A Path to Utopia

By Rex Field

Looking back there was one overriding factor that governed the nuclear power industry. The industry problems were primarily attributed to plant trips caused by individual mistakes. A look at just about all plant trips determined they could be attributed to human error. The trips are costly impacting operation, capacity factor, and creating a financial loss dependent on the type of trip and how long it could last. The immediate response it to find how the trip occurred and what caused the trip. The transmission dispatcher usually wants the Unit back on line as soon as possible; however, the site must trouble shoot to determine the seriousness of the failure and the site didn't create a new failure type. Troubleshooting can take some time in determining the root cause, implementing engineering controls or admin controls to ensure the event is not duplicated. This process created the following curiosity. How does an imperfect creature (such as me) allow himself to be molded such that he cannot create a mistake. He is self-sufficient. Take this to the next order and the idea is how do you go from a 'perfect" individual to a "perfect" society. For our purposes (the word "perfect") translates to complete.

From these two (2) basic questions; how to perfect the individual, and how to perfect the society as a whole we develop a third question – which subjects at the highest level should be studied to create this superhuman individual that doesn't make mistakes. The process of "Path to Utopia" attempts to answer these questions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667838670

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

I have worked in various industries from the time I was 16 until a retired at age 63. Most of these were highly industrialized. I started in the refineries in Houston, during the summers, working with my dad, who was a superintendent of a sandblasting and painting firm. I also worked in the steel mill, which at the time belonged to US Steel. That too was during summers. After five (5) years of university life and the Electrical Engineering College at Texas Tech University, a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering was bestowed upon me. The electrical college at the university, at the time, was rated third in the nation behind MIT and Stanford, so the claim being made.

I worked for a utility in south Texas planning distribution lines for both the oil fields and residential area. Nearby was an naval airfield at Corpus Christi – my father had been a 20 year veteran and I watched some of the aircraft practice take off any landing – the aviators, including the women were no older than myself. I found myself curious as to why I hadn’t chosen such a career. So, I went back to Houston to sign up. Some months later I was in Pensacola, Florida. I went through the basic instruction but after five (5) days, the Navy detected a hearing loss and decided they didn’t want to spend a huge sum of money on me to fly only to find out I the hearing would get worse and they’d have a deaf aviator in a very expensive plane. But my hearing loss did not restrict me from other assignments. About eight (8) months later, the Navy decided I should go to Newport, R.I. Which has a nickname of Little Rodie and which we called little rodent. But after four (4) more months, the Navy decided I was bonafide and I earned a commission in the US Navy. I was then sent to San Diego where I began a 40 month assignment to the USS Tarawa (LHA-1). I thought I would stick with the Navy and begin my naval career. Unfortunately, what I didn’t realize is some of the senior officers are mentally disturbed and think the junior officers were sent to take away their job. I had the great misfortune of ticking off one of the seniors and it was reflected on my future evaluation in which I was probably the first of a long time to score 0.0 on a 4.0 scale. I think that particular individual was hell bent on moving up the ladder by destroying he junior officers.

In 1987, after leaving the Navy, I went to Thailand and married a girl I had met the previous deployment. God works in mysterious ways and this individual taught me many things the Navy understood not. And I’d glad we have been together 35 years as of this writing. I have also worked in Navy contracts, nuclear power, NASA (Johnson Space Center), for an extended period of time. From 1989 through 2022, I worked 30+ years in nuclear power. I met a lot of people, good people, along the way, who were not disrespectful, demeaning, or destructive in their nature. Many assisted new engineers etc to improve station performance such as South Texas Project Cooper Nuclear Station Framatome-ANP, Oconee Nuclear Station, Catawba, McGuire, Harris, Robinson, and finally Brunswick Nuclear Project.

Looking back there was one overriding factor that governed the nuclear power industry. The industry problems were primarily attributed to plant trips caused by individual mistakes. A look at just about all plant trips determined they could be attributed to human error. The trips are costly impacting operation, capacity factor, and creating a financial loss dependent on the type of trip and how long it could last. The immediate response it to find how the trip occurred and what caused the trip. The transmission dispatcher usually wants the Unit back on line as soon as possible; however, the site must trouble shoot to determine the seriousness of the failure and the site didn’t create a new failure type. Troubleshooting can take some time in determining the root cause, implementing engineering controls or admin controls to ensure the event is not duplicated. This process created the following curiosity. How does an imperfect creature (such as me) allow himself to be molded such that he cannot create a mistake. He is self-sufficient. Take this to the next order and the idea is how do you go from a ‘perfect individual to a perfect society. For our purposes (the word perfect") translates to complete.

From these two (2) basic questions; how to perfect the individual, and how to perfect the society as a whole we develop a third question – which subjects at the highest level should be studied to create this superhuman individual that doesn’t make mistakes. The process of Path to Utopia attempts to answer these questions.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL DISCUSSION

I am a veteran naval officer and an electrical engineer. I’ve spent the better part of the last 30 years in the nuclear power industry. I have multiple melanoma. I’ve been fighting it for more than 14 years now. If you want to read this work, find a place where you cannot be interrupted – no distractions – and so you can