This shows Plant Vogtle's containment building where the reactor core is located. The machine on the structure over the pool removes the spent uranium rods from the reactor core, the hole underwater near the bright light.BOB RIVES/STAFF

Inside the reactor

Web posted September 22, 1997

By Karin Schill
Staff Writer

WAYNESBORO -- Thirteen feet of water separate Fred Mason from lethal radiation.

With careful precision, he guides a bundle of spent fuel rods into a rack at the bottom of a Plant Vogtle storage pool. Small air bubbles rise quietly to the surface of the water as the assembly comes to rest.

The 12-feet-long, pencil-thick metal rods glow eerily blue in the water below, but Mr. Mason knows that as long as he does his job right, he doesn't have much to worry about. The water shields him from radioactivity so intense it would kill if exposed to the air.

``When the public thinks about nuclear they think about Hiroshima bombs and things like that,'' Mr. Mason says while waiting for another fuel bundle to arrive through a water-filled canal from the reactor core next door. ``If they came in here, they'd find that people here really know what they're doing, that they're careful, and that nobody's covering anything up.

``It's not some big monster, like a lot of people think.''

The long pole that grabs the fuel gets wet as he slowly hoists it up and down. If contaminated water drips on the bridge he stands on it will dry and carcinogenic radioactive particles could become airborne. That's why constant mopping and wiping and changing of clothes are key during the refueling of a nuclear power plant.

Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro shut down one of its reactors earlier this month to start the arduous process of replacing burned-out uranium fuel. Last week, workers began moving the fuel rods from the reactor core to the storage pool.

One-third of the 193 fuel assemblies inside the round cavity known as the reactor core must be replaced during the 35-day outage, which occurs every 18 months.

It's a hectic time at the plant. About 700 contractors have been brought in to help carry out the meticulously planned operation, and every hour counts: An outage costs Southern Nuclear Operating Co. nearly $1 million a day in revenue losses and expenses.

If it weren't for the massive cooling towers that stick up above the tree tops, a passers-by might not notice Plant Vogtle from the nearby rural highway, much less the plant's buzzing activity this month.

Indeed, the inner sanctum of a nuclear reactor is a place few citizens ever get to visit.

To reach it, workers pass through four security check-points and several radiation counters. Stern health physics staffers, whose job it is to make sure exposures are kept to a minimum, keep a watchful eye on anyone passing by.

If you don't wear proper protective clothing and radiation counters they won't let you through the many and heavy steel doors leading to the heart of the plant.

Everything goes according to written procedure. There's no such thing as improvisation and flexibility in this work place.

Workers have been exposed during nuclear power's 50-year history, but Plant Vogtle employees say the public's perception of radiation is often exaggerated.

``We stood here all day and I only picked up one millirem. It's nothing,'' said Allen Nix, who also handles spent fuel and has undergone many hours of training to qualify for the job. ``My wife works out here and I've got a brother in the control room. It's a pretty good job.''

One of the biggest concerns surrounding nuclear power, of course, is out of his and Plant Vogtle's control: where ultimately to put used-up fuel rods that will remain dangerous for thousands of years.

The promised federal repository for such waste is years overdue, and some predict a proposed underground dump in a Nevada mountain won't be approved for environmental reasons. In the meantime, waste continues to pile up here and at 108 other nuclear power plants nationwide.

Carolyn Cross Tynan, a Martinez mother of three and Plant Vogtle financial services supervisor, echoes what many in the industry have said for years.

``We in the utilities put a lot of money out there for a permanent (waste) repository to be built,'' she said, eyeing the glowing fuel beneath her feet. ``This has been going on for too long. It's time they make a decision and get that fuel out there.''