Fitness for Duty Event Reports (2008 – 2013)

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Findings

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Beginning in 1989, United States Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) licensees have been required to implement a Fitness For Duty program that satisfies safety requirements created in the Federal Code of Regulations 10 CFR Part 26. This Fitness For Duty Policy codified in federal statute was created in order to ensure that individuals granted access to nuclear power plants are trustworthy, reliable, not under the influence of any substance, whether legal or illegal, and not mentally or physically impaired. Accordingly, an individual deemed fit for duty by the nuclear licensee is believed to be capable of competently performing his or her duties and believed to be trustworthy and reliable as demonstrated by abstaining from any substance abuse.

Fitness For Duty tests are administered by the licensee either randomly, in a lottery-style system where the winners get to report to the medical office for testing, or for-cause, which are administrated when supervisors note aberrant behaviors and then also order follow-up testing to ensure compliance with the federal Fitness For Duty (FFD) statutory requirements. Possible aberrant behaviors discovered and examined by supervisors include a wide range of actions from staggering or making simple mistakes (such as turning the wrong switch) to acting belligerently or out of character, among a multitude of overall deviations from normal employee behavior for that individual.

Fairewinds analysis of the last five years of reported Fitness for Duty events shows 173 Fitness for Duty event reports filed between 2008 and September 2013:

  • During the past five years, reported Fitness For Duty violations in the United States have more than doubled, led by alcohol related events which have nearly quadrupled during the same time period.

  • Most Fitness For Duty events are not reported to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission through the event notification system

  • The majority of Fitness For Duty violations occur in the southeast portion of the United States.

  • There is a large discrepancy between the causes of Fitness For Duty events between licensee employees and temporary contract workers at nuclear power plants across the United States.

  • Recent trends indicate that licensee’s Fitness For Duty program is not completely effective, as a significant fraction of violations are caught offsite by national, state, and local law enforcement agencies.

  • 5-year trends indicate that Fitness For Duty programs are deficient, as the data demonstrates that workers including licensed reactor operators are increasingly impaired by drug and alcohol dependencies, and a significant number of violations are caught offsite by national, state, and local law enforcement agencies.

An Analysis of Fitness for Duty Events at Nuclear Power Plants in the United States