OSHA

[ChiefRocscooter]

How much of a factor is OSHA in the nuclear power industry?  Is it superceeded by some other standard for nuclear power in civilian plants?   The reason I ask is that I have to take a class for 3 credits, any three credits will do because it is just to meet school residency reqs, and there is an OSHA class available.  Would being more knowledgeable in OSHA standards be helpful as a future RO/SRO (maybe starting as NLO)?   As a sidebar has anypne taken the TESC class on OSHA??

Rob

[Fermi2]

There is no separate standard for civilian nukes. While it's not a requirement to know OSHA in depth it's always good to have that knowledge. It won't help you become an RO or SRO but any knowledge is good.

Mike

[Already Gone]

Take the course.  It's stuff you should know regardless where you work.  You'll never see OSHA at a nuke (unless somebody gets killed), but the regs still apply and the knowledge is priceless.

[alphadude]

OSHA is very important in commercial nukes. unless pre-empted by state programs, you will deal with federal osha.  any plant that has asbestos is under osha-that is a highly visible program with state notifications etc. have a death at the plant and you will see osha everywhere.  get an employee complaint, and you will see osha doing a walk around and full investigation. most hp techs dont deal with osha or see osha. however osha has a major role to play for worker safety and health- nonrad.  the current adminstration has cut osha budgets hence the lowered visibility of inspectors, and face it if you have a safety problem-non rad- it more than likely is an osha issue. one simple call to the local region and they will pay a visit. Oh, by the way, OSHA can levy fines and require jail time for the company owners and VPs - serious stuff- NRC is unwilling or dont do that type thing-

if you want to get a safety issue fixed- read the regs (title 29 1910 or 1926) find out what the reg is that supports your safety issue and then file the safety issue with the Quality programs people and cite the applicable reg- it will get lots of attention and will get fixed. 


And if you take direction from a utility supervisor- they are co-employers and are responsible for OSHA compliance for the contractor.