Entering the Fall 2021 nuclear-outage season, demand for millwrights across the United States was stretched to the maximum. The Southern States Millwright Regional Council’s Nuclear Office was tasked with providing 500-plus millwrights for 10 scheduled outages, including six outages starting in October. Mitigating the spread of COVID-19 at outage sites continues to be an additional challenge.
The SSMRC Nuclear Office and its partnering contractors worked together to meet the labor needs. Because these relationships are highly developed, conversations were open, frank, and productive as we strove for one thing: safe outages with satisfied customers, including utility companies and contractors’ onsite management teams. A plan was put into place and followed with outstanding results. Across the 10 outages, 513 positions were filled. Approximately 80% of the millwrights were from the SSMRC, with the rest traveling from other regions of the country.
Thank you to our partnering contractors for your willingness to coordinate with our Nuclear Office on report dates, lay-off schedules, and other contributing factors. Because of your understanding and partnership, we were able to satisfy the demands of our industry and our customers during trying times.