Making History: First new nuclear generating plant in the twenty-first century

For three long years, Daniel devoted most of his time to working as part of the Watts Bar Unit 2 Start Up team. This group of people worked long hours, for years on end, to help bring Unit 2 online. 

Tonight we celebrated that all of the testing is complete, and that Unit 2 is now operating commercially. 

Everyone in the room (spouses included) have sacrificed so much to get to this point. They are a special group, the first in the USA to do this in twenty years. It was good to hear their stories, and also to talk with the spouses about the difficulties we all faced in having a spouse work such long hours for years on end

Only the people who have lived through a nuclear unit start up (or been married to someone who has) can truly understand what it is like. I'm proud of Daniel and all of his co-workers. 

I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I'm thankful he has moved on to a Dam job, but I'm proud of him for being a part of this project until the end.

"In grateful appreciation for your dedication, support, and personal commitment to the Watts Bar Unit 2 Completion Project. Daniel Moore, You're effort, interest, experience, and personal dedication to the Watts Bar Nuclear Unit 2 project was an integral part of the success of completing the milestone of being the first new nuclear plan in the twenty-first century."

A Quick Trip to Visit Family

Last week was Daniel's first week to be on travel status at Watts Bar (he will be in travel status through December unless he accepts a full-time position within the company before then). Travel status basically means that he/we live in temporary housing (hotel/rental house/camper/etc.) during the week and then come home on the weekends. 

To kick off this fun new style of living (cue sarcasm), Daniel stayed for a hotel all week while Jack, Sophie and I headed to Nashville to spend a little time with family.

On the way to Nashville we made a quick stop in Manchester to visit with Jack's Great Grandmother and Great, Great Aunt Thula. I think they adored getting to see my little guy. He loved that Grandmother gave him ice cream and they got a big kick when Jack discovered how to work Grandmother's candy dispenser. Jack was pretty pleased when he discovered he could access unlimited M&Ms.

After Grandmother's house, we went on to Smyrna where we stopped at Jack's Aunt Emily's house for dinner. Jack's Nana came over as well to enjoy a little visiting and loving on my boy. He had a blast wandering around Emily's yard and was especially happy when his Nana showed him how to work the foot lever on the trash can to make it open and close.

After dinner and visiting, we proceeded on to Hermitage to my sister's house where we crashed for the rest of the week.

Jack had a blast with his cousins. Our first day of visiting, cousin Izzy went to VBS and we took the boys to the park. Jack and Levi had fun with photobooth props when we popped in to pick Miss Izzy up.

The kids all had a blast playing together. We just had to do a little bit of supervising. Jack is not a big fan of sharing, so while this exposure is good for him, I have to referee and help him learn how to share.

Our second day in Hermitage, we took the kids to a little splash pool in Lebanon. Jack was a lot more timid around the water than his cousins. Izzy and Levi are pretty much fearless about everything. Jack takes his time figuring things out – which is OK by me.

Our last day visiting cousins, my sister took the kids to Chick-fil-a to play while I drove around to a bunch of different shops trying to find brown dress shoes for Jack to wear in his Grandpa Moore's wedding.

We had such a great time visiting family. I wish we could have squeezed in more visits, but we were all ready to get back home to Daniel by Friday morning!

We like to move it, move it.

Not really, but in order for Daniel to stay employed, a move is in our near future... 

 
If you live in the Tennessee Valley (anywhere from Knoxville down to the Huntsville area), you may have seen the news about Bellefonte on Wednesday.

"The Tennessee Valley Authority said [Wednesday], it will slow down work at the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant site near Scottsboro, cut 400 positions, and reassess the need for the plant's completion."

So how does this affect us? Here is the scoop from our perspective. Those affected by the cuts were given the following options: 1) stay at Bellefonte (they will be keeping some people onsite); 2) go to another TVA site; or 3) retire. In most cases the only option is really #2, so Daniel (and many of the others) are going to Watts Bar for the time being. 

The last two days have been a flourish of phone calls and decisions about our future being made on the fly. To be honest, the news was not completely unexpected, but it is still a lot to process. We knew there would be a big announcement on Wednesday and that the changes could be swift, but we are still wrapping our minds around the fact that Daniel will start his training next week and then will go to Watts Bar the week after that.

We have a house to sell and are sad at the possibility of leaving all of the friends we have made. We were just starting to feel settled and now we will be starting over. Again. We know that moving on is the right thing at this time, but it is still sad and a little unsettling. Long-term, Daniel has some time to decide where he wants to be within the TVA organization (location and career-wise). Given the circumstance, it is actually a really good opportunity for him to find something he enjoys doing. And with a company this large, he can always move on to working somewhere else, doing something different if he has the mind to do so.

Mostly, we are incredibly grateful that Daniel still has a job and that TVA is taking care of a lot of the details. In 2009, we weren't so lucky when Daniel went through a layoff with another company, and subsequent 12 months of unemployment which led to us living apart for 5 months. That was a really stressful period in our lives. This time around should be a much easier transition, but that doesn't make it easy.

As soon as we can, we will get our house on the market and start the process of finding a new, temporary residence in Tennessee (most likely somewhere between Chattanooga and Knoxville). We aren't sure where we will be long term, so we are going to take our time making decisions like buying a new house. Please keep us in your prayers as we make this transition.