Plant Operations interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your background + nuclear operations experience.
2. Tell me about a specific watch, evolution, or operations role you held.
3. Why nuclear plant operations vs other power-plant or engineering paths?
4. Why this reactor + technology family - PWR / BWR / SMR?
5. Why the firm?
6. What's your read on our fleet + operations posture?
7. Tell me what you understand about our safety culture + conduct of operations.
8. Walk me through a transient or abnormal-event response - real plant or high-fidelity simulator.

Technical concepts to master

• Control-room conduct of operations + procedure use

  Procedure use + adherence · Three-way communication · Peer + independent verification · Pre-job brief + post-job debrief · Conservative decision-making + stop-when-unsure

• Tech specs + LCO + surveillance

  Tech specs structure · LCO + action statement + completion time · Surveillance requirements (SR) · Operability determination (NRC IMC 0326) · RICT + risk-informed completion time

• EOP + AOP + SAMG + FLEX execution

  Symptom-based vs event-based EOPs · EOP entry + transition + escapes · AOP + ARP · SAMG (Severe Accident Management Guidelines) · FLEX (Diverse and Flexible Coping Strategies)

• CAP + INPO traits + ALARA

  Corrective Action Program (CAP) · INPO traits + safety culture · Operating experience (OE) · ALARA + radiological protection · Fitness for Duty (10 CFR 26)

Practical drills

• You're on the panel as RO with an SRO + STA in the control room. Plant is at 100% power. You receive a reactor trip signal followed by indications of feedwater isolation. Walk me through your symptom recognition, EOP entry, and the first 10-15 minutes of response - including crew dynamics.
• Surveillance test on an EDG fails to meet acceptance criteria - the loaded run completed but the load-reject test showed a higher-than-allowed frequency excursion. You're SRO. Walk me through your operability determination, LCO entry, action-statement compliance, and the call you make on extended completion time.
• During a routine valve manipulation under a clearance order, your peer-verifier momentarily looked away and you both signed off on a valve that turned out to be the wrong train (right train ID, wrong unit prefix). The mistake was caught at the next surveillance. Walk me through your immediate response, CAP entry, root-cause approach, and what you would propose for corrective actions.

Smart-question anchors

• Fleet + reactor portfolio - PWR / BWR / SMR mix, MWe, licence basis + expiry, SLR / LTO
• Operations org + shift complement - RO / SRO ratios, STA model, shift manager + CRS structure
• Operator training + licensing pipeline - initial class cadence, requalification programme, simulator fidelity
• Safety culture + INPO posture - INPO Index trend, conduct of operations standards, CAP cadence
• Regulatory posture - ROP column, recent NRC inspection findings, LERs, recent operability calls

Sourced from

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission - 10 CFR + NUREG-1021 + Regulatory Guides + NUREGs + ADAMS · INPO 12-012 + ACAD 10-001 + AP-913 + INPO OE programme · Westinghouse Owners Group EOPs + BWR Owners Group EOPs + symptom-based EOP framework · NEI 12-06 + 10 CFR 50.155 FLEX framework + SAMG industry guidance · NRC IMC 0326 + Operability Determination process + Standard Technical Specifications NUREG-1430 series