Catching Up... Again

Let’s see, where was I? Oh yes, I had just inspected my new apartment. Well, a lot has happened since then, so this will probably be a rather long post. Or I might split it into multiple posts, depending on how it goes.

Actually, let me back up for a minute. I was so busy taking pictures of my apartment that I didn't tell you about my full plant tour. The training manager here was a nuclear operator for the Navy for many years, so he knows a TON. He took me on a general tour of pretty much the whole plant. It’s not as big land-area wise as my old project, but there’s a lot more insides to it. He took me and another newbie through, pointing out various unique things, explaining how the process would work when the plant was running, telling anecdotes from his years as an operator, and pointing out stuff that had been damaged or ripped out. It was all really interesting, but so far outside my chosen field that I really didn't understand much of it. But I did note some highlights of things we got to saw that very few other people in the world ever get to see. One thing was the main control room. It was seriously like the movies… from the 70s :P All dials and knobs and analog gauges. It was also kind of eerie, like time had stopped, and ‘cause there was only one dude in the whole big room. At one point we climbed up a fixed ladder (i.e. it’s permanently mounted to the structure, and 90 degrees or totally vertical) which wouldn't bother most people, but being afraid of heights has it’s disadvantages. There were also a lot of places where there were huge holes in the floor to allow the large equipment to stick up through. In a couple places there was only a tiny handrail between me and a 50+ foot drop. We also got to see an actual fuel assembly (sans fuel of course) and the pool where the fuel would be stored, and the racks they would use to move it around. In another section we saw one of the actual steam generators, where the steam that powers the turbine is created. It was really sad because this one had been cut to pieces by people trying to get at the precious metals inside. Imagine a large tank-like structure, probably 40 feet tall, 15 feet in diameter, with 8” thick solid steel walls. Now imagine a teenage boy with a plasma cutter left alone in a room with it. You *might* have imagined what this looks like. You can literally see straight through it from one spot, it’s very sad. I have to say I was pretty proud of how well I did, until the last bit. We got in this elevator. A very, very, very small elevator. Now, I’m not a huge fan of elevators to begin with, but normally they don’t bother me, but this one was very crowded with the three of us in it. And I was also a bit on edge from all the heights, dark spaces, and overall creep factor of being in a building that’s been abandoned for all intents and purposes for nearly 30 years. So I was trying to keep my anxiety to a low boil when my coworker turns to me and says “Just wait until we get to the top, it opens up and you can see the whole plant from here!” Apparently I gave him a deer-in-the-headlights look ‘cause he apologized and told me he was just teasing. Luckily that was the end of our tour and I went back to my safe little desk. It definitely made the afternoon go by fast! I wish I could have taken pictures to share with you all. But then again maybe I’m the only one interested by this stuff… Anyway, that was longer than I had planned, so I guess I’ll make this a post of its own and make a new post for everything else.