It's All Nuclear

Here's something I've experienced here in the Washington Tri-Cities area that I definitely won't experience anywhere else - the whole town (okay, three-ish cities) was built on and still mostly runs for one reason - the Manhattan project and its aftermath. For those of you who don't know, the Hanford Site, which is outside of Richland, was the place where the first full scale nuclear reactor was built and was where the plutonium for the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki was produced. Building this reactor was a massive construction project that was completed in record time with almost complete secrecy which wiped out a lot of the farms and the Native American territory that was there before World War Two. A lot of the structures that were built then still exist out in the middle of miles of scrub-brush-filled desert. And of course, there are the tanks full of 40 million-odd gallons of nuclear waste out there, which I am helping to work to clean up.

But here's the thing - even in town, you cannot forget the town's legacy. For example, Richland High School's mascot is the Bombers. Streets are named Atom, Einstein, Innovation, Leslie, Groves, Fermi. Most non-Bechtel people I've met are from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which helps with processing waste, or CHM2Hill, which manages the tank farms. Most people seem to be pro-nuclear power. I even went to a museum about the geology and history of the place, where they had an exhibit on vitrification where I could point out exactly what I was working on, which was undoubtedly very strange and very cool. Honestly, I'm a bit worried that once all the waste and stuff from the Manhattan Project is cleaned up, there won't be much here afterwards. On the other hand, it is definitely awesome to see that what I am working on has local and historical significance.

Work is going very well. There have been some exciting moments where I've seen stuff I've been working on has been used at the plant and to make important decisions in town. I did some work on a project for my manager that got presented to some of his bosses, and I became the work-off curve queen. Only problem - my manager just got transferred to work on another building, so I'm going to have to start all over with the new guy, who seems nice enough.

I also did my report out - my final presentation - last week, even though I've still got a while left to go. It went well - I got the most laughs, and I think I impressed upper management. I was slightly blindsided by a question about how much force it takes to haul a space shuttle on the back of a Toyota, but other than that, it went great.

This is probably one of the best places I could have interned because asking questions and being open to answering questions, regardless of position or ability, is highly encouraged. This attitude is important enough that there are even a lot of acronyms associated with it (SCWE*, anyone?), because, on a government job, anything important has an acronym.

I am definitely having a great experience here, and am not really looking forward to going back to school. It's nice only having to focus on a few things at a time, and having everyone actively on the same page working to succeed. Honestly, I'm a different person here than I am allowed to be at school, which is nice. Also, I've heard from pretty much everyone - junior year, especially in engineering, is hell. It's also nice not to have to worry about monsoon rains.

I will be returning to Tucson in a few short weeks, but I still have some time to have a good time here.

*SCWE - Safety Conscious Work Environment - as part of a nuclear safety and quality culture (NSQC), an open work environment where people are encouraged to ask questions and point out potential safety issues without fear of retribution. Opposite of a "chilled" work environment. Yes, I had to get training for this.

Hoists and Cranes and Robot Arms - Oh My!

One of the weirdest things about this internship is not something I even considered going in, and it's simply this -  that everybody seems to be married, or close to it. I'll admit that that should not have come as a surprise to me - I'm working with mostly older people who have been established for a while, but it was still a bit of a shock to go from an environment full of horny college kids to an environment where people ask about your kids. Even the intern who is one cubicle over has a wife and two kids (he is a bit older, though). It's a total change in attitude.

The internship is going well on pretty much every front. My manager likes me, my group lead loves me, and I'm getting a lot of good work done. My lead wonders how I get so much done, but I've gone from juggling a lot of classes in hard majors, having leadership positions in two clubs and being fairly active in two more, and trying to have a social life - to focusing on one or two things at a time and having my social life pretty much handed to me (the other interns are much better at planning stuff to do than I am, and my housemate has connections). Also, I don't have the experience to know how to responsibly procrastinate (yet) and I like what I'm doing much better than the stuff I'm doing at school. So yes, I do good work and I'm enjoying myself immensely. I'm definitely having a good experience

I'm still working mostly with cranes, hoists, and manipulators, and all of those can be more intricate than you'd think, especially if the operator can't be in the room with them. Some of the cranes in black cells, where no one will be allowed after the plant starts up because of intense radiation, have some pretty cool configurations that involve cameras and lasers. When I've visited the site, I've seen that there are two colors of cranes. The yellow cranes are permanent, and the blue ones come out after construction is done. There are a lot more permanent cranes in the buildings than temporary ones. 

Outside of work, I've been pretty active. My housemate is training for a triathlon, so I've been tagging along when she goes to the gym. I'm still biking a lot, more out of convenience than for exercise. I've gone out hiking a few times. Some hikes have been spectacular, some have just been so-so, but it's fun getting out with friends. I've also gone to a few more Tri-Cities Dust Devil baseball games, but they've lost every game I've been at, so I might stop going.

I've gained a guard dog. My housemate has two small poodles, and I've won the loyalty of one, D.O.G. (emphasis on the "O"), by virtue of my generosity with belly rubs and treats. He's quite the funny puppy.  

I missed 4th of July at home. In Washington, I saw some fireworks, and had some awesome ribs and a pint ..... of blueberries (still not quite drinking age). I miss the pageantry, and the awesome fireworks from back home, but nothing can quite compare to those on the coast.

TLDR: I'm doing fine, people like me, I like people, 4th of July at home is better.

Have a great week!

A Hot Summer

It is currently hotter than Tucson right now in the Tri-Cities area in Washington, and it is slated to be over 100 degrees F for the forseeable future. Good thing I did everything there is to do in the Tri-Cities already.

Okay, not really. But it is a small town kinda out in the middle of nowhere where everybody knows your name, even if you haven't met them yet. But... I've hiked Badger Mountain, which is the thing that everyone says to do if you're from out of town. It's a good short hike, and the view is amazing. I went tubing down the Yakima RiverI've gone to see the local minor league (A- rated) baseball team, the Tri-City Dust Devils, and seen their fireworks show. (They lost, but I had fun). I've gone to the newish mall in Kennewick that everyone was excited about a few times and have gone to the movie theater there. I went to go see the B Reactor, whose massive core contains more than 2000 process tubes for converting uranium-235 into plutonium, some of which was dropped on Nagasaki in the Fat Man bomb. That process created the waste we're still trying to clean up. The reactor itself, though, is a technical marvel - built fast and dirty and without any kind of precedent like it.

So... how's the internship going? I'm learning a lot more than I thought I would about business side of engineering (i'm shadowing a procurement team) and about how things as mundane as the difference between "finger-tight" and "tool-tight" can hugely impact safety and efficiency. There's still a ton of paperwork, but that's the nature of the beast. I've been working a lot with cranes, winches, and big pulley wheels while working with a guy who has a Christopher Eccleston accent (Northern English, for those who aren't fangirls), and a redhead, which is pretty cool. I've also got the chance to meet and talk to some of the higher-ups in the project, like the heads of engineering, and the HR people have semi-successfully set up teleconferences in order to introduce us to some of the higher ups in the company. Regardless, I'm meeting a lot of really interesting, extremely intelligent people.

On the side, I've hooked up with my housemate's running group (where I am apparently fast), found both the local used bookstore and the Barnes and Noble (which are depressingly far away [on a bike]), and have been helping care for two dogs (older poodles), so I have definitely kept busy.

Pictures to come as soon as I find my misplaced SD to USB converter. :-/ Sorry folks.

On that note, I will not have any pictures of me on the job. There are all kinds of rules about what I can take pictures of and where I can show it since I'm on a government-funded nuclear project that has already gotten plenty of bad press, and I don't want to step on any toes.

I'm going to try to be better at posting than last summer, but given that I'm not perfect and I'm extremely lazy (especially in the summer), that will be a bit of a challenge.

Anyway, have a good 4th of July, and be sure to shoot off your pyrotechics safely!

Internship Update

It's been a few weeks at the new job and I'm finally starting to see how things fit together.

First off, I've had to learn a new language.If someone in the know asked me what I did, I could tell them that I'm interning with MH for LAW at WTP as part of BNI's NS&E GBU, which translates to interning with Mechanical Handling for the Low Activity Waste facility at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant in Richland, Washington, which is part of Bechtel National Incorperated's Nuclear Security and Environment Global Business Unit.

In plain English, I'm helping design a nuclear containment and decontamination facility. Pretty cool, right?

Everybody there has been very nice to me. There are three other interns in my section, and around 20 interns overall here, which is great. They have us doing real work which will actually have some impacts on the construction of the facility. Since this is a government job (the customer is the US Department of Energy), there is an excess of paperwork to do. Every bolthole, screw, and valve has to be documented. It's tedious, but everyone's gotta do it. I've been working on a pretty nifty calculation and sitting in on procurement meetings in addition to all that, though. My boss is awesome and has done a great job of making sure I feel included in what goes on and that I don't get bored.

One of the things that seems extremely different here than any other company I've heard of is the extreme emphasis on safety. Every meeting starts with a safety topic (and everyone seems to have one ready to go), so safety is always in the forefront. Something must be working, because when I visited the site, I saw a sign that said that there had been 175 days since a lost time accident, which is unheard of. (I'm working town, in the office, so I only have had the chance to actually see the site, which is about 20 minutes out of town, one time). Even the surrounding town is very insistent on their street signs and crosswalk buttons and even has caution flags for when people are crossing the street.

So where am I? The office is in Richland, Washington, which is part of the Tri-Cities area, in the South East corner of the state. Despite what you've heard about the rest of Washington, I've traded one desert for another by spending my summer here instead of Tucson - it's still a dry heat. That being said, everything is extremely green and agricultural here. The person I'm staying with even has chickens.

I'm staying out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of nowhere - and it's great. I'm getting in shape really fast. I've been biking around a lot (probably at least 20 miles every weekend) because it's 3 miles to the main road and another 2 to get into town. I've also been paint-balling, gone to the movies and the mall, and done some hiking. I'm enjoying the change of pace.

I have a tendency to forget that I don't live in a bubble. I tend to forget that I didn't get here on my own, that I have a huge support network, that there are so many people helping me succeed. So, thank you all for being there for me, for helping me get this opportunity.

Some info on the plant, and some more info on the plant.

The Adventure Begins

Right now, it’s about three o’clock Wednesday as I write this (you’re probably reading this much later – I don’t trust airport WiFi – too insecure). I’m sitting in Seattle airport in the middle of a three hour layover on my way to Pasco, where I will begin my next great adventure – an internship! In a real company! With real responsibility! In a state I have never been to!

Here's me, funny hat, short hair and all in Seattle:

I am on my way to starting my internship in Richland, WA with the Bechtel Corporation. I have a place to live, people to meet, stuff to do. I am so stoked, a raging bonfire has nothing on me. I’m going to be a mechanical engineering intern, but as of right now, I have no clue what my exact duties are. I’ll let you know as soon as I do – and am allowed.

My flight from my home to Seattle was pretty uneventful. There was only one crying baby (right in front of me!) but it was actually pretty quiet. I sat next to some nice older couple coming to Portland (eventually) and got a few chapters into Pillars of the Earth. Easy-peasy, no problems at all. Makes for quite the boring story, unfortunately. I’m sitting here in Seattle Airport across from a Starbucks. I walked around and found two of them without even leaving the terminal I’m in. Every gift shop is selling obnoxiously pink nightshirts that read “Sleepless in Seattle.” The terminal I’m in right now is doing hops to Canada.

My relax week at home is over. I got to meet up with a couple of buddies and re-explore downtown and (most importantly) catch up on some sleep. I spent some quality time with the siblings and the parents, but the quick turnaround was still a bit of a shocker.

So here I am, starting off on a completely new, almost completely unknown adventure. I will be telling you all about it as it unfolds. I love you all!

.......

Later - I made it. and am staying with an excellent person (with two dogs) and have plans to meet up with other interns! Good night, people. More when I have more to report.

It's Over... It's (Halfway) Done

I realize I haven't been posting consistently for a while, but that's the cheesy beginning of every bad blog.
As of right now, my dear loyal readers, I am half way through college. Yes, you read that right. I have spent two years locked up in a brick institution eating crappy food, crying, and dreaming of escape. If all goes well, I'll only have two more.
So this year, I officially declared a double major in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, finished a minor in Spanish, met a ton of crazy people, saw some cool things, and opened up a whole host of opportunities for next year.

Last week was finals week. I wrote an essay on the dissemination of misinformation all over the net and all over the nation. I did some pretty tricky differential equations. I talked about radiation and heat generation, and the way things move and their aberrations. Also, Othello's impact and his final vindication. And I learned a lot of funky abbreviations.
And I studied circuits. Sorry, couldn't come up with a good rhyme for that.
So that was the past two weeks. Sorry not sorry for dropping my obligation of posting platitudes about the state of civilization and the complication of college life.

But on to good news! This summer I will be working as a mechanical engineering intern for Bechtel's Waste Treatment Plant starting at the beginning of June. I am extremely excited for this opportunity and will make the best of it. I've finally got the call saying that all my paperwork is done, so now I am official!!!

It looks like I had a great school year, and I'm looking forward to next year even more.

A Quiet Reminder that I Exist

I admit that I have been negligent in posting for something like the past month, and for that, I don't apologize because sometimes life gets in the way. Anyway, I am now typing words into a computer, which will get sent between servers hundreds of miles away and back to be eventually be accessed by you all just to tell you that I am alive and well (more or less) and that I am still capable of writing a half decent blog post.

They say that going on the Internet with the intent to post stuff while angry or stressed is the equivalent to going to the grocery store hungry - you tend to overindulge and do things you didn't mean to do and immediately regret.
I have been inundated with stuff I've had to do, from homework, to unending midterms, to making sure that my hall council has enough money to last through the end of the year, all while trying to remember to getting a decent nights sleep and after suffering a surprisingly painful scooter accident that left me with huge purple bruises on my arms for the past few weeks. (They're gone now).

So what have I been up to?

Lots of homework - the two classes that I have that give the most homework seem to have conspired to align their due dates so that it's never ending - as soon as one assignment gets done, it's time to break my brain over the next one. On the other hand, I could tell you the difference between energy, entropy and exergy, so I got that going for me.

Lots of tests - pretty much very class is looking to get that last exam/quiz/test in before finals start, so I spend a lot of time that I am not doing homework locked in a closet with Elementary Electrical Engineering or Khan Academy.

Big final events for clubs -
For Rube Goldberg - We had a great time showing off the machine at the Arizona Science Center despite some mishaps along the way. This coming weekend we're going to Vegas to show off the machine at the Las Vegas Science and Technology festival. Oh, and the machine now actually makes coffee, so that's pretty cool.
For hall council, we had to put on a big end of the year program, so I got to deal blackjack at a casino/dance type event. By virtue of being treasurer, that also means I had to get on everyone about receipts.  

And also - trying to maintain friendships and eventually sleep and run every once in a while.

In other news, I'm next year's treasurer for Rube Goldberg club.

In two and a half weeks, I will be halfway done with college (hopefully). Finals are coming up,  and summer will come. The anticipation and the stress are palpable all across campus.
Wish me luck!