I know in this country it is part of the Equipment Operator training program to be able to run the diesels and also synch the generator to the station safety buses. When offsite power comes back on the generator operator has to know how to synch that to the buses now running from the emergency diesels, and then take the diesels offline. There is a fair amount of automation in the process now but the training still requires operators to know how to use a synchroscope and perform the operations manually if needed. Still a good idea to know how to do it.
I’m not talking merely running the diesels. I’m talking making like Farmer Fred and tearing into them to get them running if necessary. The best guess I can make of why the Fukushima diesels failed is fuel contamination. That’s the usual reason why diesels fail after getting water into the area.
Was there no one who could dive in there and get the fuel system cleaned out? I’ve had water and slime in diesel fuel and it has taken me anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours to get a smaller (200HP) engine up and running again. It isn’t rocket science, but if you haven’t any training as a diesel mechanic, I’m guessing that an operator isn’t going to go tearing apart the fuel system and injectors to get it going again. They’re going to keep hammering on the starting system until they’ve exhausted the batteries or compressed air. What’s needed is a guy who is about like a senior chief in a submarine here - a guy with a lot of practical experience, a large vocabulary of curses who knows how to use them to make stuff happen “right now.”