Welcome to my new nuclear blog. I hope to show what it is like to work in such an interesting industry, as well as teach a few people some things about nuclear power and dispel the numerous myths that have emerged over the last 40 years.
My name is Doug De Vos. Some might have read my Cooking and Taxes blog, others may have not. I am a native Texan, currently living in a small Texas town near the coast where my wife grew up. This county possesses a 2-reactor nuclear power plant known as the South Texas Project Electric Generating Station, run by STP Nuclear Operating Company. A post with the history of this plant is forthcoming, so have no fear.
My wife has been an employee of STPNOC for a year and a half as an Apprentice Instrumentations and Controls Technician, having worked an internship previously, as well as two outages (a term to be explained) with the company for which I now work.
To give a very brief introduction to how my employment started and how it works at a nuclear power plant, I'll start by saying that after Jessie worked one outage, we decided it would be better to get married and live near STPEGS. In December 2009, we moved to a 2-bedroom apartment here in Bay City and prepared to work the upcoming outage.
An outage (also known as a shutdown) is any time one of the units at STP shuts down and no longer is producing power. These can be scheduled refuel outages or forced outages due to necessary repairs or accidents. Refuel outages occur (at STP) every 18 months for each unit. This creates a 3 year turnaround cycle for scheduled outages.
Jessie had worked the Unit 1 Reactor Vessel Head Replacement Outage in the fall of 2009 and we moved shortly after. The Unit 2 RVHRO was the following spring and she was returning with the company she had worked with, Bartlett Nuclear, Inc. I needed a job as well, so I applied with the housekeeping/firewatch company, GCA Services.
To make a long story short, I worked the 2-month outage doing decontamination mopping inside of containment, then worked for 2 more months as a sort of mid-range supervisor before leaving for medical problems.
If you have read my mentioned blog, I then worked a season as a tax professional and missed an outage, bringing us to the refuel outage of Unit 2 in October 2011.
My name is Doug De Vos. Some might have read my Cooking and Taxes blog, others may have not. I am a native Texan, currently living in a small Texas town near the coast where my wife grew up. This county possesses a 2-reactor nuclear power plant known as the South Texas Project Electric Generating Station, run by STP Nuclear Operating Company. A post with the history of this plant is forthcoming, so have no fear.
My wife has been an employee of STPNOC for a year and a half as an Apprentice Instrumentations and Controls Technician, having worked an internship previously, as well as two outages (a term to be explained) with the company for which I now work.
To give a very brief introduction to how my employment started and how it works at a nuclear power plant, I'll start by saying that after Jessie worked one outage, we decided it would be better to get married and live near STPEGS. In December 2009, we moved to a 2-bedroom apartment here in Bay City and prepared to work the upcoming outage.
An outage (also known as a shutdown) is any time one of the units at STP shuts down and no longer is producing power. These can be scheduled refuel outages or forced outages due to necessary repairs or accidents. Refuel outages occur (at STP) every 18 months for each unit. This creates a 3 year turnaround cycle for scheduled outages.
Jessie had worked the Unit 1 Reactor Vessel Head Replacement Outage in the fall of 2009 and we moved shortly after. The Unit 2 RVHRO was the following spring and she was returning with the company she had worked with, Bartlett Nuclear, Inc. I needed a job as well, so I applied with the housekeeping/firewatch company, GCA Services.
To make a long story short, I worked the 2-month outage doing decontamination mopping inside of containment, then worked for 2 more months as a sort of mid-range supervisor before leaving for medical problems.
If you have read my mentioned blog, I then worked a season as a tax professional and missed an outage, bringing us to the refuel outage of Unit 2 in October 2011.
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