Exelon Nuclear Work Values

Daily Duties at Exelon Nuclear:

Project Manager to develop emergency preparedness (EP) software, using Micro Soft (MS) Access, to calculate the offsite radiation dose (dose assessment) from an accidental airborne release of radioactive material during a nuclear accident. The software complies with 10 CFR 50.47(b) and provides information to emergency personnel on making protective action recommendations to state authorities during a nuclear accident. o Asked by upper management to take over development of a new software product after the initial attempt failed. The project was supposed to use an “existing core software program” as a standard and modify it to 4 nuclear plants in Exelon Mid-Atlantic region. o Project team consisted of 1 visual basic programmer, 1 documentation and 2 research assistants. o Having no previous experience with software development or development of offsite dose models, taught myself the following under a tight project schedule. • Read nuclear industry and Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents relating to accidental releases of airborne radioactive material, became a subject matter expert, and applied the self-taught technical knowledge to the development of the software product. • Self-taught MS Access functions, operations and layout to communicate with programmer and create a logic layout of the tables and fields. o Provided the following command decisions to prevent the project from failure. • The existing core software code was not written to industry standards, consequently my VB programmer could not follow the mathematical operations and logic. I authorized the programmer to re-write the entire software code to prevent mistakes and program the code to industry standards, but keep the same outward look and feel by using the same software forms and graphic user interfaces so the outward appearance looked like the standard model. • After evaluation of math operations for the release of radioactive material by effluent radiation monitors, rewrote the release rate mathematics to be consistent expected conditions and correct math operations. • Managed customized requests from the sites to prevent the scope of the project from exceeding management expectations and budget. • Reduced the staff to consist of the VB programmer and myself, to meet budgetary constraints. • Due to the complexity and number of variables in the calculations I broke down the calculations into 5 sub totals for ease of identifying where errors occurred in the program. • In parallel, developed MS excel spreadsheets of the program as a proto-type to validate the functions and mathematics of the MS Access software. By emailing these proto-type spreadsheets to the VB programmer it allowed him to see, identity and correct mistakes immediately during programming phase, saving valuable development and validation testing time. o Customized the core standard software program by developing environmental release pathways for each of the nuclear sites using site Technical Specification, Updated Final Safety Analysis Report and other site-specific documents. o Created end user qualifications to qualify individuals for emergency preparedness roles in dose assessment using the new software, including: • Wrote dose assessment procedures for end users • Developed and taught lesson plans for the newly created dose assessment software • Developed practical factors signoffs to qualify individuals to operate the dose assessment software • Assisted in the development and evaluated up to 60 training drills to qualify individuals in the new emergency preparedness roles in dose assessment. o Participated in the development and evaluation of 4 FEMA graded biannual exercises for the Mid Atlantic region. Interface with state and local officials during development of the graded exercises.

What they like about Exelon Nuclear:

You give high priority to hiring firms with prestige. Market reputation and prestige of a firm may be determined through on-line research, and conversations with individuals working in your target industry. Note that firms "in the public eye" receive a great deal more critical publicity and attention than those operating with more anonymity. So as you assess your employment opportunities, be sure to seek out the positive aspects of the firm's reputation in addition to noting negative publicity the company may have received.

Tags

Physicist, Radiation, Nuclear, Software, Emergency, Hydrogen, Change, Instructor, ALARA, Dosimetry, BWR, Procedure, CHP, NRRPT, Preparedness, Dose, Database, Shielding, Engineer, Instrumentation, Training, Regulatory, Compliance, NRC, Culture

Skills

P&L responsibilities, Presentation, Ecommerce Strategy and digital marketing channels optimization - SEO, SEM, email, affiliates - for high-profile accounts., Technology Solutions, Sales Support, Software Implementation, Requirements Analysis & Specification, Leadership , Process Thinker, Using Training to Increase Group Performance, Using Training to capture and retain vital knowledge, Use of TV to communicate technical materials, Project Management for Software Development, Assisting with organizational change via training, Overcoming adversity in the work place, Self teaching by observation and reference materials

These are some of the questions we asked our climbers about their experiences with Exelon Nuclear: