After today, we're down to 102

[cheme09]

http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/ElectricPower/21015144

Sad to see a plant in as good shape as Kewaunee be decomissioned.  Our nuclear fleet (Big D) shrinks to 6 units now, but I'm still hopefull for a firm commitment will be made in a few year for a new unit.

[RDTroja]

My first refueling outage was Kewaunee's first as well, in February 1976. It was so clean you could eat off of the containment floor. Every night the utility workers would take power scrubbers to the general area floors. Still, the worst (at that time, at least) internal uptake in commercial nuclear power history took place when a laborer was given a can of acetone to clean some bolts -- they turned out to be manway bolts from the Steam Generators. Dave Bares (RIP) and I happened to be passing the frisker station (long before PCMs) and heard the response as he passed the frisker over his chest. You could trace the outline of one lung with the pancake probe. (The other lung turned out to be over 80% congested, a condition the worker did not know about.) The RPM was invited to an ICRP meeting in Paris to discuss the discovery and clean up operations.

It was also the outage of the Rad Owl that took up residence in containment and was not caught for several days until there was a bounty of a case of beer put on his capture. He was measured at several mR/hr and was deconned down to a couple of mR/hr and released.

I learned a lot at that outage including covering my first SG jump (alone!) with a Boilermaker that was claustrophobic and froze up inside the bowl, and how to run an isotopic analysis on a computer that you had to boot up by setting individual Bit Switches and load programs from rolls of punched tape. I don't think I have ever had such an interesting outage since.

Sad to see her go.

[Laundry Man]

Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure of working an outage there.
LM

[GLW]

soon to be in double digits:

California's San Onofre nuclear plant to shut down permanently

http://rt.com/usa/san-onofre-plant-retire-371/

[Frankie Love]

Been to both. Many fond memories of each plant. Two bumps on the beach and working with the Mayor of Kewaunee at Kewaunee. Interesting times in my nuclear history.

Sad...

[GLW]

soon to be in double digits:

California's San Onofre nuclear plant to shut down permanently

http://rt.com/usa/san-onofre-plant-retire-371/

the days of trip digits are numbered and that number is less than 500 days,...

[peteshonkwiler]

I've been to both mentioned plants also.  Did Kewaunee with RDTroja and SONGS in 80-81.  Major memories of both plants.  I never did another plant like Kewaunee.  As RDTroja says, it was the cleanest ever.  Their manual was basic.  Basic equals thorough and concise, you could read it in an afternoon.  During another visit there, the subject of firearms and vehicles arose during in-processing.  The instructor said that if it (firearm, person, vehicle orientation) would be legal at KMart, it'd be legal at the plant. 

[cheme09]

The instructor said that if it (firearm, person, vehicle orientation) would be legal at KMart, it'd be legal at the plant. 

I guess that would work for northern plants.  That test doesn't hold any water here in VA.

[peteshonkwiler]

During another visit there, the subject of firearms and vehicles arose during in-processing.  The instructor said that if it (firearm, person, vehicle orientation) would be legal at KMart, it'd be legal at the plant. 

This was in 1994.  It was a refreshing breath of reality in the nuclear plant world.  I am afraid it may be a lethal dose today.