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Re: The New Energy Economy
I've only worked a single project at a nuclear power plant, I don't live in that world. But I was pretty impressed with that one glimpse into the industry. Those people were sharp and thorough, as by-the-book as I've ever seen.
I watched the Chief Nuclear Officer run a big planning meeting for a plant outage we were involved in, with 80 engineers in the room.
She was smart as hell, hard as steel, and deeply concerned about safety.
A senior engineer from Westinghouse stood up and talked about a certain large portable water pump that might be used during refueling.
He spoke for ten minutes about the pump, how Westinghouse had put a team of a dozen engineers on a study to prove it wasn't really required but they would have it on site just in case, belt-and-suspenders.
When he finished she looked at him and spoke.
"You need to understand something", she said, not smiling.
"This is an active nuclear core in a reactor. Just because we've moved it into the spent fuel pool nothing has changed. In my mind it's still an active nuclear core."
"I don't want to hear one more word from Westinghouse about how that pump is not required. It IS required."
"At the next review you'll tell us how Westinghouse has tested and certified that pump, how it will be on site in good order with spare parts on hand"
You could have heard a pin drop.
The guy finally came to his senses and said "yes ma'am" and went back to his chair.
I've only worked a single project at a nuclear power plant, I don't live in that world. But I was pretty impressed with that one glimpse into the industry. Those people were sharp and thorough, as by-the-book as I've ever seen.
I watched the Chief Nuclear Officer run a big planning meeting for a plant outage we were involved in, with 80 engineers in the room.
She was smart as hell, hard as steel, and deeply concerned about safety.
A senior engineer from Westinghouse stood up and talked about a certain large portable water pump that might be used during refueling.
He spoke for ten minutes about the pump, how Westinghouse had put a team of a dozen engineers on a study to prove it wasn't really required but they would have it on site just in case, belt-and-suspenders.
When he finished she looked at him and spoke.
"You need to understand something", she said, not smiling.
"This is an active nuclear core in a reactor. Just because we've moved it into the spent fuel pool nothing has changed. In my mind it's still an active nuclear core."
"I don't want to hear one more word from Westinghouse about how that pump is not required. It IS required."
"At the next review you'll tell us how Westinghouse has tested and certified that pump, how it will be on site in good order with spare parts on hand"
You could have heard a pin drop.
The guy finally came to his senses and said "yes ma'am" and went back to his chair.
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