Melissa Ralph
Fitness For Duty Specialist
Watching
over a nuclear reactor’s controls or supervising nuclear power plant
maintenance are jobs that need a person’s full attention. Nuclear plant
workers can’t perform properly if they’re overly tired, dealing with a
medical concern or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. For those
reasons, the NRC has strict “fitness for duty” requirements so companies
can spot impaired workers and keep them out of the plant.
Human
factors were in the spotlight after the Three Mile Island accident in
1979. Afterward, we closely examined how human behavior affects nuclear
plant safety. In 1989 the agency issued the first fitness for duty rules
covering anyone with unescorted access to a nuclear plant, as well as
workers whose duties affect safety, security or emergency preparedness.
![drugs]()
Drug
and alcohol testing is the program’s most obvious feature. New hires
are tested before they get access to the plant, and companies must also
conduct random, unannounced drug and alcohol tests for workers. The
tests must cover a specific minimum set of drugs (including marijuana,
cocaine and amphetamines) and companies can expand the test for
additional drugs.
The
rules also say workers can’t drink alcohol for at least five hours
before their shift, and blood alcohol concentrations as low as 0.02
constitute a “positive” test. (For comparison, driving while impaired in
the United States requires a 0.08 blood alcohol level.)
Plants
must also test on-duty workers if they seem impaired or are behaving
oddly, and workers must report anyone they think is impaired to
management. Workers who feel impaired from being too tired must report
themselves.
Workers
are automatically drug and alcohol tested and assessed for being
overtired if they’re involved in an onsite accident or event possibly
caused by human error. Plants also test workers when they’re working
extended shifts. All of these multiple layers of testing help ensure
plant workers are fit for duty.
Plants
give the NRC information from all these tests regularly. Reviewing this
information shows that most of the positive tests – two out of three –
comes from pre-access testing. So these impaired individuals never get
into the plant. In the other cases the worker’s access is promptly
revoked.
What
happens to a worker with a positive test? The first bans the worker
from the site for at least 14 days; a second revokes the person’s access
for five years. If the worker has a third positive test or tries to
cheat on a drug test the person is permanent banned from access to the
site. Workers who want to restore access after a first or second
positive test must go into a treatment program and have follow-up tests.
In
2008, we updated NRC regulations to strengthen the drug and alcohol
test requirements and to enhance how companies manage work hours to
prevent worker fatigue. Since then, the overall positive test rates have
remained steady at about 0.62 percent. Last year 179,135 tests spotted
1,114 cases where a worker was positive for either alcohol or a drug.
We
continue to examine new information about fitness for duty, as well as
improvements in testing technology. We’re working on proposed updates to
our rules based on this information. You can read more about today’s
fitness-for-duty requirements on our
website.
No comments:
Post a Comment