Darral Gaffney

Darral Gaffney: nuclear plant security at FirstEnergy CorpEE Darral Gaffney is a senior nuclear engineer at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant (Perry, OH) of FirstEnergy Corp (Akron, OH).His work is in the vital area of plant security.

Gaffney earned his 1976 BSEE at Cleveland (OH) State University.He also completed a co-op at the NASA Lewis Research Center (Cleveland, OH) doing keypunch programming, and worked with the National Urban League to find black students with an interest in engineering.

His first job on graduation was with the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co (which merged with FirstEnergy in 1997).He began as a junior engineer, involved with projects that included the national pollution discharge elimination system (NPDES) wastewater treatment project.It was an interesting and lively start-out job, he recalls.He became an associate engineer with his own junior working for him.

The company was building the Perry nuclear power plant, and in 1984 Gaffney transferred to a supervisor lead position.He worked with several dozen detailers to add conduit lines to the structural design.

In 1987 Perry went into operation and Gaffney moved into motor control, heat tracing, grounding and lightning protection.

Today he's working with the plant's security systems.He reviews specs, writes requirements and interfaces with in-house security people and the NRC.This fall, Gaffney's group will participate in a simulated terrorist attack to demonstrate how well the plant is protected.

Gaffney sees nuclear energy as one of the most promising industries for engineers."There's a multitude of opportunities," he says.