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 Normally I wait to do these until the outage season is over and I'm back home at a proper computer. But with the covid poo poo goin on, things are weird and I think there's some merit to having this thread now when everything is in full swing. The downside to this is it's a pain in the rear end to do images on my phone, so I prolly won't be posting any like I usually do. What the gently caress is this and why should I care?! I'm a nuclear contractor. In the spring and fall nuclear power plants shut down (because they don't wanna do it in summer and winter when it's peak A/C and heater season) to remove old fuel and put in new fuel. This is usually about a third of the fuel each outage, as they're called, which usually happens every 18 months. When this happens people like me are brought in to not only see to refueling but perform an absolutely amazing amount of work while the unit is shut down and containment is open. I like to do these threads periodically for a few reasons. For one, I love my job. I disassemble and reassemble nuclear reactors to open up the core and facilitate refueling. I get to see some pretty godamn cool poo poo with my own eyes (run a Google image search on Cherenkov radiation). Two, I believe that it's loving absurd that we still light poo poo on fire to keep the lights on instead of utilizing more nuclear power. I don't advocate for the industry just because it pays my bills, I work in the industry because I actually believe in it. Also it pays my bills. And three, I think that people should learn all they can about nuclear power so that they can form opinions without a lot of the garbage that's been deliberately spread over the past few decades. To be clear I'm not saying the industry is without its sins. But it's my opinion that a lot of nuclear fears are based on a lack of knowledge or an overabundance of bad information. Well what do you do exactly? I am a mechanic that primarily deals with reactor disassembly/reassembly, reactor coolant pump maintenance and repair, and a smidge of general valve work. I am a contractor. This means I am basically a temp worker and non-union (kinda hard to unionize when you travel everywhere since there isn't a local for that). Please let me state that guys like me are not scabs. No site keeps enough personnel on the payroll year-round to be able to handle outage work once or twice a year. This is why they bring in a thousand or more contractors during outages to handle it. Even the in-house union workers bear no ill will. We work under them and they know that outages can't get done without the help that we contractors provide. What's this about covid? Oh man poo poo's weird af with covid going on. You got dudes trying to maintain distance while doing jobs in close quarters. The pain in the rear end of trying to wear masks with other gear and blanket testing of critical personnel. On top of that crews are increasingly more segregated so the sites look like trailer parks lol. This is something that's changing as it goes on too so who fuckin knows in the end as we carry on. Cool, cool, well what the gently caress do you expect us to do here? I want goons to post about nuclear power. Feel free to ask me questions about what I do. Please keep in mind I'm not a highly educated scientist. I'm a wrench-turner that works on really big machines in radioactive and contaminated areas. That said, I've done a few of these threads now and every time several nuke goons have come out of the woodwork, including scientists, engineers, and even loving health physics nerds (  ). So if you do ask a question or want to discuss something I can't even pretend to touch with any credibility, that's okay. Worst that happens is I go IDK man, and maybe some more knowledgeable goon will wander in. I do want to say however that this thread is not for nuclear weapons chat. I understand that sometimes there is some overlap, but I don't want to derail over the big booms. This thread is for nuclear power, please keep that in mind. Have fun!
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Apr 26, 2020 01:16
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you would think you could just relax the standards about ambient radiation and it would take care of any covid particles floating around
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Apr 26, 2020 01:18
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Rutibex posted:you would think you could just relax the standards about ambient radiation and it would take care of any covid particles floating around Gotta remember we don't hang 24/7 in radioactive areas. Even in an RCA (radiologically controlled area) you can never be certain so everybody is still doing what they can to combat the spread.
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Apr 26, 2020 01:22
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did the guy in your av get bombarded with high levels of radiotons op?
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Apr 26, 2020 01:28
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Dick Bastardly posted:did the guy in your av get bombarded with high levels of radiotons op? Unfortunately getting radiation doesn't actually make you glow or give you some kind of color-change-o powers. Mostly you just get a letter in the mail from the companies you work for that tell you how much dose you got.
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Apr 26, 2020 01:29
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Honky Dong Country posted:Unfortunately getting radiation doesn't actually make you glow or give you some kind of color-change-o powers. Then what the hell is it good for?!
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Apr 26, 2020 01:30
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Who What Now posted:Then what the hell is it good for?! Making you good money working grueling hours doing a job that most people won't because they're afraid of radiation.
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Apr 26, 2020 01:31
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Honky Dong Country posted:Making you good money working grueling hours doing a job that most people won't because they're afraid of radiation. i lived on/in a
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Apr 26, 2020 01:33
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The average American gets ~600 mrem every year according to the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission). I generally get ~260 mrem on the job on top of that per year. Though one contract I did some hot rear end jobs and got about 600 mrem that year because of it.
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Apr 26, 2020 01:35
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The federal limit for occupational dose in the US is 5 rem (5000 mrem) whole body, but most companies limit that even further to 2 rem per year.
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Apr 26, 2020 01:37
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Can I have a job? I'm pretty handy, learn quickly, and despite my posting, am not a complete dumb rear end.
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Apr 26, 2020 02:08
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The_Continental posted:Can I have a job? I'm pretty handy, learn quickly, and despite my posting, am not a complete dumb rear end. There's no way I can directly help you without putting myself at some kind of risk since my connections are tied up with my family. But go here: https://www.roadtechs.com/ There's listings for nuclear work from various companies at various sites. plenty of people get in as laborers, fire watches, hatch watches, etc. There's also a ton of non-nuke work on there. But if you wanna do traveling heavy industrial contract work that's the place to go. I've only done nuke work, but during a nuke outage it's worth considering overtime when it comes to pay rates. During a nuke outage you do six 12-hr days with on day off each week. So 72 hrs a week, plus per diem. If it weren't for all that overtime I wouldn't do it at all. Honky Dong Country fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Apr 26, 2020 |
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Apr 26, 2020 02:14
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Thanks, this website is peak web 1.0. I'm in Australia so I'll see if there is any training/certification available around here.
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Apr 26, 2020 02:19
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Yeah it's a lovely built website. But it's the hub for powerplant traveling contactors, nuclear or otherwise. If you're willing to travel you can get a shitload of work on there. If you want nuke work look for Day & Zimmermann (commonly just called DZ), BHI, Crane, Westinghouse, Framatone, and TEAM. Day & Zimmermann is the worst nuke company but the easiest to get in with. And with covid going on everybody needs people. Honky Dong Country fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Apr 26, 2020 |
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Apr 26, 2020 02:21
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How's the pay? Do you have another job when you're not on contract?
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Apr 26, 2020 02:25
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What sort of jobs should I look for as pure entry level? Do you have a family or partner? How does your year look as far as work goes? Are you away from home for months at a time?
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Apr 26, 2020 02:26
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rem job
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Apr 26, 2020 02:29
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Someone mentioned about the different types of radiation and one was you could put in your pocket, one you could touch, one eat (joke?) etc. What's that all about
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Apr 26, 2020 02:32
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Honky Dong Country posted:Yeah it's a lovely built website. But it's the hub for powerplant traveling contactors, nuclear or otherwise. If you're willing to travel you can get a shitload of work on there. Why is DZ the worst company? Can you share interesting stories about that?
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Apr 26, 2020 02:33
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Milo and POTUS posted:Someone mentioned about the different types of radiation and one was you could put in your pocket, one you could touch, one eat (joke?) etc. What's that all about I learned this in Radworker 2 training but am stealing the answer from another forum https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=346295 "There is an old saw that goes: You have an alpha, beta, gamma, and neutron source. You have to eat one, hold one in your hand, put one in your pocket, and throw one away. What do you do? The answer is eat the gamma, because it doesn't make much difference if it is inside you or outside; hold the alpha, it will be mostly stopped by the skin; put the beta in your pocket, your clothes will shield it; and throw the neutron source away, neutrons are bad for you." I always follow these threads but I can't say too much because I have a clearance and work as a Union Ironworker doing construction at Y-12, that place is worth a read, but that's going into weapons territory. A lot of my coworkers have done a stint or 2 on the road chasing nuclear outages.
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Apr 26, 2020 03:21
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Arrhythmia posted:How's the pay? Do you have another job when you're not on contract? Depends on what company you contract under, what company they're contracting for, what you do, etc. The short answer is I work for DZ for a low paying power company. I make close to $25/hr. It's hazardous work and if it wasn't for the copious overtime I wouldn't do it for that rate. The_Continental posted:What sort of jobs should I look for as pure entry level? Do you have a family or partner? How does your year look as far as work goes? Are you away from home for months at a time? Entry level in the nuke world is firewatch, hatchwatch, laborer. The former two involve sitting there and watching a thing mostly pointlessly for hours at a time. Laborers are exactly what they sound like. Grunt muscle doing poo poo like emptying trash, cleaning, hauling water to water coolers, etc. All of them make less than me, but it isn't hard and again the overtime helps a lot. As for my year I have a hard time getting other companies to contract me and send me on the road. So I do 2-3 outages per season, so 4-6 per year. Plenty of other people do more and spend more time on the road. Non-nuke work is also steady outside of spring/fall. So if you can line up the contracts you can work a fuckload. But I generally spend about two months away from home each year (one of the plants I work is local to me). I'll respond to more posts after I eat.
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Apr 26, 2020 03:32
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Milo and POTUS posted:Someone mentioned about the different types of radiation and one was you could put in your pocket, one you could touch, one eat (joke?) etc. What's that all about Honestly I've never heard of this but it seems like QQQ above has what you are referring to. But I'm my line of work the one we worry about is gamma. Alpha is blocked by something as simple as your skin or even paper. It's only a concern if you get internally contaminated by an alpha emitter. Beta is somewhat similar but it can still be blocked by stuff like aluminum or some clothing. Again internal is the only concern. Gamma is only stopped by a buncha steel and concrete, lead, or a buncha water. Amazingly water is really good shielding. Gamma is the lion's share of the radiation I get. Neutron is real hard to shield against and is particularly dangerous because it can make other things radioactive. For instance, the lower internals of a reactor are real special high grade steel and isn't inherently radioactive. But it holds the fuel and after do much exposure to neutron it becomes insanely radioactive itself. Again I want to reiterate that I'm no nuclear scientist, but that's how I always understood it. Bronze Fonz posted:Why is DZ the worst company? DZ is the worst for several reasons. First and foremost is they pay less than everybody else. They also don't offer training that doesn't cost you money put of pocket. They're also famous got loving everybody they can. For instance, even without the covid poo poo, people heavily encouraged to stay home when they're sick. Trouble is DZ doesn't have sick time, and if you work less than 10-1/2 hrs of your 12 hr shift they take away your per diem for that day and well as the per diem for that week's day off. They also hosed hundreds of contractors out of their travel money one outage I was in because their badge transferred from one site to another. They said that badges transferred and said workers were already on the road so get hosed. At the time it was $300 in and out, so those that were screwed got robbed of $600. They also just recently gave a $3 raise to the full mechanics which was the first raise they'd given in 13 years. This also came with a policy change for travel money from flat amounts to mileage. This worked out well for full mechanics, but everybody else got nothing but a cut to their travel money. DZ loving sucks, but they're the easiest to get into a industry with.
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Apr 26, 2020 04:03
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think you can handle this fuel rod *unzips pants*
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Apr 26, 2020 04:09
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Mnoba posted:think you can handle this fuel rod Lol just one rod, that's cute. We do this poo poo by whole fuel assemblies.
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Apr 26, 2020 04:17
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Did you see the Chernobyl series from HBO? What was your take on it? Also along similar lines what is your take on the Three Mile Island nuclear accident?
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Apr 26, 2020 04:50
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Honneur et Patrie 
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If I inject cesium-137 directly into my bloodstream/lungs, will it have similar healing power against SARS-COV-2 compared to similar injection of lysol?quote:Can I have a job? I'm pretty handy, learn quickly, and despite my posting, am not a complete dumb rear end. Cheesemaster200 fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Apr 26, 2020 |
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Apr 26, 2020 04:53
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The French Army posted:Did you see the Chernobyl series from HBO? What was your take on it? Also along similar lines what is your take on the Three Mile Island nuclear accident? I haven't seen Chernobyl yet. My brother has it on DVD and I was gonna borrow it before all the covid poo poo started. Can't wait to see it. From what I've read of it though it seems like a solid miniseries. It's tv so obviously it doesn't get everything right but as far as I've read about it the series does a good job. But again, I haven't seen it yet, only read about it. As for TMI, there were absolutely some bad human errors with the way the ops goobers handled things. But once it was an actual accident they did the right thing by depressurizing primary loops and venting. While TMI was not a good thing, it did result in significant changes to nuclear regulation and procedure, and data since then had show statistically insignificant differences in rates of cancer and so on in the surrounding area. Unfortunately, like all nuclear accidents, it also had a huge impact on the growth of the industry or rather the modern lack thereof.
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Apr 26, 2020 05:05
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Honky Dong Country posted:As for TMI, there were absolutely some bad human errors with the way the ops goobers handled things. But once it was an actual accident they did the right thing by depressurizing primary loops and venting. While TMI was not a good thing, it did result in significant changes to nuclear regulation and procedure, and data since then had show statistically insignificant differences in rates of cancer and so on in the surrounding area. Unfortunately, like all nuclear accidents, it also had a huge impact on the growth of the industry or rather the modern lack thereof. This is cool insider information and as a local to the TMI plant I would like to know more. What did ops gently caress up? What are primary loops and venting? I have a general background understanding of these things but insight from an actual professional is always good. If it helps I remain, based on my limited knowledge of nuclear power, in strong favor of it.
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Apr 26, 2020 05:14
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Honky Dong Country posted:I haven't seen Chernobyl yet. My brother has it on DVD and I was gonna borrow it before all the covid poo poo started. Can't wait to see it. From what I've read of it though it seems like a solid miniseries. It's tv so obviously it doesn't get everything right but as far as I've read about it the series does a good job. But again, I haven't seen it yet, only read about it. I specifically remember a 100-page thread about this series and you were a main contribute to it.
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Apr 26, 2020 05:20
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Cheesemaster200 posted:
Just found out that Australia prohibits nuclear energy outright and therefore this is not a viable career path for me.
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Apr 26, 2020 05:24
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Honky Dong Country posted:I haven't seen Chernobyl yet. My brother has it on DVD and I was gonna borrow it before all the covid poo poo started. Can't wait to see it. From what I've read of it though it seems like a solid miniseries. It's tv so obviously it doesn't get everything right but as far as I've read about it the series does a good job. But again, I haven't seen it yet, only read about it. From my understanding, Chernobyl gets the science and facts of the explosion pretty accurate. But the medical side of things that deal with radiation poisoning, injuries, radiation burns, etc. it gets 1000% wrong.
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Apr 26, 2020 05:25
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The_Continental posted:Just found out that Australia prohibits nuclear energy outright and therefore this is not a viable career path for me. Well you guys got all that coal...
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Apr 26, 2020 05:29
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I'm over 3.6 Roentgens for this because the HBO Chernobyl thread ruled.
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Apr 26, 2020 05:50
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I’m here for the stories about farting in enclosed spaces. 3.6 burritos, not great, not terrible.
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Apr 26, 2020 06:37
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Cheesemaster200 posted:I specifically remember a 100-page thread about this series and you were a main contribute to it. Yes and I didn't speak much about the show because I hadn't seen it.
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Apr 26, 2020 08:50
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I work in the pipe trades in Canada, how hard would it be for me to get on nuclear plant shutdowns? For what its worth I am a UA union member.
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Apr 26, 2020 09:02
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The French Army posted:This is cool insider information and as a local to the TMI plant I would like to know more. What did ops gently caress up? What are primary loops and venting? I have a general background understanding of these things but insight from an actual professional is always good. If it helps I remain, based on my limited knowledge of nuclear power, in strong favor of it. Nah none of it's insider knowledge. I don't know anything that isn't publicly available. But to answer your question there were a lot of factors contributing to the accident: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident But one of the big factors is they shouldn't have had all their auxiliary pumps' valves closed with a running unit. There was also conflict between what data they were seeing and what faulty instruments were claiming that they didn't overcome as fast as they should have. The primary loops are the three loops of reactor coolant that directly touches the fuel. Initially loss of pressure was a problem, but once there was already a partial meltdown they made the right call to open up a relief valve and flood the whole thing with new water, gradually reducing temperature. The venting I'm referring to is they discovered a pocket of hydrogen in containment. Hydrogen build up can result in an explosion, potentially throwing poo poo all over the place. Part of what they did to handle that was vent directly to the atmosphere. This remains controversial, but I'm off the opinion that it was a good call and that what was released hasn't had a bad impact on the surrounding areas.
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Apr 26, 2020 09:05
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Enoch Root posted:I work in the pipe trades in Canada, how hard would it be for me to get on nuclear plant shutdowns? For what its worth I am a UA union member. Probably not hard. There's tons of pipefitters. Dunno how keen a company would be on paying massive travel costs though. All I can say is hit up that website I posted earlier, contact some of the listings and see what they say I guess.
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Apr 26, 2020 09:09
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Honky Dong Country posted:Probably not hard. There's tons of pipefitters. Dunno how keen a company would be on paying massive travel costs though. All I can say is hit up that website I posted earlier, contact some of the listings and see what they say I guess. Hahaha, I suppose I'm spoiled when it comes to travel costs, I live in Alberta and (obviously until a goddamn pandemic happened) local shutdowns WERE very generous with LOA and flights etc. I live in Calgary but a year ago I did a shutdown in Red Deer for five months with $120 tax free daily LOA on top of my regular wages which had a fuckton of OT to boot
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Apr 26, 2020 09:22
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goatsestretchgoals posted:I’m here for the stories about farting in enclosed spaces. 3.6 burritos, not great, not terrible. With all the distancing it's real hard to gas out a buncha people. Even the big important briefings are being done on zoom or whatever. 
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Apr 26, 2020 09:34
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