I wish I could disagree with all of that. Unfortunately, it is too true in a lot of cases that you can't find a safety guy in containment. There are times when I can't get them to go anywhere that their golf carts won't go. Just like RP's, there are people in any profession who will do the work and there are people who won't get off their asses. I'm not here to defend those who won't do the work.
When I work Safety... (And I was a Rad Tech too...) My limited 3 outage experiences are these:
With Shaw/Stone & Webster, as a "Safety Engineer" covering ~1,000 Craft Workers: In the field 75%-80% of the time was the expectation, with the rest of the time used to respond to people's safety concerns, do paperwork on the injuries and on the tests (lead, chromium, asbestos, sound, etc, etc... ), listen to peoples safety concerns and follow up on them, prepare the safety chat for the next shift, and work on the outage safety report. Many of the ~1,000 craft workers do not work in containment/dry-well. I was specifically instructed to limit my exposure to radiation, and to limit my inspections in those area to the required limits, and nothing additional. i.e. Inspect scaffolding if I need to, inspect postings if I need to, confined space, energized equipment, etc, etc.... but no leisure inspections.
Same job, the expectation was that in high risk jobs, we would give 100% coverage, by rotating in several safety people.
I have worked as a "Safety Observer" for Bartlett at DC Cook. The expectation is also ~80% of your time in the field, and to limit your exposure to radiation. I would most definitely spend the first week of the outage in containment as people alluded to above, then mostly "disappear" from containment - spending most of my time outside of higher radiation areas, focusing on Aux Building work, and step off pad areas. The reason is this: With the constantly changing conditions at the BEGINNING and END of an outage, the risk for a safety injury is at the highest. It is important that when everything is getting moved in and set up, that everything is set up in a safe configuration. Once everyone (workers/supervisors/engineers/management, etc) is happy the the plant is in its safest configuration allowable, there is little need for 100% coverage in the radiation area, often a high radiation area. I don't need to watch an RP at a control point in containment 100% of the time. Seriously, I don't. If the location is configured safely, why would I need to be there?
In addition to the beginning and end (if I'm still there at the end), I also go top to bottom in Containment once every FEW days. I have to admit, I get weird looks, people wondering why a "Safety Guy" is in containment... (Not that he shouldn't be... just that they are not accustomed to seeing it.) I take a camera from ALARA, and snap pictures of house keeping. As in the middle of an outage, in containment -- that is the highest risk - it causes slips, trips, and falls. As well as falling objects.
I know that my reply had not one word about NPUA. All of the personal attacks on Rad techs, and Safety people, and Troy should be split off to another thread. If we have any moderators left, please do this for me.