by Mark Lemke
CHAPTER 40
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Once back to the control room, Dave called the unit supervisor into his office.
"Bob, we need to shut down the 1-1 main circulating water pump.? We're having some problems with vibration on it, and the screens appear to be fouling."
"That's odd.? We haven't gotten any alarms either on vibration or differential pressure across the screens.? Let me get in touch with Henry at the Intake and have him check it out."?
"I'm okay if you check with Henry later, but I want the pump off line now.? We've been looking at this for the last few nights.? I'm surprised you didn't get a turnover on it," he lied.? "We need a rapid power reduction.? I want that pump off-line in thirty minutes."
"The Power Control guys in San Francisco aren't going to like this.? At least give me a few minutes to check out the pump and screens."? As the unit supervisor, Bob was responsible for Unit 1, and he prided himself on knowing the status of his plant.? He had a hard time believing there was a problem of this magnitude that he didn't know about.?
Dave knew this was an improbable situation, but it was all he could think of in a short time.? He recognized he'd have to pull rank to get Bob to do it.?
"As I said, this is something we've been watching for the last few days.? This is your first graveyard, but I've been here for a few nights now.? Every minute we waste arguing about it is going to do damage to the pump.? End of discussion.? Take the unit to half load and secure that circulator."
Bob wasn't happy at all.? He and Dave had always gotten along well.? He could tell Dave wasn't exactly thrilled to be there tonight and thought he was probably just tired, having already worked several night shifts.? But Dave was the boss.? Bob would have to discuss this with the guy he took the watch from and find out why he wasn't told about a possible problem with that pump.? That would come later.?
"Okay, Dave.? Do you want to be in on the briefing?" he asked as he normally would when conducting a briefing for his operators on a sudden change in plant status.?
"No.? I've got some phone calls to make.? Just have that pump offline no later than thirty minutes from now."
As Bob walked out into the control room to brief his team, Dave suddenly realized that Bob would want to make a plant-wide announcement to let all the watch-standers out in the plant know that the power level was going to be reduced.? He felt his blood pressure go up immediately.? That would give away their plans.? Whoever was watching him would know.? But it couldn't be helped.? A power plant is a complicated thing to run and run safely.? No matter what he was doing for Prichard, he still had to do it with some measure of safety.? Reluctantly, he had to let Bob do it the way he'd been trained to.?
Sure enough, five minutes later, after Bob briefed the control room watch-standers, he made a PA announcement about the change in power level and plant conditions.? It was 12:29 a.m.?
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