Non-Licensed Shift Technical Advisors
Currently, all of our STAs are licensed but we have provisions for non-licensed STAs. Individual must have gone through majority of license class and simulator training, but does not have to be certified. We have had individuals that we decided not to send up for SRO after audit examination serve on shift as STA and this experience has prepared them to return to license class and obtain SRO license.
Our STAs serve on shift as part of crew as Shift Support Supervison (SSS). This position does not require a license, although all have SRO at the current time. All SSS licenses are inactive unless individual is a Shift Supervisor substitute. There are normally 3 SSS on each of the five crews, rotate with shift. Duties include tagging, monitoring non-licensed operators, fire protection over sight, etc.
I'm the STA Training Coordinator at FCS. What I've found is that while the accident function of the STA is pretty similiar the day to day functions vary quite a bit. Our STA's function as Ops Engineering/Reactor Engineering support on-shift. Review Condition Reports, review surveillances, do 50.59, & reportability evaluations, perform RE surveillances, etc. Other utilities use the STA as work coordinator, building operator facilitators, etc. So what do your STA's do and how is not having a license going to impact that role?
We have non-licensed STA's. They used to get systems training under our engineering program, but Ops took ownership of that in the mid-late 90's because those STA's taught by engineering were struggling with requalification exams. I did some benchmarking a couple of years ago and evaluated our program to see if we could enhance throughput by using non-licensed STA's. Although we could save a few months, developing the curriculum and administering separate classes was determined to be too much of a burden. The prior history of STA's struggling in requal also played a factor in the decision. Currently all of our STA's go through the LO training program classes and simulator to at least obtain at least an SRO Certification. Some of them just don't have the plant background or skillset to function fast enough to obtain an SRO. The non-licensed STA's also don't do the last month of the SRO/RO program which is additional simulator and JPM prep to correct weaknesses identified during the audit prior to the NRC exam. During this time the STA's go on shift to stand STA and finish STA qual book, some also may have UI's to finish for their SRO Cert as they get bumped for shifts by the SRO's.
Our non-licensed STA's are technically sound & on-shift they develop their strong suits. The crews quickly learn who can do what & who knows what so they can take advantage of each other's strengths. Once the non-licensed STA's save the crew a few times during simulator requal they generally get accepted.