Women in Nuclear - WiN Canada

Dorothy is responsible for instructing employees on a variety of topics from plant maintenance to work clearance management, helping employees understand Operational Flowsheet reading, Plant Systems and Operations Documentation. As part of the Readiness for Restart team, Dorothy has the critical role of System Alignment Coordinator to ensure plant systems are configured appropriately for the various plateaus as the plant moves from the defueled core state to the full power state.  In other words, the state of the various plant systems must match what our paperwork says it is.

Dorothy started her career with NB Power Nuclear 29 years ago as an apprentice Stationary Engineer. In 1985, she became the first women in New Brunswick to finish the 4-year apprenticeship program.  She took her training by correspondence through the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT). At that time, she studied on-the-job and successfully passed all the required exams to be a Journeyman Second Class Stationery Engineer.

Dorothy is passionate about work clearance and documentation because she believes in their importance in helping to protect workers and in maintaining station configuration. Teaching people to understand the Work Clearance Management system helps to ensure personnel remain safe while performing maintenance; this gives her a great sense of accomplishment. Her most rewarding project to date was being part of the design team for the implementation of Work Clearance Management in SAP and the training of personnel on the new process.

For Dorothy, being a woman in a non-traditional career is exciting and interesting. There is always something new to be learned and the wages are excellent.  Her motivational message to young women would be to “spend time on your education; today’s world is changing quickly so don’t be afraid to try something different”. She also adds “it’s nice to get paid for something you enjoy doing”.

What inspired Dorothy to become involved with WiN was the opportunity to spend time with intelligent women. She feels it takes courage for young women to get into the sciences and other non-traditional careers which motivates and inspires her. Dorothy’s personal satisfaction from being a member of WiN came recently when she had the opportunity to be a mentor at the Skills Work®! Networking Dinner for Women.  She thought it was exciting and fun and wouldn’t otherwise have had the opportunity.

Being part of WiN for Dorothy is seen as a great opportunity for networking, creating friendships and experiencing new things.

As Created Sept. 8, 2009