TMI Incident

[retired nuke]

Was at a plant that lost the refuel floor because somebody left a HEPA on in the corner, with the discharge pointed at the head stand. It was tucked behind some equipment and nobody saw it there. When they set the head.....you guessed it.

Sometimes you gotta take the extra step and walk down the jobsite (even if it means picking up an extra mRem or 2) and asking yourself "what is gonna bite me in the a$$ this time".

I have made plenty of mistakes. I have seldom repeated any of them, at least, not at work.
(My personal life is a loooong drinking story, on the other hand.... )

[Melrose]

Yet that vacuum was there in the first place.  Interesting scenario, though.  Use a vacuum to work on the S/G cold leg and not have barriers in place to prevent the vacuum discharge to the local environment.   Didn't the industry learn from S/G jumping to install a tent around areas with high contamination potential?  Let alone use higher tech equipment than a wet vac to do the job?
Maybe it's time for me to climb out of these ditches and back into containment.

Oh goody another 'hero', to come save us all.  Do us a favor, let us know when you get back, so we can all take a break. 
It has been murder in containment without you.

[Nuclear NASCAR]

You gentlemen play nice now and remember;

No One In This Room Is As Smart As All Of Us Put Together 

Excellent advice!!!

[Marvin]

The vacuum and/or portable HEPA let's evacuate the RCS into the can and watch everybody freak out scenario has played out numerous times over the years.  This is nothing new.  Just new people doing the standard "here hold my beer, now watch this" routine, which stems from the cable guy approach to nuclear safety (git-r-done).  This scenario has undoubtedly played out many more times than we'll ever know or that has ever been reported. Fortunately, most nuclear power isotopes tend to go away after a day or two of biological elimination.

[HydroDave63]

No One In This Room Is As Smart As All Of Us Put Together 

[MeterSwangin]

I understand from a friend there that, in general, the SGR at TMI is not going at all well.  Well behind schedule, dose and PCEs well over projections, and way too many first aids.

Any first hand input?

[zer0onyx]

I understand from a friend there that, in general, the SGR at TMI is not going at all well.  Well behind schedule, dose and PCEs well over projections, and way too many first aids.

Any first hand input?

Before I left for St. Lucie they were up to being I beleive 170 hours behind. WHo knows what it is now. I will find out when I leave St. Lucie and get back up there around x-mas.

[roadhp]

I can tell you that before I left TMI (Glad to get out of there!!!) the lower D rings in containment looked like New York City at rush hour...GRID LOCK.  Everyone has their priorities, but it seems to this country mouse HP that the coordination was definitely lacking, and people were walking all over each other to Git-R-Dun.

[withroaj]

Weird.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091128105454AAuOaGA

It brings up an interesting question.  How do we remove the taxidermy effect --symptoms may include glassy eyes, loss of mobility -- from nuclear power to educate folks and avoid overblown responses to relatively mild events?

[zer0onyx]

Refueling is comeplete. Now to set the head. THen its only a matter of time