Get the Buzz… APM Canada Safely Lifts Darlington to Success!

In June of 2024, a Steam Nuclear group from APM Canada travelled to Bowmanville, Ontario for an outage at Darlington Nuclear Generating Station. While on the job, the crew was tasked with the critical lift of a generator field. Although the crew prepared for the lift with careful consideration and detail, they encountered a challenge during the process.

          Prior to the critical lift, the crew held a brief to prepare everyone for the upcoming task. During the discussion, OPEX was used from lifts performed in the past. Assignments were distributed and the crew members were made aware of their roles. One of the assignments was to monitor the stress indicators of the twin path slings. When the team was in the process of getting the rotor to a level position, the full amount of weight was taken by the slings. At this time, Millwright, Kaitlin O’Neill, called out that the indicators were retracting and disappeared. A STOP Moment was initiated, and the team safely set the generator rotor back into the cribbing and removed the jaded sling from service. Afterward, the team inspected the spare sling and installed it to the rotor. Another brief was held due to the changed conditions, and the crew safely rigged and removed the generator rotor out of the stator and into the stands.

          Thanks to this STOP Moment, along with the use of the Mechanical Lifting Life Saving Rule, the team was able to identify a major issue in their equipment and promptly adapt to complete the task at hand safely. The crew also highlighted the importance of using Rigging OPEX for all lifts, regardless of the type of lift attempted. We are immensely proud of the team at Darlington for their focus on safety. Congrats and HUGE kudos to the below crew for your success in Ontario!

·       Terry Jennings

·       Kaitlin O’Neill

·       Cory Smith

·       Jimmy Madden

·       Chad Brightwell

·       Aiden Roffey

·       Jordan Wagner

·       Luke McFadden

·       Mike Winger

·       Liam Flesch

·       Dan Patrick

·       Tristin Bently

·       Neil Hamilton

·       Jimmy Lewis

·       Brad Wall