There is an expression among nuclear operators in the navy: “Don’t nuke it.” This basically translates to “don’t over complicate it”. In the world of nuclear operations, civilian as well as military, every operation to the smallest switch or valve manipulation is controlled by procedures. These procedures are painstakingly written, constantly scrutinized, and revised as needed to ensure proper safe operation of the reactor. What would outwardly appear like a simple evolution of turning on a light is made complicated by briefings, two (or even three) way communication, and strict adherence to the procedure; no short cuts. In other words, “it’s nuked.”
Navy nuclear operators are trained when they are most malleable, between the ages of 18 and 25. Intense study of systems along with constant preaching of watch standing principles become second nature before long and it’s easy for these ideals to spill over into non-nuclear applications. This happened to me recently when preparing to take our brand new travel trailer out for its shakedown cruise.
I went RVing with my family growing up but my parents always took care of the operation and maintenance associated with the trailer. I never paid any attention to what was involved with things like connecting to a tow vehicle or dumping waste tanks. When we got our trailer, we were given a walk through of all the different components and shown how to operate the various systems. Since both my husband and I are former navy nukes, we didn’t have a whole lot of questions as we understood the flow of water, how pressurized gas systems work, and basic electrical loading while running shore power (AC power) or the 12V DC system (onboard batteries). We impressed the guy as we often do.
After that walk through, I had a strong understanding of how everything worked even though I’d never operated any of it before. We took possession of the trailer and I collected all the literature on the various appliances and installed equipment and began to organize it; then I nuked it.
That’s right, I nuked the hell out of travel trailer operations. I didn’t stop at putting all the manuals in a single binder so they took up less space and were all in one place. I didn’t stop at making a checklist for shutting down the trailer when a camping trip was over. Oh no, I went above and beyond. I created numerous procedures written as if the trailer were a nuclear reactor. I wrote a procedure for connecting the trailer to a tow vehicle and a separate one for disconnecting it. I wrote a procedure for placing the trailer in a camping configuration and another one for going from a camping configuration to a tow configuration. I wrote separate procedures for dumping waste tanks and lighting off the oven. My procedures included notes of caution, PPE (personal protective equipment) requirements, and included diagrams and figures for ease of operator understanding.
If I had any questions about how something worked before I did this, they were all answered by the time I was finished. After all that work I was more than ready for our shakedown cruise. Our trip was not only about testing to see if everything worked on the trailer like it was supposed to, it was also a test of my procedures! They require some minor revisions but overall everything worked as it should and by following the procedures, we didn’t break anything!
No, I didn’t need to “nuke” my trailer and I probably made things more complicated than needed. I certainly don’t think every RV owner would or even could go to all the trouble I did. I want this trailer to remain in good working order for a long as possible. To ensure that end, it must be operated safely and properly and my nuked understanding (and procedures) make that possible.
End Transmission
On Monday evening my husband and I took our six-year-old nephew and five-year-old niece to see