“Nuclear Clean Air Energy” Race Team Powers Educational Blitz in Baton Rouge
Entergy-sponsored race car helps recruit and teach about industry
How does a race car tell a nuclear energy story? The Entergy-sponsored “Nuclear Clean Air Energy” race car and championship driver attracted hundreds of recruits and helped educate thousands of students and others on the benefits of nuclear power during a four-day blitz through Louisiana’s capital city area.
Entergy owns and operates two nuclear power stations in Louisiana: River Bend Nuclear Station near Baton Rouge and Waterford 3 Steam Electric Station outside of New Orleans. Entergy is the second-largest nuclear power fleet in the United States and owns, operates or manages reactors that produce electricity in eight states.
The Nuclear Clean Air Energy race car with driver Jonathan Summerton was part of a championship-winning season in 2009 and now assists Entergy in recruiting top talent. The race team was featured at recruiting fairs at Louisiana State University and Southern University followed by taking the car to the River Bend facility for employees to enjoy there. As a conclusion to the week, Entergy Louisiana featured the race car at the LSU campus for the 2010 Fall Festival, where more than 8,000 students enjoyed mid-day fare and educational materials on nuclear power, conservation and more.
“It was exciting to be back at LSU to talk to students where I finished my industrial engineering degree,” noted Mathew Mitchell, a systems engineer from River Bend and a 2009 graduate of LSU. “Telling students what it is like to work in a real nuclear power plant is important. With events like these, we are hitting the streets to talk to people about the benefits of nuclear power – clean, affordable and safe electricity produced at nearby River Bend and around the country.”
In 2010 the “Nuclear Clean Air Energy” race team has reached out to tens of thousands of people through community efforts from New York and Michigan to Louisiana. This is the third year of the national “Nuclear Clean Air Energy” initiative by Entergy that presents the green benefits of the nuclear energy industry while recruiting top talent to the company.
Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $10 billion and more than 15,000 employees.
The successful Powerful Opportunities for Women Ready and Eager for Science, Engineering and Technology Program, or POWER SET, was launched two years ago at Palacios High School to target female high school students interested in science, engineering and technology. South Texas Project’s Women in Nuclear chapter supported the organization by mentoring these students. In turn, these high school students volunteered as mentors to fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade girls.
In May , Texas Gov. Rick Perry awarded a grant to a new program, POWER SET WIT (Workforce Industry Training), which will help establish similar programs at other area high schools.
In a ceremony at the Palacios High School on May 15, Perry presented a check for $175,895 to POWER SET WIT to target students interested in pursuing one- or two-year technical certificates or degrees.
“The POWER SET WIT program will help keep Texas’ nuclear industry moving forward,” Perry said at the ceremony. “And we’re not just investing in these students who have such high potential; we’re also investing in the future of our state and country.”
With the grant, POWER SET WIT will include male high school students and will expand this fall to Bay City, Louise, Sweeny and Van Vleck high schools.
Teaching local students about the opportunities available to them in the nuclear industry is important to STP’s efforts to build a future work force, Ed Halpin, STP’s president and chief executive officer, said at the grant ceremony.
Not only does the company need new workers to replace its aging work force, it also needs to attract people to staff the expansion of Units 3 and 4, he said. “To meet this demand, we have taken a ‘grow your own’ strategy.”
South Texas Project has taken the first step in a multi-year process to train operators for its planned new Units 3 & 4. STP has submitted a letter of intent to seek accreditation of a new training program it is developing for plant and reactor operators.
“This is the first request in nearly two decades for accreditation of a new nuclear power industry training program,” Units 3 and 4 Plant General Manager Will Jump emphasizes. “This is a significant milestone for STP and demonstrates the company’s leadership in the renaissance of the nuclear industry.”
STP filed the letter of intent June 15 with the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, which oversees training, sets performance standards and formally evaluates the operation of all nuclear facilities. The company will seek accreditation for training programs for non-licensed operators, reactor operators, senior reactor operators, shift managers, shift technical advisers and for continuing training of licensed personnel. Accreditation of other training programs—including those for radiation protection, chemistry, engineering and maintenance teammates—is planned for 2012.
Applying more than 550 lessons learned from a similar outage last fall, South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Co. safely and successfully refueled Unit 2 and replaced the reactor’s vessel head. STP is the first facility in the world to replace a rapid refueling, integrated vessel head and associated cabling in a single outage.
This was the company’s fourth consecutive accident-free outage. Unit 2 was returned to full power operation on May 5.
Shortly before the outage started on March 28, the company surpassed 10 million labor-hours without a lost-time or restricted-duty accident. STP has maintained an industrial accident rate of zero for nearly three years. That standard was also maintained throughout the refueling outage as the team worked nearly 500,000 labor-hours in five weeks.
In February 2009, the company reached a Total Safety Industrial Accident (TISA) rate of zero for the preceding 18 months, ranking the facility in the top 10 percent of all U.S. nuclear plants in personal safety. STP has maintained a TISA rate of zero for 32 months.
Currently, the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Co. Women in Nuclear chapter is 165 members strong.
In June, the newly created committee, Supporting Troops and Patriotism, which supports STP family members in the military, kicked off recognition of the military in a big way. To raise funds to ship donated items to the troops and to increase support and awareness, the STP Committee created and sold patriotic ribbons to be worn at work. Purchase of a ribbon, in addition to supporting our troops, entitled the wearer to forgo business casual for jeans for the week leading up July 4. This activity raised $3,282.16.
The STP WIN chapter is continuing their mentoring activities with the Palacios High School POWER SET organization. Mentors meet with their mentees at least once a month as part of the program to develop the nuclear work force of the future. During the summer hiatus, Mentoring Committee Members, led by Committee Chair Kathy Van Daalen, worked to develop the first STP guideline addressing mentoring in the community. In May, Texas Gov. Rick Perry traveled to Palacios High School to honor POWER SET. Guest speakers were Ed Halpin, STP president and chief executive officer, and Matagorda County Judge Nate McDonald.
Once again, the STP WIN Scholarship Committee has reached new heights. This spring, STP WIN awarded $8,500 in scholarships to the children of STP WIN members and a POWER SET student. Three $1,500 scholarships and four $1,000 scholarships were awarded. Recipients were required to submit an application, write an essay about themselves and their goals and provide letters of recommendation.
The three $1,500 scholarship recipients were:
Julian Lloyd Trust, senior at Sweeny High School, son of WIN member James Trust
Courtney Renee Cortez, senior at Bay City High School, daughter of WIN member Martin Cortez
Vanessa Marie Eufracio, senior at Palacios High School and member of POWER SET, mentored by WIN member Michelle Smith.
The four $1,000 scholarship recipients were:
Duy-Anh Tommy Tran, student at The Texas Academy of Math and Science at The University of North Texas, son of WIN member Stacey Nguyen
Kristina Marie Danielski, senior at Bay City High School, daughter of WIN member Greg Danielski
Christina Nicole Henson, senior at Bay City High School, daughter of WIN member Valerie Henson
Robert Paul Hetu, senior at Brazoswood High School, son of WIN member Cathy Hetu.
The scholarship recipients and their families were honored at the annual STPNOC WIN scholarship banquet and member meeting. Former STPNOC Vice President John Groth was the guest speaker.
STP Employee Recreation Association and the Women in Nuclear Enrichment Committee teamed up to coordinate an overnight trip to the Paragon Casino and Resort in Marksville, La. Fifty-five individuals participated in this enrichment event.
The WIN Region IV Annual Conference was held in Dana Point, Calif., and hosted by the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. The theme of the conference was “Nuclear Knowledge is Power,” which is what this conference delivered—knowledge. It was a phenomenal opportunity to hear great speakers and network. As a true added bonus, participants had an opportunity to tour SONGS and the SONGS Canister Fabrication Shop. What a great learning opportunity! Three STP WIN members attended the Region IV conference. STP WIN President Vivian Wagnon received the Person of the Year Award for her outstanding contribution to nuclear power and exceptional support to WIN Region IV in 2010. Susie Brannon will serve on the 2010-2011 Region IV board as secretary, and Vivian Wagnon will serve on the board as the South’s regional director.
The U.S. WIN Conference was held in Seattle on July 18-21 with seven individuals from STP in attendance. Ed Halpin, president and chief executive officer of STP, helped to kick off the conference by participating in the opening plenary session. Two of the STP attendees facilitated the orientation session for first-time attendees and one facilitated the breakout session titled “Leadership at All Levels-Taking Ownership.” In addition, two STP participants were mentors to attending students. This was a fabulous conference with many opportunities to gain industry knowledge and to network.
During the awards luncheon, the STP WIN chapter was recognized in three areas of performance for a large chapter: public outreach, networking and community service. In addition, the chapter received the Overall Excellence Award for a large chapter. Ed Halpin and Vivian Wagnon accepted the award on behalf of the chapter.