NukeWorker Slang

[Rennhack]

A Guide to NukeWorker Slang
(Please, no funny stuff, keep that in the other forums)

PCM = Personnel Contamination Monitor (Something that measures the amount of contamination on your skin and cloths.)
RCA = Radiologically Controlled Area (An area controlled for radiological purposes.)
RRA = Radiologically Restricted Area (Mostly the same as RCA)
WBC = Whole Body Counter (It measures the amount of radiation emitted from your body, from the radioactive material in your body, i.e. K-40 (Potassium, like that found in Bananas and venison.)
DFR = hehehehe
Frisker = A hand held contamination monitor.
NRC = Nuclear Regulatory Commission
INPO = Institute of Nuclear Power Operations
Rem = Unit of measure of radiation deposited into your body (exposure/dose). You are allowed 5 Rem per year to your whole body, and 50 Rem per year to extremities.
mRem = A milli-Rem (1000 mRem = 1 Rem)
DOE = Department of Energy (Also slang for a site operated or licensed by them).
BWR = A Boiling Water Reactor, a type of design of Nuclear power plant where the water is allowed to boil in the primary loop.
PWR = Pressurized Water Reactor, a type of design of Nuclear power plant where the water is pressurized in the main loop, and exchanges its heat to a secondary 'loop' in a steam generator.
Hot = Contaminated
Screaming = Very contaminated
Crapped up = Contaminated


I hope this helps you non-nuke types

[SloGlo]

RMA= Radioactive Materials Area (an area where there is    material emitting radiation, NOT a contaminated area)
CSCA= Controlled Surface Contamintion Area (area that is contaminated, that is allowed to be contaminated due to specific reasoning, i.e. inside of a PWR containment building- too many manrem would be expended for the benefit derived.
DAC= Derived Airborne Concentration (the concentration of radioactive material in air, by isotopic analysis)
ManRem= Radiation Dose received, totalled up for statistical analysis, /item, like a job, a site, a company,etc.
NFG= what is written on a broken meter
OOS= Out Of Service, what a geek writes on a broken meter
PC= Protective Clothing, also know as Anti-C (Anti-Contamination, very old school)
DOD= Department of Defense, see DOE
Teletector= extendable GM tube instrument capable of reading to 1000 R/Hr, also called a tallywacker and is good for maintaining control of workers from a distance.
Face Pump= respirator
Lead Coffin, Lead Sled= Metal 5 sided box one would lie in to receive a Whole Body Count, very old school

[idrum4food]

BRT = Big Round Thing refering to the containment building where the reactor is located.

[Rennhack]

BFRT = See BRT
Can = Building where the nuclear reactor is contained. (PWR)
Drywell = BWR version of the Can

[ScottBob]

Annulus- That 3 foot wide curved "hallway" between the concrete outer containment and the steel inner containment of the reactor building at a BWR plant. Great place for nuke workers to leave their ubiquitous graffiti on the walls (such as "Joe was here for RF-6, RF-7 and RF-8", etc.) Usually reeks of urine, and those who enter will become crapped up from head to toe, not from anything reactor produced, but from the radon that seeps from the concrete walls.

Crud- Activated corrosion products that are heavier than water and settle out in bends, drains and other low spots or slow areas in the plumbing.

Crud Trap- Any part of the system that was deliberately engineered to catch crud. Usually does not work, is often cleaner than the areas it was designed to protect.

Bathtub Ring- The layer of crud that forms right at the water line of the spent fuel pool, refueling pool, supression pool, the swimming pool at the hotel where nuke workers stay, etc.

SCRAM- Safety Control Rod Axe Man, holdover from the days when prototype reactors had control rods that were held in place with ropes. In case of emergency, someone would cut the ropes with an axe to allow the control rods to drop into the pile, stopping the nuclear reaction. To this day the term "Scram" is still used for emergency reactor shutdown.

[idrum4food]

RHR - Residual Heat Removal or Rest Here and Relax

[DainJer]

Fits right in with the
STAR= Stop Think Act,  Review.

[RDTroja]

Just to show how things can get confused, I had always heard that SCRAM stood for Super-Critical Reactor Axe Man - same function, different source for the acronym. Started with Enrico Fermi's original 'atomic pile' under the bleachers at University of Chicago.

And CRUD supposedly stood for Chalk River Unidentified Deposits, named for some unidentified materials found down river from an experimental station many years ago.

moodusjack -- are you calling me an old timer? I knew Ron (at least one of them) before he got to Pilgrim. We arrived there together in 1978 when ALARA stood for As Long As Robin Approves. (Robin was RPM at the time... can't remember his last name.) Then Ron took over as ALARA Engineer and the acronym changed.

By the way, ALARA was originally ALAP - As Low As Practicable. But nobody knew what that meant. I guess I am an old-timer.

[SloGlo]

rdtroja, I am with you on the SCRAM, and chicago stadium was the first application.  iffen any nuke history buffs get out the picture (pen & ink, no cameras allowed, even then) you will see the SCRAM at the ready.  However, to be fair to ScottBob, i have heard his version also.  also in align on the CRUD.  
and iffen yer an old timer.........nah, ya ain't no old timer!

[Rennhack]

SCRAM:

The first sustained nuclear chain reaction was accomplished At 9.45 on Dec. 2, 1942. This event, at the University of Chicago's squash courts under Stagg Field's bleachers known as Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1) was the birth of the term SCRAM.

The NRC, Fermi, Gollnick, and "Mr. Scram" himself - Dr. Norman Hilberry, doctor of physics (The actual SCRAM Tech) defines SCRAM as the Safety Control Rod Axe Man.

There is a reference that claims that Fermi used the term "Safety Cut Rope Axe Man" that also claims that they used a professional logger.  This is a miss-quote. The Axe Man was a physicist named Dr. Norman Hilberry, who himself says that it stands for "Safety Control Rod Axe Man".


Other legends contend that "Scram" is an acronym for "Start Cutting Right Away, Man", "safety control reactor axe man", "SuperCritical Reactor Axe Man",  "Safety Critical Reactor Ax Man ", "SuiCidal Reaction Axe Man ", "Shutdown Control Rod Axe Man", "Secondary Control Rod Axe Man", "Safety Control Reactor Axe Man", "Safety Control Reserve Axed Man", and "Safety Crew Reactor Axe Man" However, the term 'reactor' wasn't even in use then, so those are probably backronyms.

http://www.orau.com/ptp/articlesstories/names.htm#scram

http://www.ornl.gov/reporter/no19/scram.htm

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/scram.html

http://users.owt.com/smsrpm/nksafe/forties.html
http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/s/scram_switch.html

http://www.wowpage.com/tmi/core.html

L. Marshall Libby The Uranium People, Crane, Russak & Co., 1979.
Gollnick page 44

[Rennhack]

Crud
A colloquial term for corrosion and wear products (rust particles, etc.) that become radioactive (i.e., activated) when exposed to radiation. Because the activated deposits were first discovered at Chalk River, a Canadian nuclear plant, "crud" has been used as shorthand for Chalk River Unidentified Deposits.

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/crud.html



CRUD: "...an acronym for 'Chalk River Unidentified Deposits.' ...black, highly radioactive substances found on the inside of piping and components at the Chalk River nuclear reactor ... CRUD has now become a standard industry term referring to minute, solid, corrosion products that travel into the reactor core, become highly radioactive, and then flow out of the reactor into other systems in the plant. ... CRUD can settle out in crevices or plate-out on the inside of piping in considerable quantities ... The major components of CRUD are iron, cobalt, chrome, and manganese ... CRUD is a concentrated source of radiation and represents a significant radiological risk because of its insolubility."

(United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Testimony of James K. Joosten, September 15, 1997, pg. 13-14).

[moodusjack]

Let's spot the real old timers.  Forget that sievert, gray, rem and rad stuff...who remembers REP (Roentgen Equivalent Physical)?

[SloGlo]

Senior-junior = someone on their last outage as a junior who will (hopefully ) become a Senior on the next job.

[wave_theory]

Havent seen these yet:

Burned out- when you get near or exceed your allowable dose.

Otto- the guy at the control point when you are taking a break.

Sponge- someone who gets more dose than they should. Often describes people who associate dose received with work accomplished.

Radio- be careful if you do this, could mean DFR

Gassed up- usually happens when you are leaving the RCA to use the restroom.

Anybody know where that term "radio" came from?

[SloGlo]

"radio" comes from the early days of ALARA, before the achronym became popular.  it involved the use of 2way radios so that a field tech could survey for more than one individual or group.  the tech would survey and then radio the data back to the control point(s).  got slanged to meaning pull a survey out of the air, to have done a survey without personally entering the area involved.

[RDTroja]

"Radio" has been around forever, even predating nukes, anywhere chemistry samples are taken. The slang meaining is as SloGlo suggests.

I had a very good friend (no longer with us) who had a pen with a broken-off car radio antenna attached that he used as a joke. He would extend the antenna, hold up the pen and then use it to write down the results that 'came in.' Got great reactions from some people...

[mikeland]

Hmm - might find some accelerator terms ...

Tower - Tower for a Pelletron .... do not stand near ...
Schedule - Beam run times/dates for various species ...
Source - Ion source for accelerator ...
Tube - accelerator tube ...
Tank - Insulator (SF6) for Pelletron ...
Magnet - main bending magnet ...
Charge State - beam charge of species ...
Strippers - Carbon Vane foils for increasing charge in Pelletron - and hence energy of beam ...
Beam Line - line of tubing - with magnets ...
Target Area - place not to stand in ... but many do ...
Beam Dump - yet another area not to stand in - can be identified by lack of concrete and or moderators ... always points in the unsafest direction ...

Doors or Gates - lockdown doors when neutrons exceed 10 micros/hr - of course detectors don't work ...

Control Room - where the children can play ...

DCP - Software that crashes on the VAX ...

TLD - Badges that are not to be worn ...

Resonator - Liquid cooled booster 15 MeV - or 300 MeV for the whole set ... pump out x rays from hell ...

Linac - Linear Accelerator - staff take holidays when turned on ...

ARPANSA - someone who took over the can from ANSTO ...

Beam Current - usually mcroamps - should be pico amps ...

[SloGlo]

Sucking Rubber... to wear a respirator.  when explaining communication problems while wearing a respirator, tell them it's like going drinking with a group of scots

[Rain Man]

Breaking Circle William:  A term used by an old ELT friend for pulling your respirator away from your face to throw up after a late night and too many toddies.

[187]

Crapped-up!! Refering to being contaminated! [smiley=tp.gif]

[kspero]

...adding to the alphabet soup:

PIC - Pocket Ion Chamber
ED - Electronic dosimeter
EPD - Electronic personal/pocket dosimeter
DRD - Direct reading dosimeter
DAD - Digital alarming dosimeter
EAD - Electronic alarming dosimeter
HPB - HP in a Box

[cotob]

On the subject of CRUD...nobody here in at AECL in Chalk River is willing to take credit for coming up with coining "Chalk River Unidentified Deposits".  The generally accepted story according to the oldtimers here is that the U.S. Navy came up with the acronym.  They were doing some fuel testing in our research reactor at the time when CRUD was discovered.  As a result we are now recognized as "world leaders" when it comes to the subject of unwanted deposits or impurities in reactor systems and we do alot of work with EPRI.  We don't do toilets though...

[dave99]

How about Fuel Fleas, Specks or the red Death (the Pink corrosion residue left over after a BWR Recirc system Chemical decon). All are highly radioactive, invisible, electrostatically charged particles.

[sammoyers]

Got a few to add as an "Old Timer"

"The Green Wave" or
"Green Machine"               Hydro Nuclear Services

"Junior-Techtor"  A junior tech with a "PIC-6", head sets and a rope around the waist. Used to send into unknown areas when it would cost to much to lose a remote operated robot. Send in the junior and pull he/she out with the rope when they stop responding. [smiley=hop_fire.gif]

"PIC-6" Old Eberline meter with two scales, 0 - 1000 mr/hr and 0 - 1000 R/hr. Also Known as a "Doorstop" because that's all it was good for.

ALARA at River Bend in the late '80s; As Low As Raymond Albert" After six years in the navy and several years at the Bend... his lifetime dose was under 100 mr. (67 mr if I remember right.) Now THATS ALARA!!!!!

"Road Whore" Road tech that would work for any company as long as the price was right, usually bounced from company to company, back in the day when a good portion of techs worked for one company.

"BAB" Beta Aerosol Beacon - A "CAM" (Continuous Air Monitor) that spent two hours in repairs for every 10 minutes of operating time. A real pain in the butt to get working right.

"BOHICA" Bend Over Here It Comes Again [smiley=shocked.gif]

"Attitude Adjustment" A big party held, usually mid-outage, (back when thet lasted 4 to 6 months at a time) with large quantities of Alcohol and recreational pharmaceticals. Obviously Pre-FFD. (Though I don't think one had anything to do with the other...NAH!!)    [smiley=beerchug.gif]  (b)  (d)  [smiley=huepfenjump1.gif]

[allforthenukie]

Munchkin Land, a place in the plant where the ceiling is so low that no normal person can stand upright. Like it was designed for munchkins to work in.

FishBowl, RP checkpoint at RCA access.

BetaBlockers, your safety glasses, shield the lenses of your eyes from beta radiation.

HeadKnocker, a pointy edged I beam that is strategically located at the top of a platform ladder, ussually right at about forehead level.

HoneyWagon, the sweet smelling tanker truck that comes to pump out the portajohns.

Shine, a "beam" of gamma radiation, like the "shine" in front of a steam generator manway opening for example.

RailBirds, plant bigshots who tend to flock to catwalks and other overhead perches to watch you do critical outage work activities.