Troubleshooting by Tony Green

The scenario is along these lines. A complex mechanical electro system is not functioning. As this system is producing revenue creating its designed product there is a lot of money at stake if the system is not brought back to normal operation quickly. Your job is to repair the equipment and return it to operation.
Where do you start? There could be an infinite amount of things that may have caused the problem. You realize that the pressure cooker is about to begin unless progress is made.
Suddenly you remember the seven step troubleshooting procedure you learned while you were in the Navy as a nuke.
You identify and elaborate on the symptoms, identify the list possible faulty components, and narrow down that list to the one that you suspect is causing your problem and finally create a possible retest procedure after performing a root cause analysis.
Yet, the system is still not working. You relax and try a few more things. As this process occurs you ensure that you are thinking positive thoughts as you have initially been stumped yet were eventually successful. After a few additional adjustments to your list of what may be causing the problem you find your culprit and the system is brought back into operation.
After breathing a sigh of relief that the crisis has been averted and receiving kudos from management you reflect on how you got the job done once more.
In the end you used two things: a process of determining the problem and a true belief that you would figure out the solution. Yes, with that you can fix anything…

The future of Nuclear Power by Tony Green

As an Ex-Navy Nuke I observed first-hand the efficiency of nuclear power. Prior to advent of nuclear power ships and submarines were powered by diesel generators and batteries. The maneuverability of the ship was affected by limited battery power and by having to use the diesel generator while the batteries charged. The nuclear reactor, which provides electricity and propulsion, gave ship the ability to have an unlimited source of power. This enables the time a ship can be at sea to be limited only by the food it had the ability to carry or have access to.
During the early 1970’s the nuclear option was examined for civilian’s plants. Hundreds of nuclear power plants constructed around the country and around the world. The benefits were nuclear energy plants produce electricity through the fission of uranium, not the burning of fuels. This reduced the use of fossil fuels. In addition, the use of nuclear power reduced the amount of harmful emissions to the air.
As a result the general public had no problem with the construction of nuclear power plants. However, public opinion has changed drastically after the accidents at Chernobyl, in the Soviet Union and Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
At Three Mile Island a meltdown almost occurred due a failure of to the plant's main feed-water pumps and other numerous operator errors. At Chernobyl, the workers were performing an experiment with the reactor's safety systems during which the computer-controlled safety systems were disabled which resulted in a large explosion of the reactor spreading radioactivity all across Europe.

In the time since these accidents many people have begun to forget these incidents that together successfully clouded the public view of Nuclear Power. With the absence of other alternative power sources, lowering gas reserves, and the commercialization of green solutions may be years off the public may be ready examine other options as there are overwhelming power needs that will need to be filled. Nuclear Power can be that option. It can be operated safety and efficiently as the United States Navy has shown. Clearly Nuclear Power will emerge as a viable option to solve the power needs of an industrial society. America and the world will not only observe that utilizing Nuclear Power makes too much sense not to but there may not be other viable alternatives.

Photo courtesy of http://www.freefoto.com/

The path from Ex-Navy Nuke to an engineer by Tony Green

I have viewed a few blogs, on MySpace.com among other places that discusses the preparation that being an Ex-Nuke gives you before attempting to make it through an undergraduate engineering curriculum.
I think I have an interesting background to speak on this topic as I completed an engineering degree prior to participating in the Navy Nuclear program. If you are wondering why the hell I did the Nuke thing as an enlisted person after college you have a legitimate question. However, that will be the topic of another blog at some point in the future. What will say is that going through nuclear pipeline gives a wonderful background to aid any potential engineering student.
Normally most professional engineers have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree and years of practical on-hands experience. The classroom training gives you the tools to enable you to begin learning your engineering craft while you’re on hands experience actually allows to become the trusted engineer capable of analyzing and solving real world problems.
Most of the engineering curriculum is theoretical as engineers are the ones who are trusted to designing equipment. The folks who designed many of the reactor systems that a nuke stands watch on were engineers. It is difficult to make the best design if there is not a decent level of understanding of the meaning of the theory. Nuclear training allows obtaining the on hands experience to attain that understanding. And as we all know the operators are the ones who ran the plant under the guidance of their nuclear-trained chiefs and officers.
Going aft in any nuclear powered vessel in the engine room will yield many on hand applications of these engineering principles. For example, reactor plant fresh water heat exchanger (RFPW) cools the coolant purification loop, the reactor coolant pumps and other loads. Essentially this is a shell and tube heat exchanger covered in heat transfer classes. The operator on watch is concerns that temperature that the RPFW remain within spec while the heat loads fluctuate. Another example is the process from where steam leaves the Steam Generator and goes through the Main Steam stops to the motor generators and turbine generators and exhausted steam that is created is condensed and sent back to the condensate pumps and the main feed pumps before returning the Steam Generator to start the process again. This process is covered as the Carnot cycle which covered thermodynamics courses.
Most Navy ships use an evaporator to distill sea water into drinking and potable water. The underlying principles that govern the process, distillation are covered in classes on mass transfer. The operator on watch is concerned that the water that is created is clean and the concentrated salt, the brine, goes back to the sea.
In my view, regardless of which came first, being nuclear trained or getting an engineering degree success comes down to on how you use all of your engineering training to make the best future for yourself. After going through all the rigors that are associated with being a nuke, all while serving our country; you certainly deserve it regardless of the choice you make for your college studies after leaving the Nuclear Navy.