UOIT students gain valuable experience on nuclear project

A new study between the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and OPG is allowing students to apply their learning and gain experience while providing the Darlington Refurbishment project critical information about productivity.

“We wanted to engage with the university in a way that was mutually beneficial,” said OPG’s Tom Lance. “So, we came up with a two-year plan that allows students to complete four wrench time studies” which will measure how much actual working time is spent on a particular task.

​It’s a good fit for students in fourth year, who must complete what’s known at UOIT as a Capstone project – a senior requirement aimed at putting what they’ve learned over the course of their degree to practical use.

For the first phase of the project, four Nuclear Engineering students were at Darlington Nuclear Generating Station in February to complete field work.

“In their time off school, they came here and were in the field with various teams, observing and documenting,” said OPG’s Bob Hanrahan. “Their work is aimed at showing us our productivity within refurbishment, including any barriers to working.”

The data was collected and entered manually at this stage, but there may be opportunities later on for Business/IT students to get involved in developing an app.

“That way, they can just punch it in, and it will automatically start collating the data,” said UOIT professor Glenn Harvel.

So far, the experience has been valuable, said Pratheep Srikantha, one of the participating students. He spent time following crews working on moderator valves.

“Since that requires people to work in radiation areas, they have to go through a lot of processes before they’re able to actually start the work,” said Srikantha. “I documented those processes and looked at what challenges them from getting to work.”

He and his classmates will present their findings to peers and professors later this spring, prior to graduating. OPG will review the data, with an eye to improving productivity.

Srikantha said he especially appreciated the opportunity to see what skilled tradespeople face in the field.

“As an engineering student, I had this idea of an ideal world,” he said. “This showed me the real issues that can come up. It was a great opportunity to experience what the contractors go through when they’re executing the work.”

The collaborative partnership between OPG, Durham College and UOIT was established in 2005 to find new and creative ways to advance each other’s interests including the sourcing of new career-ready employees, workforce development of existing employees, and assistance conducting research.