NukeWorker Forum
Career Path => Outages => Topic started by: darkmatter on Oct 30, 2009, 11:24
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Thanks to Mutant for suggesting this topic:
An Engineer (infrequently RCA work) doing a walkdown in a BWR condenser bay exceeded his dose margin; everyone thereafter had to wear a huge clunky vibrator on their dosimetry most places in the plant whether they had the sense to routinely monitor their own dose or not.
A Chem-Tech nicked themselves with a leatherman pocket tool-----all lanyard knifes or bladed tools of any kind were banned, you must now check out a sidecutter from the tool crib for cutting rope, tywraps, or herculite material. I haven’t yet figured out how to use the new boxcutters with a rounded point and a spring returned blade---they get bent out of shape if I tape the blade open!
During a classroom continuing training class, a student was munching on Chips and dip which the instructor (a guest manager speaker) considered too noisy--------all eating/drinking was banned during class, all classes, and all students. Confine your snacks to break time only.
What has torque you off as a nonsensical knee jerk reaction?
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More than most I know the value of being punctual, whether it be for training, relief, start of shift, wedding, or funeral. But, in response to multiple late shows for scheduled training at a Region V site, instructors were directed to lock the door and allow no students to enter the classroom late, even if only three seconds late. On the surface this may make some sense. But, I realized it had gone way too far when I saw an instructor literally shut and lock the classroom door in a student's face who was maybe 4 or 6 feet from entering the promised land and then smile and wave at the sinner thru the door glass.
A Halligan bar would fix that problem with the door :)
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As an Instructor myself, where do you draw the line at tardiness, especially when they are so many students in a class at an outage. If you make the exception for one the all of the students make the same observation to push the envelope.
It may seem unfair to you, but the effectiveness of getting the attention for the class as a whole is satisfied. Keep in mind I would not put down or rub it in the nose of the individual, but professionally direct them to the class coordinator to get in the next class. Remember you are probably going to be that instructor to teach the same person in the next class.
As for noisey food in the atomsphere of a class does take away from the attention span of the other students.
Remember we want to be treated as a professional, then being on time is a part of being professional where 20-30 students are waiting for your return where you were taking a personal call extending your break.
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As an Instructor myself, where do you draw the line at tardiness...
Remember we want to be treated as a professional, then being on time is a part of being professional where 20-30 students are waiting for your return where you were taking a personal call extending your break.
No, I don't buy that. I once had an instructor give a three minute and fifteen second break. Just because you can talk for four hours without stopping for air doesn't mean that training is improving my performance. :)
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I can only control what I teach. I usally give ten minute breaks with a power point (with music) counting down the time till start. I would not approve of a 3 minute something break either, but you have good apples and bad apples.
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A certain recruiter found some people at the end of the outage were overpaid per diem. In response, per diem is now a week in arrears so you have to pony up 1000 from your pocket to get across the country to an outage and even with the 750 advance, when you were put on hold 4 days waiting for the badges to come on your own dime (getting per diem only) you found you barely enough money to survive and it took 3 weeks to get a large check, and you ended up getting perdiem when you were at home for 10 days when you obviously did not need it then. (North Anna Spring 2009).
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The list is much too long for this forum (never stopped me before right! ;D), so I will only give the most recent.
Working at a south western plant last fall, a tech dropped a teletector into the cavity because of a strap failure. They immediately made it mandatory that ALL meters in the containment have a FME type wrist lanyard. Even if working in the basement. They never really retracted the rule, but after a couple of weeks of complaining they kind of let up on it with a don't ask don't tell approach. I thought it was silly, but I didn't really complain too much. You have to expect this kind of behaviour when your working at a column 4 plant :o
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At one D&D site I was at we had a reflector plate in the core that had to come out, with special tooling we attemped that it didn't work after a week of scratching heads management decided to pull the core box with the plate in it and deal with it later, in the process of pulling the core box while myself and another guy locked it down by spraying a coating on it we noticed there were set screws in the bottom of it. A few weeks later while in a meeting management came up with the bright idea hey spray WD40 on it.. I got pissed to say the least and refused to do it as I knew that wouldn't work,, they wouldn't listen and went ahead with there plan,, needless to say prolly a Rem later they decided hey lets flip it over and see what may be holding it in there..Duh.. they could have saved sometime, money and dose had they listened to what I had to say..Some folks are just to hard headed...
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A certain recruiter found some people at the end of the outage were overpaid per diem. In response, per diem is now a week in arrears so you have to pony up 1000 from your pocket to get across the country to an outage and even with the 750 advance, when you were put on hold 4 days waiting for the badges to come on your own dime (getting per diem only) you found you barely enough money to survive and it took 3 weeks to get a large check, and you ended up getting perdiem when you were at home for 10 days when you obviously did not need it then. (North Anna Spring 2009).
You must be a newbie. Most all the techs I've worked with have long since learned to set aside sufficient funds to get them started on a new job until the regular paychecks and perdiem start showing up - without taking an advance - which only prolongs the pain of your initial lack of planning.
I deal with the problem this way: I opened an account at a bank that I seemed to see at almost every plant I went to (such as Bank of America or US Bank) (don't forget the debit card for paying for gas and lodging). That account only handles my perdiem so that I can keep it separate from my paychecks (they go to my regular bank). Spend what you need for the job you're on and leave the rest for the beginning of your next job. Over time, that account's balance will grow into a tidy sum (if you're reasonably prudent) that can be used to clear out debts or get some new toys. I never let the balance in my "travel account" get below $2,000 between outages so that I always have enough cash to get started without having to ask for a perdiem advance. And, should you run into a contract that only pays every two weeks, you will be sitting pretty while everyone around you is whining and complaining and begging for an advance.
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Back in the early 80's Millstone house types were tired of having to share the indoor plumbing with contractors. I think a manager type had to hold it a little too long while all the stalls were occupied. The fix - deny all contractors access to indoor restrooms. To drive the point home they locked the doors. Fortunately for me and others, the high rad key worked as a skeleton key and their plan was easily foiled.
I was at Millstone in 79 and they tried the same thing: contractors had to use the port-a-pottys... in February. We told them we would all leave if we weren't treated like people. So, they unofficially let use use the indoor plumbing, but we were supposed to be 'discrete.' That was the first of a few 'mutinies' that took place that outage. After all the BS it was not a bad place to work... The RPM was a real piece of work, though. I think he went from Junior to RPM in one jump.
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I deal with the problem this way: I opened an account at a bank that I seemed to see at almost every plant I went to (such as Bank of America or US Bank) (don't forget the debit card for paying for gas and lodging). That account only handles my perdiem so that I can keep it separate from my paychecks (they go to my regular bank). Spend what you need for the job you're on and leave the rest for the beginning of your next job. Over time, that account's balance will grow into a tidy sum (if you're reasonably prudent) that can be used to clear out debts or get some new toys. I never let the balance in my "travel account" get below $2,000 between outages so that I always have enough cash to get started without having to ask for a perdiem advance. And, should you run into a contract that only pays every two weeks, you will be sitting pretty while everyone around you is whining and complaining and begging for an advance.
That would be great advice for the "Things that rookie nukeworkers should know" thread.
In fact I'll quote you and throw it on there now.
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Someone was concerned that people looking in a classroom door window might see someone reading a newspaper and not be aware of whether class was in session or not (apparently the looker wouldn't be bright enough to see if class activities were going on). Result was banning all newspapers from classrooms, even on lunch break in an empty classroom.
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"Too big a brush paint with you do."
It is big enough to describe at least 1/2 of the travelers. Go to your site, take a poll of who is independely wealthy and a road tech. If they had enough, they would wait to the last minute and get positions that have a jacked up perdiem and pay. I drive a mercedes, but it is 1990. Well off means you have 6 months of regular income saved in a bank that is readily accessible, and saving at least 20% of your gross income each year. Few will pass the bar. How can I prove this, just look at any retirement statistic, only 5% of all Americans retire well off. The nuclear field is no exception.
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How about closing the Columbia River traffic at Portland because of a CAM alarm ( Filter paper placed in backwards ) at the Hanford site ( 200 miles up river ) :P
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At Browns Ferry back 15 years or so ago, the Plant Manager went on a tour and saw some uncomplimentary graffiti about him on a cabinet, written with a Sharpie. He immediately banned anyone from having Sharpies, which of course was a major hassle for RP techs trying to fill out plastic rad tags. He relented a bit by allowing the tool room to issue Sharpies to workers, but then if any new graffiti showed up anyone who had signed out a Sharpie was in trouble.
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Just before the July 4th weekend of this year, we had at Hanford, Wa a worker take a bad fall. Pretty straight forward. Working on catwalks indoors, preparing crane/bridge for the building's demo I think. The access to the catwalk was through the grating, a 50' ladder with a traditional hatch at the top that latched in the upright/open position. The worker stepped backwards while looking up and fell through the open hatch. It's worth noting the company has said he'll recover in time so it could've been much worse.
One of the results of this which might fit in this thread is that still to this point (Nov o9) work has been kept limited during weeks which preceed a holiday. Not sure why, maybe their just they're superstitious...
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And then there was the time the RCT's were required to rad tag the mulberry bushes and other weeds down near the river. true story. Hanford mid 1990's :P
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If legends are true, the shrubbery read in mrem/hr
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Turkey Point 1985 we had to wear badges that said you were a senior or junior technician.If you didn't have your badge you had to go home. "We don't need no stinkin badges."
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Fermi, Licensed OPerators wearing ties in order to enhance professionalism.
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http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/en.html
I bet the poor guy had a knee jerk reaction to this.
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http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/en.html
I bet the poor guy had a knee jerk reaction to this.
I thought they had to keep their bullet in the pocket.
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http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/en.html
I bet the poor guy had a knee jerk reaction to this.
I bet he had a secondary accidental discharge...
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http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/en.html
I bet the poor guy had a knee jerk reaction to this.
This was posted in reference to # 45523 12/1/09 accidental shooting.
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beever valley, sum time inna early 90s..... thou shalt not sit on a bucket...
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This was posted in reference to # 45523 12/1/09 accidental shooting.
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/2009/20091201en.html#en45523
Here is the perm link.
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"The Army general of U.S. forces in Northern Iraq has banned pregnancy among military personnel in his command, NBC News reported on Friday.
Anyone who becomes pregnant or impregnates another servicemember, including married couples assigned to the same unit, could face a court-martial and jail time, according to an order issued by Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo."
This rule should work out well. He should just follow the nuclear industry example and just post another sign on the doors.
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He should just follow the nuclear industry example and just post another sign on the doors.
Ah yes, the immediate corrective action to all events. "Signs were posted at the RCA entrance yada yada yada". "Signs were posted on the doors to the shutdown board rooms...."
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RP techs take dose rates smears and set up boundary's. Use of the spring re-track knife is the way things are going and is part of the safety plans at the sites I worked plus when using a cutting device you need to wear the proper gloves for the task as ny the sites procedure. heck I recall the old days when we all cut jumpers out and such but the times have changed and safety job is to look out for the worker. They can give you all the tools and pre job briefs but if you do not use them you put your self at risk. I was at a job a few years ago when an old hp buddy cut his hand with a razor knife had to take him to the ER, not fun and a lot of paper work .oh will when you are at site now safety comes 1st.
good luck be safe
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Yeah, this thread is old, but I just got around to reading it. Last outage, there was a rash of hand injuries. You know the kind: employee was not wearing gloves, employee was wearing the wrong type of glove, employee was wearing ONE glove but working with the ungloved hand, yadda, yadda, yadda. So, it becomes MANDATORY to have gloves on your person while in the power block, regardless of whether you were working or simply traversing the area. Anyway, by making it mandatory, the company had to supply the gloves. Since this is a BWR, and everything going into the power block has to be SAM'd.....you guessed it, 95% of the gloves went into the rad trash when people left the power block. The last figures I saw put our cost for GLOVES at over $200k for a 33 day outage. I don't even want to guess how much it cost to dispose of them all.
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Must be terrible radcon practices. I worked at a BWR for 15 years, had gloves everytime I was in the power block and outside of losing one pair, and normal wear and tear I never lost any gloves in a SAM.
At SQN we have to have gloves everywhere in the power block, our Aux Building is no different than the RCA in a BWR and we don't lose gloves to Mr Sam all that often. That 95% number is way too high.
Mike
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Yeah, this thread is old, but I just got around to reading it. Last outage, there was a rash of hand injuries. You know the kind: employee was not wearing gloves, employee was wearing the wrong type of glove, employee was wearing ONE glove but working with the ungloved hand, yadda, yadda, yadda. So, it becomes MANDATORY to have gloves on your person while in the power block, regardless of whether you were working or simply traversing the area. Anyway, by making it mandatory, the company had to supply the gloves. Since this is a BWR, and everything going into the power block has to be SAM'd.....you guessed it, 95% of the gloves went into the rad trash when people left the power block. The last figures I saw put our cost for GLOVES at over $200k for a 33 day outage. I don't even want to guess how much it cost to dispose of them all.
Why rad trash? Did people just not want to sam them or did they alarm? Someone told me that there are some leather gloves out there that alarm the sams even brand new, anyone else heard of this?
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I'm sure it was a combination of events that made them trash. Surely some of them were actually contaminated, either from bad work practices, or because gloves just get contaminated sometimes. However, I actually got into an argument with a contract rad tech at the SAM because he straight-up refused to count my gloves. I argued with him, pointing out some of his physical short-comings for refusing to count gloves, but when I saw it was no use to argue with the grouchy ol' fart, I stashed my gloves in the hot tool room for use later on. However, I'm pretty certain that the average worker found it much easier to trash their gloves in the nearest trash can (which happens to be rad trash) and get a new set next time on the way back in.
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beever valley, sum time inna early 90s..... thou shalt not sit on a bucket...
You still can't sit on a bucket....... They don't even like it if you sit on a tool box.
The reason for this is that one time someone sat on a bucket. The bucket looked empty. The end result ( no pun intended ) was some real dose.
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beever valley, sum time inna early 90s..... thou shalt not sit on a bucket...
You still can't sit on a bucket....... They don't even like it if you sit on a tool box.
The reason for this is that one time someone sat on a bucket. The bucket looked empty. The end result ( no pun intended ) was some real dose.
We went through a similar scneario - currently the "bucket butt" resides in the Control Room as an RO - safetst place for him.... ::)