Past History

Now thats funny!!

Some amazing pics, I can't imagine what it would be like to work in that environment.

Most of the time Nuts.

Was a LOT to do for roving Operators as I. Workman's Protection(Tagout Lockout) was a primary, making rounds when not in a refuel another. Trying to catch the breakdowns before they got out of hand.
This was in the Turbine building, steam and feedwater systems one full level below the turbine which was 60 feet above grade.
Handwheels I was usually winging on. Last photo our Lube Oil Tank room for the turbine bearings, upright heat exchangers to cool the oil to a nominal level. and yes that is a accurate temp reading.

Steam was condensed to water under a vacuum. three pumps fed the condensate to the Heat exchangers in the first photo(Horizontal) at 620psig in the throat of the condenser, where it was brought from 125+/- degrees to 320 degrees, then on to turbine driven Feed Pumps that jumped that to 1180psig to then go to the High Pressure Feedwater heaters that brought it up to 510 degrees third photo then on into the reactor building to make steam again.

Typical floor temp on the 32' level

This was the ladder to access the Turbine hall cranes, had more than one guy could NOT do it. Catwalk up there was grating floor.

DMiller said:

Some days I miss the work I performed, the noises, smells, the machine alive. Other days I peer into my archived photos and remember the heat, the cold, the workload, the messes and outages where could not BEG me back in there.
Being in the 'Can' during outage time when work was happening was different, being basically locked inside a concrete cocoon with no facilities for hours on end and trying NOT to get contaminacrappedup with radiologic hot material was difficult. We would have to climb fixed supports in some spots to hang Workman's Protection, isolate some systems, return systems to service, just a major pain wearing protective clothing. Any and everything we worked around in the Reactor and Auxiliary buildings had hot particles, radioactive corrosion sediments, always a test of patience as to getting a job done and not spreading the crap all over. Had a couple bad spots, one we called the Bowling alley, reach rod operated actuators for radiation levels that we had to enter on occasion, had to climb thru over and around to get to flanged drain points to remove the flanges and install drain rigs, always leaked by always nasty and always heat hot as was for a heat exchanger system. Sweat like on fire, double gloves double boot covers, double PCs and sometimes plastic over clothing over that all in 98-120 degree heat and confined area. Radiation Protection(RP) Personnel would be steady yelling to get done and get out.

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I have read this post several times, trying to come up with a response that would convey what I was feeling.

I have never shied away from work, tough jobs, nasty jobs. I kind of liked them. Used to get asked if I wanted to do them.

But after reading some of your posts I am humbled.
Not sure if I could have done what you did.
You Sir, have my respect.

If you ever get to my part of the world I would love to buy you a beer or two. I'm sure we could spend a few hours swapping stories.

I enjoyed work, tried to get to understand the mechanisms better for the last job. Biggest complaint, training(Sucks) every sixth week was a Training requal cycle. The training to learn to be a plant operator was 18 months with seven qualification 'cards' actual booklets of functions to perform and repeat in a quality/qualified manner. Six watch stations, Outside(everything and building outside the Owner controlled zone, River intake, Water treatment, switchyard and outer buildings, cooling tower and pumps. Insides, all the buildings and systems inside the Owner controlled area protective fenced region, Fire Protection, Large Transformers, yard loop switching, Demin system and waste water disposal, plant tanks and storage, main offices and emergency cooling tower/pumps equipment.
Secondary, basically ALL of the Turbine Hall systems. the two Colt Pielstick standby Emergency 6.5mw Generators and roof mounted equipment on the structure, took two months to fill out that 200 page 'Card'. Primary, which incorporated all the radiologic buildings and sub systems, emergency pumps, valves, emergency response equipment and processes and the Can. Radwaste, where we cleaned any effluent water and collected the Rad Trash for disposal, amazing in that filters we changed here reminded me so much of the old Diesel Centrifuge filters I dealt with as a mechanic, then Polishers, large tank demineralizers for the Condensate system to keep it clean, regenerated the six vessels one at a time with 2400Cu Ft of Resin(big water softeners) each then Fuel Handling, they got rather Testy that you performed to within an inth degree of perfection to NOT mangle a $700,000 fuel assembly, and do that 90+ times!! EVERY receipt of fuel.

Had a number of guys oblivious to what they were walking around. Steam or high pressure/temp water in a pipe roaring next to you at anywhere from 130 to 560 degrees and from 150 to 1100 lbs pressure. Lost a pipe to Flow Accelerated Corrosion(FAC) at power, was there the day it occurred and got to put on a Steam Suit with a SCBA to walk the turbine building and check for any victims. Plant tripped as was unisolable with most of the building a massive internal steam cloud. 8" schedule 80 45 degree elbow basically scrubbed with small droplets of water and transferred metal particles to paper thin less than 15 years in service. Pipe fish mouth blew out sent the solid end twisting and bent a 20" tall I-beam almost 10" offline, only had 140 lb steam load in it, got LOTS of people's attention in the industry. That was in 2001. Spent 22 years in the plant, respected the machine as no time for fear, did my job best I could.

Hahaha.
Yes, many a day I slapped some old piece of logging equipment together with the famous "good enough", unusually trying to get it to run for another day or two until the parts came in.

I can just imagine how well that would go over in your environment.

That is one of the things that I like about rebuilding equipment, you go a chance to make it right again.
Some days bolting a bunch of new parts onto something just felt good!

I like retirement even more.

DMiller said:

We (myself a Reactor operator and a Fuel engineer) worked up the Radiation levels on a fuel assembly been thru 18 month cycle. Figured as a estimate of 16 to the 14 power Rads, not roentgen not REM but Rads of radiation. Enough to stand a used assembly in the center of One acre, you could start at a corner and be dead at a dead run before you got within 20 feet of it, could not ever manage to touch the used assembly. Was enough in the pool when they mapped the assembly numbers and verified them with stick held cameras at one foot above the assemblies the cameras would burn out in around 75 minutes.

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This reminds me of all the reading I've done on the mess at fukishima and still in chernobyl. The "storage" site for nuke material that we've built in the desert that is meant to store stuff for thousands of years, and its failing already. Sometimes I think we may be messing with things that are beyond are capacity to understand the long term dangers of. "Oh its only deadly for the next 3,000 years". Like we are capable of protecting something that's deadly for that amount of time.

I went within sight distance of calloway over the weekend again and thought of these pictures. I really enjoyed the "blue" ones of the reactor. A different world for sure.

Very interesting stuff DMiller. Thanks for starting the tread. You definitely have my respect.

I was totally creeped out the first time I walked by a load of nuclear bombs waiting to go onto an alert BUFF. Not even remotely like what you’re describing, though.

The deep storage site in Nevada has never been used. Billions of bucks sunk into that place and a nimby congressman shut it down. The state got all the build money and jobs and such and then said not here. They are burying tons of hot material along the Columbia river with even more there seeping into the ground water. It's not much of a good deal.

Most of the sites at Hanford are lined, should not be seeing migration of materials beyond that which already has. Nuke I worked at is going to Dry Cask Storage as are 99% of the older US Nukes, Boron SS racks in Stainless bottle with Helium over cover gas, lid welded on inside a another SS Bottle all welded shut then slipped into a steel shell buried in Flowable Fill(Cement Coal Fly Ash and sand) in a yard region where can radiate heat thru a set of vents. So far is exceeding all expectations/estimations as to decay of heat load and radiation levels declining. Are in the same system containers the Yucca Mountain system would have been using where as such should they ever finally determine a single site to store they can rail ship these.

This is a Public Release on that, has photos.
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/pos...shift-some-waste-dry-storage-not-all#stream/0

I was talking about the leak in carlsbad where they are storing nuc. waste and had a accident a few years ago. Just a couple billion in clean up costs. I think the gov't would like it to be pretty low profile so it doesn't get shut down.

https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-new-mexico-nuclear-dump-20160819-snap-story.html


They swapped the kitty litter they were using for storage, then a chemical reaction, then boom, and 35% of the storage site is contaminated.

Makes me real confident in our ability to store it for thousands of years.

The leaks at Hanford are really well documented and what is being built now has little relation to the sins of the past. Until the problem of nuclear waste is solved to the public's satisfaction, nuclear power will not become a dominant source of energy for the United States.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emergency-reported-hanford-nuclear-site-washington/
https://www.rt.com/usa/340234-hanford-nuclear-waste-leak-washington/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/welcome-most-toxic-place-america-n689141
https://www.king5.com/article/news/...y-signs-of-another-leaking-tank/281-441263419

Here are a couple of articles on the Hanford workers who claim to have been sickened by contamination at the site. Whether they were harmed or not, the response from the Feds and the private contractors is a shame. It's morally wrong and most would consider it criminal in intent if not at least in actual practice.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/...suit/281-ac048fb8-da99-4359-9dcf-ddf74c3c0bb8

https://www.sharpelawfirm.org/know-...ion-about-the-new-li-law-for-hanford-workers/

Ugly part on Carlsbad was not that the Nuke residues caused the problem but organics some Dope mixed into it and the ensuing Chemical reaction generating Methane that popped and blew the nasty crap all over. Barnwell at Savannah River NC was dump site low level Rad waste for a time but is full up so are only allowing SR Site materials as adds now. They used to incinerate all the combustible exhausted thru a control filter and then buried the resultant ash residues but was time and fuel consuming as well a Tree Hugger heaven to protest of release to atmosphere even though had not. All then was buried trench fashion and left to rot in soil.

One of the guys I worked with got into a Airborne contaminate area where received a Uptake, either breathed in or swallowed and had a High count on attempt to leave the site. They handed him a stack of paper plates and baggies, ALL solid effluents had to COME Back to the site for count until whatever it was passed, took four days.

As to contaminates. If have ever had a Upper or Lower GI with Contrast you got more Radiation dose than I was allowed in a Year over the course of hours. Barium and a few other Contrast agents are hot enough to set off the detectors at Nuke sites at significant distances, how do I know, had a MRI with contrast, was Not allowed into the site sensitive areas until that decayed off. My body was actually emitting radiation that could set off safety features for High Dose rates in plant and I was not allowed around anyone wearing radiation monitoring dosimetry for an additional week beyond that. So much of our 'Radioactive' materials were known as Fission Product decay components but were releasing less than the gravel in the plant yards(Rad Techs actually measure all that) Background radiation in some occupations was higher than I was allowed for daily dose and ALL natural. Quarries are the worst.

I understand all that you said about contaminants and dosage and what is permissible, harmful and fatal. The problem is that in nuclear power everything has to be perfect or there are catastrophic consequences. No individual human is perfect. No human population is perfect and no made made procedure is foolproof over time. It will all fail over time and someone will have to deal with it. I can deal with naturally occurring forms of radiation as a part of life. So far it is being proven that large populations of people will not stand for man made forms of radiation being leaked into the atmosphere, land, surface water or ground water because the nuclear industry can't fully control its people, procedures and machinery. The perfect analogy might be the Boeing aircraft that have fallen out of the sky.

I hear ya. Just so much is attributed to Nukes when is natural was my point. At Hanford there was no clue as to max dose in the day or what constituted contamination or how far it could spread in short time and that just open burial or conventional concrete tanks were so insufficient. We think harder now but at times are our own worst over thinking enemy. Chernobyl should not have happened, Fukushima design should not have been allowed to be constructed but again those done in the day when less was known as is seen now. We in the Nuke industry have been making up for shortfalls for forever, TMI ended up retraining an entre industry on operational tactics applied with a HARD Knee Jerk to their groin but where we have managed to clean up the newer we are still attending the early days. My first Refueling Outage, 65 days long, got over a Rem of dose in two weeks, was short term banished from the Can then Omni/Domni right back in when needed. 10 refuels later I did not receive 150 Millirem or just at 15% of my first event and was in the can most of the event doing similar to more extensive work. Hanford will not clean up in the next twenty years, is cleaning up but the mess got spread like butter on toast. Some remediations work was less than sufficient or adequate but even that is adjusting. I dare say the remaining US nukes will likely be gone in fifteen years or at least in some form of SafStor as they get mothballed. I do not believe I will see any resurgence in US nuclear Power Stations before I pass.

Spoke to one of my Enga buddies from the plant, he stated Yucca Mtn site may be BACK on now that Reid is long OUT, his replacement Ms. Rosen has taken up the quest but the fight may be moot. The NV site is notoriously extremely Dry, deep in the shafts they did find stress faults where water at some distant point of the past flowed but had not for centuries. Engineering and environmental reports are contrary to what has been reported of the site specifics for Ground Water, potentials for intrusion or migration. The Native Americans of that area consider the region as 'Sacred' ground but tend Not to go there as so uninviting and much is fenced off. IF the site is resumed and they do begin inputs would be a very long time before received much material as the roads and rails would need be revised and updated to get it there, also still no support equipment staged or designed or established as to construct so likely again not until long after we are gone will it arise. Current iterations avoid the known fault areas and are mapping strategic zones for storage, even as spent fuel would be stored there is so little fissionable materials in those assemblies in any aligned pattern there is no chance of a incidental Reactive result. Is also ongoing talks of a potential Reconstitution lab to be built and recover what is recoverable to reduce the High level waste. That also would be decades out.