BUILDING A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT WITH AWARD WINNING SAFETY STANDARDS!

Kakrapar Nuclear Power Plant Units 3&4 –
The 2019 Safety Award winner!

Building a nuclear power plant is not everybody’s cup of tea. Very few Indian organizations even attempt them but with our capability and expertise, L&T has built most of the country’s nuclear power plants to scale and quality and are in the process of constructing India’s largest and first indigenous nuclear facility – the Kakrapar Nuclear Power Plant Units 3 & 4 (2 x 700 Mwe). “Size and scale describe this project,” shares Project Manager, S A Subramanian (SAS), glancing out of his project cabin at the beehive of activity that is his site, reeling off a few numbers to support his statement. “We will use some 9 lakh cu.m of concrete, 8 different grades of concrete types, and some 1.5 lakh tons of steel, enough to build about 16 Eiffel Towers.” Along with size and scale, comes the added responsibility of maintaining a high EHS standard and the fact that the site has already clocked 29.8 million safe manhours with Zero LTI and fatalities speak volumes of the efficiency of Manager EHS, S Sairam and his team. “We don’t do things very differently at KAPP 3 & 4,” says Sairam, very unassumingly, “but what we do, we do well which is perhaps why we are proud to have won the Safety Award 2019.”

Keeping safe during critical activities

To construct the complex 166 m Natural Draft Cooling Tower shells, the team evolved several in house improvements in the jumpform system to successfully erect four of these towers without any incident. Individual bracket shoes were introduced for the inner and outer jumpforms with additional wire rope slings to interconnect them, safety nets with mono filament layers and metal walkways instead of wooden ones.

Another critical activity was the erection and dismantling of tower cranes inside the NDCTs that involved raising them up to a height of 193 m with nine levels of guying arrangements. It was important to ensure that the concrete was strong enough to hold the towers from all directions, to maintain the plumb of the tower crane right from the raft to the swing unit with a tolerance of just 40 mm. Dismantling the main jib was equally critical: reducing the height of the tower in reverse order by carefully releasing the guying rope one by one.

Specialized work like those of electricians, riggers, crane operators, scaffolders, signalmen, etc. were authorized by a specially formed committee that screened all workmen before deployment and issued separate authorization cards with photo IDs to prevent unauthorized work.

Construction of the reactor building in progress

4174 workmen trained in 2019 alone!

At a site where the strength of the workforce is about 1,400 at peak, the statistic that in 2019 alone, 4174 workmen were trained and retrained for induction reflects the issue that most construction sites face of a migratory and unskilled labour force. “We have a wellorganized induction training system at KAPP 3 & 4,” assures Sairam, “and every person entering the site premises must undergo a 4-hour induction programme that includes training and a quiz on safety training in the language of their preference.” A green passport permitting entry into the site bearing the person’s name, name of organization, validity, type of training undergone, etc. is issued only after the person has successfully completed the quiz. “The validity of the permanent gate passes for all employees and sub-contractors are linked to the validity of the Green Passport which is for a maximum of 6 months,” adds Sairam, “and everyone has to undergo refresher induction training every 6 months.” Since a bulk of the work was occurring at heights of up to 166 m, vertical stretchers and man baskets were made readily available and emergency exercises and mock drills were conducted every three months to assess the response time for evacuation during an emergency.

To do exactly what is expected of you

Risk and potentially hazardous situations can be pre-empted to a large extent with proper and in-depth pre-job briefings especially at a nuclear plant site that help plan people’s daily activities and even to arrange for resources. “Every day is a new day at site and work dynamics always throw up new work and EHS challenges which are often addressed at these pre-job briefings,” says Sairam who points out that 8,249 briefings were done during 2019.

Workmen fixing the individual panels of the prefabricated ring liner

Know risk, no risk

SAS is particularly happy about the robust risk assessment system instituted at site whereby all perceivable work associated risks are systematically and thoroughly assessed with effective control measures formulated and implemented. “We prepared 122 risk assessments and subsequent SWMs in our four packages,” he shares, referring to the diversity and varying nature of work involved. “All these were conducted by a team of people associated with the work right from section incharges, supported by department Incharges, site engineers, supervisors, technicians, operators, workmen and other stakeholders.” It is only after the approval of the risk assessment that a job inspection checklist is prepared for any activity listing the vital risk control measures as checkpoints that are ensured during pre-start verification.

Work permits: a simple but sure route to safety

The several high-risk activities were carried out with proper work permits. “We have a well reinforced work permit system involving 4-stage verification including the final approval by the NPCIL ENC.” In fact, the work permit for tasks in confined spaces requires an additional approval from NPCIL, only granted after the competence of workman involved is ascertained. Approximately 75 different work permits have been issued at KAPP 3 & 4 after thorough inspection and then continuously monitored daily.

Mr. S.N. Subrahmanyan, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, L&T, along with Mr. D.K. Sen, Whole Time Director & Senior Executive Vice President (Infrastructure), Mr. S.V. Desai, Senior Vice President & Head (Heavy Civil Infrastructure) and Mr. R. Anbalagan, Executive Vice President & Head – Hydel, Tunnels, Nuclear and Special Bridges SBG presents the Annual EHS Trophy to Mr. S.A.Subramanian, Project Manager – KAPP 3&4

Training and counselling create the right mindset

Following safe procedures, practices and standard protocols at site is a matter of having the right mindset and, training is that vital enabler. “Apart from normal training, under our strategic EHS Plan, we conduct rigorous job-related training for the relevant workforce to disseminate Safe Work Methods,” mentions Sairam who elaborates, “If a workman is found guilty of an unsafe act at site, we counsel him of the possible harmful consequences of his act and how he should have ideally acted in that situation.” The details of the counselling are registered both in a counselling register and the safety induction card for monitoring. “If a person commits 3 violations, stringent action is taken that can even mean termination or monetary penalty on the sub-contractor,” says Sairam, sternly. Monthly building-wise meetings involving the EHS Engineer, EHS Supervisors, EHS Stewards and the Section In charge are conducted to plan and pre-empt unsafe situations.

The rewards of man-to-man marking

There is one EHS Steward for every 100 workmen and one EHS Supervisor for every 500 workmen to maintain EHS standards. “They jointly inspect workplaces with a person from the relevant department on a monthly basis that are reviewed daily apart from weekly meetings to share alerts, if any.” Sairam’s EHS procedures are robust and the 49 reported near misses reflect a culture of fearlessly sharing bad news. “Our EHS Stewards conduct daily illumination surveys too across work areas and any inadequacy in illumination is communicated at once to the site engineer for immediate action. These illumination surveys are then reviewed and concurred by safety professionals from the client.”

Managing sub-contractors to ensure safety adherence

Sub-contractors can either make or break an EHS system at site and therefore high on Sairam’s priority list is sub-contractor management. “Our Section and EHS In-charges have scheduled monthly meetings with the sub-contractor at which all safety related aspects are addressed. Activities are reviewed, major and minor incidents at site discussed and deficiencies evaluated. We even recognize the best performing sub-contractor of the month with an award,” he smiles.

A slew of sustainable initiatives

While SAS and his team strive to significantly enhance the country’s nuclear power capacity, they have not forgotten the society they are part of and have kicked-off several sustainability initiatives. Taking cognizance of the frequent road accidents recorded on the highway leading to the site, the team organized a Road Safety programme as part of the National Road Safety Week from 4th to 10th February 2019 during which a drawing competition themed ‘Road Safety – Life Safety’ was organized for local high school students, who participated enthusiastically. At a diabetes awareness campaign, workmen over the age of 40 were examined and medicines prescribed wherever required while 116 units of blood were donated after a blood donation camp that was organized in collaboration with the local blood bank centre.

“If a family member of any of our workmen requires blood, they can contact us, and we can arrange it for them through our contacts with the local blood bank. One more way to build bridges with the workman,” nods Sairam.

Managing an impeccable EHS record at such a huge and challenging site is an equally demanding task and the team at
KAPP Units 3 & 4 are worthy winners of not only the Safety Award for 2019 but also a surfeit of other awards including
rousing accolades from the client. Here is wishing SAS, Sairam and team all the very best to keep their wonderful EHS
record intact till handover!