Draft NUREG: Training Review Criteria and Procedures
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment draft NUREG-1220, Revision 2, "Training Review Criteria and Procedures." This NUREG provides guidance ...
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment draft NUREG-1220, Revision 2, “Training Review Criteria and Procedures.” This NUREG provides guidance to NRC staff for reviewing training programs at nuclear power plants to verify that they are developed and maintained using a Systems Approach to Training (SAT). It describes the review criteria and evaluation methods used by NRC staff for both initial training program reviews and ongoing training program inspections, and it summarizes the five SAT elements consistent with the framework outlined in ANSI/ANS-3.1-2014, as endorsed by Regulatory Guide 1.8, “Qualification and Training of Personnel for Nuclear Power Plants.”
DATES:
Submit comments by August 21, 2026. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before this date.
ADDRESSES:
You may submit comments by any of the following; however, the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Federal rulemaking website.
Federal rulemaking website:
Go to
https://www.regulations.gov
and search for Docket ID NRC-2026-1849. Address questions about Docket IDs in
Regulations.gov
to Bridget Curran; telephone: 301-415-1003; email:
Bridget.Curran@nrc.gov.
For technical questions, contact the individual(s) listed in the
For Further Information Contact
section of this document.
Mail comments to:
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Mail Stop: TWFN-5-A85, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Guidance and Publications Branch.
For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting comments, see “Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments” in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Maggie Chauhan, telephone: 301-415-0365; email:
Maggie.Chauhan@nrc.gov
and Jeff Correll, telephone: 301-415-2414; email:
Jeffrey.Correll@nrc.gov.
Both are staff of the Office of Advanced Reactors at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2026-1849 when contacting the NRC about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain publicly available information related to this action by any of the following methods:
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS):
You may obtain publicly available documents online in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at
https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html.
To begin the search, select “Begin ADAMS Public Search.” For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, at 301-415-4737, or by email to
PDR.Resource@nrc.gov.
Draft NUREG-1220, Revision 2, “Training Review Criteria and Procedures” is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML26195A017.
NRC's PDR:
The PDR, where you may examine and order copies of publicly available documents, is open by appointment. To make an appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to
PDR.Resource@nrc.gov
or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time (ET), Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
B. Submitting Comments
The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Federal rulemaking website (
https://www.regulations.gov). Please include Docket ID NRC-2026-1849 in your comment submission.
The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your comment submission. The NRC will post all comment submissions at
https://www.regulations.gov
as well as enter the comment submissions into ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove identifying or contact information.
If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove such information before making the comment submissions available to the public or entering the comment into ADAMS.
II. Discussion
Draft NUREG-1220, Revision 2, proposes updated structured guidance for the NRC staff to review, approve, and inspect SAT programs for nuclear power plant personnel across large light-water reactors (LWRs), advanced reactors (including non-LWRs and stationary microreactors), and small modular LWRs. The guidance applies to initial training program submissions
( printed page 46176)
under part 50 of title 10 of the
Code of Federal Regulations
(10 CFR), “Domestic Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities,” (construction permits and operating licenses) and 10 CFR part 52, “Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants,” (combined licenses) and is also relevant to applicants for design certifications or standard design approvals that submit topical reports. It supplements NUREG-0800, “Standard Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants: LWR Edition,” Chapter 13, “Conduct of Operations,” and supports compliance with 10 CFR 50.120 and 10 CFR part 55, “Operators' Licenses,” (including 10 CFR 55.31 and definitions in 10 CFR 55.4). For existing LWR programs accredited by the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, inspections rely on NRC Inspection Procedure 41500, “Training and Qualification Effectiveness” and focus on performance outcomes rather than imposing additional requirements; consistent with prior Commission statements, the guidance does not seek to add requirements or to mandate additional job and task analyses.
Draft NUREG-1220, Revision 2, clarifies the NRC staff's review and inspection approach using both comprehensive programmatic reviews and focused “vertical slice” reviews that trace a topic end-to-end through the SAT phases—analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation—to verify systematic linkage and program validity. It underscores that SAT is performance-based and that each phase must produce traceable, quality-assured products (
e.g.,
actionable task lists; condition-action-standard learning objectives; leveled, defensible evaluation instruments; detailed lesson and simulator guides; secure, independent exams; remediation protocols). Recognizing the scalability and flexibility needed for advanced and microreactors, the guidance anticipates organizational structures that differ from conventional LWR programs. In such cases, applicants are expected to describe how regulatory role functions are fulfilled and to justify systematic training aligned to job and task analyses, including human factors engineering and cognitive task analysis to capture supervisory control and automation-related knowledge, skills, and abilities. The evaluation phase is emphasized as continuous, drawing on formative, summative, and confirmative methods—as well as operating experience, corrective action program inputs, inspection results, design/procedure changes, and regulatory/industry developments—to identify issues and implement corrective actions commensurate with significance. Overall, the draft aims to ensure clarity, relevance, and accuracy in training programs, so they reliably produce qualified personnel and demonstrable performance consistent with safety and regulatory requirements, while providing predictable, transparent expectations for applicants and licensees.