Alloy 600

[Meltdown]

I've been scouting around looking for info on Alloy 600 issues and haven't seen much, so I thought I would start this thread. If there's a better place I haven't found, maybe a helpful moderator will relocate this. Anybody out there had much experience with the companies out there?

Since Alloy 600 seems to be the biggest threat to our industry since TMI, we ought to be sharing info. What I've noticed is what seems to be an embarassed silence after the deed is done, like nobody wants to admit they've just been had. I'm beginning to understand.

In order to protect the guilty maybe we should refer to the players as Wussy, Pissy, and Arrevaderci.

Having hosted the happy crew from Wussy for 8 cutout/replacements and 12 overlays, we thought we had a grip on things. What nobody imagined was that this time they would send the B crew - a Devil's brew of people who know better but don't care, in charge of a mix of new people who have no clue when they're being led astray, bt are happy to be making all that fat cash. They know just what to tell the HPs to keep them out of the way, so that they can happily grind away on mRad and act all innocent when they alarm the PCMs, and claim the crew above them working on Service Water crapped them up. Swear to God, I couldn't make this up.

So anyway, if you want a model for your upcoming outage, just watch those Capitol One commercials with the pirates swarming everywhere - that's going to be your Containment Building. I guess the good news is we can't all end up in the 4th Quartile at the same time, right?

I know Vogtle had some fun with Pissy recently, but haven't heard any details.

[TENN-1]

Sorry to hear the experiences you are aware of have gone sour. At Cook we have finished our PZR overlays (top and bottom), and, as far as I know, are satisfied with the result. The big French company did the work, and except for the usual "he said, she said" stuff at the worker bee level, the jobs went smoothly - very professional crews and the desired outcome. Our Project Manager kept a pretty tight rein on us and the boys from Va and that may have helped. Our ALARA crew worked up some innovative shielding packages and we even came in below our ALARA estimate. I was involved from the beginning on both projects. PM for more info, perhaps we have something you can use.

[thenuttyneutron]

Ohh man, we have 16 welds that we have to do at my plants next outage.  I don't want an outage that goes bad. 

[dks860]

Your analogy is pretty funny, but sadly was very true.  At least at the outage I was at.  Wussie feels they are the only true craftsman on site, and they had no problems pointing it out, on many, many occassions.  Any personnel contamination was not their fault, they couldn't possibly have done anything wrong and even got to the point of trying to hide it because reports were being generated.  These reports are generated on ANY personnel contamination but the boys from Wussie just didn't seem to get that.  They might be top notch welders but they certainly don't know very much about interfacing and being radiation workers.

[wlrun3@aol.com]

   ...need description of access and physical layout of pressurizer cube at Catawba 2 for 3/14/09 outage for alloy 600 project...small bore nozzles...replacement, repair, overlay..

   ...concern is lower containment (ice condenser) space and access constraints...



   

[PWHoppe]

I have worked Alloy 600 projects with all the above (Wussy, Pissy, and Arrevaderci).

Sorry to hear that Wussy didn't do you right. Earlier this year Wussy did a 600 job that I was involved with and they were top notch. Percons were not an issue and they came in under their dose budget even with doing some fairly extensive scope addition. Must have had the "A" Team 

Pissy was involved with another job I had my hands in and frankly  . I wouldn't want to be involved with them again.

The French Boys have done a few 600 jobs that I think went fairly well, I can supply details on each of them, or at least give you contact names at the sites where they were doing the projects. Feel free to PM me for some details.

[redline]

They know just what to tell the HPs to keep them out of the way, so that they can happily grind away on mRad and act all innocent when they alarm the PCMs,

Hate to tell you but that is not their fault dude. Who was it that let them into an mRad situation with a grinder in their hand? This is surface prep, grinding, welding, no breaches here. A set of HP balls and the worker gets the area when it's ready to be worked, in this case should be <1k. And no I don't believe they're slick enough to fool a good technician.

[wlrun3@aol.com]

Hate to tell you but that is not their fault dude. Who was it that let them into an mRad situation with a grinder in their hand? This is surface prep, grinding, welding, no breaches here. A set of HP balls and the worker gets the area when it's ready to be worked, in this case should be <1k. And no I don't believe they're slick enough to fool a good technician.

   ...i was pleasantly surprised to hear from the most respected WSI welders at the WSI Norcross facility that the cause of personnel contaminations is either lack of training or negligence...

[Meltdown]

Just had Wussy back - the B Team guys weren't here this time (thank God). The outage went very well, they were back to their old professional selves collectively and individually.

As to the grinder - not everything they do is an overlay. When they cut out the small safe ends it's pretty much clean machining for hours until you get to the bore of the nozzle. They're supposed to use a bandsaw or Sawzall to make the final sever because the machine will bind if it breaks through on just one side, but sometimes it's just so much easier to pick up a side grinder, especially if the HP isn't standing right there. We're talking lower instrument taps here, or the liquid sample line, with a fine selection of sludge from every mistake ever made over the life of the plant.

Heads up on lower PZR work - because you never really turn over all the water in there you get the remains of any failed fuel you ever had over the years, only the shorter 1/2 life beta gamma stuff is gone. That's how you get 25K alpha with only midlevel mrad. Fun stuff. It seems to bond to the oxide layer, so you don't see it in the system until you disturb it mechanically - then you get to see it on your air samples if you aren't really careful.

These guys did an excellent job, no complaints this time around.

Just heard a story today about a core flood overlay - 37 REM and climbing. What's up with that?

[Vermontguys]

Yah..
I agree that Wussy was a lot easier to work with this outage. Their nightshift supervisor was a true professional. I must say that expectations were clearly voiced to the workers early on and their supervision and myself had a really good line of communication.  That was key in keeping our Alpha problem from becomming the next industry OE.  All I can say is I was very fortunate to be the lead on a project with some great techs. J.H / E.R / T.W / J.T and  M.C.
Thanks!

[wlrun3@aol.com]

Just had Wussy back - the B Team guys weren't here this time (thank God). The outage went very well, they were back to their old professional selves collectively and individually.

As to the grinder - not everything they do is an overlay. When they cut out the small safe ends it's pretty much clean machining for hours until you get to the bore of the nozzle. They're supposed to use a bandsaw or Sawzall to make the final sever because the machine will bind if it breaks through on just one side, but sometimes it's just so much easier to pick up a side grinder, especially if the HP isn't standing right there. We're talking lower instrument taps here, or the liquid sample line, with a fine selection of sludge from every mistake ever made over the life of the plant.

Heads up on lower PZR work - because you never really turn over all the water in there you get the remains of any failed fuel you ever had over the years, only the shorter 1/2 life beta gamma stuff is gone. That's how you get 25K alpha with only midlevel mrad. Fun stuff. It seems to bond to the oxide layer, so you don't see it in the system until you disturb it mechanically - then you get to see it on your air samples if you aren't really careful.

These guys did an excellent job, no complaints this time around.

Just heard a story today about a core flood overlay - 37 REM and climbing. What's up with that?

   ...while at wsi norcross facility as alara coordinator for mcguire hot leg nozzle overlay contingency mockup in early october i worked with mockup for arkansas 1 core flood nozzle inlay project (fall 08 outage)...

   ...remove core barrel, scientech installs custom nozzle dams from refuel floor in two core flood nozzles directly beneath vessel lip, cut two 10" core flood pipes at 12' away from vessel wall, install remote welding rig inside pipes, inlay safe end welds...

   ...comments like "nobody's ever done this before" were common...