FSV Folks Group Photos from the 1960's

The Original FSV Staff -- 1969

The Original 20 Licensed Operators of Fort St. Vrain

Members of the High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Technology Course from Public Service Company of Colorado. Photo was taken at Gulf-General Atomic facilities in La Jolla, California. The training was Sept 2 to Dec. 19, 1969. These twenty PSC employees all had a hand in training subsequent licensed operators, who affectionately tagged them the "Golden Butts." Click HERE for a much larger photo.

Back Row L-R: Jack Gahm, Pierre Oubre (GGA Coordinator), Jack Oliver, Jerry Van Dyke, Ed Hill and Woody Hillyard.

Middle Two Rows L-R: Frank Mathie, Virgil Wetzbarger, Henry Wiggins, Duane Helms, Wilbur Franklin, Don Hood, LeRoy Singleton, Fred Swart, Bill Elliot.

Front Row L-R: Larry Brey (in very front), Ray Wadas, Roger Heller, George Billings, Duane Rodgers, Ken Barnett.

Thanks to Woody Hillyard for sending in the photo.

EARLY FORT SAINT VRAIN HISTORY

Initial Staff Selection, Preparation for Reactor Operator Exams for Plant Startup

by Duane Rodgers

In 1967 Public Service Company of Colorado (PSC) was considering the construction of the Fort Saint Vrain (FSV) nuclear plant. This plant would be a 330 MWe High Temperature Gas Cooled (HTGR) nuclear reactor plant north and west of Platteville CO, just south of the confluence of the South Platte and St. Vrain rivers. In preparation for staffing of this plant PSC setup a program to select people who were interested in the project and who had the qualifications necessary for management, operations and technical support personnel. Dr. Hilding Olson (Ollie) from Colorado State University (CSU) nuclear engineering department was contracted to conduct a series of classes to teach the basics in math and science and to recommend those who, in his opinion, would be good candidates for staffing the plant. By 1968 PSC had made the decision to construct the plant and plans were made to get those who would be required to obtain a Cold Operators License into a training program. The program would consist of going to the Peach Bottom (PB) plant in Pennsylvania where a 40 MWe gas cooled reactor was in operation. The men would obtain a Hot Reactor Operators (RO) license for the PB 1 plant in order to be qualified to take the exams leading to the Cold Reactor Operators License for FSV. The Cold license is the more difficult to obtain as it involves the startup of a new reactor. These operator exams involved rigorous written and oral exams over two days where the candidates were required to know, in great detail, the many systems in the plant as well as physics, health physics, control systems and many other specialties

In August of 1968 the first group of men was sent to the PB plant to start their training to obtain the PB operators license. Some of the men brought their families with them. Housing was obtained in Bellaire MD but was in reasonable driving distance to the PB plant in PA. These men were:

Plant Manager – Fred Swart

Maintenance Manager – Frank Mathie

Results Engineers – Roger Heller & Larry Brey

Shift Supervisors - Don Hood, Virgil Wetzbarger, Jack Oliver, and Bill Elliott

Reactor Operators – Joe Duncan and Leroy Singleton

In the fall of 1968 Duane Rodgers was selected to be the Senior Health Physicist for the plant and it was arranged for him to attend CSU to obtain a masters degree in Radiology and Radiation Biology. Bob Hoffman (dec) also attended these classes but was not a degree candidate. Duane attended CSU in the fall quarter of 1968. He was then in the second group to go to the PB plant in February of 1969. Upon his return to Colorado from the California training program in December of 1969 he again enrolled in classes at CSU and completed the Masters Degree program in August of 1970. During that time he and Jack Gahm also worked on system descriptions and setup of the gas chemistry, water chemistry, radio chemistry and health physics programs for the plant.

In February of 1969 the first group of men returned to Colorado and the second group was sent to the PB plant. These men were:

Assistant Plant Manager – Kenny Barnett

Health Physicists – Duane Rodgers and Bob Hoffman

Results Engineers – Ed Hill and Harvey (Woody) Hillyard

Shift Supervisors - Jerry VanDyke

Reactor Operators – Henry Wiggins, Ray Wadas, George Billing, Duane Helms and Wilbur Franklin

Shortly after this group arrived in MD Bob Hoffman determined he did not want to continue as a Health Physicist and Jack Gahm was sent to PA to replace Bob. Jack had to do a lot of extra work to catch up with the group but did a great job in getting up to speed with the others in the group.

In August of 1969 the second group of men completed their studies at PB and returned to CO for about a week. At that time the entire staff and some of their families went to LaJolla CA to attend four months of HTGR Technology classes presented by General Atomics (GA), the reactor vendor. This training consisted of a thorough presentation of the design and function of each system in the plant by the system designers and how the various systems interacted.

Near the end of December 1969 the GA training was completed and the entire group returned to CO. We were soon quartered at the plant site in trailers. At that time Loretta Hollis joined us as a secretary. Each man was assigned several plant systems on which he was to become an expert and write system descriptions and operating procedures. A training department was established and all of the men also attended classes in math, physics, chemistry, health physics control systems and many other subjects on which they would be tested during their RO exams. Eventually all the men did pass the exams and were given Cold SRO or RO licenses. During this time additional personnel were assigned to the plant as technicians, operators, maintenance men, electricians, etc. All of these were required to take extensive training to prepare them for work in the nuclear plant.

Bill Franek joined the staff as a results engineer and was given the responsibility of designing the program and procedures for initial fuel loading. Bill did a masterful job of planning, designing special equipment and overseeing the fuel loading. Fuel loading was completed on January 16, 1974. The plant achieved initial criticality on January 31, 1974 and proceeded into rise to power testing. Click HERE for additional history.

WDR

3-17-2008

General Atomics in La Jolla, California