Plant Attendant Interview Help

[Mschriver]

A little background about myself.  I have an associate's degree from Lakeland Community College in Nuclear Engineering Technology.  Since I graduated in 2009 I've been working as an RP doing MARSSIM work.  I've also been trying to get into commercial operations since 2009.  I had an interview for a Plant Attendant position at Davis-Besse in Oct 2012 and it didn't go that well (obviously).  The one question that really threw me was when they asked me to describe how the plant worked.  Since Lakeland's program is so closely intertwined with Perry about 99% of the course material was specific to BWRs.  I know the principles behind a PWR but for some reason I couldn't get my mouth and brain lined up right to explain it well. 

What I'm looking for is some sort of reference material, preferably online, that describes the specifics of Davis-Besse's reactor and associated systems.  The more specific the better.

Thanks.

[HydroDave63]

Start at the NRC website....

[Mschriver]

Start at the NRC website....

Already tried that, all I could find were generic PWR/BWR drawings. I'm going through Google results from "Babcock and Wilcox Raised Loop" now, it seems promising so far.

[ddickey]

They asked you that in the interview? Doesn't sound very behavioral based, what a breath of fresh air.
I've got a lot of material on PWR's but not specific to Davis–Besse.

[Starkist]

I did a quick google search, try searching for "PWR reactor training materials", lots of applicable results come up.

Here's one I found that is pretty good. It has an accessible level of detail that pretty much explain the systems on the primary side pretty well.

http://mitnse.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/pwr_plant_04.pdf

Not as detail specific as an ACAD training course, but it should give you enough of an understanding to comfortably describe a PWR.

The secondary systems of a PWR are much different from a BWR, so you should go over that aspect of it as well.  


edit: applicable to davis besse, they have had a few... problems over the years. I'd recommend some research on those matters as well, namely the boric acid cracks.

[Roll Tide]

Go back to Lakeland, and explain the situation. They should be able to give you PWR materials from an associate plant.
(Chatt State could give reference materials related to TVA plant, and I expect it to be similar!)

[Mschriver]

I did a quick google search, try searching for "PWR reactor training materials", lots of applicable results come up.

Here's one I found that is pretty good. It has an accessible level of detail that pretty much explain the systems on the primary side pretty well.

http://mitnse.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/pwr_plant_04.pdf

Not as detail specific as an ACAD training course, but it should give you enough of an understanding to comfortably describe a PWR.

The secondary systems of a PWR are much different from a BWR, so you should go over that aspect of it as well.  


edit: applicable to davis besse, they have had a few... problems over the years. I'd recommend some research on those matters as well, namely the boric acid cracks.

Oh man, that's exactly what I was looking for! Thanks so much, I know what I'm doing the rest of the day haha! As far as the boric acid issues go I'm somewhat familiar with them, we did 2 case-studies on it. I recall discussing it before but i think it was more my 2 interviewers talking about it than them asking me about it.

[Mschriver]

Go back to Lakeland, and explain the situation. They should be able to give you PWR materials from an associate plant.
(Chatt State could give reference materials related to TVA plant, and I expect it to be similar!)

That's a good idea, I'll email a couple of my old professors and see what they have.

[mjd]

Here's a link to all the training info you will ever need for B&W PWR plants at this stage of your career: http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1122/ML11220A282.html. It also contains some good reading for any PWR operator. Good luck to you. Davis Besse and I grew up together, I was one of the original Shift Supervisors. Some of my history is here: http://www.nukeknews.com/index.html
mjd.

[Mschriver]

Here's a link to all the training info you will ever need for B&W PWR plants at this stage of your career: http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1122/ML11220A282.html. It also contains some good reading for any PWR operator. Good luck to you. Davis Besse and I grew up together, I was one of the original Shift Supervisors. Some of my history is here: http://www.nukeknews.com/index.html
mjd.

Thanks for those links, I'm gonna have a busy day for sure!

I actually read through all the pages on your site a couple days ago. As you can imagine it's been really pushed on us that Operator Error was the cause and what you had to say really blew my mind. I wish I'd have known about this a couple years ago, I did a presentation on TMI in school and it would have been awesome to have been able to include this info.

[Starkist]

Oh man, that's exactly what I was looking for! Thanks so much, I know what I'm doing the rest of the day haha! As far as the boric acid issues go I'm somewhat familiar with them, we did 2 case-studies on it. I recall discussing it before but i think it was more my 2 interviewers talking about it than them asking me about it.

No problem.  FWIW, although Im not working at a nuclear facility, I had my fair share of interviews at quite a few plants quasi recently at several different fleets. If you have any specific questions about some interviews that "didn't go well" or ones that went extremely well, feel free to PM me. I'm far from an expert here, but I'm pretty available until August.


Common aspects that were almost universal to all my interviews (and not just with nuclear plants either...)

- "tell me about yourself"
- "tell me something you accomplished that you were proud of"
- something with safety
- something with a workplace disagreement, either with a coworker or management type
- something with "overcoming adversity"
- DIVERSITY
- DIVERSITY
- DIVERSITY
- DIVERSITY.... (if you haven't guessed, think of a good answer for your definition of "diversity")
- something about why you are a good candidate for the position
- ubiquitous "give me strengths/weaknesses" 



The only places I recall getting technical questions on the interview was at Palisades (they legit had the most strange interview process I've encountered), and Crystal River, and it was stuff like pump curves, power triangle (yeah O.o), mechanical concepts, and simple system drawings and explanations. Nothing overly difficult or long that I can recall though...

Of course, YMMV, and I don't expect you to hold this list as "all encompassing", but definitely something to think about. 

[Mschriver]

Well my interview has come and gone. I think it went muuuuuch better this time around. I was interviewed by the same 2 people as before but I don't think they remembered me. Of course since I spent so much time getting the plant primary/secondary systems memorized to the point where I could explain them very well they didn't ask that question this time. They did ask what I knew about what the plant was doing and I answered that they just replaced the steam-gens as part of their license extension, that must have been what they wanted to hear because they went right into talking about all the other systems First Energy is upgrading there as well.

Most of the interview was behavior based, things I've done before in X situation, etc etc. They have a list of situations they ask if you're ok with, confined spaces and heights and things like that.

I've already taken and passed the MASS/POSS and NLO Math Exam, so hopefully now I just have to wait for the official job offer.

Thanks again for all your help 

[Starkist]

Congrats! Hopefully you made a better impression this go around.  Did they ask about diversity?