CNP Exam Prep Resources

Explain the fundamentals of nuclear structure and reactions. 

• Understanding of nuclear structure and stability. 
• Demonstrate understanding of nuclear reactions. 
• Calculate the energy release in nuclear reactions.

Identify the fundamental radioactive decay processes. 

• Contrast the different types of spontaneous decay (e.g., alpha, beta, gamma, etc.) 
• Understand half-life and decay constant. 
• Recognize simple and serial radioactive decay. 
• Utilize the information in the chart of nuclides to solve nuclear problems. 
• Identify energy distribution among released particles. 

Explain the concepts related to a neutron balance. 

• Understand the neutron lifecycle/keff.
• Use keff to describe if the reactor is subcritical, critical, or supercritical.
• Demonstrate recognition of prompt criticality and delayed neutrons in reactor control.

Explain ionizing radiation interaction with matter.

• Compare ionizing and nonionizing radiation.
• Describe the types of radiation (e.g., photon vs particle radiation).
• Understand the types and probability of interactions.
• Describe the energy deposited in matter.
• Distinguish between irradiation and contamination.

Understand the fundamentals of nuclear safety culture.

• List the primary human performance tools.
• Define a safety-conscious work environment.
• Understand your personal role and avenues for reporting safety concerns.
• Understand the organizational culture effect on nuclear safety culture.

Discuss the three major nuclear power accidents (TMI, Chernobyl, Fukushima).

• Understand the accident sequence for each.
• Understand the physical processes for each.
• Explain the human factors/errors for each.
• Discuss the consequences for each.
• Apply the lessons learned for each.

Relate specific nuclear events to corresponding industry changes and lessons learned.

• Understand the impact of organizational structure.
• Identify the training requirements.
• Understand the impact of operational practices.
• Identify communication protocols.
• Relate source of technical requirements to the events.

Understand the purposes of consensus standards (e.g., American Nuclear Society, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers).

• Understand the need for consensus standards and how they are created.
• Understand how consensus standards are adopted in the regulatory and design process.

Distinguish how industry codes and standards are used in the design and the regulatory process.

• Understand when codes and standards are requirements versus guidance.
• Discuss the appropriate application of codes and standards to specific situations.
• Understand the hierarchy of design requirements.

Explain the process of qualifying structure systems and components (SSCs) for their intended use.

• Understand seismic qualification.
• Understand environmental qualification (10 CFR 50.49).
• Understand safety qualification (Appendix B).
• Understand cyber qualification.
• Understand electromagnetic interference (EMI)/radio frequency interference (RFI) qualification.
• Understand the difference in the process qualification and commercial grade dedication (CGD).

Understand the basics of dosimetry. 

• Describe the types of ionizing radiation.
• Calculate energy deposited, absorbed dose, equivalent dose, effective dose, and cumulative dose.
• Convert between dosimetry units (e.g., RAD, REM, Sievert and Gray).

Demonstrate understanding of radiation hazards.

• Identify potential radiation pathways.
• Contrast the effect of time, distance, and shielding.
• Examine different shielding parameters (e.g., half-thickness, tenth-thickness, shielding materials).

Understand the biological effects of radiation.

• Distinguish between acute vs. chronic dose.
• Distinguish between stochastic and non-stochastic effects.
• Distinguish between external vs. internal dosimetry.

Identify the instruments used in applied health physics.

• List the use of the different instruments.
• Compare dosimetry vs survey equipment.
• Describe the control and use of dosimetry.

Understand the framework of laws and regulations that govern the commercial nuclear industry.

• Explain key elements of the Atomic Energy Act, the Energy Reorganization Act, and the Price-Anderson Act.
• Explain where key regulatory requirements can be found (e.g., Part 20, 50, 100).
• Demonstrate an understanding of the different types of regulatory documents (laws, rules, policy, regulatory guides, etc.), their hierarchy of application, and distinguishing between requirements and guidance.

Describe the key attributes of the 'defense in depth' approach to designing a nuclear facility.

• Describe the physical barriers to the release of radioactivity.
• Describe engineering practices used to ensure high reliability of safety features and adequate safety margin (multiple barriers, quality assurance, etc.).
• Differentiate between a deterministic and a probabilistic safety assessment method of addressing internal accidents and external events.

Describe the typical content of a commercial facility's licensing basis.

• Describe the relationship between a facility's design basis and its licensing basis.
• List the types of documents that are typically included in a facility's current licensing basis.
• Describe the high-level content (chapter titles) of a Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) for operating reactors.

Describe the process(es) available for changing the licensing basis of a facility.

• Describe the key regulations related to requesting a change to a facility's license.
• List activities (proposed changes) that require prior Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approval.
• Describe the main steps of the license amendment request process.

Understand the key aspects of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) license renewal process.

• Describe the key regulations related to renewing a facility's license (e.g., Parts 51 and 54).
• Demonstrate an understanding of the primary guidance documents related to the safety assessment aspect of license renewal.
• Describe examples of the types of environmental considerations reviewed with respect to license renewal.

Recognize specified guidance documents and explain the applicability of the guidance to a nuclear facility (e.g., describe how the guidance is used).

• Describe the relationship between the Part 50 Appendix A General Design Criteria (GDC) and the design basis of the facility.
• Describe the relationship between the Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) and the Standard Review Plan (SRP).
• Describe how Part 50 Appendix B, Quality Assurance Criteria for Nuclear Power Plants and Fuel Reprocessing Facilities applies to different entities in the nuclear industry.

Understand the key concepts and terminology associated with the main operational aspects of regulating a nuclear power facility.

• Define the term technical specifications (TS).
• Describe the basis for what is required to be included in a facility's TS.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the concept of limited conditions of operation.
• Describe the key features of the NRC Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) (i.e., demonstrate an understanding of the basic terminology and roles/responsibilities of the NRC and a licensee).
• Demonstrate an understanding of the requirements for notifying the NRC of emergency and non-emergency events (also known as Reportability).
• Describe the four basic Emergency Action Levels.

Define key concepts related to the decommissioning of a nuclear facility.

• Define the term decommissioning.
• Describe the key steps in the decommissioning release process.

Understand the design and application of radiation detectors.

• Apply basic counting statistics to radiation detection.
• Understand the various types of detectors and their uses.
• Understand the fundamentals of spectroscopy.
• Assess the source type and energy selection.
• Describe the different source, target, and detector placement.

Discuss the medical application of radiation and radioisotopes.

• Comprehend the diagnostic and imaging usages of radiation and radioisotopes.
• Comprehend the therapeutic usages of radiation and radioisotopes.

Discuss the industrial application of radiation and radioisotopes.

• Differentiate among the usage of radiation and radioisotopes in radiotracers, radiogauges, and elemental or isotopic analysis.
• Describe the utilization of radiation in radiography.
• Recognize additional industrial use of industrial radiation and radioisotopes.

Describe the basic concepts in reactor design and control.

• Understand the basic concepts of reactor control.
• Explain the various contributors to reactivity feedback.
• Explain the necessary components of a reactor core, such as fissile fuel, moderator, control, coolant, and reflector.

Discuss the nature of the four reactor generations.

Describe the evolution of nuclear reactor technologies and compare/contrast each generation (Gen II, Gen III(+), and Gen IV). 

Describe the basic components and component functions for a pressurized water reactor (PWR).

• Sketch a cooling loops diagram with major components, including primary loop (core, pressure vessel, pressurizer, steam generator), and secondary loop (high- and low-pressure turbines, generator, and condenser).
• Explain the function of each component.
• Explain how the energy of fission is converted to electricity in this system.

Describe the basic components and component functions for a boiling water reactor (BWR).

• Sketch a cooling loop diagram with major components, including core, pressure vessel, steam dryers/separators, high- and low-pressure turbines, generator, and condenser.
• Explain the function of each component.
• Explain how the energy of fission is converted to electricity in this system.

Differentiate thermal and fast reactors.

• Describe the characteristics and operations of a fast reactor.
• Describe the characteristics and operations of a thermal reactor.

Discuss and differentiate microreactors, small modular reactors, and the majority of current power reactors. 

• Describe power level and features of microreactors.
• Describe power level and features of small modular reactors (SMRs).
• Describe power level and features of Gen II and III power reactors.

Recognize the basic designs of common non-BWR and PWR power reactors around the world. 

• Describe the basic design features and functions of Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactors – heavy water moderator and coolant, unenriched or low enriched uranium, and continuous refueling.
• Describe the basic design features and functions of advanced gas reactors (AGR) – gas cooled, graphite moderated, low enriched fuel.
• Describe the basic design features and functions of water-water energy reactors (VVER) – pressure tubes with low enriched fuel, water cooled and moderated.

Describe the steps of refueling a light-water reactor (LWR) core.

• Explain the need to shut down LWRs every 12-24 months.
• Describe the general steps in a refueling outage, including shutdown, vessel head removal, connection of spent fuel pool and vessel during refueling, movement of fuel between pool and vessel, and replacement and shuffling of fuel.
• Describe and differentiate between the two main methods that power plants currently use to store spent/used fuel, namely, spent fuel pool and dry cask storage.

Understand the major steps of the nuclear fuel cycle.

• List the steps of the nuclear fuel cycle (i.e., mining and milling, conversion, enrichment, reactor usage, spent fuel pool, interim storage, reprocessing, and geologic disposal).
• Explain what happens in each step of the nuclear fuel cycle.
• Identify the different chemical and isotopic forms of the material at each step.
• Understand the difference between an open and a closed fuel cycle.
• Identify front-end and back-end steps.

Recognize the unique requirements for transportation of nuclear materials. 

• Describe the different types of transport casks.
• Recognize the different governing authorities of transport casks.
• Explain the different modes of transportation.

Describe and compare uranium enrichment technologies.

Understand the types of enrichment technologies: (1st generation: gaseous diffusion, 2nd generation: gaseous centrifuge, 3rd generation: laser enrichment).

Explain spent fuel reprocessing.

• Describe the reprocessing technologies (e.g., PUREX, pyroprocessing, and volatility).
• Explain the factors that influence whether countries do reprocessing (e.g., policy, economics, proliferation concerns).

Describe the radioactive waste types in the U.S.

• List the types of radioactive waste in the U.S. (e.g., high-level waste and low-level waste, including the four classes of low-level waste).
• Describe how and where each type of waste is disposed or stored in the U.S.
• Define relative volumes of each type of waste in the U.S.
• Explain the long-term plan for storing used nuclear fuel in the U.S.

Understand the challenges with spent fuel waste management.

• Understand the history of geologic repository development in the U.S.
• Describe the basic features of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.