RCA gloves Info Please

Cathy · Mar 23, 2009, 08:39

RCA use only gloves, love them or hate them? Any suggestions on how to keep them in the RCA?
Do workers like them? If you have implemented them at your plant, how is it working out? I would appreciate any feedback!

Cathy · Mar 24, 2009, 04:38

I wasn't talking about taking gloves in and out of the RCA, I am asking about experiences with gloves that are only for the RCA. Typically, they are some combination of kevlar or cloth with a rubber coating. Some plants stamp them "RCA Use" only and keep barrels/bins of them inside the RCA.

SloGlo · Mar 24, 2009, 04:48

cathy, i'm figgering yinzer talking about non-contamination area glove use inside a rca. i've run jobs where we had gloves to be used only inside an rma. since they were bought by da company, we never hadda problem wit workers taking them outside da boundary. of course, they were small jobs, ~5-20 people.

Creeker · Mar 24, 2009, 09:28

Morning,
Sometime early last year we adopted a 'gloves on person' expectation, so anyone walking in the power block was expected to have leather gloves on them. That became a challenge, as more and more folks were losing them in the RCA, as they have to pass through the SAM to get out, and whether gassed up, or contaminated, we were losing lots of gloves. So, two racks were manufactured, one outside the access, and one inside. Gradually, everyone had a pair of gloves inside the RCA, and picked them up right after entering. They would do their business inside, and right before coming out, would hang them up on the racks. The racks weren't to sturdy at first, and about 500 pair of leather gloves weighs a bit, so improved racks were put up, and it seems a very effective system.

Bill

Creeker · Mar 24, 2009, 10:43

QuoteI wasn't talking about taking gloves in and out of the RCA, I am asking about experiences with gloves that are only for the RCA. Typically, they are some combination of kevlar or cloth with a rubber coating. Some plants stamp them "RCA Use" only and keep barrels/bins of them inside the RCA.

Oops... Ditto.

RRhoads · Mar 24, 2009, 10:50

Quote from: Cathy on Mar 23, 2009, 08:39
RCA use only gloves, love them or hate them? Any suggestions on how to keep them in the RCA?
Do workers like them? If you have implemented them at your plant, how is it working out? I would appreciate any feedback!

tolerate it...we do it too...not too big of a deal.

Nuclear NASCAR · Mar 24, 2009, 11:47

We went to, I believe, the kevlar/cloth type gloves last outage. I used them on a couple of jobs and they weren't too bad. In some cases they were preferable because they helped with dexterity. The safety committee took a knife to the ones they were considering and the most cut-resistant ones were the ones we went to. If I find any pictures I'll post them for you.

G-reg · Mar 26, 2009, 09:11

We tried a small "community bin" of gloves which we kept inside the RCA. Over time, the pile of gloves in the bin kept getting bigger and bigger. People (including me) kept bringing their own gloves into the RCA, rather than grabbing a pair out of the bin inside the RCA.

In the absence of an RCA glove laundering service, you'd have to have dedicated gloves staged inside the RCA for each worker who enters - and that's a LOT of gloves.

By the way, we've all but gotten away from the "community bin" (it just doesn't wasn't working). If you bring your gloves into the RCA and the SAM doesn't like 'em on the way out, we set them off to the side (inside the RCA) and you can come back in an hour or so and try again to SAM them out after the radon daughters have died down. If they still don't clear, then it's time to go get yourself a new set of gloves. (Repeat cycle as often as necessary.)

That's our system...

Eightmile · Mar 27, 2009, 02:24

Just an opinion, without much background in the actual policy-side of things... when what is offered is the one-size-fits-all variety, I'd as soon bring my own. The one-size-fits-all generally doesn't, and then you're looking at a safety hazard, because smaller hands and larger gloves do not mix. This style (with rubber nibs on each surface) was offered at Brunswick for their last outage, as an alternative to bringing gloves into and out of the RCA if you chose - pick them up in the tool room on entering the RCA, drop them off before you hit the portal monitors on exit. I avoided them because they were not engineered for shorter fingers, and I frequently saw other women (and men with smaller hands) walking through the TB with an inch or so of extra finger-space dangling above each finger.

I'd rather grab a new pair of well-fitting gloves each time, or stage a pair of gloves inside the RCA, than risk slipping on a ladder or getting my dangling finger caught in something. In that regard, RCA use only gloves would be great if they were laundered and available in several sizes, or if they were personal-use and stored.

UncaBuffalo · Apr 14, 2009, 04:39

Quote from: Cathy on Mar 24, 2009, 04:38
I wasn't talking about taking gloves in and out of the RCA, I am asking about experiences with gloves that are only for the RCA. Typically, they are some combination of kevlar or cloth with a rubber coating. Some plants stamp them "RCA Use" only and keep barrels/bins of them inside the RCA.

We had that kind of gloves for a while...about 1/2 the people used them - other 1/2 preferred to bring a set in from the outside each time.

Then the RCA-only gloves went away, because we switched to OREX and didn't have laundry service anymore...

btkeele · May 03, 2009, 11:13

Cathy....During normal ops some sort of storage rack/bins/etc seems to be the norm...
that way everyone has their own gloves...most of these are checked by RP a a certain
frequency to ensure they are not getting too much fixed on them (and no loose).
During an outage it is a mess due to the higher number of workers. A lot of plants
do allow personal gloves to be SAM'd out by the workers if they want to (usually
supervisors, etc) which basically only carry them for appearance purposes (me
included HAHA)
BK