- Joined
- Sep 19, 2004
- Messages
- 2,547
I believe that this falls into the "lessons learned" if not the truth is stranger than fiction category.... (or at least it seems funny to me after working so many hours I can''t keep track anymore).
The plant is in a refueling outage - which typically means about 78 hour work weeks for me - and long weeks in the prior month (for those wondering where I have been).
To help with the outage, about 500 contractors are typically brought in to assist with various repairs and projects. These tend to be high paying jobs... but there are some rules (and I run two different contractors in two different areas during the outages).
Key among them are (as I work in a nuclear power plant):
1) You have to pass a very intensive security screening, and live with a level of security that puts most military bases to shame.
2) You have to spend most of a week in training on how we do things here - and about how to recognize and protect yourself from certain hazards (actually, it is very hard to get exposed to those hazards in the first place as access to such hazards are very stringently controlled).
3) You need to have some common sense - and if ever in doubt or unsure. STOP and get others to look at the situation or what you were going to do (Stop when unsure - even if it is only a feeling that something is not right).
Because of those key rules nuclear power plants are actually the safest places in most of the world to work from both an industrial safety standpoint - and from a worker problem standpoint.
What you don''t do was demonstrated today by one 23 year old reporting to work at our plant as part of his new job. His company flew him to Milwaukee and paid for a rental car and hotel for him to work here this outage.
So he pulls into a local gas station for fuel, ask directions to the plant; and then comments (as the clerk heard it) "good, now I can blow it up" (or something to that effect). The clerk tries joking with them - and doesn''t like their demeanor (i.e... it doesn''t sound like a joke). The clerk knows many people who work at the nuke plants (there are two in the area).
At the plant a short time later, a plant wide security alert and unusual event is declared (credible security threat... as the local cops have now reviewed the video from the gas station and it has all the key elements - including car license plates). All outage work is stopped. Everyone except key operations and security personnel are evacuated from the protected area of the plant, and the site boundary is locked down (all people not in the protected area are directed to one location on the site, and all other buildings are swept by security to verify that all people are at one spot. Emergency response organizations are manned.
They find the car and the person quickly. The site remains locked down for 3 more hours while they interview to determine that there is not additional people involved and search the car.
In the end; the person claims that what they really said was that they hoped that "they" (someone) didn''t blow up the plant... as it was going to be his first day here (start of the badging/training process) and start of his new job.
No charges will be filed, and said person has been released.
So did the clerk mishear them, or were they just being a smartalec with their comment and quickly found themselves in over their head and changed their story because of how serious the threat was taken (especially when more heavily armed security people than you imagined existed at any one place pick you out of a lineup and arrest you (Key members of the plant security forces have arrest authority).
That clerk deals with hundreds of permanent staff and contractors working at the plant every day - and has for 10 years. Somehow I trust the clerk.
Whatever, there is zero chance of this person being allowed to work at a nuclear site - ever - after that.... I am sure that they will be on a plane tomorrow home - if not tonight.
What a way to blow your new job...
Thank you store clerk.
Anyway, back to work - and about another 2.5 to 3 long weeks of work for me.
Also, while I have no control over it... I do hope that the gas station clerk finds a thousand dollar or so bonus in their hands soon. We need to reward doing the right thing.
Perry
The plant is in a refueling outage - which typically means about 78 hour work weeks for me - and long weeks in the prior month (for those wondering where I have been).
To help with the outage, about 500 contractors are typically brought in to assist with various repairs and projects. These tend to be high paying jobs... but there are some rules (and I run two different contractors in two different areas during the outages).
Key among them are (as I work in a nuclear power plant):
1) You have to pass a very intensive security screening, and live with a level of security that puts most military bases to shame.
2) You have to spend most of a week in training on how we do things here - and about how to recognize and protect yourself from certain hazards (actually, it is very hard to get exposed to those hazards in the first place as access to such hazards are very stringently controlled).
3) You need to have some common sense - and if ever in doubt or unsure. STOP and get others to look at the situation or what you were going to do (Stop when unsure - even if it is only a feeling that something is not right).
Because of those key rules nuclear power plants are actually the safest places in most of the world to work from both an industrial safety standpoint - and from a worker problem standpoint.
What you don''t do was demonstrated today by one 23 year old reporting to work at our plant as part of his new job. His company flew him to Milwaukee and paid for a rental car and hotel for him to work here this outage.
So he pulls into a local gas station for fuel, ask directions to the plant; and then comments (as the clerk heard it) "good, now I can blow it up" (or something to that effect). The clerk tries joking with them - and doesn''t like their demeanor (i.e... it doesn''t sound like a joke). The clerk knows many people who work at the nuke plants (there are two in the area).
At the plant a short time later, a plant wide security alert and unusual event is declared (credible security threat... as the local cops have now reviewed the video from the gas station and it has all the key elements - including car license plates). All outage work is stopped. Everyone except key operations and security personnel are evacuated from the protected area of the plant, and the site boundary is locked down (all people not in the protected area are directed to one location on the site, and all other buildings are swept by security to verify that all people are at one spot. Emergency response organizations are manned.
They find the car and the person quickly. The site remains locked down for 3 more hours while they interview to determine that there is not additional people involved and search the car.
In the end; the person claims that what they really said was that they hoped that "they" (someone) didn''t blow up the plant... as it was going to be his first day here (start of the badging/training process) and start of his new job.
No charges will be filed, and said person has been released.
So did the clerk mishear them, or were they just being a smartalec with their comment and quickly found themselves in over their head and changed their story because of how serious the threat was taken (especially when more heavily armed security people than you imagined existed at any one place pick you out of a lineup and arrest you (Key members of the plant security forces have arrest authority).
That clerk deals with hundreds of permanent staff and contractors working at the plant every day - and has for 10 years. Somehow I trust the clerk.
Whatever, there is zero chance of this person being allowed to work at a nuclear site - ever - after that.... I am sure that they will be on a plane tomorrow home - if not tonight.
What a way to blow your new job...
Thank you store clerk.
Anyway, back to work - and about another 2.5 to 3 long weeks of work for me.
Also, while I have no control over it... I do hope that the gas station clerk finds a thousand dollar or so bonus in their hands soon. We need to reward doing the right thing.
Perry
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