Anyone in the nuclear industry knows refueling outages are busy, congested and labor-intensive. Managing the tremendous workload can be complicated, particularly with so many hardhats sporting “New to Nuclear” stickers.

Through its partnership in the Utilities Service Alliance (USA), Cooper is hosting 20 industry peers, with the majority not qualifying for a “New to Nuclear” sticker for more than a decade (three decades in a few instances).

The group brings more than 300 years of aggregate experience.

“Resource sharing is a tremendous advantage of our USA membership,” commented Chuck Comstock, USA coordinator for CNS. “The loaned employees bring more than their backs with them. They provide a fresh outlook and ideas to their various roles and CNS as a whole.”

Coming from D.C. Cook, Fermi and Palo Verde, the team stands out from the rainbow of hardhats on-site; the crew can be distinguished by their American flag hardhats.

Shared personnel are not the only advantage Cooper receives from its membership in USA. For RE26, Cooper has borrowed a CRD accumulator cart from Columbia, three VIPER valve test systems from Palo Verde, and two displacement measuring transducers, also from Palo Verde. The total cost savings for the shared tools alone comes to more than $105,000.

USA members from Palo Verde include (left to right) Richard Van Ohlen, Tony Cain, John Anthony, Josh Gaydos, Tim Dziuk, Jon Schwenn, Lewis Underwood, Michael Doss, Dale Spicer and Rob Prince.

USA members from D.C. Cook include (left to right) Jim Bachteal, John Halfhill, Phil DeFalco, Fred Nickerson and Aaron Endsley.

USA members from Fermi include (left to right) Bruce Wood, Bill Dyer, Vince Macke and Paul Eory. Not pictured is Marc Brooks.