He entered the admin building, now deserted at this time of night, and rode the elevator up to the 140-foot deck, so named for its height above sea level. From there, he walked across a catwalk to the turbine building, where he picked up his hard hat, safety glasses and hearing protection, and then made the short walk across the turbine deck and into the control room.
The turbine deck was impressive. It looked like an airplane hanger with two gigantic four-stage turbines, each with a hydrogen gas-cooled generator at the end. Three stories overhead hung huge cranes used to lift the 100-ton turbine components during maintenance outages.
The turbines used both high-pressure and low-pressure steam for their motive force. The steam ran through huge pipes, which, despite being wrapped in heavy lagging for thermal protection, gave off a lot of heat. So the turbine deck was both hot and noisy. For Dave, this was normal. For visitors, though, the heat and vibrations could make them dizzy. That wasn’t much of a problem anymore, as visitors were no longer allowed in the plant since 9/11.
Halfway down the turbine deck was the entrance to the shift manager’s office, which was adjacent to the control room. Dave swiped his badge on the card reader, put his hand in the hand geometry reader, and heard the familiar ‘click’ as the door was unlocked electronically. He had to lean into the door to push it open because it was a heavy hardened steel door, several inches thick. The door, like the walls of the control room itself, were designed to provide shielding from radiation for the operators in the unlikely event a reactor accident releases radioactive materials into the plant. It also had a bulletproof window, allowing people to look inside but keeping them out. The plant was a commercial facility but still had a significant amount of security. The control room was the nerve center of the plant, and therefore, the most important place to protect.
The door opened directly into the shift manager’s office.
“Hey, Bill,” Dave greeted the on-duty shift manager, as he walked into the office.
“Boy, am I glad to see you, Dave. What a day!”
“Kept you busy, did they?” said Dave as he put his things down on a spare chair and took a seat across the desk from Bill.
“It’s day-watch. What else do you expect? But things are hot, straight, and normal.”
Dave had to chuckle to himself. Bill was one of the older shift managers and liked the things on his desk to be just so. There were no papers left lying about. His coffee cup was cleaned and put away. His computer screen was positioned perfectly to be seen by whoever sat at the desk. And his pen was parallel to the edge of the desk. Dave wasn't nearly as organized. And just to pull Bill's chain, when he was relieved by Bill, he often left things askew on his desk, making sure the pen was at some odd angle.
“Any night orders from the boss I should know about?”
“Just the usual boilerplate stuff. Nothing new. Lots of scuttlebutt about Brenda though. The Health Physics Department is upset about it. Everybody liked her. I guess nobody has seen her husband either. That’s got to be tough. Nothing for you to get involved with. Just be aware that people are edgy about it.”
“Okay. I’ll fill in my team at the shift brief tonight. Both units at 100 percent power?”
“Yup. You know what you had last night? More of the same tonight. No major maintenance going on. No surveillance testing in progress. We got it all done for you!”
“Got it.” Although Dave had his notebook out to take notes, there was nothing much to write down.
“We have tomorrow’s clearance and tagging requests all printed out and ready for you to hang at 0400. I know you’ve been on for the last few nights, so you know what the schedule for the week looks like. You got any questions?” Bill asked.
“Nope. Let’s do a quick board walk-down and get you outta here.”
“I’m all for that,” Bill responded, eager to go home.
Dave and Bill went into the main area of the control room. The Headlands was a dual-unit facility, so the control rooms for Unit 1 and Unit 2 were connected and share one large common room. Bill went to one end of the huge control boards and just started walking, allowing Dave to look at the hundreds of level indicators, pressure indicators, breaker and pump position indicators, valve indicating lights, electrical buses, control rod positions, and main generator output indicators. To an outsider, it would look impossible for anyone to know what they all meant. But after years of working in the plant, Dave knew what each one was, what a good reading looked like and how to discern slight trends.
He also knew the location of valves and equipment outside the control room. The company put him through an exhaustive twelve-month program to obtain his senior reactor operator license, equivalent to a Bachelor of Science degree in nuclear power. It included six months, eight hours a day, of reactor physics, heat transfer, thermodynamics, fluid flow, electrical theory, mathematics, and nuclear design. That was followed by six months of running the plant through startups, shutdowns, casualties, and steady state conditions, all on a simulator. Then came the NRC boards, including an eight-hour written exam, a plant walkthrough with an NRC inspector lasting four to six hours, and a three-hour simulator exam. Most operators, who made it through the program, including those who already had college degrees, felt it was the most challenging program they’d ever been through.
Dave took a few notes as he walked and said hello to the board operators who were in the process of doing the same kind of turnover. Although this wasn’t his normal crew, he knew all the guys in Operations, including those on watch tonight. While there were a few women in the Operations Department of about 145 people, none of them were on shift tonight. It was physically demanding work to be out in the plant, where it’s hot and noisy. Women were a rarity in this profession.
As they finished the control board walk-down and returned to his office, Dave said, “Okay, Bill, I relieve you.”
“Thanks. Kenny will be relieving you on the flip side tomorrow morning. Keep it out of the ditches!” Bill picked up his lunch box, jacket and personal protective gear, and left their office.
Dave settled in, putting his notebook on the side of the desk, his coffee cup in it’s usual spot, then logged onto the computer to check his e-mail and view various plant programs he’d need to keep an eye on tonight to make sure the plant was working properly.
That’s when he saw it. The e-mail was addressed to him, but he didn’t recognize the sender. The subject said simply:
“Read Immediately”
As he opened the e-mail and read the first few lines, his heart started to race and he broke out in a cold sweat.
CHAPTER 32
Dave read the e-mail quickly the first time through, then slowed down and read it again slowly, shaking as he read:
We have your wife and kids. They’re unharmed and will remain that way if you do as you are told. Nuclear power is unsafe and we intend to take control of The Headlands tonight to prove it. You will be contacted later with specific instructions. Hold power at 100 percent. Do NOT reduce power. Do NOT discuss this with anyone on your crew, your supervision, or the police, or we’ll kill your family. We have someone inside the plant and will know if you talk to anyone.
That was it. That was all.
Dave stood up, pacing his office, trying to think of what to do. He needed to talk with someone about this, needed to figure out what to do, but if the note was legitimate, how could he do that without bringing harm to Kay and the kids? His heart was pounding and random bits of information started imploding in his mind. The note said they had someone inside the plant. That was incredible! Who could that be? It could be anyone. Would they really know if he called or e-mailed someone? What if he talked to someone directly? But what if that’s the person they have 'inside’? An operator? Security? This was nighttime, so there weren’t many people out there. And what did they want him to do? He had control over the entire power station. He knew how to run the plant safely, which meant he knew what could cause damage to the plant too. Was he going to be asked to jeopardize the safety of the public? He’d do anything to save his family… but would he hurt other people…?