.. Of Calandria and Zirconium Pipes...

Things are getting depressing out here. The ones I have known well do not have a job anymore. It sucked out all the enthusiasm with which i had started blogging. People who had spent over 20 years in the company were asked to go.One of the guys introduced me to his daughter who was coming home from college for thanksgiving.There was one implementation day when he fondly recalled his earlier years. How he was recruited... how the application he worked on was built..the mergers etc. The company had become an integral part of him. The post below is along similar lines but with happier moments.


My earliest memories of stuff related to my father's job is from kindergarten days. He used to bring those garish yellow banians with MAPS printed on it. For the uninitiated,MAPS stands for "Madras Atomic Power Station".(I am thankful that it wasn't renamed as "Chennai Atomic Power Station").He was an operations and maintenance engineer then. I remember seeing him on Doordarshan looking at a panel. Rajiv Gandhi the then Prime Minister had visited Kalpakkam. As is the norm in the country,another institution got rechristened with a "Gandhi" name . RRC(Reactor Research Centre?) was renamed as IGCAR(Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research) during that visit. He visited my father's plant too. Doordarshan was covering the visit and that is how my father got his 15 seconds of fame.


You should be 15 years or older to enter the Power Plant. So until that time all that I came to know about my father's job was through what he told me during our trips to Madras. He would show me the domes and transmission lines,letting me know that they ran upto Singaperumal Koil from where Power was fed to the Grid. In my tenth class we had a lesson on nuclear power plants. Our science teacher Mrs.Hunjan used to have a book by Manjeet Singh. Most teachers teach. But she in her own inimitable style used to lullaby U235,Chain Reaction, the Core, Control rods, Coolants etc :) and make us understand the basics. She arranged for a field trip to the Plant.


The first part of the tour started with a presentation on Nuclear Power Plants and was uneventful. During the second half we were taken to a place where there were exhibits of the power plant. There was this gentleman wearing a Plain Full Sleeve shirt which was not tucked in and had a receding hairline like Ed Harris,who was there to guide us. I bear a striking resemblance to him.My classmates looked my way immediately after identifying my father. My chest expanded 2 inches,filled with pride.


He started off by asking us to define Roentgen. B.P.Arun the geek amongst us then,immediately gave the textbook definition without realizing that it was a setup question. The followup question was "How many Roentgens can a Human body take before it becomes unsafe"? I don't remember if my friend answered it or not. But I do remember my father explaining about the devices to measure radiation exposure, the health physics unit and the safety measures in the plant. He then lead us to an exhibit placed in a glass casing. It was a model of the core and is called the Calandria. (Kalpakkam has a CANDU .... Canadian Deuterium Uranium reactor)

My father has a way of explaining things. He goes bottom up.He started off with the fuel rods. He explained that U235 pellets made in NFC(Nuclear Fuel Complex)were placed in the fuel rod. How the fuel rods were bundled together...placed in Zircaloy(Zirconium Alloy) tubes...which in turn were placed in the slots to form the Calandria. The point to note here is the stress on NFC. My father's first job in D.A.E was in NFC Hyderabad. That is also the place where he learnt to speak Telugu and typical Hyderabadi Hindi,which I love to hear him speak. He doesn't say "Nahin Chahiye Bhai" instead he says "Nakko Bhai". He continued to explain things and it is sufficient to say that the explanation was so thorough that I could have taken up the job of Station Director the very same day :) .


He then took us to the site where preparations were going on for scheduled shutdown of the reactor. He introduced me to some of his colleagues there. He is Prakasam ..'Diploma in Electrical Engineering'... You know Sampath uncle... 'Diploma in Mechanical Engineering'... . My father has a Diploma in Chemical Technology. He takes pride in the fact that he became an engineer through experience and has a theory that Diploma Holders of his time are much better than Engineers(or.."Sukku"neers) of today. I would cite IITs and RECs in the arguments(discussion would be an understatement..) we used to have about the subject and would clinch it by taking Ms.Shanta Prabha's example. She is an engineer from Anna University(Guindy Engineering college ..for my father) and was working at MAPS. Gold medallist, Batch topper and as I understand ,my father's protege. He has the deepest of respect for talent..also liked the fact that she was a woman in a man's world (only 2 people in her batch were female... I guess it has changed now)....and giving a run for their money. One another trait he has is an eye for talent. I remember his correct assessment of people who were trainees then. They have grown through the company to hold important positions now.



Looking back at the field trip,I feel that it had a subtext to it. My father's thorough explanation about the Calandria, the zircaloy pipes,the mention of Health Physics unit.. the Fuel Handling unit was his way of providing me an insight into a part of his life. That part which was a result of pure grit and hardwork,and is his badge of honor. He is a self-made man like most of his colleagues. This post is my way of saying "I understand,and truly appreciate it"

My father retires this month end after 30 years of service.