What do you do?
I’ve been working for the past 15-20 years on the inspection of safety and compliance of our nuclear industry. There are many regulations that exist to ensure that nuclear material is safely controlled and handled, and my job has been to ensure that the requirements which we’ve imposed to ensure the safety of people, the environment, and security have been followed. I also identify and follow up on cases where those requirements may not have been followed, and keep up on status information for those cases.
How did you find your way into federal service? Did you always want to join up?
I got into this directly out of college. It was the time of the nuclear renaissance, before Fukushima occurred. They showed up at my college, and I kind of slid into it by accident. I got super lucky. My dad served in the Navy, so serving my country in some way appealed to me, but based on his description of his Navy service, I didn’t think I would be a good fit for defense. Also, I was applying to a bunch of different places, and they were the first ones to get back with a serious offer. I was kind of learning how to interview as I went to the various job interviews.
Also, I hate lines and no one was at their desk at the job fair.
What does this work mean to you? Why is it important to you, personally?
I love that there’s a wide range of possible things to follow up on, and I like that I don’t have to be in front of a screen all of the time, even if you can’t escape it entirely. At some point, you have to read the 50-year history of why the requirements are what they are and write up your findings. I’ve always been impressed with the people I work with, and I like the sense that, in a small way, I am performing a needed function that makes people safer. I take pride in that last bit.
If you look at the very roots of our nuclear history, in a lot of ways we fucked around and found out with a lot of the choices we, as a country, made in the nuclear industry. I got to be part of the aftermath of that, trying to ensure the lessons learned made us safer. I looked at different aspects of upgrading safety systems, and I’m proud of the work I’ve done. Anytime I found an issue that had an actual safety impact, which was then resolved, it’s been something I am proud of.
Do you think all of this will change the public’s perception of your work?
With the public, I think the trust in general is still there (or at least hasn’t changed anyone’s previous position on nuclear). I tend to look at whether an event builds or loses trust. Fukushima, even though it happened in Japan, killed a lot of trust — no talk of a nuclear renaissance after that. The NNSA firing and rehiring makes the government look incompetent, and incompetence tends to get painted with a broad brush on the government as a whole. That obviously lowers trust. How much, I don’t know. Most of my stuff is local impact, and I haven’t seen the needle move yet in my area. No one’s coming to me asking me if we’re still safe yet. So, that’s good. But a lot of the public isn’t plugged into my field. It can be hard to gauge — until it’s not. Local people tend to be vocal when they have concerns, and it’s a different environment in the Southeast than in the North or the West.
All the probationary people they’ve fired so far (that I know) have been veterans of one defense service or another, and I can no longer recommend to people that they should work in government. I think we’re eating our seed. It also leads me to distrust who may be hired in the future, because, at some level, a Nazi approved that person. Not that anyone is hiring right now, anyway. These were people fired without regard to their background, merit, or input from local management. Does that sound like a place you’d like to work?
How does all of this impact you, personally?
All I have are contingencies at this point. If they can fire me to make number go up, then I will be fired. I’m going to stick it out as long as I can, because I have to believe this won’t last forever. I’ve had a lot of luck in my life no matter what happens. If the worst happens I’ll have to rely on the friends I’ve made along the way, like anyone does
Sometimes, people forget that, at its root, the government is people.
There’s a lot of other stuff, too, and that’s super important, but at some point, you’ve got to have people to do the needed work, and they have to hold to their oaths. Well, most of us have made oaths, anyway. With this new group they’ve got running around, who knows?
This bullshit they’re pulling is petty and condescending. But that’s on brand.
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