Fitness for duty in the nuclear power industry. Annual summary of program performance reports

摘要

This report summarizes the data from the semiannual reports on fitness-for-duty programs submitted to the NRC by utilities for two reporting periods: January 1-June 30, 1995, and July 1 -December 31, 1995. During 1995, licensees reported that they had conducted 150,121 tests for the presence of illegal drugs and alcohol. Of these tests, 1,476 (.98%) were confirmed positive. The majority of positive test results (1, 122) were obtained through pre-access testing. Of tests conducted on workers having access to the protected area, there were 180 positive tests from random testing and 139 positive tests from for-cause testing. Follow-up testing of workers who had previously tested positive resulted in 35 positive tests. For-cause testing resulted in the highest percentage of positive tests; about 18 percent of for-cause tests were positive. This compares with a positive test rate of 1.41 percent of pre-access tests and .27 percent of random tests. The positive test rate for workers with unescorted access was .50 percent. Positive test rates also varied by category of worker. When all types of tests are combined, short-term contractor personnel had the highest positive test rate at 1.44 percent. Licensee employees and long-term contractors had lower combined positive test rates (.34% and .40%, respectively). Of the substances tested, marijuana was responsible for the highest percentage of positive test results (53.08%), followed by cocaine (24.24%) and alcohol (17.17%). The overall positive test rate for 1995 (.98%) was higher than in 1994 (.84%). Several factors had an impact on the positive test rate across test categories for 1994 and 1995 compared to previous years. These factors include the NRC`s reduction in the mandatory random testing rate from 100 percent to 50 percent, effective in 1994, and initiatives by licensees such as lowered marijuana screening cutoff levels and reported improvements in licensees ability to detect subversion of the process.