Word: higginbotham
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...automatic safety systems come quickly to the rescue. Control rods that had been pulled out earlier to bring the plant back on line are now reinserted. That "scrams," or shuts down, the reactor. Higginbotham and Helton move swiftly too, throwing switches, isolating complex plumbing and carefully monitoring critical meters as the emergency cooling system pours hundreds of gallons of cold water into the core. "Pressure's holding pretty good," says Higginbotham. Sighs Helton: "I think we're all right...
Many, like Higginbotham and Helton, have had more than five years' experience running gas, oil-or coal-fired power plants before completing the two years of training required of reactor operators. Now they are undergoing advanced training to become shift supervisors. All reactor operators must be high school graduates. Senior operators, who direct whole reactor crews, must be college graduates with degrees in engineering; many are also veterans of the Navy's nuclear training programs. All must pass NRC examinations before they can be licensed...
...typical day for Higginbotham and Helton begins with a lecture, then moves on to mathematical exercises-say, computing the rate at which heat will be produced by withdrawing control rods from the reactor's core. But the most important training is the "hands-on," or practical, instruction. The classroom is a gleaming, $3 million air-conditioned simulation of the control rooms in 42 G.E. reactors now in operation around the country. With one important difference: the training center's controls are connected to a computer, not a reactor. Jokes Instructor Jerry Maher: "We have everything but Jane Fonda...
Picking up from the previous day's noisy interruption, Higginbotham and Helton resume the tediously slow job of getting the reactor back into action. One by one they withdraw control rods, watching as the reactor temperature rises. The work must proceed with agonizing care, and the morning is nearly gone before Maher says, "O.K., guys, we're taking her up. Let's shift her onto line and make money." But Janacek stops to check his students' progress. "We've got damn good safety systems," he says. "But they're only as good...
...Higginbotham and Helton bring the situation under control before the lapse of that crucial minute. Then, as they would if such an accident had really happened, they begin cooling down the reactor for repairs and, momentarily at least, reflect on what might have been. Just before Janacek had pressed the button, the reactor was nearly up to full power. Now they must start all over...