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Insights > Meet the pros: Anitra Dyer and Tonya Fitzgerald
Meet the pros: Anitra Dyer and Tonya Fitzgerald
12/07/2023
Meet Anitra Dyer, a River Bend Station nuclear security officer who has been with the plant for 19 years, and Tonya Fitzgerald, a Grand Gulf Nuclear Station security administrative assistant who has worked there for 14 years.
Dyer and Fitzgerald both work to keep the plants safe with their security teams.
Fitzgerald works to recruit security officers through career fairs and helps manage the budget and paperwork with the security team at Grand Gulf. She is also a big advocate for boosting the morale of security officers.
"I encourage the security department to get involved as much as possible with community service, I started doing employee of the month recognition and I celebrate the officers’ work anniversaries,” said Fitzgerald.
Dyer’s strong focus on career development has led to working toward her goal of becoming an access authorization fitness for duty collector. This role at the plant handles the authorizations during refueling outages for third-party contractors to enter the plant safely. As a learning opportunity, she is supporting access authorization at Waterford 3 Steam Electric Station during their current refueling outage.
When plant operators take the unit offline for a scheduled refueling outage, nuclear professionals remove a portion of the fuel from the reactor, organize current fuel rods and replace the old fuel with new fuel.
During the refueling, the team along with contract workers will also complete maintenance work and other projects to improve plant reliability. Every detail of a refueling outage is meticulously planned, including the contract workers who must have proper documented authorization access to the plant.
Both security team members have a strong emphasis on safety in their roles.
“Safety is paramount at River Bend,” said Dyer. “I focus on safety by keeping my eyes on my path while walking on patrols and traversing throughout the plant. Walking is working, meaning that I must focus on doing it safely.”
As a security officer, Dyer also expresses the importance of using handrails and staying hydrated while on duty.
Likewise, safety is the number one priority for Fitzgerald, too.
Both women emphasize making safety personal through being mothers and ensuring they return home healthy for their children. Dyer has one 20-year-old son and Fitzgerald has three children, ages 11-, 15- and 19-years old.
Fitzgerald’s favorite part of working at Grand Gulf is its employees emphasis on community service.
"I love that I get to work with a group of people so passionate about giving back to the community,” Fitzgerald said. “Entergy as a company does so much for their local communities. It warms my heart to know my teammates are so willing to jump up and lend a helping hand to those in need."
For inquiries and postings about security positions available at Entergy Nuclear, please visit jobs.entergy.com.
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