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Electrical Plug Incident. Joe Kilar - April 2007. Summary from ORPS Report. Researcher attempted to unplug a compressor from a 208 Volt receptacle. Plug housing and cable disconnected from the plug base which remained in the receptacle.
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Electrical Plug Incident Joe Kilar - April 2007
Summary from ORPS Report • Researcher attempted to unplug a compressor from a 208 Volt receptacle. • Plug housing and cable disconnected from the plug base which remained in the receptacle. • Another researcher advised him to leave the plug as is and report it to the staff. • Instead the researcher used needle nosed pliers to try to pry and remove the plug base from the receptacle. • In blind reaching while doing so, the pliers shorted a phase to ground resulting in a short and subsequent arc and sparks. • Incident occurred in the evening but staff was not informed until 0830 the next morning.
Receptacle 208 VAC receptacle – on left
Pliers • Needle nosed pliers used
Plug separation • Separation of plug housing and cable from the base
Plug separation • Plug housing and cable separation from base
Close-up of pliers • Pliers close-up
Close-up of plug base • Plug close-up
Comments and Lessons Learned • Reiterate that unqualified persons are not permitted to perform electrical work, especially energized electrical work. • Reiterate that persons must suspend activity and seek assistance when encountering any problems with an electrical plug and/or receptacle. • Blind reaching when performing energized electrical work is dangerous and prohibited. • Instances of unauthorized energized electrical work are not only unsafe but also effect a fee measurement that financially impacts the Laboratory. • The researcher is currently disbarred from further research at the Laboratory jeopardizing his dissertation and thereby his Ph.D.