A couple of commercial questions

[withroaj]

Well, I guess I'll have to wait until I grow up to check out a big kids' plant.  Bummer. 

[Gamecock]

That's more like two rows of four school buses, wouldn't you say?

You got me.....

I meant to say that the generator portion was about the size of a school bus...the turbine part was much bigger.

[RDTroja]

That's more like two rows of four school buses, wouldn't you say?

I was going to say something similar yesterday, but was trying to avoid comments about short busses.

[SloGlo]

I was going to say something similar yesterday, but was trying to avoid comments about short busses.

sew dere's sum thing rong wit quick kisses? 

[PapaBear765]

Why waste a perfectly good opportunity to study what the effects would be of having a person inside a Reactor Compartment at FULL power for XXX number of days.  We might as well learn something while we are at it.

You see the Myth Busters episode where they tested the "Cockroaches will inhabit Earth after nuclear war" myth?  Can't remember the specifics, but they tested roaches, ants, and something else.  Exposed three groups of subjects to three different acute exposures; like 1000 rem, 10,000 rem, and 100,000 rem.  The ants won.

[Marlin]

You see the Myth Busters episode where they tested the "Cockroaches will inhabit Earth after nuclear war" myth?  Can't remember the specifics, but they tested roaches, ants, and something else.  Exposed three groups of subjects to three different acute exposures; like 1000 rem, 10,000 rem, and 100,000 rem.  The ants won.

I saw that one. I just want to know how I can get their job. 

[RDTroja]

I saw that one. I just want to know how I can get their job. 

Every time I watch that show (I got to see a little bit yesterday) I want their jobs. By far and away the coolest on the planet.

[rlbinc]

A couple of year ago at SONGS, our crew was discussing the hypothesis that if a person tried to swim to the top of the fuel he would not live to get there.
I think that I'd like to test that theory with Mr. Bin Laden.
I already have the experiment designed.
The first problem is to get him to want to swim to the top of the fuel.  So, you drop him in the cavity with a cable locked to his ankle that will only allow him to get within an inch of the water surface.  You put the key to the lock on top of the center bundle.  To save himself from drowning, OBL has to swim to get the key to free himself before his SCUBA tank runs out of air.
Will he make it?

Of course, I also rigged the test.  The key that I placed on the fuel will not actually work that lock, but he won't know that until he tries to use it.

Am I evil?

Osama is completely prepared for death, and that would make him a martyr to his mentally defective peers. So we shouldn't kill him.

(He may very well end up dead about the second week of October 2008 - if my political sensibilities serve me correctly...)

Instead, he needs to be sentenced to life in prison. Bubba and the boys need someone like Osama to keep them company on those long lonely nights.

Osama is NOT prepared for that...

[HydroDave63]

Osama is completely prepared for death, and that would make him a martyr to his mentally defective peers. So we shouldn't kill him.

(He may very well end up dead about the second week of October 2008 - if my political sensibilities serve me correctly...)

Instead, he needs to be sentenced to life in prison. Bubba and the boys need someone like Osama to keep them company on those long lonely nights.

Osama is NOT prepared for that...

The NOI guys in the can would guard him better than the Taliban. If anything he'd be the rock star of that facility, plus as long as you held him live he'd be the martyr-hero of the Queda sympathizers....same reason we didn't whisk Saddam off to Club Fed next to Noriega.

[PapaBear765]

A commercial urban legend brought up around the camp fire last night: it's been written into federal regulations that the SRO and the ROs may not do anything other than stand watch, i.e. clean while on watch.

Not that cleaning on watch bothers me, just curious.

Also, last year at a CMC call, he wrote on the white board some figures like an initial hiring salary, a hire-on bonus, etc.  All really high numbers, meant to impress us.  Said that they were for some place up north like Minnesota, that the numbers were so high because it's hard for the companies there to get people to move there.  Is it true that geographical location is a big factor in pay?  Are some places really coveted like California?

[PapaBear765]

Is a nuclear engineering degree worth getting?  Is it too theoretical in the design realm and not enough relatable knowledge to operations?  Do most guys who enter in with a nuclear engineering technology degree, like from Thomas Edison, stop there with their college learning and spend their time learning the specifics of how their plant works?

[rlbinc]

Papa Bear, ROs, particularly the one "At The Controls", should watch their panels.
SROs are required to maintain oversight, and monitor (but please don't operate) panels.

The Navy equivalent of Maneuvering or Enclosed Operating Space is a good analogy.
Access is controlled, conversations limited in duration or limited to subjects associated with plant ops. Formality is required.

However, federal regulations don't prescribe specific control room decorum.
The NRC will take legal enforcement actions against licensed operators determined to be negligent. If a control room standards are lowered low enough, long enough - that will likely happen.

The NRC is a regulatory body, not an advisor.

I always taught panel monitoring in the simulator by periodically placing the simulator in freeze
and handing out a form for the crew to fill in Power, Level, Pressure, Temperature, Dead Buses, Actuated ECCS, Actuated Auto Isolations - without looking at the panels.

After filling out 30 or 40 sets of those forms, most trainees would rattle the parameters off to you when they saw the simulator placed in freeze.

Voila - awareness. Check off all those "Monitor" Knowledges, Skills and Abilities.

We have ways of making you watch a panel.

 

[JsonD13]

What were the figures that the CMC had written up?  As a native Minnesotan (and one who plans on going back there), I follow average wages for our job field closely. 

Makes me wonder, what was the point of the CMC doing this.  Most all the khaki were trying to retain us and scare us with having to pay medical insurance, getting little or no paid time off, and guaranteed retirement.  That's all pretty much bogus anyways and just retention figures that make the Navy look good.

I have some really recent data on power plants up in MN if you are interested PM me.

Jason

[JustinHEMI05]

Most all the khaki were trying to retain us and scare us with having to pay medical insurance, getting little or no paid time off, and guaranteed retirement.

What scares me most is just how many suckers fall for this. I call it "panic re-enlisting."

Justin

[93-383]

What scares me most is just how many suckers fall for this. I call it "panic re-enlisting."

Justin

Panic re-enlisting is kinda correct. I would call it fear of the outside world. Many of us in the Navy have only known two things life with mom and/or dad and the Navy. I myself came in one month out of high school and for the last ten years the only thing I have known is the Navy. For right now I am putting aside thoes fears of health insurance, pay cut (I gross over 70k), and employment in a falling economy. In the end I had to place more value my family than my fears of the unknown.

[JohnK87]

A commercial urban legend brought up around the camp fire last night: it's been written into federal regulations that the SRO and the ROs may not do anything other than stand watch, i.e. clean while on watch.

Not that cleaning on watch bothers me, just curious.

Also, last year at a CMC call, he wrote on the white board some figures like an initial hiring salary, a hire-on bonus, etc.  All really high numbers, meant to impress us.  Said that they were for some place up north like Minnesota, that the numbers were so high because it's hard for the companies there to get people to move there.  Is it true that geographical location is a big factor in pay?  Are some places really coveted like California?

No, there are restrictions on how many people must be within certain areas of a commercial control room.  For instance, we're a dual unit site with a common control room, normally staffed by 2 SRO's and 4 RO's.  At least one RO must be within the "controls area" for their unit at all times, and one SRO must be in there.  There is no rule against cleaning, but we do expect the "operator at the controls" to avoid anything that distracts him from monitoring the plant.  As for the pay issue, we're comparable to other sites and we are in Minnesota.  The biggest factor in pay is cost of living in the area, right now Turkey Point (south of Miami) seems to pay the most... because they have to.  Something about $500k small houses with $900/month insurance payments or something.  These days many sites are focusing on hiring and training locals because too many nomads get up and leave after you've invested money training them.  Decide where you want to live and the pay will likely allow you a similar standard of living.

True story- I had an RO try to clean up some residual adhesive gum on the control board from labels that had been removed.  He ends up getting a friction burn on his thumb, I have to fill out an injury report, tell the Ops Mgr and Plant Manager, do a prompt investigation... I decided the rest of the gum could just stay there 

[JohnK87]

Is a nuclear engineering degree worth getting?  Is it too theoretical in the design realm and not enough relatable knowledge to operations?  Do most guys who enter in with a nuclear engineering technology degree, like from Thomas Edison, stop there with their college learning and spend their time learning the specifics of how their plant works?

There aren't many nuclear engineering degreed people working outside the nuclear engineering department.  It will not give you an edge elsewhere, like Operations.  The rule of thumb is that your undergrad degree shows you can run a calculator and learn stuff.  The stuff you learn in license class is what will really help you get ahead.

[JustinHEMI05]

There aren't many nuclear engineering degreed people working outside the nuclear engineering department.  It will not give you an edge elsewhere, like Operations.  The rule of thumb is that your undergrad degree shows you can run a calculator and learn stuff.  The stuff you learn in license class is what will really help you get ahead.

+1. Like I said earlier, my shift manager who was just promoted to ops superintendent has the Thomas Edison degree.

Justin

[tr]

Speaking a someone with a nuclear engineering degree, you can find NEs all over the place (utilities, vendors, AEs, aerospace, etc) and all over the plant - it's really up to the person.  The thing to remember is the vast majority of an engineering education is generic to many of the specialties (nuclear in particular has a lot of overlap with mechanical, chemical, and petroleum engineering). 

[Imaginos]

For right now I am putting aside thoes fears of...pay cut (I gross over 70k)...

Jump! You not only will likely not take a pay cut, but before long that "over 70K" will be a distant memory. 

http://www.nukeworker.com/forum/index.php/topic,14867.0.html

[PapaBear765]

What were the figures that the CMC had written up?  As a native Minnesotan (and one who plans on going back there), I follow average wages for our job field closely. 

Makes me wonder, what was the point of the CMC doing this.  Most all the khaki were trying to retain us and scare us with having to pay medical insurance, getting little or no paid time off, and guaranteed retirement.  That's all pretty much bogus anyways and just retention figures that make the Navy look good.

I have some really recent data on power plants up in MN if you are interested PM me.

Jason

Sorry, can't remember anything accurate enough to post.  But they were really impressive.  His point was to show us how great a commercial job pays, "so don't screw up while in the navy or else you might not get this great job."  At the time I knew essentially zero and took him for being genuine, now I know better.

Anyone see the news on granite countertops being radioactive?  They had a Geiger counter, but I couldn't tell what it was reading.  The radiac sounded like the granite was at all ahead flank, though.

[JustinHEMI05]

Sorry, can't remember anything accurate enough to post.  But they were really impressive.  His point was to show us how great a commercial job pays, "so don't screw up while in the navy or else you might not get this great job."  At the time I knew essentially zero and took him for being genuine, now I know better.

Anyone see the news on granite countertops being radioactive?  They had a Geiger counter, but I couldn't tell what it was reading.  The radiac sounded like the granite was at all ahead flank, though.

I thought that was common knowledge. The radon in my basement with the radon abatement system secured would set off your APD.

Justin

[PapaBear765]

I thought that was common knowledge. The radon in my basement with the radon abatement system secured would set off your APD.

Justin

I don't own an APD.  Diggit.

Just for everyone who didn't see that Myth Busters the test subjects were cock roaches, beetles, and fruit flies.  The exposures were 1000 Rad, 10,000 Rad, and 100,000 Rad for 3 minutes.  The fruit flies won.  They believe it's a function of the complexity of the cellular structure.  That is, humans are more susceptible than roaches who are more susceptible than flies.

[JustinHEMI05]

I don't own an APD.  Diggit.

Just for everyone who didn't see that Myth Busters the test subjects were cock roaches, beetles, and fruit flies.  The exposures were 1000 Rad, 10,000 Rad, and 100,000 Rad for 3 minutes.  The fruit flies won.  They believe it's a function of the complexity of the cellular structure.  That is, humans are more susceptible than roaches who are more susceptible than flies.

[PapaBear765]

Do you guys say "aye"?