Women in Nuclear - WiN Canada

A day in the life of Pauline Blair would take you to a place few people ever get to visit— the control room of a nuclear power plant. Pauline has been an Authorized Nuclear Operator (ANO) for ten years. Her main responsibility is the safe operations of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. “Our primary role is for the public,” she says. “We ensure that the reactor and associated equipment is running safely.”

With its flashing lights and colourful buttons, the control room may look a bit like Homer's work station on the Simpson's but that's where the similarities end.  Being an ANO for Ontario Power Generation involves a number of important task, the most important of which is protecting public safety.

“We coordinate the activities of the station during the day and make sure its safe to do a job,” she says. To become a licensed nuclear operator, there is over five years of on-the-job training. Even after you have received your license, you must attend training every five weeks. In fact, an ANO has as much training as a family physician. “We’re the folks who have been through an awful lot of training,” Pauline says. “We are like the goal keepers. We know the anomalies and can pick up the flaws in a work plan.”

The training Pauline received is what helps her in an emergency situation.

“It’s mind over matter,” she says. “We are trained to respond automatically. But I think they also screen out personalities that likely wouldn’t perform well.”

Although she has been working for Ontario Power Generation for 20 years, Pauline did not begin her post-secondary education knowing she would enter the nuclear field. But when she graduated from University of Toronto with a degree in molecular genetics, there was a recession in her field. A friend told her about an opening as a field operator at OPG. She decided to apply and has worked there ever since.

“My father was one of the original scientists that came over from Britain to set up Chalk River,” she says. “I grew up in Deep River Ontario, so working in a nuclear reactor didn’t seem that odd.”

Pauline and her father aren’t the only family members working in the industry. Pauline’s husband is a shift manager at OPG. The Blair’s have always worked on different shifts at the Pickering Plant to ensure a parent was always home with their three children.

If you were spending a day in Pauline’s shoes you’d have to keep track of her “almost grown-up kids,” and perhaps even visit the track. Pauline loves to run. “It’s my stress reliever,” she says. Among her hobbies, job, and children—what she calls “her full-time employment,”— Pauline has also made time for WiN. After being asked to discuss her experience as a female licensed operator at a WiN conference, Pauline decided to join.

“I absolutely ate it up,” she says. “I find it very motivating. You go to a conference and come back with a new resolve to change the world.”

She especially likes the “give and take” approach.

“WiN is very nurturing. A lot of the meetings are about expanding our experiences in the industry,” she says. “But then there is also the giving portion and educating other folks. It’s a way to give back to the industry.”

Created on July 10, 2008.