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Title: Quality performance-based training enhances safe and effective transport operations

Conference ·
OSTI ID:7282807

A great deal of time, effort, and money is expended in the United States each year to achieve safety in transporting radioactive materials. Statistics support the fact that packaging system currently used for this purpose provide adequate safety. The high-quality packaging systems now used essentially eliminate the potential for major physical consequence to either the public or to the environment that could result from a radioactive material transportation incident. A major problem, however, remains. The institutional network in the United States, made up of the general public, special interest groups, Federal, state, local, and tribal government entities, remains to a major degree unimpressed with the US nuclear industry's performance. The institutional network knows that transport accidents occur daily and, as a result, safety during transport is continually questioned. Therefore, the question of whether the United States is putting enough emphasis on critical transport factors other than packaging, such as improving human performance to ensure safety and reduce the level of public concern, must be answered. This paper supports the belief that human performance and safe operations can be enhanced with performance-based, competency-demonstrated training, and that this type of training can also improve the institutional network's perception of US packaging and shipping activities. This paper discusses the need for performance-based training, identifies key program elements for effective training development, and describes several training courses sponsored by the US Department of Energy, Transportation Management Division, which demonstrate effective training.

Research Organization:
Westinghouse Hanford Co., Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC06-87RL10930
OSTI ID:
7282807
Report Number(s):
WHC-SA-1570; CONF-920905-4; ON: DE92019779
Resource Relation:
Conference: 10. international symposium on the packaging and transportation of radioactive materials: PATRAM '92, Yokohama (Japan), 13-18 Sep 1992
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English