Reynolds Wrap Up: A Big Leak on a Primary Reactor Occurred Last Night! – Management Wants a Quick Fix?

Executive Summary

This Reynolds Wrap Up covers how you can and should react to the folks in your organization who don’t fully understand FEMI issues like you do and the only thing driving them is the strong desire to get the process unit back online as soon as possible after an incident. In this article, I outline some of the things you can and should contribute to the discussion in order to assess a high-pressure situation that may follow an unexpected loss of containment (LOC). By establishing what actually caused the LOC, you can reduce the likelihood that it might happen again by not only making the proper type of repair but also putting in place the proper safeguards in order to prevent another unexpected LOC.

Introduction

Have you ever been faced with an urgent FEMI issue like the one indicated in the title and shown schematically in Figure 1?

Imagine yourself opening your office door at 8 AM and being immediately faced with a demand for answers from those who would like to conduct a “quick fix repair.” Operations management says they are in the process of decontaminating and cleaning the reactor now – it should be ready by this evening. Safety personnel are preparing to issue a safe-entry permit for repairs. Maintenance management is lining up...