Altrad wins again Contractor Award at Doel Nuclear Power Plant
No one did this before us
Hunter Jansegers' team (Account manager East) took on the challenge of becoming safety primes for customer Engie Electrabel at KCD in 2009. Under the leadership of site manager Chris De Smit, standards were tightened, employees trained according to nuclear safety requirements and necessary certificates obtained.
The specialised team of an average of 25 people can now call itself experts in working in controlled 'hot' areas of the nuclear plant.
Since 2010, the team achieved top 3 nominations year after year and - unprecedentedly - also 3 safety awards in a row! So we are super proud to announce that we can take home this Contractor Award again this year.
Safety
Chris de Smit: "In this environment, safety culture in the 1st place is nothing less than standard behaviour. There is a lot of communication and discussion about what the exact work is. All possible risks are explained execution and when in doubt, the safety of the team, and by extension the entire population, comes first."
Congratulations at the award ceremony
Wim Van Rompay (Department Head Maintenance KCD) enthused, "The flexibility at Altrad is TOP, the person in charge is always available, day and night, and deadlines are met time and again.
We found that Altrad brought good reports of ITFs (in the field - observations) at the weekly contractor meetings during the overhaul. There is a good stop reflex, the LMRA (last minute risk analysis) is well used in terms of content and not just on paper. All managers are strongly aware of nuclear and classical safety. Altrad is also respected too KCD because they quickly integrate our KCD expectations (which do sometimes dare to change or sharpen). "
No margin for error
"At KCD, we have been working as a scaffolder in the danger zone for almost 2 decades. It is working in and around fragile installations and the radiation risk is very real. Our employees must not only have the necessary nuclear certificates, they must also do their work in specialised work suits and under strict conditions. In this zone, a small mistake can have gigantic consequences as a result." explains Hunter. " Besides maintenance work, we also carry out projects, including currently the planned overhaul shutdown of Doel 1,2 and 4."
This award, certainly inspires confidence in future cooperation. The recognition motivates enormously and the challenge for next year, the Altrad team is happy to take on.