After 18 months of training, 13 employees at TVA's Sequoyah Nuclear Plant have passed exams administered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and now are licensed to operate or supervise the operation of the two nuclear reactors at Sequoyah.

"This is an important achievement for TVA and for Sequoyah," said John Carlin, Sequoyah vice president. "It takes an extremely high level of knowledge, proficiency and personal sacrifice to receive an NRC license, and I commend these individuals for their hard work and dedication to the job."

The 13 graduates include three new reactor operators, Lori Boyle and Bernie Geier, both of Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., and Alton Crenshaw, of Mobile, Ala.

The other 10 graduates are now new senior reactor operators, meaning they can act in a supervisory position overseeing the work of the reactor operators. They are David Smith and Don Boyles, both of Soddy Daisy; Kevin Michael, Rusty Whitehead and Matt Jungels, all of Hixson; Harry Howle, of Hartsville, S.C.; Frank Conlow, of Hamilton, N.J.; Rob Morey, of East Hartford, Conn.; Terry Dunny, of Saline, Mich.; and Paul Parashak, of St. Louis, Mo.

Each graduate had to meet stringent requirements for education and experience to qualify for $6.5 million training program.

Each graduate had to meet stringent requirements for education and experience to qualify the TVA training program.

In training, they received classroom instruction and practiced in a control room simulator located in the Sequoyah Training Center in order to become proficient in monitoring and manipulating hundreds of controls and instruments. They also received on-the-job training with already-licensed operators.

NRC spokesman Joey Ledford said all of the applicants in the site-specific Sequoyah training program passed both the operating test and the written test.

Sequoyah has a total of 65 nuclear reactor operators to run the plant reactors around the clock.

The licenses must be renewed in six years, and in the meantime each operator much pass yearly requalification operating tests.