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June 2005 IBEW Journal


The thought of frequently testing to re-qualify for one’s job would be enough to turn many job applicants away from a career as a nuclear operator or assistant. Members of IBEW Sheffield, Alabama, Local 765 at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant take these demands in stride. If that is not enough, they and their families ride the stressful roller coaster of 12-hour swing shifts.

Jim Springfield, International Representative for the Tenth District says, "I know of no other profession that requires this type of continuous training and dedication. Often workers do not get enough time at work to be fully ‘test’ ready and have to balance personal time to remain qualified."

Browns Ferry’s sensitive equipment—outside of the unit control rooms—is supported by Nuclear Assistant Unit Operators (NAUO). They must complete several years of training in a joint IBEW-TVA program before their assignment to work that includes the clearing of all electrical and mechanical equipment for safe maintenance and operation.

Nuclear Unit Operators (NUO) staff the vast control centers of the TVA’s nuclear reactors. These former assistant unit operators are graduates of a training regimen that may require five years or more to prepare them to pass strict licensing requirements of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Re-qualification training is administered every five weeks for both assistants and operators and a full examination week is required every two years for operators.

Frank Travis, an NUO, entered TVA’s training program in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1980. After working for 10 years as manager of a finance company, he had his fill of being transferred to different cities. Besides, his father had retired from the TVA as an IBEW-represented coal-tower foreman and Travis says, "I always knew that the job was responsible for my education and other good things."

"We work to be error-proof," says Travis, describing a series of "human performance tools" that are part of an NUO’s daily routine. The tools include "self-checks, peer-checks and a system of three-way communication." When operational changes need to be made in the reactor, the workers involved must verify and repeat the changes to avoid the operational difficulties that can arise from confusion and error.

"This is one of the best jobs in this area," he says. "Because we are union, we get overtime pay and make a good living."

Surrounded by new construction, Travis and Local 765’s work force now have cause for optimism about their grueling, but rewarding fields of work. Times were not always so generous.

The combination of declining profits due to climbing fuel costs resulting from the 1973 oil embargo and political fall-out from the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident brought nuclear projects conducted by U.S. utilities to a halt.

Tunnel boring machine maintained by members of Las Vegas Local 357 reaches daylight at Yucca Mountain in April 1997

But environmental concerns linked to other forms of electricity generation have contributed to greater interest in nuclear energy. Global warming is caused by the depletion of the ozone layer by carbon dioxides released by burning fossil fuels.

Widely accepted, also, is the notion that the world’s oil reserves are limited. The foreign policy implications of a continued reliance upon Middle East oil is, according to most polls, a source of deep public anxiety. U.S. energy policy is slowly adapting to new realities.

Alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and bio fuels have become more popular. Hybrid cars, combining electric and internal combustion sources are in great demand, especially among upscale commuters who influence much of America’s mass marketing.

It is in this context that many Americans are giving nuclear energy a second look.

While praising the moves to alternative energy sources, proponents of nuclear energy contend that—at this stage of development—none of them offer the scale or quality of nuclear power.

Dr. Burton Richter, a Stanford University professor and 1976 Nobel Prize winner, says that "the longer one waits, the harder it gets" to reduce carbon dioxide, which takes 100 years to come out of the atmosphere naturally. Faced with a massive increase in fossil fuel use by developing nations such as China, Richter says that there are only two ways to reduce fossil fuel use. "One is conservation and efficiency... The other is nuclear power, which emits no greenhouse gases and where the fuel supply is not constrained."

Richter pins the expansion of nuclear power on the need to solve some major issues. The public, he says, must be persuaded that the facilities are safe and have a satisfactory strategy to deal with spent fuel. Governments must be assured that expanding nuclear power will not help terrorists or unreliable nation states using nuclear fuels to build weapons.

The controversy over how to dispose of the nuclear wastes burns almost as hot as the spent fuel rods that could take over 10,000 years to lose their radioactivity. The discussion mirrors the long-term versus short-term debate over how to reduce our reliance upon fossil fuels.

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