But the scramble on the other side of the world to contain the spiking radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant does not feel remote to him or his nearly 900 employees. It is a reminder of the question that is always in the back of their minds: What would they do if they were faced with a crisis on the scale of Fukushima’s?
“I’m very curious as to why they did some of the things they did because I think we would have managed it differently. But I don’t know the details of what they’re up against,” said Gellrich, who worked as the plant manager from 2001 to 2004 at Three Mile Island, the site of the 1979 accident that changed the safety practices of the nuclear power industry.
The 120,000 people who work at the country’s 104 commercial reactors supply the nation with 20 percent of its electricity. But since Three Mile Island, the industry has been defined not by the service it provides, but by its potential for catastrophe.
At Calvert Cliffs, an intense focus on safety dominates the daily routines of everyone who works there. As they enter the plant in Southern Maryland, a machine sends puffs of air down their sides in search of hidden explosives. Inside, different clocks count the days since the last breach of safety protocol. When they stand inside another machine, which measures their radiation levels, they hear a recorded voice from above intone, “Safety is in our DNA.”
There is no starker example of the perils nuclear power workers potentially face than the 700 employees at the Fukushima plant, who have volunteered to remain there to help stave off a full nuclear meltdown.
Dubbed the “Fukushima 50” because they work in 50-person shifts, they are toiling in what one nuclear expert described as “hellish” conditions. So far, at least 17 have been exposed to high levels of radiation since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out power at the plant, triggering the crisis.
Last week three workers came into contact with radioactive water in a turbine room that might have leaked from a reactor core, sending three of them to the hospital with burns. Radiation has also spread to water in three underground tunnels and outside buildings designed to contain contamination.
A tightknit culture
Yet many employees at Calvert Cliffs find their predicament inspiring, not terrifying.
“We’d be competing to be one of the 50, and I would be right in there,” said Tom Trepanier, 52, Calvert Cliffs’ general manager and a 30-year veteran of the nuclear power industry.
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