St. Lucie

[career nuke]

Hey all,
I am considering working at St. Lucie in what sounds like a mechanical maintenance supervisor position.  What is the work environment like there these days and what can I expect the job to entail. Manpower, Hours, salary, corporate culture etc.  I am really eager to get into FPL and I am looking for insight from people who have been there.
Thanks for your time.

[RDTroja]

I do have a question..

Last year St Lucie replaced one of their Pressurizers. I believe they're the only utility to have done this.

I'm wondering how big a task was it?

Why did they do it?

And what special considerations were there?

Mike

Sorry I took so long to respond to your questions, but I was deep into an outage and had a broken computer...

I wrote the HP plans for removing the Pressurizer at St. Lucie. Yes, it was a First-Of-A-Kind evolution and was a very large task from an ALARA standpoint. The amount of piping that had to be removed and subsequently reinstalled (note I did not say replaced) was impressive. Although the pipe diameters did not compare to a S/G replacement the confined quarters, tight tolerances, and surrounding high rad piping that was not removed made the task rather daunting. Those issues combined with a significant number of welding problems during the reinstallation made for a lot of dose, frustration and a few issues I will not address here.

The main reason to replace the pressurizer was that it contained the last Alloy 600 in the RCS and the utility wanted it out. Of course there were other considerations, but this is not the place to go into those details. There is not near enough room here to go into all of the special considerations involved. Suffice it to say that there were many rather painful meetings along the way. For details you should contact the utility.

Like any FOAK evolution there were several things that did not go as planned, but the job was completed approximately on schedule. Given that I use my own name here, that is as much as I will say.

[M1Ark]

Yeah St Lucie hired some good people. A couple years back they hired 3 of the best SROs we had at Fermi. I think Fermi is still recovering in some aspects from the loss of those three men.

I do have a question..

Last year St Lucie replaced one of their Pressurizers. I believe they're the only utility to have done this.

I'm wondering how big a task was it?

Why did they do it?

And what special considerations were there?

Mike

Mike,

I asked the Ops Manager today why we replaced the Unit 1 PZR.  He said it was due to the inconel welds around the heaters had to be replaced.  It was less dose, manpower and over-all easier job to replace the whole thing than bits and pieces.  Overall the job went relatively well.  There were numerous fires called out in containment due to slag catching canvas tool bags or hoses on fire due to slag falling to lower floors during the welding process.

There were differing opinions on what the right thing to do was right up to the outage start.  Keep in mind we also had a head replacement at the same time.

[Fermi2]

Dang, a head replacement at the same time.

So maybe this is too obvious a question, is St Lucie going to change out the Unit 2 Pressurizer?

Mike

[NucEng for Hire]

Dang, a head replacement at the same time.

So maybe this is too obvious a question, is St Lucie going to change out the Unit 2 Pressurizer?

Mike

St. Lucie 2 has the "Big One" scheduled for fall 2007 - SG, RV head, and pressurizer to be replaced.

There's a nice piece on FPL's projects director in this month's Nuclear News.

[Fermi2]

Thanks!!

The Nuclear News is still around eh? I stopped reading that rag years ago.

Mike

[NucEng for Hire]

This month was the "outage management" special issue. Always good for pictures of large objects passing through holes cut into containments...

[radbitch]

Thanks for the info RDTroja. My tentative start date is ~ 1st of October.

[LaFeet]

Any idea how many techs they might need?  I managed to get into Ft Calhoun this past fall during their "Big One"

[thenuttyneutron]

That Alloy 600 is a headache for this industry.  DB is starting their 15 RFO 3-4 months early just for the A600 inspections.  I don't see them getting another NRC excemption 

[radbitch]

How's the outage going?

[rocknrollrick]

What's going on at the plant are the Generators out and has first lay-off happened yet It's great to get housing information but this is a bit extreme

[Roll Tide]

It's great to get housing information but this is a bit extreme

Next we will have people complaining that too many great jobs are being posted!
This is one of the reasons the site exists; it makes arriving at the new job site that much smoother when you already have housing confirmed (or at least an idea of what is available).

[Old HP]

                The old Rx head is out and they have made some progress towards cutting the generators.

[PWHoppe]

Next we will have people complaining that too many great jobs are being posted!

If memory serves me, I'm old, we already had a poster complain about the number of jobs a certain company "flooded" the job board with each week 

RT is dead on, that is the reason we are all here, to help our fellow road warrior's find job's and then make getting set-up in them easier. I know it's always helped me.

ON TOPIC: Glad to hear that STL is progressing well, as I understand it they're about 2 days behind schedule. Not bad when you consider how massive an outage it is.

[RADBASTARD]

Well here is the latest s/g info. How many days does it take to lift a s/g here 2 days and counting since the hook up?

The s/g is painted blue and looks like a big viagra,even this viagra can't get this s/g up!

They are having all kinds of problems lifting this thing.

This thing has been like a giant yo yo up and down.

Maybe today it will be lifted out?

I do love it so here.

[felchie]

Trouble in Paradise......
Anybody got a big crane (TLD) we can borrow for a few weeks?
Seems Mammout's won't pick enuff weight, tried to get the first
SG out, then the center pivot pole started to flex and bend and
it was decided to set it back in the hole.....still there today...
 update at 1100  LOL

[xobxdoc]

Trouble in Paradise......
Anybody got a big crane (TLD) we can borrow for a few weeks?
Seems Mammout's won't pick enuff weight, tried to get the first
SG out, then the center pivot pole started to flex and bend and
it was decided to set it back in the hole.....still there today...
 update at 1100  LOL

I wonder if they remembered to make the hot and cold leg cuts.

[RDTroja]

I wonder if they remembered to make the hot and cold leg cuts.

DOH!

[Old HP]

The double lift for the steam generator is appropriate for St. Lucie, as they always seem to find a way to make anything more difficult than it should be.

[RADBASTARD]

yesterday around 4am they got the s/g up in only 3 days.
We can make some ca ching here with delays!

[HAIRDUDE]

Can someone give me the RPM's name and phone number at St. Lucie?

[harrispb]

I am an Enterprise ELT getting out soon and I am looking for a contact at St. Lucie. I also heard that they are giving a 20K sign on bonus right now... does anyone know if that is true?

[JohnK87]

I am an Enterprise ELT getting out soon and I am looking for a contact at St. Lucie. I also heard that they are giving a 20K sign on bonus right now... does anyone know if that is true?

I bet that bonus is at Turkey Point, not "Paradise North."

[Dream Tar Heel]

So exactly where was the Bonus?