Local workers helping
to prepare for future
By Ed Miller
The Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant, located about 25
miles from Raleigh, is not generating electricity, but the construc
tion on the 900 mega-watt (900 million watts) nuclear generator is
now nearing completion and some Raeford residents are working
on the site.
The plant, which is scheduled to begin serving the public in
1986, employs about 4,000 construction workers and will have a
permanent staff of about 700 when completed.
Of those 4,000, about a dozen are from Raeford working in
various jobs from painter to engineer. . .
One field support engineer is Randy Frahm formerly of
Raeford.
According to Frahm, his job entails "supplying craft workers
with packages telling them what to do and where to do it."
Welders, painters, masons and other craftsmen rely on Frahm
and others like him to assemble the proper set of plans for a
specific task.
Frahm makes sure that everything is "checked and double
checked" for safety and in accordance with specifications.
Frahm has been at the construction site for over a year and
plans to be there possibly another two years.
Before working at the nuclear plant site, Frahm, who is a
graduate from Hoke High, was employed locally at Croft Metals.
He says his new job has allowed him to meet many people and
broaden his future, adding that he has no problems with working
to build a plant that uses nuclear fuel to provide electrical power.
"I think it is a safe power source," said Frahm. Before coming
to work at the station he had some reservations about the safety
of nuclear power, Frahm said, but after seeing all the safety
precautions taken at the site, he thinks "it is the way to go."
Workers at the site are screened daily to make sure they are
not working while impaired. Persons not belonging on the site
tare not admitted, he added.
Bernard Bridges is also a Raefordite working at the Harris
plant. He holds a field support position in which he makes copies
of plans for different parts of the operation.
The construction goes on
This scene is just one corner of a large platform that
will eventually be a working part of the plant. Loom
ing in the background is the 526 foot cooling tower
that will cool the steam turning the turbines so it can
be reused.
On an average day, the 13-year Raeford resident sees about 50
people per day and gives them plans, as well as another 50 people
that he never lays eyes on.
Bridges* also said that about eight out of every 10 people he -
sees need their plans "right now." That keeps him busy.
Bridges has been at the plant about nine months and works
along with seven of his relatives who are also from Hoke County.
The daily trek to the Harris plant takes about an hour and 20
minutes. The family members ride together, he said.
Bridges is also somewhat of a celebrated singer in and around
Raefordv
He sings tenor and has placed second in a state contest in the
male vocalist catagory, as well as touring much of the state in the
Hoke High Barbershop Quartet.
He is also a drummer.
Bridges and Frahm are two of the thousands of people that all
"click" together making sure that the Shearon Harris Nuclear
Plant will be finished on time and will be safe.
The physical size of the plant and the planning that has gone
into its creation is so large that it is hard to measure.
A 4,000 acre lake built near the plant will provide water to a
cooling tower that takes the heat out of steam that turns turbines
and makes electricity.
The cooling tower is 526 feet high with walls that are 33 inches
thick at the bottom, less than a foot in the middle and about 30
inches thick at the top.
There have already been one-half million cubic yards of con
crete poured at the sight and this concrete is twice as dense as
that used in the construction of a normal house, said Project
Construction Supervisor Bill Hindeman.
The concrete is made to particular specifications about 200
yards from the site.
Hindeman also said 8 million linear feet of cable have been put
into and around the site.
There are two diesel generators, housed in their own building,
that would be used as a back up system which would allow the
nuclear unit to be shut down slowly.
Hindeman said that it takes electricity to close down the system
that makes electricity.
These two backup generators have the capacity to provide
enough power to supply the needs of Aberdeen, Southern Pines,
Pinehurst and Raeford.
There are also systems in place which would take over if the
two backup generators were knocked out.
Safety is a primary concern of CP&L, and millions of dollars
are being spent to insure it.
Even while under construction, with equipment and machinery
operating around the site, the project has one of the best heavy
construction safety records in the state.
In addition to demonstrating concern about safety at the plant,
CP&L is also attempting to educate the public about the need for
energy.
About four miles from the generating plant is the Harris
Energy and Environmental Center where the public can learn
about the plant and nuclear power, see movies about how nuclear
heat is turned into electricity and observe displays covering many
of the aspects of using and making electrical energy.
There is even a bicycle that can be ridden to produce electrical
energy.
In the basement of this building are the laboratories that han
dle all the testing and experimentation for the Carolina Power &
Light system.
These labs also run analysis on construction materials.
According to Jay Mullins, Director of the center, all of the
equipment used at the facility is "state of the art" and in
corperates the latest technology.
In one lab there were dozens of small plastic containers of
water.
Mullins said that on each one of these containers the lab per
sonnel would run 50 tests.
The massive operation at and around the Shearon Harris Plant
must be seen to be believed.
The nucleus of the plant
Thit It the control center of th e power plant. If
.anything goet wrong with the tyttem, when the plant
} goat Into operation, ona of the many monitor* In this
room wW show U. If enythbtg ware to ever go wrong
with th 0 Instrumentation in this room, then is
another smaller control room close by this one that
earn be used to keep up with every function of the
plant.
Way the job works
Randy Frahm tells about the
duties of his job at the nuclear
plant construction site. Frahm
puis together packages that
teU workers what to do and
where to do It. Frahm says
that most of Ms spare time Is
spent working out at a nearby
Nautilus Center. He has been
working at the Shearon Harris
construction site for more
than a year.
Hometown man chats
Rat ford 's Bernard Bridges (left) is shown here talking with CPAL
Customer Service Manager, Ed Hltchings on the actual construction site
of the Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant. Bridges is a worker In the document
control department which is just one of the many areas that all pull
together to have the plant supplying power to North Carolina residents by
1986. ***? 'r'-llH;,. j,