"Free Dave" Day 3: Prepping for the EPU

💸 Before you spend $500K on a reanalysis, make sure you actually have to. While you’re at it, #freedave.

The plant is pursuing an extended power uprate. Leadership needs to know if the existing containment analysis holds at EPU conditions before committing to a full reanalysis.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐞'𝐬 𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐲: Half a day finding the calculation, then a slog through manual parameter comparison. He has to write memo under time pressure before the Thursday 2pm meeting.

𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐆𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧: Containment parameters cross-referenced against EPU conditions. Comparison table — containment design pressure, LOCA mass and energy release, peak temperature, post-LOCA hydrogen, ECCS back-pressure. Quick recalculations using design basis info and Python libraries. Flags for further analysis where needed.

Dave reviews the table, calls the containment engineer, and walks into the meeting with a recommendation: "Do QA runs for M&E release and hydrogen. Pressure margin is tight but holds. Here's the scope." That's a $200K decision made on data, not gut feel.

Someone has to find the margin before the plant commits. That someone is always Dave.

When Dave retires, his comparison table and scoping rationale are on record. The next engineer starts from Dave's analysis, not from scratch.

We’re up to 27 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝. That's more PTO than Dave took all of 2025.

Dave left at 2pm. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞.