In April of 2024, APM Steam Nuclear travelled to Newport, Michigan for an outage at Fermi Nuclear Station. Led by Superintendents Joel and Matt Smith, a team of 18 Control Rod Drive (CRD) Technicians was assembled for the assigned task. The scope entailed removing and replacing 20 Control Rod Drives.

          The planning process for this outage was thorough from start to finish. The APM crew worked together with GEH on additional mock-up trainings, scheduling, material sourcing, Mururoa sizing, and DOR. With all preparations made, the crew had everything needed to succeed onsite.

          Thanks to the pre-work conducted, the team flourished under the spotlight of the outage. Although the team was given a planned schedule duration of 20 hours, they managed to complete their exchange safely and successfully in 10 hours and 20 minutes, contributing to 8 REM-worth of dose savings for the activity. The Under Vessel team truly understood the importance of our Life Saving Rules, utilizing Work Authorization, Line of Fire, and Mechanical Lifting to perform each activity safely. The job was performed with such accuracy that the Detroit Edison Chief Nuclear Officer directly sought out the crew upon completion of the CRD Exchange to recognize their performance.

          We are immensely proud of the Steam Nuclear team for their performance at Fermi. The 2,445-hour job was completed with safety and quality maintained at the highest standard. APM Operations Division Leader, Jon Sautelet, had this to say on the team’s performance, “Nowhere in the industry will you find a team as professional, devoted, or skilled as our Under Vessel Teams.  They are absolutely world class”. Congrats and HUGE kudos to the team below for your success in Newport!

·       Joel Smith

·       Matt Smith

·       Tyler Beert

·       Nathan D. Mussman

·       Alan J. Bryson

·       Clayton North

·       Ian Carrier

·       Douglas J. Oliver

·       Tyler R. Dettman

·       Dawson Schultz

·       Nathan M. Holland

·       Nathaniel D. Smith

·       Alex Jurczyk

·       Jocelyn Taylor

·       Matthew Kasman

·       Justin M. Taylor

·       Christian J. Jr. Kramer

·       Devon Joseph

·       Clinton Yahn

·       Zachary A. Mayes

·       Cody Ziells