My Engineers Notebook Steven Unikewicz

My Engineers Notebook Steven Unikewicz My Engineers Notebook Steven Unikewicz Steven Unikewicz (center) on the job, working with other plant engineers to resolve an operational issue with motor operated valve at a nuclear power plant.Steven Unikewicz has been working in the commercial nuclear power industry for more than 30 years. He currently is a senior principal engineer with Alion Science and Technology in Vienna, Va. He spent his first 19 years as a design and plant engineer with Northeast Utilities at the Connecticut Yankee and Millstone Nuclear Power Stations and seven years with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Nuclear Reactor regulierung in Washington D.C. He has written papers and presented on such topics as in-service testing of nuclear power plants thermal over-pressurization of power plant piping long-term wear effects on plant components due to operation in post-LOCA (loss-of-coolant accident) environment and spent nuclear fuel storage options. Unikewicz is the current chair of ASMEs Energy Committee, a member of the ASME Code on Operation and Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plants the New Reactors Working Group, and the Air Operated Valve Sub-Committee, as well as a member of the ASMEs Power Division. He previously served on ASMEs Board of Pre-College Education and was a participant in the Societys Leadership Development Intern Program. He has served as member of the Colchester Connecticut Water and Sewer Commission and as a member of the Colchester Connecticut Board of Education. He has a B.S.M.E. from the University of Hartford, Hartford, Conn. He has been an ASME member since 1989.Whats inside your engineers notebook?I have many notebooks. They consist of previous calculations and analysis and notes from past projects. They also include technical and trade magazine articles, old and new reference books, mechanics handbooks, and some out-of-print references collected over the years. Although much now is becoming electronic, much i s still paper - and I still print most of it out. Early on, fellow co-workers and senior engineers encouraged me to do some technical reading every day, learn something new. Many kept notebooks and old binders with their thoughts, operating experience and ways and methods of solving problems - their tools. Perhaps Im just keeping the tradition alive.Whose notebook would you most like to peek into? Why?Rather than a single persons, I would most like to peek into the old power plant maintenance shop libraries or the dusty plant engineers bookshelves from the fossil and nuclear plants built in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Those libraries contained some of the most practical and common sense approaches to problems, hands-on solutions. Certainly with todays technology, we can and have refined ways to solve problems. But as a pure starting point, the old books are invaluable to begin to understand why something was designed the way it was and how the original engineer intended it to work.How a nd when did you know you wanted to become an engineer?This is a two-part answer. My dad was a power plant maintenance mechanic and I can recall at 10 years old walking with him through an old oil-fired plant power plant on a Saturday afternoon. I was enthralled with the huge turbine and plant machinery - I wanted to know everything about them, how they worked, what the insides looked like, what they did. Seven years later after graduating high school, I was working as a laborer/carpenter/mechanic on a construction crew working plant outages, and I decided it was better to design and operate rather than just repair or fix. Until I was at a power plant working, I had never met an engineer and no idea what one actually did. It was their interactions with us in the field - working with us to explain the whys and the hows - that convinced me to go to college and pursue engineering. Whats the most exciting project youve ever worked on?Working with the recovery team at Millstone Nuclea r Station in the mid to late 1990s. Without question, the Millstone staff and contractors were the most talented and dedicated team Ive ever been honored to work with. As a team, we solved and resolved hundreds, if not thousands of issues. People challenged each other technically and worked through a very difficult time. I have never learned more or have worked harder in my life. What do you think youd be doing if you hadnt become an engineer?A teacher - middle school or high school science or math.Whats your favorite activity when youre not at work?Working with the ASME Energy Committee, or attending baseball and football games, and outdoor music events in the Northern Virginia area.Was there a book or a movie that piqued your interest in science or inspired you to become an engineer?Books by Isaac Asimov, H.G. Wells, and Ray Bradbury. And those old dusty text books from the early 1900s that you find in the back corners of old libraries.Who are your heroes, either within the engin eering profession or in the rest of your life?I dont have many heroes, but I admire and am thankful for my early career mentors Don Ray, Josaun Delawence, John Ferguson, Rik Wells, and a few others who encouraged and challenged me both personally and professionally. Perhaps they, and others, are the real unsung heroes of the profession - mentors, senior engineers and friends.Whats the most meaningful or rewarding aspect of being connected to engineering?We get to solve problems. Plus, I get to work with brilliant and fascinating people - professors and academics to rocket scientists to inventors to engineers to mechanics and construction workers - sometimes all in the saatkorn day. As Herbert Hoover said, Its a great profession. There is the fascination of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy. What does ASME mean to you?Over the years, its provided professional growth a nd learning opportunities through the Power and Nuclear Divisions. It provides me a way to give back to the community either through previous work on the Board of Pre-College Education or now through the Energy Committee. It provides a way to help shape the future and make nuclear plants safer or reliable through working on Nuclear Codes and Standards committees. Last, it means a number of close personal and professional friends.