The pace of nuclear plant worker retirements is straining the supply of proficient operators, technicians, and engineers. In many instances, when an experienced worker retires their replacement lacks the same level of task proficiency. Although nuclear plant personnel complete rigorous systematically designed and implemented training and qualification programs this alone does not ensure personnel are proficient at performing all of the tasks associated with safe and reliable plant operation. Leaders and managers must be aware of the proficiency challenges of their current and evolving workforce, and implement processes to accelerate the proficiency of their workers. At the November 2013 Annual Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) CEO Conference, INPO President and CEO, Bob Willard said "We believe that at the root of each of our industry great challenges is a lack of appreciation for the complex nature of proficiency ... of individuals, of operations and engineering teams, of management teams, and of leaders. We also believe that the migration of seasoned nuclear experience from our ranks is altering the proficiency challenges in our industry." At the 6th IAEA Convention on Nuclear Safety, March 2014, he further stated "We are seeking a fuller understanding of this science, together with ways and means to increase the proficiencies across our industry in the face of demographic shifts that have many of our most experienced nuclear workers retiring in the next several years. This is a much fuller challenge than just knowledge transfer." [1] This paper will explain an approach implemented by a nuclear utility to capture and transfer knowledge possessed by proficient workers to new workers using the VISION learning content management system (LCMS).
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