Broadzilla T. Fossil Geek

[Fermi2]

Crossed over to the Darkside when I went from a BWR to a PWR. Now I'm transferring to even darker shadows because i'm now a fossil geek.

[HydroDave63]

2 years from now, you'll miss nuclear like I miss my first ORSE 

Welcome to the 60Hz side!

[Fermi2]

General Manager Of Generation Training at a fossil utility. A position actually specifically created for me. 15 people bid the job, Two teachers and a Professor from Purdue. It was my job to lose. I interviewed this morning and 40 minutes into a 90 minute interview the Manager Of Generation asked if I could leave for 5 minutes. Soon thereafter he came out and shook my hand and said it was great meeting you. Then the safety training manager did the same thing. One of my ex AUOs is a director there and he was the one who had told them I could solve their Training and Operators thinking like Operators Whoas.
My ex AUO came out and said hey go to my office and grab a seat. I was worried I had said something wrong. It was a very informal interview.
When he got back to his office he said the Safety Director thinks you are funny as F and says he learned more during your interview on how to think than he has learned in nearly 30 years in Fossil. Then he said the Generation Manager told me to tell you to get rid of that suit and get into jeans so I can start their cultural revolution, that after 40 minutes he knew I was their guy because I spoke fluent operator. (TI myself thought my Shift Manager belly had proven I had put in the required donut hours) The delay was for HR to tell them how much they could legally offer me. I was very satisfied with the offer.

[Smart People]

Kick A$$!!!! Good for you BZ!

[Chimera]

Outstanding!!!  and congratulations.

[Roll Tide]

Congratulations! You and yours have been in our prayers.

Of course, we knew with those cat-like reflexes that you would land on your feet! 

[stownsend]

Congratulations. I'll sleep better knowing you are not selling women's shoes next to Al Bundy.

[Laundry Man]

Mike,
No more Emergency Plan, no on call etc.  Was a pretty big change for me when I left Exelon but has been worth it for the last five years.  Enjoy the peace.  So what part of the country are you going to be in?
Congratulations,
LM

[Fermi2]

Thanks. I was really surprised when one of the VPs told me if I ever saw him or anyone in their offices after 4PM it was because they were wired that way and not the requirement. I'll be in Laporte Indiana at their training center. They actually have a plant simulator. You're right. I asked about On Call and was told when a plant trips it's the PMs job to deal with it though they do have call the Generation Manager.

We are keeping our place in TN, at least for a couple years. Jim, they don't call me El Diablo for nothing

[Contract SRO]

Thanks. I was really surprised when one of the VPs told me if I ever saw him or anyone in their offices after 4PM it was because they were wired that way and not the requirement. I'll be in Laporte Indiana at their training center. They actually have a plant simulator. You're right. I asked about On Call and was told when a plant trips it's the PMs job to deal with it though they do have call the Generation Manager.

We are keeping our place in TN, at least for a couple years. Jim, they don't call me El Diablo for nothing

Mike

It is great to hear your good news.  I hate that we are losing you from the southeast(I thought we might have a chance of making you a southern redneck).  Good luck and I am confident that the utility has an employee that they will be glad they hired.  I hope everything is improving with your wife also.

[Fermi2]

For awhile we are still keeping our house in the south. After 3 Contracts fell through I simply couldn't trust my families well being to the contract world, even though that is what I really wanted to do. BTW I was just approached to come to Charlotte for Fukushima but no one could tell me if I needed UAA. I got 9 calls in one day. BTW I have already been accepted as being Appalachian Challenged by the knuckleheads at Sequoyah so I believe I have passed the redneck test.
Also want to make it clear. Pretty certain they are going to hire at least 40 new operators next year and I would love a few Navy Nukes.
I'll keep everyone posted. (I will have lots of say in who is hired)

[Higgs]

Congratulations Mike!

Justin

[NHSparky]

Well done, sir!

I'm seriously considering making a transition away from nuke, given the issues we're dealing with here at my plant specifically and nuclear in general.  INPO and the "fleet concept" many utilities are taking with their plants are driving them into the ground.

Couple that with the five plants which have closed/announced closure this year alone--and there WILL be more--and nuclear power is, IMO, dying again.

Time to focus on my career field (relay test/electrician) versus nuclear.  Hell, I'll even take overseas projects at this point.

[Fermi2]

COGEN!!! Actually our (meaning my family and I) initial career choice was to contract, either as a nuclear ilo instructor or start up manager in the contract world. Now let me tell you, anyone who claims to be making 200K a year doing that year after year is lying. I mean in general. I know there are exceptions: Here is the history of my potential contracts:

1: Teaching initial instructors at a plant in the NE. Mike have your bags packed....End result: The utility got hammered by INPO and were worried about probation. They did not want to have to qualify a contract instructor. They preferred someone already qualified.

2: Start up Manager at a Cogen facility near Houston. The company doing the start up takes troubled construction products and gets them done on time. The Start Up Director is an Ex Nuke. My job was simple. Go to the morning meetings, figure out who is lying about their overnight progress. Then go out and find out what they actually did to brief the Start Up Director by 330PM. Then after the plant is built assist with the start up test program. 12 Months, 100/hr 100/day per diem. Pack your bags, you are the top candidate. The trouble? No one told the SU Director my resume had been submitted even though it was submitted personally to him. See there;s this thing where a guy is working 14 hours a day where he can't always check his email. He hired someone else but now wishes he had hired me.

3: Same utility as in Number 1. Hey we realized this is not an INPO accredited program. Come on up Mike we will work you 2 weeks a month till the end of the year. An hour before leaving I get a call from the contractor. Oh the guy you are replacing told us just now he wants to stay...

4: Rewriting Emergency Procedures in Birmingham. One year. I'm BWR and PWR Qualified as an emergency director and have procedure writing experience. This contractor refuses to put my name in because he can only put in 4. And he is certain I'm not qualified.  (Later on when the same contractor called me about another job I gave them an earful on this one. The person who I talked to got theur boss to look at my resume and found I was far better qualified then the 4 who they did submit. They didn't get the contract. They fired the guy.

5: I love this one. I and C Construction Supt at a Chemical Plant being built in Mississippi. 50 hour weeks with the last 10 paid at double time. 5 Hours from my house. 5 10 hour days. Weekends off. (I really wanted this job) 80 an hour, 8- per day per diem. The job consisted of making sure the I and C Foreman knew their crew job assignments then at the end of the day ensure that installed so many feet of tubing and so many instruments that day.That's it. In the end I could not convince the contractor who was recruiting for this job that I was qualified. Wanna know why? My experience was Nuclear, NOT Chemical. I told them look we have instruments and tubing. They said ok but you still don't meet the experience requirement.

I can list 10 more. Now the funny part. I have received 10 calls in the past 5 days about a long term assignment at Duke. The job formally says Engineering. When I say I'm not an Engineer they say it doesn't matter, what they really want is an SRO. Sometimes the literal requirement matters, other times it doesn't. Inside the Nuclear industry it doesn't seem to matter as much because the experienced recruiters know what is what. The trouble is at roadtechs it doesn't appear the experienced recruiters are the ones posting. In fact as big as Roadtechs is NONE of the people looking for the Duke position looked or advertised at Roadtechs, they poached my resume from Monster and Indeed. one called because they called a guy who turned them down but told the contract company they knew a real smart son of a B who might be interested.

I know guys are making money but two guys I really respect, and who are top quality made great money this year until June. But haven't worked since then and these guys are hustlers. They want to work. 

I might go that route later. We really wanted to travel on someone elses dime. I am a bit limited on my nuke assignments because of what happened at TVA, but let me tell you a quick story about the company I will now be working for...

One of their VPs told me their management is not expected to work more than 40 a week. Those who do are doing it because they are wired that way. Nuclear: Well you gotta work at least 55, Pay for 40.
Yesterday this company called me to make the official job offer. I'm getting a really good salary, in fact 25K More than what they would have offered someone else.  I wasn't surprised I was offered the job as it was written right off my resume. They still had 15 applicants, two of whom were teachers and one a prof at Purdue. The problem was they don't "speak" generation whereas I live it. Anyhow when I was at their headquarters when they discussed salary I gave the standard 10K More counter offer. They said they would see what they could do. When they made the official offer they said they would behave liked to meet me halfway on my counter offer but when they made the pay band I was actually offered the top end. They said after January 1st when they revisit pay bands they are more than amenable to raising the top end. Given they were already offering me a great salary I thought this was very magnanimous. Then the kicker came in. Given they cannot guarantee they can raise the salary band they decided to give me a 5% higher bonus opportunity. Then this: After 1 year of employment they give 2 weeks vacation and 5 Floating Holidays. After 5 years they give 3 weeks  vacation. I could ask for the 2 weeks immediately. In fact HR told me to do so when I got my formal offer. When the Safety Director called me last night I asked him if I could request the 2 weeks now. He said we already anticipated that Mike. We are giving you 2 weeks and 5 floating holidays THIS year. Then January 1st you will get 3 Weeks and 5 more floating holidays. I said that is very kind but wow I never expected that. He said we feel you are worth it. This isn't the Turkey Point hey we will pay you 300K to stay here 3 years thing. When I was walking to the door for the corporate headquarters  lots of people were walking in from the parking lot. Being the only one at the facility in a suit. (Most wear jeans including the VPs) I of course stood out as either a vendor or someone seeking a job. When I said the later I was virtually surrounded by smiling people telling me how great the company is. The HR person was actually smiling and prepared. The person who made my reservations and travel arrangements actually called me 3 times the day before my flight to see if I needed anything. Then when I was traveling from the airport she called to make sure I was ok, then a couple hours later called to make sure I arrived at the hotel safely. The next morning she called to make sure I hadn't overslept then guided me to the corporate headquarters. She then called me to make sure I had left the facility in time to get to the airport. Very unique. This job was posted Sept 28th. Between then and last night they interviewed 15 people and hired one only 19 days after posting online. I cannot argue with that.

Nuclear simply doesn't work that way. An example. When I changed jobs a few years back I was offered 110K . I accepted. After I resigned from Fermi I was called and told, Hey we made a mistake we can only pay you 105K...

[NHSparky]

Nuclear: Well you gotta work at least 55, Pay for 40.

Yeah, as loathe as I am to support unions and work in one sometimes, it's that kind of crap you describe that REALLY burns my ass. 

BTDT with my previous employer several years back (non-nuclear even.)  The group I was in chewed guys up and spit them out, or as I used to say on the boat, used like fuses until we blew, then the Navy bought new ones.

I'm certainly not expecting to walk into a new job making $110-130K+bennies (OT included) but I'm not about to cut my throat either.  It's a hell of a high-wire act we're doing right now, and with the oncoming glut of nuke folks about to hit (layoffs everywhere, VY shutting down) the plant owners know they're in the driver's seat.

[Fermi2]

Agreed, and PLEASE don't anyone think I hate the nUke industry. I love it. Because of it I have 4 great families. My wife and kids, My navy nuke buddies, 3 of whom are my best friends, Fermi2 and the family I had there and of course my family of rednecks at SQN. Maybe one day I'll do the Nuclear thing again but not as a manager. Quite simply it was far less fun in the last decade than it was in the 90s.

I do predict y'all are gonna lose about 4 plants in the next couple years. I think Robinson, Pilgrim, and Fort Calhoun are on the bubble even if they don;t know it yet. Everyone is one bad operating or engineering decision away from going away, Witness San Onofre. (BTW if I can help anyone getting out of nuke in a transition please let me know)

I know a couple days ago an SRO I know was telling me he hoped to get another 3 year Golden Handcuffs contract. I told him don;t count on it. his Utility has 4 SROs a shift and a couple off shift and they have shown a willingness to go to bare minimum in the past. There are Operators looking for jobs who will gladly do it for High 5 figures to low six figures. In other words the hot commodity years are passing. Especially since they have two classes of young bucks win the pipeline. Nuclear is dying, we are part of the Eulogy.  STILL its fun ad not many can do it!

[GLW]

.......I do predict y'all are gonna lose about 4 plants in the next couple years...........

 I think Robinson, Pilgrim, and Fort Calhoun are on the bubble even if they don;t know it yet. Everyone is one bad operating or engineering decision away from going away, Witness San Onofre. (BTW if I can help anyone getting out of nuke in a transition please let me know)

 Nuclear is dying, we are part of the Eulogy.  STILL its fun ad not many can do it!

Four, maybe six,...maybe seven,...

The fun part will be none of the big commercial boilers have been through DnD before,...

Shoreham was a mock-up, a good mock-up to be sure, but still, just a mock-up,...

So there are some new vistas to explore in the DnD world coming up in a little out of the way place not near you,....

[NHSparky]

Is it possible that while a decently run plant, Diablo Canyon might also be on the list?  IIRC somewhere, there was supposed to be a vote in CA that nukes (now just them) can't run if they don't have a place to put the fuel; i.e., no dry fuel storage, etc?

And the anti-nukes are still hot for Seabrook too, particularly with the ASR issues that are becoming a point of contention with the extension process.  Throw in Duane Arnold, Davis-Besse, Ginna, Indian Point, Oyster Creek (already scheduled for 2019, might be moved up), and Palisades, to name a few.

Yeah, I'm guessing the luddites might be happy at first, that following winter in those areas might make them rethink a bit.

Sadly, this administration isn't exactly helping the issue by trying to shut down coal plants, and gas plants, while it is cheap for now, simply put too much volatility into the market.  You as well as a lot of people know how thin a margin it can be to rely on just one source for your energy.

[Fermi2]

No because a State Law cannot superceed federal regulation. VY won that battle and after seeing what happened to electrical rates after San Onofre closing..

Duane Arnold. I don't see it. No major issues.
The Bess: I interviewed there. They are changing SGs in 2015 and doing millions in Fire Protection Mods. Plus they hold up the grid in that corner of the state. They'll stay open.

Ginna: They run well and Exelon just took them over. Not yet.

IP: Dual Unit. Too big. I think they'll hold out.

Palisades: Lots of regulatory issues which also helped sink Kewaunee. Definitely on the bubble.

OC: Yeah I can see it if they run into any major issues.

[NHSparky]

DA has no major running issues, but the cost of them running is getting up there, to the point where they're losing money (another big reason they shut down Kewaunee.)

Again, I'm looking from a financial standpoint and not just a safety/reliability standpoint.

[HydroDave63]

DA has no major running issues, but the cost of them running is getting up there, to the point where they're losing money (another big reason they shut down Kewaunee.)

Again, I'm looking from a financial standpoint and not just a safety/reliability standpoint.

Nat Gas @ $4/MMBtu gives a floor of about $26-28/MWh as a floor. What threatens Midwestern plants is during those peak wind times and seasons (low load early morning hours, spring and fall, spring being worse due to hydro runoff) when energy prices get jammed down to zero or negative pricing, and your baseload nuke is getting paid -10 bucks per MWh, it ends up being a huge hit to the finances.

DA and Ft Calhoun, by being near the wind and decremental risk, end up financially at risk. Being able to load follow and avoid dec markets would be one possible survival strategy. Keep your fuels engineers busy too

Diablo....should be safe. With the loss of SONGS, most of the new renewable desert solar being expensive and bird shred issues, reserve capacity in Commiefornia is low. As long as they can limbo under the $26/MWh production cost bar, they should be just fine.

The good news (relatively speaking) is that as more coal plants come offline (don't want to see it happen but we have to play the hand we are dealt) there won't be as much hazard of a wind push driving prices as negative. There isn't a one-for-one buildout of wind and gas for coal decommissionings. Reserve capacity will be less, and there are already capacity market arguments before FERC. Things will get complicated, electricity prices a smidgen higher, and equilibrium should be reached in a handful of years.

[Fermi2]

Yes but lets take a look at the two smaller nukes that shutdown. VY and Kewaunee. Economics yes but they also had significant regulatory issues and we all know those mean considerable amounts of money to 1: Investigate, 2: Develop and action plan. 3: Get the NRC to buy into said plant, 4: Implement Plant, 5: Assess the results. 6:Convince the NRC you are fixed and remember the utility has to pay the NRC for this stuff too.

DA doesn't have that issue. So far as following load a BWR can do that far more easier than a PWR, hell the original BWRs were designed with a control to be used from downtown to allow them to control load following, until someone pointed out you'd need licensed operators downtown..

Diablo is safe, Two Large Nukes with good capacity factors and they tend to stay out of the news.

Robinson might have issues. They had the Robinson event. They got a lot of attention for that. Then the NRC lost confidence in them, they have 95001 and 003 issues which they have to muck through. They need to implement Fukushima mods and the NRC is pissed at them over that Diesel that had been Inop forever so now they get more attention as that Inop condition was a potential common mode failure at a place that was trying to convince the NRC they had fixed their thought processes (aka like Kewaunee) Duke just took it over so they don;t have a huge vested interest and they have already shown they will pull the plug on a similar sized unit. Robinson only has 17 years left on their extension. Duke can easily say screw it. I'm not saying they aren't trying to solve their issues. I know their OM and he is a fantastic guy who is working hard. But if the EXPENSIVE regulatory issues keep piling up....

One item I researched carefully. Fossil plants. The utility that I start at in November has 3300 MWE of Generation. They got an outstanding rate case that guarantees they can recover the cost of scrubbers and make a profit over the next ten years. And by 2015 all scrubbers will be installed. I do have a question for Dave,

The utility is smack between AEP and Exellon. A lot of power wheels over their grid. They actually load follow their plants constantly. Whats the outlook for a grid like that?

[HydroDave63]

The utility is smack between AEP and Exellon. A lot of power wheels over their grid. They actually load follow their plants constantly. Whats the outlook for a grid like that?

1. It is a great way to sell transmission service if your RTO/ISO accounts for it properly. Or, it can be a nightmare trying to serve your own system if other BA/RTO power is loading your lines and you can't bring your own units to full output because of unaccounted parallel flows. From what I know about that part of the world,it isn't all that bad (if the trees are trimmed further south )

2. If they aren't fighting boiler chemistry, bad heat rate or MTBF issues on cycling the plants, then I'd say they are in a good position to succeed, especially as the market value of spinning reserve grows.

[Fermi2]

Pretty certain Critical Point Boilers don't suffer from those issues.

[Already Gone]

Welcome to the world of carbon credits, availability revenue, and the ability to sell your unused fuel.
From what I have seen so far, nukes like us fit in very well in the gas-fired generation business.  There will be some room for them as this part of the electric generating industry tightens up the way they do business.
We talk about procedures, human performance factors, and reliability a lot more than I was expecting from a non-nuclear operation.
Nuclear has finally priced itself into a serious competition with fossil, hydro, and wind.  It may not die quietly really soon, but the sick and the lame are falling by the wayside and gas is taking up the slack.
However it all shakes out, I'm glad to hear of your coming over.
Best of luck to you.

[Fermi2]

We talk about procedures, human performance factors, and reliability a lot more than I was expecting from a non-nuclear operation.

This and training is EXACTLY why I was hired.

Also let me post something from the call with my official offer from yesterday:

This is what I call nice. Today ++++ gave me my official offer. First they apologized by not making the pay band broader, they said they will address that for me next year. Then they said usually Vacation isn't earned until your anniversary date unless you request otherwise. So I asked if I could have 2 weeks to be used in 2014. When they called me today they said I have two weeks to use THIS year plus five floating holidays. Then three weeks starting January 1st plus 5 floating holidays. When I remarked they didn't have to do that they said we feel you are worth it.

The words we feel you are worth it really made me feel good.

[cheme09]

Yes but lets take a look at the two smaller nukes that shutdown. VY and Kewaunee. Economics yes but they also had significant regulatory issues

This is not the first time you've alluded to signification regulatory issues as Kewaunee, but I think you may be mistaken.  The closure of Kewaunee was purely economics.  In fact, it was the best performing plant in our fleet until it closed.  Maybe I'm just being ignorant, but I really don't recall many regulatory issues with Kewaunee, and I'd like to be educated if you have some information.