CTR Technical Services, Inc.

2001 Newsletter

The Key Attributes of Professionals

by Dr. Bill Corcoran

Professionals take personal responsibility for all aspects of their professional lives. In particular they:

• Meet all commitments with quality, on time, every time.
  
  
• Define quality as:
  - defining the right job
  - doing the job right the first time
  - meeting all valid requirements
  - serving the needs of the job's customer
  
  
• Live up to the highest standards of honesty and integrity in all of their professional duties and relationships.
  
  
• Conduct their lives so that they are physically, mentally, emotionally, and technically prepared for excellent performance every time they arrive at a work location.
  
  
• Make a difference in the organization they work in or for, moving it to ever higher standards of excellence.
  
  
• Take complete responsibility for their own self-assessment, their own morale, their own attitude, their own training, their own job results, and their own career development and progress.
  
  
• Find out how their work should contribute to the mission and ensures that it is always suitable for its intended purpose.
  
  
• Welcome supervision, auditing, coaching, and mentoring.
  
  
• Command themselves so that they are part of the solution and are never part of the problem.
  
  
• Look and act professionally, i.e., so that their appearance and demeanor best contribute to the mission.
  
  
• Demonstrate great respect for human rights and dignity, including their own, and have compassion for and acceptance of persons in all positions and of all backgrounds.
  
  
• Become an effective member of each team to which they need to belong to accomplish the mission.
  
  
• Get the job done even though they are not completely surrounded by professionals and know they never will be.
  
  
• Encourage professionalism by showing that professionalism leads to personal success.
  
  
• Are alert to errors, inconsistencies and omissions in their own work and in the work of others on their mission and seek appropriate closure.
  
  
• Do not unnecessarily tolerate mediocre leadership, followership, support or verification.
  
  
• Are continuously learning in their professional areas, expanding and improving the bodies of knowledge and looking for a better way to accomplish the mission.
  
  
• Assist in the training and development of other professionals.
  
  
• Do not let any aspect of their current professional situation affect their performance although it may well affect their career decisions.
  
  
• Do not give advice or recommendations outside their fields or about matters they are not qualified to deal with.
  
  

(copyright by Nuclear Safety Review Concepts, Bill Corcoran, Ph. 860 - 285-8779 reprinted with permission. The Firebird Forum, firebird.one@alum.MIT.edu)

Puzzles

1. "Well, George, we're the only ones on our team to show up on the last day of this project. Do you know it has taken us as many months to finish this project as there are workers on our team?". "You're right, Frank. If we had had six more workers on our team we could have finished it in one month!"
   
   From the information in the above conversation, how many workers were on the team?
   
   
2. Read this sentence:
   
   FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
   
   Now count the F's in that sentence. Count only once, don't go back a 2nd time.
   
   

Western States 100

Charles Rombough, President of CTR Technical Services, attempted the Western States 100 mile trail run in June. In his own words: "We started at 5 AM. After mile 18, I felt lousy (nausea, back pain, leg pain, foot pain) and my plan was to drop out at the next aid station (mile 23). But since my crew, consisting of my daugter Ola and my friend Marisela Young, would be at mile 30 (Robinson Flat), I decided to run to Robinson Flat and then quit."

"I got to mile 30 and felt a little better (especially after seeing Marisela) and decided that if I kept making the cutoffs, I'll keep going. Right after the aid station, I missed a turn and lost at least 40 minutes before finding the trail again. I barely made the cutoff at mile 35 and again at mile 40."

"After mile 40, there is a long downhill and then a long uphill climb through the canyon. Exhausted, I sat down on a rock and tried to eat a granola bar, with limited success. I took tiny little steps just to keep moving forward and finally made it to mile 49 with 30 minutes to spare. At the mile 49 aid station, I asked for a back rub from one of the volunteers and I was in luck since she was a massage therapist!"

"The next section was a long downhill trail. About 3/4 down, I began walking (always a bad sign going downhill). The next two miles were steep uphill. Struggling, I made it to mile 55."

"It was already dark and my jacket and flashlight were at the next aid station (mile 63). I found a flashlight and got a dry T-shirt. I decided to make it to one more aid station. It was downhill for a while and then uphill for a couple of miles which I walked slowly."

"I finally rolled in to the aid station at mile 63 with about 20 minutes to spare on the cutoff (it was now 11:20 PM). Ola, my daughter, ran with me the last 1/4 mile or so into the aid station. She thought that was pretty cool. I got my drop bag but there was no jacket. It turns out that the jacket got separated from the drop bag. It was way too cold to continue with no jacket and there wasn't even a long-sleeve T-shirt around. So I turned in my wrist band and called it a day. Marisela took my picture. 63 miles in 18 hours (67 miles if you count the "lost" miles). Considering I was physically shot at mile 18, I made it another 49 miles on willpower alone."

CTR and FRA-ANP to Join Forces for KEPRI

Framatome ANP (FRA-ANP) and CTR Technical Services have teamed together to offer the Korean Electric Power Research Institute (KEPRI) consulting services for an incore-based reactor protection system. Charles Rombough, President of CTR, would lead the team.

FRA-ANP, formerly Babcock & Wilcox, manufactured nuclear steam supply systems for electric utilities and developed the associated protection systems. In addition, FRA-ANP provided prompt-responding incore detectors for an incore-based protection system for the Hanford N Reactor, the only incore-based protection system to be built to date. Dr. Rombough was instrumental in the development of the prompt detectors and computer software for the Hanford system. Combining the expertise of these two companies would provide KEPRI quality advice toward development of an advanced protection system.

Quotes

I realized that if I was going to achieve anything in life, I had to be aggressive. I had to get out there and go for it. I don't believe you can achieve anything by being passive. I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it's an illusion to me.

Michael Jordan

One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothing can beat "teamwork".

Mark Twain

Zelos (emulation) is a good thing and characteristic of good people, while phthonos (envy) is bad and characteristic of the bad; for the former, through emulation, are making an effort to attain good things for themselves, while the latter, through envy, try to prevent their neighbors from having them.

Aristotle, 350 BC

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Albert Einstein

Aimless Sloth

Peter Axt, a German college professor and health researcher, has concluded that "aimless sloth" is the secret to overcoming stress and living a long life. Axt acknowledges that a healthy diet and moderate exercise, such as leisurely walks, are good for you. However, he says "Research shows that people who run long distances into their 50s are using up energy they need for other purposes. They suffer memory loss. They risk premature senility."

"People who would rather laze in a hammock instead of running a marathon or who take a midday nap instead of playing squash have a better chance of living into old age," Axt said.

Axt has published his findings in a study called "On the Joy of Laziness." His previous works include "Just Stay Young" and "Eat Yourself Slim." Axt's prescription for a long and healthy life is "waste half your free time." So take the day off and do nothing.

Monastery Visits

An old European monastery is perched high on a 500 foot cliff. Visitors ride up in a big basket, pulled to the top with a ragged old rope.

Halfway up, a passenger nervously asked, "How often do you change the rope?"

The monk in charge replied, "Whenever the old one breaks."

Go For It

Whenever two ways lie before us, one of which is easy and the other hard, one of which requires no exertion while the other calls for resolution and endurance, happy are those who choose the mountain path and scorn the thought of resting in the valley. They are the men and women who are destined in the end to conquer and succeed.

Anon

Answer to Puzzles

1. There were three workers in the team. It took three months with three workers (or 9 man-months) so 3+6=9 workers could have done it in one month.
   
   
2. There are six F's in the sentence (you did NOT read it through a second time, did you?).
   
   

Who We Are

CTR Technical Services was incorporated on May 15, 1987 to provide technical support for the nuclear industry. Since then, we have done work for 27 organizations in the fields of reactor physics calculations and measurements, reactor core monitoring, shielding evaluations, criticality evaluations, and custom software applications.

The President is Charles Rombough who has over 26 years experience in nuclear analysis and software development. Our associate is Steve Martonak who specializes in mathematical modeling of physical systems and computer programming. We have also teamed with Dale Lancaster through NuclearConsultants.com to expand our expertise into other areas.

CTR Technical Services, Inc.
950 Sugarloaf Road
Manitou Springs, CO 80829

Tele: 800 - 524-9328
Fax: 719 - 685-3806

Email: web@ctr-tech.com