Re: Radiation Control Technician

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Steve,

By the time this becomes an issue, there probably will be few 
operating plants remaining. That is the sad part of the nuclear 
option as we know it today. There is no simple answer to your 
questions. I wish there were, and it was something that we 
grappled with, while I was still with the utility. It has become worse 
in the few years since I left.

What most utilities are moving towards today is to use their 
corporate staffs and sister plant staff (when they exist) to augment 
site staff during outages. This has been going on for quite some 
time. There has also been the move to train staff, other than rad 
protection, to perform their own surveys, and perform other actions 
that had been previously only a function of the RPM or RCT. This is 
called Advanced Radworker Training. There are serious 
consequences if this program is not implemented efficiently, and 
effectively.

In the end, the population of qualified techs will diminish. Other 
answers escape me.

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
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