VY continued to be plagued by personnel issues

Subtle Clues (4.00 / 3)

Living in Essex, I know that there is a high degree of interest in keeping VY on-line in the future because of the electricity appetite of IBM -- obviously not an insignificant issue.  Yet, the on-going saga of Vermont Yankee troubles me greatly.

In their book Managing the Unexpected, Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe of the University of Michigan studied the performance of what they called HROs or highly reliable organizations.  They used emergency rooms in hospitals, flight decks of aircraft carriers and firefighting units as examples of models to follow.  One central tenet of their thesis: the ability of complex organizations to detect subtle clues indicating that something is awry.

They used the Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Ohio as an example of where the failure to detect subtle clues nearly resulted in a potentially catastrophic reactor accident.  Surely, Vermont Yankee has provided enough more-than-subtle clues that this is a troubled operation.  I am sure VY's flacks and apologists would argue, "Yes, but, we have continued to avoid a major adverse accident."  Even that, though, can provide little justification for confidence that VY will continue to dodge the disaster bullet.  Another study of failure avoidance points to the "arrogrance of optimism":  Namely, we have been operating successfully for so long without an accident, we can fully expect this continue.  Of course, the space shuttle disasters illustrate the folly of such an argument.

When the UMICH business profs used firefighters, emergency rooms and aircraft carriers as examples of HROs, we should keep in mind that failure in those settings would have consequences limited only to an individual or a few individuals.  Failure in a nuclear power plant that seems to exhibit qualities of a not-so-reliable organization would have profound implications affecting potentially thousands of individuals or more.  VY's steady drip, drip, drip of problems is undeniable. To pooh-pooh this pattern is playing dice with the future of a good part of New England.  

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by: Bruce Post @ Tue Sep 01, 2009 at 08:10:44 AM CDT

excellent detail and analogy (0.00 / 0)

As a paralegal, I am currently working on Public Service Board cases in five other states regarding aging management issues similar to VY's, lack of decommissioning funding, and/or the astronomical financial and environmental cost of new nukes.  

In one case regarding the Beaver Valley Nuclear Plant in PA, a plant that has also applied for license extension, a hole right through to the outside was discovered in the containment liner.  In its risk analysis, the NRC assumes that containment holes like this cannot occur.  

I have posted some of the expert witness testimony on our Fairewinds Associates, Inc website.  

Thank you for your excellent insight.

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by: Maggie Gundersen @ Wed Sep 02, 2009 at 14:14:52 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

drip, drip, drip .... (0.00 / 0)

really well said, Mr. Post!

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by: Schrodinger's Cat @ Tue Sep 01, 2009 at 14:19:30 PM CDT

Disturbing Details (4.00 / 1)

Apparently at Vermont Yankee you can show up to work drunk and not get fired.

The employee must also go through a mandated employee-assistance program and, depending on the results of that program, the employee could be back on the job in two weeks, Smith said.

It was the employee's first offense, Smith said. Smith said he didn't know how long the employee had worked at Vermont Yankee.

The maintenance supervisor is one of about a dozen supervisors in the 100-person maintenance department, which is in charge of keeping the Vernon reactor in top operating condition.

snip

Monday's suspension is the third known incident in the past two years where an Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee employee tested positive for banned substances.

The two other incidents involved a control room operator who tested positive for THC, the active drug ingredient in marijuana. The control room operator said he had unknowingly eaten pot-laced brownies at a holiday party. His test showed up in a random sample.

The second incident involved the employee, an administrative assistant in charge of conducting the employee tests for the fitness-for-duty program. That employee also tested positive for alcohol, exceeding the 0.04 limit, and was also banned from the plant for two weeks as well as ordered to undergo counseling.

-Susan Smallheer, Rutland Herald
It seems that a VY you can get caught drunk at work even if your entire job is to enforce rules like 'no being drunk at work'.. and keep your job.

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by: Ivan Jacobs @ Wed Sep 02, 2009 at 11:17:16 AM CDT

amazing (0.00 / 0)

Thank you Ivan.  Susan Smallheer really does a thorough job on all nuclear stories.  She has been at this a long time and really understands the technology and nuances in regulations.

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by: Maggie Gundersen @ Wed Sep 02, 2009 at 14:18:04 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

definitely responsible journalism. (0.00 / 0)

Thanks for mentioning the top-notch reporting in this story. Ms. Smallheer is definitely a pro.

Aside from her solid comprehension and thoroughness she also takes care to put the issues she's reporting on in the proper context for readers who may not remember every story... In this article she mentions that the offending supervisor works in maintenance and there have been a lot of maintenance failures. This is important and she's been very consistent about it.

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by: Ivan Jacobs @ Wed Sep 02, 2009 at 23:38:27 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Miller time? (4.00 / 3)

I looked at the incident report and the time stamp was 9:44 AM. AM? This guy had beer on his Wheaties, or what?

Ok, just one opinion, but I'd think that someone who gets a snootful in the morning before work has a problem that cannot be solved with a couple of weeks of "employee assistance."

Which brings to mind the thought that someone who gets nabbed in a random check for alcohol in the forenoon has perhaps been operating at unauthorized altitude for some time now. Without being noticed. Or, worse, noticed but ignored.

There's a basic principle of Human Resources and being a bouncer in a bar. Success is not measured by how many yahoos you throw out, but how many you prevent from coming in. Seems like VY HR is failing on that one.

Minor Heretic
"Damned for 25% of eternity"

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by: Minor Heretic @ Wed Sep 02, 2009 at 20:52:21 PM CDT

Exactly right (4.00 / 2)

I suspect being under the influence at work is a lot like driving under the influence: unless they check everybody your chances of getting caught are almost nil, which means that your chances of getting caught on your first time is a tiny fraction of almost nil.

If you're under the influence at work, in the morning, you're an alcoholic.

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by: Jack McCullough @ Wed Sep 02, 2009 at 22:13:57 PM CDT

[ Parent ]