Like most days at a nuclear energy plant, if it passes without hoopla or fanfare or excitement, that’s probably just fine with most people. Saturday, December 13 marked 30 years since USA fleet member Columbia Generating Station first began commercial operations.

Since that December day in 1984, Columbia has generated more than 214 million net megawatt-hours of electricity. Some current team members have been present for every one of them.

In fact, John Twomey has worked at Columbia for 37 years – the first seven for Burns & Roe, the plant designer. Since then, Twomey has been a Design engineer, System engineer, Maintenance engineer, System Engineering supervisor (BOP) and worked on Columbia’s successful license renewal.

From construction to start-up to license renewal, Twomey has seen it all.

“Each step presented different challenges, which reminds me of the famous quote ‘it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.’ However, as an organization, Energy Northwest was able to work through each challenge to reach the level of excellence at which we operate the plant today.”

Gary Ash, Information Solutions, remembers his first day on the job: January 30, 1984. But there are some early days he’d just as soon forget.

“I started work here as a systems analyst at a time when our enterprise software computer processing was rented on the Washington state mainframe in Olympia,” Ash recalled recently. “We weren’t using PCs then, and didn’t do so in any meaningful way until the late 1980s. I had the thankless assignment of recommending which departments would be allowed to install one of the six PCs we bought. There was far more interest than we could fulfill.”

Steve Short started as an electrician in May 1981. He is now a Maintenance planner, and like many who have been here through the years, feels fortunate to work in an industry with a paramount focus on safety. But Short says the best part of all his years at Columbia has been the people with whom he’s worked.

“Over the past thirty-plus years, I have had the privilege to know – and lose – some very fine people. I am glad to have shared this career with so many talented people. I have been on several teams here with people who set aside their personal feelings to do what was best for the plant and the public.”

Mark Painter has spent the last three of his 30 years at Energy Northwest with Plant Support Engineering. When asked to comment on the importance of Columbia operating for another 30 years, Painter says nuclear energy has benefits other sources do not.

“All electrical generation methods have negative aspects. Some are (intermittent). Others produce harmful pollution directly into our environment. Hydro is clean and inexpensive, but there are no significant expansion possibilities beyond our current dams,” Painter said. “Nuclear Power is the only option that we can use to expand baseload capacity as needed, while containing the negative byproducts of production in a manner that effectively protects the public.”

Columbia, like the nuclear energy industry as a whole, has seen its performance strengthen over time. As CEO Mark Reddemann recounted at last week’s all-employee meetings, Columbia has been operating at a record setting pace: online for more than five years without an unplanned shutdown; currently in its longest continuous operational run, breaking the record of 505 days set in April 2011. Columbia has been online for 539 consecutive days and counting.

“None of these accomplishments was possible without commitment from you and your teammates,” Reddemann told Energy Northwest team members. “No organization can be successful without employees who are proud of what they do for a living and employees who are dedicated, enthusiastic and knowledgeable.”

The achievements made by station employees are recognized by community leaders.

“Safety and reliability are not words casually thrown about at Energy Northwest, but rather the underpinnings of the agency’s culture,” Elliot Mainzer, Bonneville Power Authority administrator and CEO said in a letter to CEO Mark Reddemann. “Anyone who has had the pleasure of visiting the Columbia Generating Station can attest to the pervasive culture of safety, and anyone in the Northwest who flips a light switch can thank Energy Northwest for its role in our region’s reliable, low-cost power supply.