Your Favorite Thing About Outages...........

[stownsend]

   It's been a bit but what I enjoyed was the travel.   Cape Cod (P-Town is an interesting experience), Byron is near an annual testicle festival  and on and on. I miss the travel, but not enough to do outages again.

The two places had a lot in common.

[retired nuke]

For the money, but that is just a wild guess!

Hmmmm, nothings changed...

[Jr8black3]

Seeing the plant in the rear view mirror. Outages aren't as fun as they used to be...

[Mike McFarlin]

I think he meant something akin to;

Account Balance: $5600.00

as opposed to;

Account Balance:   $00.56

I'll take the $5600.00

[whizzzkid]

the beginning - seeing all the people, some you haven't seen in a while and body counting out.  The time in between sucks

[Dwayne]

The friends that I have made...
The Great food on the road...
The war stories that are told...
The dumb things newbies do...
did I say the great food on the road!!!

[Neutron_Herder]

I just finished up my first ever outage, so my experiences aren't nearly as cool as the others.

The biggest thing I liked was the ability to meet people from across the country who had worked at many plants, and their opinions on how "my" plant compared to what they have seen elsewhere.  It was a pretty enlightening experience!

Other than that, as a new guy I really liked the fact that there were a whole bunch of doors in the plant that are usually locked that weren't; giving me the ability to actually go in and see the stuff that I've been studying about for the last few months!

[Jr8black3]

The End

[vikingfan]

Making a boat load of $$$$$$ money in a short period of time !!

[MIA]

Seeing a fresh off the boat squid shake in his PCs the first time he sees a boron encrusted valve on the minus 10 elevation.

[mostlyharmless]

Seen it too. After all the talk,the shake and quivering voice when faced with dose and contamination. But I also remember my hand shaking the first time the meter was in my hands and the rate was high. Got over it quick though.

[Marlin]

Seeing a fresh off the boat squid shake in his PCs the first time he sees a boron encrusted valve on the minus 10 elevation.

   Interesting concept, but my response was "This is cool check it out" I'm sure I was just as amusing from a different standpoint.  I doubt there are any plants today that are as bad radiologically as they were when I got out of the Navy in "78", Vermont Yankee, Pilgram, Surry, Brunswick, Peach Bottom, or Zion had radiological conditons that I am sure would dwarf the general conditions of those in any plant today, there weren't boron encrusted valves but entire floors and pipe tunnels encrusted to a foot or more with boron or spent resin. I wonder how a tech from today would respond to the conditions that existed back then? Spock said it best "each according to his or her own abilities" (I know, I know, Carl Marx said it too)  .

[Jr8black3]

LOL Marlin I hear ya,, but you never spent anytime in the ZOO at DC Cook,,who what a mess..

[mostlyharmless]

One of the loop rooms at North Anna looked loke it had snowed. They used shovels at first. Saw a boron stalagtite about eight feet long.  But it was clean boron. Sort of. I loved a nasty plant. Still do. It gives me something to think about. The boredom is what hurts me. When its hot and nasty I dont have time to be bored. And I was just getting in to high school in 78.
I have never lost my fasination with things nuclear. One wonderfull memory was turning off the lights in the vesel at North Anna, after off load , so I could watch the glow for a while. But only for a while, I couldnt let the bulbs cool down to much. Kind of like the spark from a high grade Pu239 sample. Or the decay heat from 238, like John Schofield, still warm.

[RDTroja]

Bringing up 1978 and high dose jobs... At a Northeast plant that I won't name here, we had knee-deep resins in the rail car pit that were so hot the we had to shield a 55-gallon drum with concrete just to be able to transfer it. We took a tube with about an 8" diameter, put it in the center of the barrel and poured concrete around the outside of it. The barrel still read 10/R on the outside. In order to fill the drum a deconner had to put on hip waders and enter the room and walk through the resins (that was state-of-the-art at the time.) There was a brand-new-off-the-boat HP tech (who I also will not name here) that came in to relieve me so I could go to Indian Point for an RCP outage (for some strange reason they requested me.) I gave him a few days' turnover on the job and left him in the hands of a very good decon crew. That was his first non-navy nuclear experience -- I was surprised it was not his last. I worked with him later and the 'baptism by fire' had given him a very good attitude about future radiological conditions... he was never intimidated by other high dose, high contamination jobs.

[Marlin]

LOL Marlin I hear ya,, but you never spent anytime in the ZOO at DC Cook,,who what a mess..

I did one of the S/G change outs there.

[xobxdoc]

.....witnessing some stupid things that people do
example: While working at ANO in the early nineties, we were given some really cool knives. It was a fixed blade, serrated about 2" long that hung off our lanyards. It was ideal for cutting rad rope. While sitting in the "HP ready trailer" this one individual was bored and took out his knife and pretended to drag it across his neck with the non serrated side. After about 30 seconds I looked at him in shocking disbelief. He asked me what my problem was. He had blood from ear to ear across his neck. It was just a flesh wound though.
Don't get me started on psychotic roommates!!! That should be in a thread by itself.

[nsz8]

The End

[number41]

I doubt there are any plants today that are as bad radiologically as they were when I got out of the Navy in "78", Vermont Yankee, Pilgram, Surry, Brunswick, Peach Bottom, or Zion had radiological conditons that I am sure would dwarf the general conditions of those in any plant today, there weren't boron encrusted valves but entire floors and pipe tunnels encrusted to a foot or more with boron or spent resin.

Awesome!  I've been hearing the stories of the days when the -3' pipe tunnels were barred shut with water pouring over the doors and the pipe tunnel tour was performed in a boat.  A guy recently told me that when they drained the tunnels, they found these two "things" wrapped in plastic & decided to cut them open to see what they were.  After the plastic was off, I think the quote was "holy $h1t, those are the service water outlet isolation valve operators!"  Priceless.  I also heard that when they finally processed out all the water there were several foot high piles of resin reading 50-80R/hr on the floor, and the entire place was covered with orange resin residue that had smears reading in the 100mr/hr range.  I love hearing how much different things were in "the good ol' days."  For reference, I was born in 77'.

T-120 days til' the NRC exam.  Wish me luck.

[darkmatter]

Used to be: The Money, The People, & the crazy antics.

Then it got to be: The Money's okay, The People, & who got fired this outage?

And became: Hey, where's the money, The People, & The Procedures say what?

And Now: Another day, another dollar, quarter after taxes, nickel after the wife and kids, & I need that nickel for my beer with the People after work.

[let-it-ride]

I always liked how easy it was to hook up with local women. Many liked to be with us because we had "Diem". Sound like Ark? I knew lots, and lots of guys that had an easy time getting the ladies. Of course I know lots of lady Hp's & deconners that did the same thing too. I stopped counting at 100. (a no shxxer)
I know lots of guys that are legends with the ladies. I can't say what part of the country is easier to get hooked up with an Outage Girl. It was easy everywhere!

[sscone]

I like going to new plants. Seeing new parts of the country I've never seen before and meeting new people. Of course seeing old friends is good to. The money just goes in one hand and out to another. Finding good places to eat and new things to put on my menu at home is good to.