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fleet to provide support for continuity. I
usually assist one other Exelon nuclear
plant outage each year in the mid Atlantic
area as the night site manager. My work
controls superintendent also assumes the
role of night supervisor at another Exelon
location. In turn, other team leads come to
Limerick to assist us during our outage.
4. Probabilistic Risk Assessment has
sometimes shown that the possibility of
core melt is higher during the refueling
outage than during the plant normal
operation. How does Shaw reduce this
vulnerability?
Church: While much of our work
does not involve core activity, we
engage operations whenever it does. We
have specific tasks and operational risk
assessment (ORA) activities, usually
related to building scaffolds around
sensitive pieces of equipment. Our
tasks are set prior to starting a job and
we include additional oversight using
craft workers and spotters to make sure
we have positive or total control of all
equipment.
5. How does Shaw ensure safety of
the plants during refueling outage
considering Three Mile Island and
Chernobyl experiences?
Church: We always focus on
keeping our people safe which keeps the
plant safe. We use all the tools we have
available to us, including procedures
and work orders. We bring everyone
together before each shift to talk, stretch
and review safety information. Everyone
participates in pre-job briefs and reviews
and records job hazards as a team. We
empower every employee with the ability
to stop a work process if they have safety
concerns, to verify or check the work so
no one proceeds with uncertainty.
We also work with our supervisors to
make sure they understand the Stop, Think,
Act, Review (STAR) human performance
process. Supervisors participate in oral
board challenges and meet one-on-one
with managers to review expectations. We
provide continuous supervisor training.
Other plants and companies may have
different priorities and we want to make
sure everyone has the same information
about Shaw and Exelon expectations.
We spend a lot of time teaching about
radiation dose allocations and the reason
doses are different, depending on what
jobs are scheduled and where they are
located. We have rewards and incentive
for employees who successfully complete
their work with radiation doses lower than
the expected dose for that area.
Our safety observation program is
set up to be tailored to three phases of
the outage. The three phases are: (1) the
initial phase, when workers are new to
the site and possibly to the industry; (2)
the intermediate phase, when workers
become familiar to the job and systems
open for work; and (3) the final phase,
when workers are nearing the end of the
job. We adjust our safety observations to
add safeguards and address situational
issues that may arise during each phase
of outage work.
6. How does Shaw handle the challenge
of organizing a refueling outage without
lost time or work confl ict?
Church: Our outage performance
is disciplined. We organize multiple
outages twice every year, working with
a total of 36 reactors. We have a lot of
experience and solid relationships with
craft unions, plus we maintain a bench of
field non-manual employees who focus
on supporting outage operations.
Identifying and staffing field nonmanual
positions early are key elements
of successful performance. We bring in
leaders first to set up the plan for all craft
hires. The subject matter experts then lay
out the processes for their discipline. We
ramp up scaffold builders first and fast
since that is the first piece of work that
tends to take place during an outage.
We get a lot of returning craft as well
as new employees, and we blend teams
to balance work experience. We have
good quality people who we can transfer
from one outage to the next. Some craft
workers may work several outages a year,
depending on schedules.
Another important element is to
always review work coming up, not just
the work performed during the current
outage. We keep some staff for online
work that roll right into the next outage,
which increases their knowledge and
familiarization with plant procedures and
processes.
Contact: Gentry Brann, The Shaw
Group, Inc, 4171 Essen Lane, Baton
Rouge, LA 70809; telephone: (225) 987-
7372, fax: (225) 213-1331, email: gentry.
brann@shawgrp.com.
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