# Diving Radioactive Water



## swander (Dec 1, 2007)

Been working up in Nebraska at a refueling outage in a nuclear power plant. Thought some of you guys might find this interesting. The pictures are of some contract divers that inspected the suction strainers for emergency core cooling pumps and the entire surface coating. They video tape the entire thing. They are in a doughnut shaped ring that encircles the reactor.About 30 ftaround and 200 ft. in diameter.Steam is dumped into this doughnut in the event the reactor needs to be shutdown. In an emergency water can be pumped from this area to keep the core covered. The water is not highly radioactive but it is contaminated that is why they are in a completely sealed suit.Notice the tenders are in anti-contamination clothing.The whole job took about 24 hrs. Steve


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## Evensplit (Oct 2, 2007)

Crazy. Thanks for sharing!


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

Great Job, I like that modified Desco pot. I didn't think they still used them. Here's a picture of one I have used many years ago and since retired to the mantle.


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## Orion45 (Jun 26, 2008)

Read an article about odd diving jobs. One of them was exactly what you described and one of the others was diving in water towers. The guy that specialized in it said the hardest part was getting used to the heights.


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## HateCheese (Oct 2, 2007)

That has got to be one of the oddest places you can dive!! Not sure I'd like the possible contamination, but I'm sure the pay makes up for it in the short term.


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## markw4321 (Oct 4, 2007)

Hope they had any children they wanted already.

Mark W


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