The picture above is a part of the refinery where I, along with 500 of my good friends, work. The steam you see coming from all of the tall columns is being applied to help clean them up. The hot liquid that condenses inside cleans the vessels and is pumped away from the bottom. A small amount of steam is allowed to excape from the top – just to make sure that everything stays hot. This is the last part of the decontamination process. We’re finishing that up now.
I took that photo as I was leaving work this afternoon – the sun is setting behind me and the yellow glow of the sodium vapor lights is about to take its place. I thought it looked cool, but the photo really doesn’t capture what I saw that well. It was just a one-handed cell phone photo grab……
In a few days, the steam plumes will stop. After about the middle of January, the lights will stop coming on. I stopped at every refinery unit today. So many people still believe that some company is going to purchase the refinery and put us back to work. It’s so sad…
I suppose there might be a chance that that could happen. It’s also possible that some of us might get one of the dozen-or-so decontamination/demolition positions. These folks will stay on after the February 5 deadline in order to continue to clean up things and decontaminate stuff. However, it would be really irresponsible for me to hang my hopes on either of those unlikely events. I’ve got to find another job – we all do.
Although I’d really like to get on with things, we won’t be released from our jobs until the end of January or so. It’s going to be a long 5 weeks….
Greg
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