Hot Pants

In November, 2009, TRO Jung|Brannen and YRM announced the formation of Nuclear Design Partnership {NDP} – a professional collaboration which combines the skills, strengths, and experience of our two international design firms. NDP offers a broad range of design services to address the entire lifecycle of the development of nuclear energy facilities, from master planning to decommissioning.

Just the other day I had the opportunity, with eight other NDP professionals, to tour one of New England’s most prominent nuclear energy stations; and, I ran into a bit of a problem. Not surprisingly, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has very strict protocols governing security and safety. The primary goal of regulators and owners alike is to operate the plant with minimal risk to the public, visitors, and staff, and they do a very thorough job of it. As a result, the safety briefings and scanning procedures are both rigorous and time-consuming, both when you enter the facility and when you leave.

In our case, we encountered no difficulties with our initial screening process or during the tour itself; the problem occurred as we were leaving the radiation control area and I was subjected to a final full body screening to detect radon particles. It seems that I had worn the kind of cheap synthetic pants that tend to create static electricity, and the static had attracted an unacceptably high amount of radon to my pant legs. In short, I had “hot pants.” To make matters worse, the control officer said that I couldn’t leave the facility until the radon readings diminished. “How long will that take?” I asked. “Oh, not long,” he replied. After standing in front of a fan for twenty minutes, we took a second reading, then a third…..then a fourth. All “hot.” After more than an hour, and a total of twelve failed tests later, I had visions of spending the rest of the night there until my pants “cooled off,” so I offered to throw my pants in the trash and exit in my underwear. But, apparently the NRC frowns on that sort of thing.

Obviously, since I am now writing this blog post, I am happily back in my office thanks to the kindly intervention of a safety supervisor who put me through an alternative screening process and gave me my “get out of jail free” card.

But, for some reason, no one in the office will come near me!

Stunning

Until now I have been too stunned to comment on the recent election of Scott Brown to the United States Senate. But I regained my senses when I read Joan Vennochi’s OP-ED piece in the Boston Globe earlier this week. She suggested that he got elected, in part, because of his good looks!

I asked myself if it is possible that the American voting public is so shallow that they will actually vote for someone based on their looks. Then I recalled the 1960 Presidential debate between Richard Nixon and JFK. Polls taken immediately after the debate showed that voters who listened only to the radio broadcast thought that Nixon won the debate, while those who watched on television thought that JFK won. It seems that JFK’s good looks may have, indeed, influenced the voters…….and you’ll have to admit that Nixon was sweaty and badly in need of a shave!

But in the Brown–Coakley campaign was the outcome really a reflection of superficiality over substance as Joan seems to be suggesting? I don’t think so. But, I will acknowledge that her argument reminded me of a line from the famous children’s book, The Little Prince, written many years ago by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. In it, the Little Prince befriends a fox, who shares his secret: “everything essential is invisible to the eye”.

Only time will tell if the stunning Senator-Elect has the substance to lead effectively.

New Year's Resolutions

Each January, as the New Year dawns, I reflect on what transpired during the previous twelve months and make earnest vows of self-improvement for the coming months. We all do this, I suppose, and sometimes we even stick to our resolutions for a while – I actually didn’t eat any French fries for an entire month last year!

Anyway, as I was writing mine down I recalled a video I had watched the previous day of my sister-in-law’s recent wedding. In the video her new husband reads a poem to her in which he makes several vows, among them this one; ”to make our own rainbows.” So, at the considerable risk of plagiarism, I’d suggest that we put that one at the top of our lists for 2010. Let’s all create as many rainbows as possible every day - in our work, our marriages, our friendships, and in ourselves.

I liked it so much that I scratched off all the other resolutions I had, including the one about French fries.