RECENTLY STONE & WEBSTER was called upon by our client, Entergy Nuclear, to assist in the replacement of the Control Rod Drive housings on the reactor head at the Palisades Nuclear Station near Covert, Michigan. The added work was expected to extend the critical path of the Palisades refueling outage by approximately 28 days.
Given the location of the work and past performance during a similar repair effort many years ago, initial radiological dose-exposure estimates to workers for the 2014 repair were significant. The repair activities for this work fall within the jurisdiction of the Boilermakers.
We contacted Local 169 Business Representative Jim Kaffenberger for an additional 24 Boilermakers. We were in need of highly skilled mechanics who could make the repairs correctly the first time. Jim was able to assemble the right team of Boilermakers and referred them to us in time to support the client’s schedule.
We are pleased to report that the repair work was completed approximately seven days ahead of the initial schedule and that the Boilermakers assigned to the job received substantially less dose exposure than originally estimated. Our client is pleased with the results, and so are we.
In fact, performance among the entire Boilermaker team at Palisades Station was excellent. Safety, quality, and productivity performance objectives were fully achieved.
Many thanks to our entire Boilermaker team and kudos to Jim Kaffenberger for stepping up when we needed his assistance.
Rick Tinkle
Site Manager - Palisades Station
CB&I Stone & Webster Construction, Inc.
