CEGB and staffed almost exclusively by scientific and engineer­ing staff with experience of nuclear station operation. The NPTC also provides a forum for short seminars and conferences on nuclear subjects of current interest to specialist groups within the industry, a typical se­lection being asymmetric fault studies, probabilistic risk analysis, reactor physics, and gas and waterside chemistry. Its principal role, however, is to provide three essential training functions to implement the CEGB’s nuclear training policy, these are:

• The training of operational staff following their initial training in a nuclear station.

• The revision training of experienced operations staff from nuclear stations.

• The training of non-operational staff from the sta­tions, divisions and headquarters departments.

The NPTC training courses are basically divided into three areas, namely, introductory, operational and plant familiarisation.

Introduction to nuclear power

This is a four week course with emphasis on basic nuclear technology; the syllabus includes nuclear and reactor physics, reactor kinetics, reactor heat trans­fer, health physics and reactor chemistry. The lecture periods are supplemented by practical work in the laboratory and visits to an operating nuclear power station.

Operational training

Separate courses are provided for magnox and AGR staff following completion of the introduction course and the period of plant familiarisation. This phase of training concentrates principally on the opera­tional aspects of the engineers’ responsibilities and, as with the introduction course, is aimed at obtaining a thorough understanding of the dynamics of the plant with the primary objective of ensuring safe op­eration, and the secondary but desirable objective of improved commercial performance. At this stage an increasing proportion of the training is given by ex­perienced operating engineers, thus allowing the en­gineer under training the opportunity of discussing current operational procedures and the problems likely to be met on the plant. The lectures aim to develop a proper understanding of basic principles rather than the development of mathematical equations and their solution.

After a further period of training at the station the operators then attend plant-specific simulator-based operation courses at NPTC.