Point Beach

[jakester]

Like Homer would say....MMMMMM BEEEER, MMMMM FOOOTBALL!!  Seriously though, good luck with the outage, hopefully this one comes togrther a little better than spring After all, with the price of Nat. Gas, using nuclear generated electricity as a supplement looks better each and every year!!!

[slattmandu]

Have a good outage to all !!!!

[allforthenukie]

Yes, JA was here for a few days but I think he's gone back to the island because I haven't seen him in a while. Not sure what he was here for. Make recommendations to cut RP tech jobs? That's the rumor I heard. RP techs SITTING at the containment checkpoint desk!?! Can't have that.
Outage seems to be rockin' along in typical beach snafu style. Lets "getter done" folks.

[Oly]

   'member folks, him and the don is buds from the day!  Now, about that drill........

How's da Bucky?

[imbucky]

I heard the "Flag ship" didn't do so well on the drill? We are suppose to be more like you guys? That's what we hear?
The Old RV Head is gone down the road, should be in MN by now? Head projects are over so Bucky is better...for now...
Got anybody that can come help with Nozzle Dams? 

  'member folks, him and the don is buds from the day!  Now, about that drill........

How's da Bucky?

[Oly]

   If there wasn't so much twitchin' you'd have the Harvinator to help.......

[evil-leprachaun]

Outage update!

Well we were close to being back online. But we are going to pull the new head off due to a stuck rod. Two more weeks added to the schedule. But will the crews support this? 

This will interfer deer hunting ................... internal conflicts of  cheese land. 

Stay tuned.

[jakester]

Thanks for the update!! Hopefully at least some of you will be able to take off for some hunting. I'll wave as I pass by on my way to the shack in Wabeno!!!

[refuelflunkie]

The winds of change says that some cuts to the RP dept. are coming your way.  Any truth to that?

[evil-leprachaun]

Yes the winds of change are blowing in from the West. The new NMC Fleet standard is to optimize departments on each individual site.



The Fleet budget money has to come from someplace ya know!

[allforthenukie]

Okay, at times like this the information given to the workers is always foggy and vague but as far as I can figure from the hearsay and innuendo...
As I understand it, the "fleet" high command has issued personel quotas for the specific work groups at the plants it operates. For example, all single unit plants shall have exactly this many RP techs and all two unit plants shall have THIS many RP techs. These personel quotas apply to all of the work groups, administrative, maint, etc. at the plants "the fleet" operates. Nobody seems to have any idea how they came up with the personel quota numbers for the work groups, but they say the numbers shall be met.
Word has it that, in the eyes of "the fleet", the RP group at the Beach is 6 techs too many. Assurances have been given that the RP numbers will be met by attrition without anybody being laid off. Think I should believe that?
I keep thinking of the old Willie Nelson song playing over and over again in my head, "On The Road Again". That's where I could be by springtime!
There is supposed to be something about this to be announced on the 27th.

[refuelflunkie]

Well, the 27th has come and gone.  Any word for you guys at the Beach?  Are any of you gone?

[allforthenukie]

The personel cuts announced for the RP group are... 1 ALARA tech, 1 dosimetry clerk, 2 lead RP techs, 2 RP techs, 3 decon workers.

[wlrun3@aol.com]

having worked pb since the breadbad/madukas era i am sincerely sorry, both for the workers and for their families, to learn about these changes...

does attrition, those that may have planned to leave, play a part in this..

how many rp leads and rp techs were there before these reductions...

[retired nuke]

Seabrook and Pilgrim are hiring - get online to their sites ASAP - the easiest way to get a house tech job is to be a house tech. You are already a proven commodity, with little need for expensive training.
In New England, you can substitute "lobstah" for "braaahts". The beer is a bit different (Sam Adams vs Heileman), and our "lake" is salt water. All else is the same.
Good luck to all, PB is a good place.

[allforthenukie]

As far as I know the numbers look like this...
Positions eliminated will be 2 RP Lead Techs(from 6), 2 RP techs(from 18), 1 ALARA tech(from 2), 1 dosimetry clerk(from 2), 3 decon(from 7). Additional positions being eliminated include, 9 secretarys, 2 office assistants, 1 material inspector, 1 nuclear engineering assistant, and 1 messenger.
We don't really know exactly WHO will be laid off yet. The jobs being eliminated have been announced, but that is just the beginning of the process. In the next couple months severence packages will be offered. Then the choice of voluntary layoff or "bumping" into a lower seniority persons job will be offered. Since some of the people whose positions are being eliminated have years of seniority, there are a lot of people in the various work groups who are vulnerable to being "bumped" out of their jobs. But then they can bump someone with less seniority than them out of another job. The crap rolls downhill and eventually some workers end up out of a job. They say it takes several months for the whole thing to play out.
Sounds like just a big mess to me, but it must make sense to someone. Everyone switching to different jobs with the lowest paid people being eliminated. I don't understand how this saves money or helps anything.
It's impossible to know exactly how this will all turn out at this time. Some say there's even a chance that it might not happen at all.
Thanks to those who sent job leads and contacts for us.
As far as I'm concerned the WORST thing that can happen to me is I end up back on the road working the outages, and that isn't very bad at all.

[imbucky]

This is all just my opinion.....
The beach is continuing to lose resources to our neighbor up the road, KNPP now owned by Dominion. From what we've heard there is a "gentlemans agreement" from what we've heard that there won't be anymore "cherry picking".
Why would we, at the beach, blame anyone for running up the road.
Case in point. NE Wisconsin got hammered today with a big blizzard that crippled much of the area. Everything was shutting down by the hour and as the morning went on there were several severe weather and blizzard warnings.
KPS sent employees home and kept only essential employees for ERO. If they pay them or if they don't it doesn't matter, as long as they send the message to the employee that they are an asset.
On the other hand, PBNP sent a memo that employees could do make up time or use vacation if they wish, just like any other day. Reprsented employees were not allowed to take "unpaid absence" even though we have a procedure that explains this whole thing on incliment weather. Gee, Thanks.
Explain again why we lose all those management people to our neighbor??
All we can do is read in the newspapers how we may be sold and how we are reducing staff while the NMC reassures us that they are the "company of choice"  too bad we are Americas Dairyland and not the show me state.....I personally have seen enough...bring in ERA and have a open house.
The grass might not be greener on the other side but it's gotta be better than what we have for morale now.....
We are still in a CAL, Catagory 4, and so on but now have too may people so we need to optimize to the NMC fleet??!!?? Funny how we need to be like everyone else and they are hiring?
OK, I'm done...sorry for the vent...I'm out...

[Dustball]

Wait until *ssport!!! I mean passport!

NMC is not the "fleet of choice"?? Fleet Enema of choice!
I thought the letter below says there is not displeasure with NMC  
Stirring the pot some more!!!
I feel for ya!  Hey, whatever happened to our spaceship? 

So...... What's the over/under on NMC?  6 months?

WEC to review Point Beach options, reflects 'no displeasure' with NMC

Feb. 9, 2006

Wisconsin Energy Corp. (WEC) will spend the year evaluating four options related to the Point Beach plant, including continued operation by NMC, hiring a third-party operator other than NMC, returning to in-house operation by Wisconsin Electric, or selling the plant.

WEC officials announced the plan to review options for Point Beach during a conference call with investment analysts Wednesday.

"We will be thorough and deliberate in carrying out this review during 2006, and we will provide you with an update when we have reached our conclusions in the fourth quarter this year," said Gale Klappa, WEC's President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). We Energies, a unit of WEC, owns the Point Beach plant.

While stating that reductions in the size of the NMC fleet influenced their decision to evaluate options for Point Beach, Klappa and Rick Kuester, President and CEO of WEC unit We Generation, emphasized that NMC's performance in operating Point Beach was not a factor in their plan.

The WEC officials also expressed their belief that decisions by other owners of plants operated by NMC did not reflect any displeasure with NMC's performance. In fact, they noted, NMC has improved the performance of all the plants that it has operated.

NMC assumed the operation of five nuclear plants (and seven units) in 2000: Duane Arnold (single unit), Kewaunee (single unit), Monticello (single unit), Point Beach (two-unit) and Prairie Island (two-unit). In 2001, NMC assumed operation of the single-unit Palisades plant, bringing the fleet to eight nuclear units.

The fleet has been reduced in size since then, with the sale of Kewaunee in July 2005 from Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) to Dominion Resources and the sale of Duane Arnold from Alliant Energy to FPL Energy last month. Consumers Energy, the owner of the Palisades plant, also has announced its intent to sell that plant.

Referring to WPS, Alliant and Consumers Energy, Kuester told analysts that, "None of those companies . . . made those decisions based on NMC performance. I think all the owners [in NMC] have been pleased with the performance and improvements in performance they have gotten out of the units.

"There were other business reasons at work for those other owners," Kuester continued. "I don't want anyone to interpret that there's displeasure with NMC performance. It's simply that every company has to evaluate their situation, their customer needs, their portfolio and make a decision based on that."

Klappa also said WEC has "not concluded that NMC is not a viable operator. In fact," he added, "if you look around the country at the size of fleets, certainly there are some major nuclear consolidators, but there are other operators doing very well with the size of the fleet that NMC would have. ... And, as Rick mentioned, NMC's track record in improving the performance at every one of the plants that it's operated has been quite positive."

[Oly]

   Wel here at the Island, C rated folks have been let go looks as if the procedure is bein' followed.

Now if those fan coils would jus stop leakin'.......$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Dustball]

WO
AKA: Oly

Nice procedure for them to pick and actually follow.  How are you guys handling following all of the passport procedures??  I heard at the palace they can't handle the change and are reverting back on some of the procedures.  nice, eh?  we're trying....  you 2 have an outage to deal with.  "The Beach" is next. 


quote author=Oly link=topic=945.msg39480#msg39480 date=1140277976]
  Wel here at the Island, C rated folks have been let go looks as if the procedure is bein' followed.

Now if those fan coils would jus stop leakin'.......$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
[/quote]

[Oly]

  You mean "pisspoor", when you have no clue how to plan work, it IS a shock to work in the 21st century . We want to be just like Progress Energy. Used to be a mission statement or somethin'

I can't wait to get TC in the can - HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE

I'm sure Randy will show him some love too.....

If your bored you could go to batonrougecycling, some interesting reading there..... . Blocked at work though, wonder why???

[Dustball]

NMC UPDATE

Solicitation of potential bidders for Point Beach begins Friday

June 29, 2006

A "market test" to explore options for the future ownership and operation of the Point Beach plant will begin Friday (June 30) with the issuance of an "early interest" letter to prospective buyers of the plant.

Concentric Energy Advisors, a consulting firm hired by Point Beach owner We Energies, will issue the letter on the company's behalf to all nuclear plant operators in the United States and some in Canada.

We Energies is a subsidiary of Wisconsin Energy Corp. (WEC), which announced earlier this year that it would spend 2006 evaluating options for the future of Point Beach—including continued operation by NMC or selling the plant.

We Energies' timeline for the market test was outlined in a message from Site Vice President Dennis Koehl to Point Beach employees last week.

According to Koehl, issuance of the early interest letter is the first step in the market test process. The letter's purpose is to solicit responses from parties that may have an interest in buying and/or operating Point Beach for We Energies. The letter also will inform parties of the process for participating in the market test.

Based on responses to the early interest letter, Concentric will then issue an "information memorandum" to all qualified bidders in mid-July. The memorandum will include detail about plant operations supplied by Point Beach, We Energies and NMC staff.

After that, qualified bidders will have a chance to submit questions and requests for more information to staff. That process will require responses from various employees and will continue through November.

Potential bidders will have a chance to tour Point Beach from mid-August through early September. Tours will be completed before Point Beach starts a planned refueling outage in the fall. Concentric intends to maintain the confidentiality of each bidder as much as possible, in part by assigning code names that must be used throughout the market test process.

WEC and We Energies officials have said they expect to make a decision on the future of Point Beach late this year. Until a final decision is made, NMC remains responsible for the safe and reliable operation of the plant.

In his message to employees, Koehl noted that while "this is an exciting time for [Point Beach], it also has the potential to be distracting. Please remain focused on doing your job right the first time, while concentrating on quality."

[evil-leprachaun]

We Energies consultant solicits interest in Point Beach

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel By THOMAS CONTENT; Posted: July 5, 2006

"Milwaukee-based We Energies has taken another step that could lead to the sale of its nuclear plant, Point Beach.

A consulting firm hired by the utility has sent letters to owners and operators of nuclear plants across the country seeking input on whether they would want to buy the plant or operate the plant on behalf of We Energies.

The letter was sent Friday by Concentric Energy Advisors, the consulting firm that has handled two recent nuclear plant sales in the Upper Midwest. Concentric, based in Marlborough, Mass., worked with Madison-based Alliant Energy Corp. in the sale of its controlling stake in an Iowa nuclear plant. And Concentric is managing the auction of a Michigan reactor by CMS Energy Corp.

The We Energies letter details an auction process that would culminate with interested firms touring the plant in late summer and submitting bids by late November.

We Energies announced in February that it would conduct a review this year of whether to keep or sell Point Beach, which is in Two Creeks in Manitowoc County. The review came as a result of recent nuclear plant sales and the concern that there will be just three plants left being managed by Nuclear Management Co. of Hudson."

[evil-leprachaun]

Well the deal of the Pont Beach sale should almost be final. The marketing surveys have been completed and I am sure that the bids have been submitted.

The only thing left is to announce who made the deal.

The NMC posted an article on the feasiblity of a 2 plant fleet.

Any rumors in the country on the fate of Point Beach?

The employee's are always the last to know.

[hurricanefan]

Was told that Entergy is going to purchase the Beach.  That came from upper management at one of our Northeast sites.