There was a flurry of activity at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant outside of Athens on Tuesday morning. Reactor operators scurried about flipping switches, turning knobs and pushing buttons as they tried to prevent recover the plant from a major disaster after it lost all power.

But after working for several minutes, it came to an end just like that. Disaster averted, and another successful training session was in the books.

Tuesday’s exercise was one of many simulated situations the reactor operators go through as they train for any potential disaster that may befall the power plant.

“A good day on a nuclear plant is a very quiet and boring day, but in the event something happens, we want our operators to be comfortable putting the plant in a safe condition,” Browns Ferry instructor David McConnell said. “We want our operators to be proficient, to take action without delay and be comfortable. The more you practice, the more it becomes second nature.”

The simulation the operators went through on Tuesday was similar to an actual event that took place on April 27, 2011. That was the day a tornado outbreak swept through the Tennessee Valley, destroying property and taking lives in its wake.

The tornadoes also knocked out all electricity at the plant, causing the simultaneous three-unit shutdown of the reactors, and operators scrambling to keep the fuel protected and the nuclear reactor core cool.

“On April 27, 2011, the operators were in a very uncomfortable position, with an unprecedented number of tornadoes, and were losing electricity lines here and there,” McConnell said. “It was unlike anything we had seen in the past. But the operators were very comfortable when it came to the complete loss of power. They did as they were trained and placed the plant in a safe condition.”

Operational training manager Chris Vaughn was the operation shift manager that day and said he realized just how important the training was when he saw how the reactor operators handled the situation.

“The operators’ training took over and there was a calmness that took over with all the folks and they went about performing their tasks to complete the shutdown of the reactors,” said Vaughn. “It gave me a real understanding of how important that operator training is. Not only to protect the health and safety of the public, but also provide calmness and a path that all of the operators understood as far as what their task would be for the remainder of the day and the days to come.”

McConnell said operators go through simulator training every five to 10 weeks and face a wide variety of situations.

“We look at anything from a simple piece of equipment breaking to a full-fledged loss of power,” he said. “Even the most severe situations, the worst kind you can imagine. We have looked at events that have occurred in the industry, like the Fukishima, Japan, disaster (which occurred in 2011). We just try and look at all the design events that could occur. Anything from a simple pump trip to a major leak.”

Being a nuclear plant reactor operator can be a high-stress job, especially when something goes wrong, and McConnell said the intensive training helps relieve some of that stress if something bad does happen at the plant.

“We want to make sure the operators who are in a high-stress situation are comfortable with the actions they are taking,” he said. “We’re not always going to be able to predict every event that can occur, but the idea is to practice as many events that we can so the operators are comfortable in a high-stress situation on what actions they need to do to protect the health and safety of the public.”