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NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2015
Preparedness for...
fire, not just a drill,” said Simpson, who
presented Palisades’ beneficial practices
during industry events.
Today Palisades’ fire brigade
consists of Palisades’ non-licensed
plant operators with their NRC-required
training supplemented with completion
of an exact replica of the Scott National
Firefighter Combat Challenge relay
course located at Palisades’ fire training
facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Fire
brigade members can attempt to qualify
for Palisades’ competition team by
completing the challenge relay at the
Kalamazoo facility. The five members
with the fastest times qualify for the
challenge competition team.
During the most recent Scott
National Firefighter Combat Challenge
regional competition in Lake Charles,
Louisiana, Team Palisades qualified for
the Final Four bracket, running against
the number one fire department team in
the world.
“This was the furthest our team has
ever advanced in the competition. It was
very impressive what these guys did,
said Simpson. “We even hold the title for
Michigan State Champion, as the fastest
relay team in the state. They’re on cloud
nine.”
The team has qualified for the 2015
World Challenge, which is scheduled
immediately following Palisades’ next
refueling outage.
Since first competing in the
regional challenge in 2012, Palisades
has continued sending teams to regional
competitions located in Lexington,
Kentucky, and Indianapolis, Indiana, with
team relay times earning them a spot in
the national and world challenge events
each year.
“The benefits have been physical
and mental. You started to see on-shift
operators who were overweight or not
motivated start to work out more, getting
in better shape. One shift even has a daily
team workout.” said Turner. “You can tell
coming off night shift that people are just
more alert.”
Qualifying with a 91-second relay
run, Palisades first competed in the world
challenge in 2013 against teams from all
over the United States, Canada, Europe
and Australia. At the end of the day, Team
Palisades’ best run was just 22 seconds
behind the winning team.
In 2014 the Palisades Fast 40 team
joined in, competing in the 40-and-up
age division at the regional event in
Indianapolis, Indiana. With the Scott
Firefighter Combat Challenge open to
any trained firefighter, the Palisades Fast
40 team included employees who were
members of municipal fire departments
and was not limited to Palisades fire
brigade members.
At home in Southwest Michigan the
Palisades fire brigade trains with the local
municipalities both on and offsite.
“It’s evident that they take their role
very seriously,” said Campbell. “They
demonstrate stellar response times during
our on-site drills and tackle what can be
some very intimidating situations.”
This year Palisades’ fire brigade
has partnered with the local American
Red Cross to bring fire safety awareness
and prevention to homeowners in
the southwest Michigan community.
Through the American Red Cross Team
Fire Stoppers national effort, Palisades
fire brigade members and Red Cross
volunteers will go door-to-door in local
communities providing home fire safety
kits and offering to install basic fire
protection equipment such as smoke
detectors and fire extinguishers.
Palisades fire training takes place
at the Kalamazoo Fire Academy in
Kalamazoo, Michigan. Training props
to replicate potential fire situations at a
nuclear plant have been built by Simpson
and Campbell, with the assistance of
the Kalamazoo Police and Fire Training
Academy. The facility features a five-story
burn tower for training on real structure
fires, a cable tray prop for electrical fires
and a simulated transformer which, when
lit, simulates a class B transformer fire.
Palisades Power Plant, owned
by the Entergy Corporation, is an
800-megawatt pressurized water reactor
located in Southwest Michigan. It began
commercial operation in 1971 and has
approximately 600 employees. Entergy
Corporation is an integrated energy
company engaged primarily in electric
power production and retail distribution
operations. Entergy owns and operates
power plants with approximately 30,000
megawatts of electric generating capacity,
including nearly 10,000 megawatts of
nuclear power, making it one of the
nation’s leading nuclear generators.
Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million
utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana,
Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has
annual revenues of more than $12 billion
and approximately 13,000 employees.
The Scott National Firefighter
Combat Challenge is held throughout the
country and has expanded internationally
to Canada, New Zealand, Chile and many
other countries. More information about
the Challenge can be found at
http://
firefighter-challenge.com
Contact: Lindsay Rose, Entergy
Nuclear, telephone: (269) 764-2333,
email:
.
Fire brigade member Joe Ford
completes the victim rescue leg of
the relay course at the Scott National
Firefighter
Challenge
regional
competition in Indianapolis. The
175-pound victim must be dragged 100
feet.
