Heat exhaustion and miserable environments

[S T I G]

What is the most miserable environment (from a temperature standpoint) that you have ever had to work in during your career? What kind PPE were you wearing? Were the hydration needs appropriately addressed at the time? Any stories or past experiences are welcome. Thank you.

[Marlin]

What is the most miserable environment (from a temperature standpoint) that you have ever had to work in during your career? What kind PPE were you wearing? Were the hydration needs appropriately addressed at the time? Any stories or past experiences are welcome. Thank you.

Pressurizer dog house at power with Furmanite. Single PPE and forced air.

[retired nuke]

Condenser bay steam tunnel @ 1250 mW BWR
Feedwater flange leak flashing to steam
initial survey @ 75%+ power for furmanite clamp
~ 150 degrees
in plastics for about 10 minutes, while hivol ran...

The mechanics dragged me the rest of the way out, peeled off the PCs and did their best to cool me off under the AC vent.

Lucky...

[radbrat]

Post 100% scram PWR, weld repair to Main Steam snubber support bracket, 118 deg.F, plastics and charcoal insert respirator due to fuel problems. After about 30 min got to the SOP 20 lbs lighter and found out the welders had ice vests on......could of told me about the vests...the dirty rat ........'s. Another time in a BWR with SCUBA pack I/s the drywell to repack a drain line on main steam in the basement. Things get hot...this thread could go on and on.

[GLW]

1) cracking tower catalyst recharge, Baton Rouge, La.

2) forced air, tyvex (or something like it, it was 1978ish)

3) after shift, free beer tab at the hotel

4) hot, humid, dude with a long stick made sure you didn't doze off and asphyxiate, good work at 18, might just kill me at 55,...

[surf50]

Pretty much every single entire Fall outage in the South Florida plants, before the early 90's when the accountants decided to A/C the containment. There was a reason we worked 2-in/2-out; the daily temps ran between 100-105. By the third and last jump, you were just counting the minutes left. The 'safety guy' would cruise through containment shouting out, " One hundred four!" or similar. Thanks a lot, dude.

And no, no hydrating in the can. We did call the count room to deliver a lot of 1 liter marinelli samples,"...hey, make sure the water's cold, would ya?.."

As for short term heat, somewhat same as Marlin; top of enclosed doghouse PZR, at power, Furmanite. Single PPE, triple shoecovers,(melting) and cannister face pump.

I'm sure I couldn't do it, now.

[Marlin]

I'm sure I couldn't do it, now.

I am positive I can't 

[RDTroja]

Hmmm... at the risk of being redundant...

Fully enclosed (i.e. closed top, submarine door) PZR Doghouse at Salem 100% Power. Wet bulb 139 F. Full plastics and canister respirator ('canned ham' for Iodine.) Melted both my rubber gloves when I inadvertently touched a small pipe. One of the workers was 350+ lbs. If he had fallen out I would have needed a crane to get him down.

Never forget it. That was 1977.

[S T I G]

Definitely sounds like you had to suck it up a whole lot more years back than you do now. True grit.....

[RDTroja]

Definitely sounds like you had to suck it up a whole lot more years back than you do now. True grit.....

If anyone asked me to do it today, I would have a few choice words for them (probably final words, at that.) In 1977 I was 23 and it was just another good story to tell later.

[Marlin]

If anyone asked me to do it today, I would have a few choice words for them (probably final words, at that.) In 1977 I was 23 and it was just another good story to tell later.

Pre-TMI and weak OSHA enforcement

ALARA was a recommendation not a requirement

Most plants only had 6 RWPs mainly to track dose, frequently RP controls were a comment to contact area HP.

Waste Shipment was fill a barrel, take a dose rate, then assign isotopic mix based on average plant samples, wheel it out to the truck, and make sure you did not exceed 200 contact anywhere.

No fitness for duty

No fatigue management

Operations sometimes used the floor and pipe tunnels as auxiliary tanks for waste water and resin.

Leaks were were left unrepaired until stalactites and stalagmites reading up to the R range of boron were common in some pipe tunnels and equipment rooms.


  I miss those days 

But then there are probably a few people alive today who would not be if it had not changed, mainly from the fitness for duty programs.

[radbrat]

Pre-TMI and weak OSHA enforcement

ALARA was a recommendation not a requirement

Most plants only had 6 RWPs mainly to track dose, frequently RP controls were a comment to contact area HP.

Waste Shipment was fill a barrel, take a dose rate, then assign isotopic mix based on average plant samples, wheel it out to the truck, and make sure you did not exceed 200 contact anywhere.

No fitness for duty

No fatigue management

Operations sometimes used the floor and pipe tunnels as auxiliary tanks for waste water and resin.

Leaks were were left unrepaired until stalactites and stalagmites reading up to the R range of boron were common in some pipe tunnels and equipment rooms.


  I miss those days 

But then there are probably a few people alive today who would not be if it had not changed, mainly from the fitness for duty programs.

Sounds like a plant on the east coast, north of Millstone and south of seabrook.

[RDTroja]

Sounds like a plant on the east coast, north of Millstone and south of seabrook.

I could tell a lot of stories about that particular plant... but no one would believe me and I am not quite ready to retire.

Obviously you have been there.

[Marlin]

Sounds like a plant on the east coast, north of Millstone and south of seabrook.

I could tell a lot of stories about that particular plant... but no one would believe me and I am not quite ready to retire.

Obviously you have been there.

I was referring to a number of plants in that time frame from New England to the Mid West and Southeast but yes that plant had most components (no boron) I mentioned with rooms you did not enter.

[GLW]

Pre-TMI and weak OSHA enforcement

ALARA was a recommendation not a requirement

Most plants only had 6 RWPs mainly to track dose, frequently RP controls were a comment to contact area HP.

Waste Shipment was fill a barrel, take a dose rate, then assign isotopic mix based on average plant samples, wheel it out to the truck, and make sure you did not exceed 200 contact anywhere.

No fitness for duty

No fatigue management

Operations sometimes used the floor and pipe tunnels as auxiliary tanks for waste water and resin.

Leaks were were left unrepaired until stalactites and stalagmites reading up to the R range of boron were common in some pipe tunnels and equipment rooms.


  I miss those days  

But then there are probably a few people alive today who would not be if it had not changed, mainly from the fitness for duty programs.

what goes 'round,...comes back 'round,....

Here's my observation and sorta what sticks in my "hmmmm craw" about these ruminations,...

Let's take a trip back to the 1980's when most of the techs who are the subject matter of this thread were somewhere between 25 and 35 years of age,...

How many times have I listened to these old war horses tell war stories relating how the contemporary techs have no idea what it was like to pull a six hour stint dressed out in plastics or a bubble suit, breathing stale forced air while pissing in your boot during a mondo generator jump?!?!?!?

It was the time of Randy Savage, Hulksters, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Die Hard, Cyborg, Robocop and mondo macho RP techs if you listen to the tales and the stories,...

And then I read this:

Quote from: radbrat on May 23, 2014, 07:57

...I hadn't been to this plant since 85' and back then we had a tech for each floor in ctmnt (4). There was only two of us and on the other techs day off...you got screwed. "Do more for less"



Quote from: Content1 on May 23, 2014, 07:34

........In my last 15 day outage I usually was up and running all 12 except for the morning meeting and the usual 15 minute lunch break.....

So what is it?!?!?!

Were the current gaggle of greater than half a centuries really spheres to the vertical surface monster techs in their prime?!?!?!

Or were they a bunch of pampered wussies working three in and three out with company sponsored keggers and hundred dollar cheeseburgers getting 'em through the horror of being dressed out 50% of the time, then running the cribbage board the other 50%?!?!?!

'cause they way I'm reading it today; yesterday was a walk in the park, and now it's bust 'em down and ship 'em out with no breaks between,...

A 15 minute lunch break as SOP each and every day of work?!?!?!

If you say so,...

Maybe it's a Region 2 thing,...

I'm just saying,...

[Marlin]

what goes 'round,...comes back 'round,....

So you are saying my post is not true.    Rules, regulations, and condition of the plants are what they are or were.

[GLW]

So you are saying my post is not true.    Rules, regulations, and condition of the plants are what they are or were.

No,....

I'm saying conversations about the bad old days keep coming round with some folks contemporary to both eras claiming things are worse today,...

I contend they are not worse today,...

and that's a good thing,...

cgog,...

[Marlin]

No,....

I'm saying conversations about the bad old days keep coming round with some folks contemporary to both eras claiming things are worse today,...

I contend they are not worse today,...

and that's a good thing,...

cgog,...

Gotcha 

[hamsamich]

I never worked during the bad old days, but I've heard about 50/50 good/bad.  Some people seem to long for them, others are glad they are long gone....looks like the bad old days had pros and cons.  But I wasn't there.

[Imaginos]

The episode which immediately comes to mind took place one sunny afternoon at a certain Region IV plant in July of '86 or '87 (average high temperature in July at said plant - 107°F). The task was cleaning up a 20' sealand (or c-van) full of semi-intact bags of wet trash. PCs, plastics and respirator. This left more of a "discomfort" impression on me than, say, covering work in the pressurizer cube of the same ~3700 MWt plant at power.

[61nomad]

The parking lot at Palo Verde in the summer was the worst  (imo) only because you were not being paid to be there.