Over the years I have seen and heard almost every conceivable story that has tried to vilify Bartlett Nuclear, Inc. from the conspiracy theories and double secret probation to Bruce determines the outage shutdown schedule to best benefit Bartlett. Well a new one has surfaced that I decided that I needed to address. It has been brought to my attention that Bartlett Nuclear, Inc., has been accused of being a “shell game specialist” when it comes to staffing, technicians and how many/who we have committed to our job sites. I’ve seen it done by other vendors and have always taken pride that this company has not and will not play that game. Those of you that know me or have dealt with me should know by now I try not to mince words, I try not to play games and I try to call it as it is and what it is. So I’ll call it as I see it, the quote below is pure unadulterated BS designed to mislead and misinform those that read it. It is designed to drive a wedge between those individuals that make up the road tech population and Bartlett. It is full of falsehoods and lies because the author has nothing valid to say about Bartlett, so he/she had to come up with lies that, if taken at face value, the uniformed could find believable.
The following is an excerpt taken from a statement made on one of the industry websites as relayed to me from a concerned source…
“Several power plants again experienced shortages of Senior RP Technicians this spring. DC Cook began their outage assuming they were only going to be three to four Senior RPs short. That was due to Bartlett using the shell game of fluffing the staffing numbers. The RPM was notified just days before the outage began that they were going to be 14 Senior RPs short for the outage. It’s the ole ‘no-show’ answer from Bartlett. When will the industry grow tired of this worn out scenario? How many outages has your name been used? Prairie Island is 15 Senior RPs short. North Anna faired even worse with 20 Senior RPs missing on the first day of training. Vermont Yankee, had two house techs quit and go to 9 Mile before the ship starts to sink. They are also 18 Senior RPs short for the outage. Bartlett and DZ Atlantic continue to post ads needing Senior RPs. Hanford is still looking for 30 Senior RCTs through several companies. Idaho National Labs, Savannah River, and Portsmouth continue to have openings.”
I am going to address each and every one of these claims in this statement in order to show what the truth is and what amounts to blatant lies and half truths that are being used to deceive and manipulate you, the nuclear power industry’s contractor work force.
First off there is the claim that “…DC Cook began their outage assuming they were only going to be three to four Senior RPs short. That was due to Bartlett using the shell game of fluffing the staffing numbers. The RPM was notified just days before the outage began that they were going to be 14 Senior RPs short for the outage. It’s the ole ‘no-show’ answer from Bartlett."
In response to this I can only say the Cook was continuously kept up to speed as far as how many techs were hired and how many we were short. They were well aware of how short they were prior to the commencement of their outage, 6 Senior Health Physics Technicians short in fact, not the 14 the author claims. There were 8 back outs – no not the type of back outs that the author of the above quote would have you believe, you know, the theory that Bartlett had names on the roster of techs that were never hired for the job, but actual 8 SHP techs that had confirmed and for one reason or another had to back out of the job. So the site ended up 6 SHP short, not 14 that the author would have you believe.
Secondly there is this quote “It’s the ole ‘no-show’ answer from Bartlett. When will the industry grow tired of this worn out scenario? How many outages has your name been used?”
Now some vendors may have done this in the past and some may do this in the present, but I can tell you, and take this with a grain of salt if you would like, that in the 40+ staffing seasons I have been doing this, Bartlett has never and I repeat never placed a name on a roster as being confirmed unless that name was actually confirmed. We have however placed names on rosters to hold spots. When we have done this those names were identified on the roster(s) as not being confirmed and that they were on there to hold a slot while the individual checked on a myriad of things prior to officially confirming, normally at the bequest of the individual tech themselves so that they would not lose the slot while they were trying to decide what to do. This practice of holding slots for individuals by placing their name on the roster & noting that it was a “hold slot” deal was abandoned after the spring 2008 season. On a side note, because we stopped that practice, we now are accused of strong arming techs to confirm for jobs by telling them that we can’t guarantee their slot will be there next time they call in if they don’t want to confirm at this time.
Third there is this part of their statement “Prairie Island is 15 Senior RPs short” –
That may have been true for either the last outage or possibly outages prior to last falls outage, as for this season’s outage, S2010, Prairie Island is 100% staffed for all requested positions.
Fourth is this portion of the statement “North Anna faired even worse with 20 Senior RPs missing on the first day of training.”
Nothing like distorting the truth to serve you own agenda. North Anna, when they realized that they were not going to get the full contingent of road tech SHP’s that they had originally requested Bartlett to supply, revised their request to Bartlett dropping just under half of the slots from their request stating they would get internal support from Dominion to make up for those slots. After our crew arrived on site, 2 individuals came up with a story about having to leave for “DOE” work only to have us find out they lied and went to another outage.
Fifth is the following portion of the statement – “Vermont Yankee, had two house techs quit and go to 9 Mile before the ship starts to sink. They are also 18 Senior RPs short for the outage. “
I don’t know about two VY House techs, we did however hire one and I have heard no rumors of VY being 18 SHP’s short
This last portion of the statement of course has truth in it “Bartlett and DZ Atlantic continue to post ads needing Senior RPs. Hanford is still looking for 30 Senior RCTs through several companies. Idaho National Labs, Savannah River, and Portsmouth continue to have openings.”
I can’t speak for DZA, but yes BNI continues to run ads for SHP, it is what we’ve always done when we have openings for any discipline. Look at nukeworker’s stats, Bartlett is one of, if not, the top job advertiser(s) in the industry, at least thru nukeworker.com
Now I understand that BNI has a target on its back because it is the “big boy” on the block, the one that others feel they need to take a piece of to prove themselves. I can tell you BNI did not get to the size we are at or make the relationships we have with our clients by playing the games that this absurd statement accuses us of playing. The only thing to be achieved by playing a game like the one that the author accuses us of is to lose contracts. And yes we do have SHP slots at Hanford & INL, Portsmouth happens to be staffed and Savannah River is still trying to sort out their needs.
So to wrap things up all I wish to say is believe what you will and who you will. You can believe the company that for over 30 years has continued to champion better compensation packages for the contractor work force or you can believe the ranting of a blatant liar that the only way he/she can drum up support is to mislead those that he/she is looking for support from, either way it’s your call.
I wish you all a productive and prosperous year.
Eric
