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What’s the most difficult question you’ve been asked as a maintenance instructor?
Blye Widmar
"Where are the prints?!"
This was the final question in an onslaught of verbal feedback, comments, and critiques I received from my students back in 2019. I had two years of instructor experience and was teaching a class that had been meticulously rehearsed in preparation for an accreditation visit. I knew the training material well and transferred that knowledge effectively enough for all the students to pass the class. As we wrapped up, I asked the students how they felt about my first big system-level class, and they did not hold back.
“Why was the exam from memory when we don’t work from memory in the plant?” “Why didn’t we refer to the vendor documents?” “Why didn’t we practice more on the mock-up?” And so on.
Hans-Jürgen Engelmann
Nuclear Technology | Volume 121 | Number 2 | February 1998 | Pages 148-161
Technical Paper | German Direct Disposal Project | doi.org/10.13182/NT98-A2827
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In its resolution of January 1, 1985, the federal government of Germany deemed it necessary to develop, complementary to reprocessing, the direct disposal of spent fuel. The Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Bau und Betrieb von Endlagern für Abfallstoffe was in charge of the implementation of demonstration tests aimed at proving the state of engineering readiness and planning of different repository concepts.Several repository alternatives (borehole emplacement, drift emplacement) including different waste packages, cooling times, and technical equipment, etc., were compared. As a result, a reference and a backup concept were elaborated and subsequently examined in detail. Temperature calculations were carried out for a site-independent case and for a case using the working model of the Gorleben salt dome, which displays a horizontal cut of the geological structure of the salt dome.The demonstration tests were intended for confirming technical feasibility under realistic conditions. They comprised simulation tests for shaft transport of heavy loads, handling tests of drift disposal, and active handling experiments with neutron sources.
