Nuclear Prototype Training
I become a qualified nuclear plant operator.
After graduating from Nuclear Power School in January 1971, I was assigned to the S1C1 Nuclear Propulsion Training Unit (NPTU) in Windsor, Connecticut, for six months of training on an operating nuclear reactor propulsion plant. The S1C prototype was a replica of the USS Tullibee (SSN-597) reactor compartment and engine room, and processed about 14,000 students before it was decommissioned in 1993. Other NPTUs were located in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Ballston Spa, New York.
I dragged Sue and a U-Haul trailer from Bainbridge, Maryland, to Southwick, Massachusetts, where we had rented a one-bedroom house with a small pier poking out onto Congamond Lake. We unloaded the trailer and carried or pushed cardboard boxes of belongings up the steep snow-covered driveway because the car would not climb the icy hill to the house. After unpacking and taking a brief trip to Maine to see my folks, I checked in at the site and got to work.
Prototype training was divided into three phases - classroom, in-hull training, and proficiency. During the five-week classroom phase I learned everything I needed to know about the S1C reactor and propulsion plant system design and operation, and had to pass a final exam before being allowed in the plant during the in-hull phase, where things got real.
After classroom phase, we were divided into five crews and began working 12-hour rotating shifts, which went something like:
Seven days on swing shift (1200-2400) and two days off
Seven days on mid shift (2000-0800) and two days off
Seven days on day shift (0700-1900) and four days off
I was given three qualification cards on the first day on shift: Basic Engineering Qualification (BEQ), which everyone had to complete, and Engine Room Upper Level (ERUL) watch, and Engine Room Lower Level (ERLL) watch, which Machinist’s Mates had to complete. Electrician’s Mates had to qualify as Electric Plant Operators and Electronics Technicians had to qualify as Reactor Operators.
I spent the first four hours on each shift studying or being verbally quizzed by instructors and eight hours on watch in the engine room under the supervision of an instructor. I learned to use three-way communications, which goes like this: Person #1 states his name or position and says something, Person #2 repeats back verbatim (i.e., word for word) what Person #1 said, and then Person #1 says “That’s correct.” or “Wrong!” followed by repeating what was said and the process starts again.
Each qualification card included both level of knowledge requirements and practical factors that had to be signed off by an instructor, and each signature was “crunched” by an embossing tool specific to the instructor to prevent forgeries. Most practical factors were operations that had to performed, and some could be simulated or discussed, and included manual operations such as starting up, operating, and shutting down pieces of equipment, performing valve line-ups, and responding to casualty drills like fires, steam leaks, and inadvertent reactor shut-down (a.k.a. SCRAM2).
With about a six weeks left to go, I had completed my qualification cards, passed a four-hour comprehensive exam, and successfully completed a four-hour oral board, which meant I no longer had to report four hours early for shift. Life got much better. Several high-performing students were selected to be instructors and spent another two years at the site. Additionally, some high-performing Machinist’s Mates were assigned to Engineering Laboratory Technician training, where they were trained on radiation protection and learned to monitor and maintain reactor and steam generator water chemistry. I was selected for neither.
The last few weeks were almost fun - I stood watches on my own, spent more time at home, and waited for orders to Submarine School in New London, Connecticut - which never came. Instead, I received orders to report to Port Canaveral, Florida and join the crew of the USS Bergall (SSN-667) when it arrived in port. I never understood how I missed out on sub school, but apparently it was not a requirement.
I packed my seabag and flew to Florida to meet the boat, and Sue took on the task of finding us a place to live in New London.
Next stop: submarine duty
The designation “S1C” indicates the plant’s reactor was designed for submarine service and was the first reactor designed by Combustion Engineering, Inc. for such use. The S2C reactor was installed on the USS Tullibee.
The term SCRAM was allegedly coined by Enrico Fermi during preparations for the first reactor criticality at the University of Chicago in 1942, and is an acronym for “Safety Control Rod Axe Man”. The so-called “Chicago Pile” reactor used one control rod hoisted by a rope to bring the reactor critical. In the event of an emergency, a man was stationed with an axe to cut the rope and drop the control rod into the core to shut down the reaction.