Pantex Blog

Facility Engineer Brandon Black, left, and Reliability Engineering Manager Nick Stephens describe how Pantex uses infrared thermography to identify failing power cables outside the North Main Substation.

Planned power outages are nothing new to Pantexans. When such events occur, though, how do site engineers identify what equipment is properly operating and what might require replacement?

“Before every electrical outage, we have to go out and inspect the manholes to examine the equipment that provides power to every facility,” explained Reliability Engineering Manager Nick Stephens. “We use infrared thermography to see if there are problems with the plant’s electrical distribution system.”

Infrared (IR) thermography, also known as thermal imaging, uses a heat-sensitive camera to detect infrared radiation coming from a given source, with the goal of trying to restore power, to extend equipment life, and to provide the best possible maintenance for Pantex devices and infrastructure.

But while the issue with the power cables was a problem, Stephens said it was not the problem.

“We were having to contract that work out,” he said. “That was causing delays, always being dependent on someone else.”

Facility Engineer Brandon Black recalled the frustration but said having the added in-house capability is paying dividends.

“Having the equipment and trained personnel on-site to perform the IR scans is a great benefit,” Black said. “We are able to perform these scans quickly based on emergent issues or operational needs, rather than being constrained by a contractor’s schedule or availability.”

Implementing IR thermography was more than just overcoming the latest obstacle, though. Stephens said the desire to bring IR thermography capability to Pantex had always been an objective.

“One of the cores of reliability engineering, as a discipline, is infrared thermography,” he said. “As we started seeing more outages and connections catastrophically failing, it drove a need for the plant to be more proactive to these situations.”

But how has reliability engineering evolved from a discipline exercised within one group to its own department within Pantex Engineering?

“Reliability Engineering at Pantex probably came about three years ago,” explained Infrastructure and Projects Director Ryan George. “The group was under Infrastructure and managed the preventive maintenance (PM) program. As we began to look at predictive maintenance and other technologies, the group was moved to Engineering, and we have been hiring experienced engineers ever since.”

The premise, according to George, is to take a more proactive approach to problem-solving, looking for predictive ways to perform condition-based maintenance.

“We’re always trying to find just the right amount of maintenance to keep everything running without interfering with people’s work,” George said.

Pantex reliability engineers are the men and women whose technical expertise equips them to dive into things like thermal images to diagnose problems when they happen.

“While we contracted IR Scanning out, we didn’t retain those thermal images,” Stephens said. “Consequently, any subsequent in-depth analysis of an issue would be contingent upon receiving responsive information from the contractor.”

He said the decision to bring IR thermography capability to Pantex dramatically sped up outage investigations, facilitating faster repairs.

“Taking away that need to contract out gives us freedom to schedule our maintenance and our actions when we need to,” Stephens said. “Now, there’s only a two- or three-day delay in taking the images, receiving them back from Engineering and getting a report out in a day or two. It really speeds things up.”

Black said Pantex having its own engineers and equipment enables the plant to better monitor trends in a given piece or collection of equipment, planning future maintenance and life cycles accordingly.

“With the reliability engineers analyzing the images and preparing the reports,” he said, “we’ll be able to have a standardized IR scan report with consistent information that will be used to monitor equipment history.”

George said having a dedicated team of engineers committed to making sure Pantex and its federal customer receives the greatest value and productivity for its investment is vital, especially in light of the greater workload coming in the near future.

“We have about 15,000 PMs that we control,” he said. “That number will continue to grow as we bring on new facilities and so one of our major efforts is to make sure we are doing what we should be doing. At Pantex, we have so much work to do; we don’t want to waste time doing PMs that aren’t valuable.”

Annually, Emergency Management plans one full-scale exercise, additional exercises, and multiple drills

Radioactive wasp nests discovered in South Carolina. Twenty tons of cheese spilling on a highway in Pennsylvania. Monkeys escaping an overturned semi-truck in Mississippi — none of these things have happened here — but they did happen. That’s why when Emergency Preparedness Specialist Kenton Falerios plans an emergency exercise, he doesn’t hold back. We live in a world where fish fall from the sky, so the exercises he invents have to be realistic, but also account for oddities that sometimes happen.

“There is a method to my madness,” Falerios said. “I try to think what could really happen when planning an exercise. I might watch a show, read a book, or someone might just come up and tell me something crazy, so I have my list that I call my exercise ideas. I try to make exercises realistic, but unique. Sometimes during exercises or drills, people will jokingly say, ‘when does Godzilla come in?’ or ‘when does the alien land?’. I try to keep the practice realistic, but sometimes reality is crazy.”

The Department of Energy requires the Emergency Management department to do one full-scale exercise annually to test and validate our plans, procedures, and responses. Groups practice response to certain hazards like fires, explosions, and chemical spills among many other potentially emergent situations. The exercises are based off the Maximum Limits List (ML2) and the Chemical Control Program. From those documents, a five-year exercise plan is developed including specific hazards that must be addressed. Full-scale exercises involve a whole-site response from any department that would be involved if the incident were real. Whether people are sheltering, evacuating, or responding, they are considered part of the exercise and should go through the motions the same way as if it were real.

“Each full-scale exercise is designed to have between three to four things happen,” Falerios said. “If folks are able to respond to, manage, and plan with multiple events at the same time, then when a real emergency happens, they’ll have the confidence to overcome that situation.”

In addition to the full-scale exercises, there are two additional exercises and multiple drills per year. Due to varying employee schedules, each person required to participate has an opportunity to join at least one exercise or drill. This ensures that Pantex satisfies requirements for DOE regulations and participation in the Emergency Response Organization (ERO). The ERO is a trained and qualified team of more than 200 Pantexans who are activated in the event of an operational emergency to respond to, mitigate, and recover from crises affecting the Pantex Plant. Even though there is a designated response group, all Pantexans should be proficient in emergency response by participating in full-scale exercises.

“One of the key factors to be successful in the event of an actual emergency is to constantly train,” Falerios said. “It needs to become muscle memory where we all know what to do, and to know what those around us are doing. Having the confidence in our equipment and the abilities of each other around us will help us get through emergency situations as they arise.”

Falerios has planned 31 exercises so far during his career at Pantex. Whether it’s a forklift dropping a load, an employee facing a medical emergency, or even a tornado of sharks, these practices provide employees with the skill and confidence necessary to respond effectively and appropriately — reinforcing that Pantex is capable of handling any emergency situation any day of the week.

“You don’t want to be the person who doesn’t know what to do or where to go when something is really happening,” Falerios said. “I think it’s important for people to partake in these exercises. I may be the guy who develops them, but they’re only successful because of the teamwork between Emergency Management and every person working here. Pantex Emergency Management could not effectively accomplish successful exercises or response without the support of Pantex volunteers and personnel.”