The latest episode of Chat NDT with ASNT features Todd Sellmer, Manager of Packaging and Information Systems for Nuclear Waste Partnership LLC. Sellmer speaks to host Debbie Segor about the importance of ethics in the NDT industry.
Sellmer draws upon his years of his experience in the NDT industry, including in the oil, nuclear, and aerospace fields. He stresses the importance of maintaining your reputation and consistency as an ethical technician and covers some of the ethical challenges that practitioners will face in the field. As Sellmer notes, even one instance of a technician cutting corners can establish a negative pattern, and a tarnished reputation can ruin an NDT technician’s career.
“It is your reputation—your ethics in doing the right thing, every time—that keeps us employed in nondestructive testing. Nobody wants someone they can’t rely on to do the right thing,” Sellmer said.
Sellmer discusses the importance of companies establishing ethical programs and guidelines, preferably in writing, so that employees understand the expectations. He stresses the benefits a company stands to gain from establishing a reputation as an ethical company and investing in ethical programs, and the ways in which company management can model ethical behavior and shape the culture of an NDT company. He also explores some examples of the potential damage of not completing an NDT inspection as thoroughly as possible, including the crash of United Flight 232 in Sioux City, Iowa in 1989.
Listen to the complete conversation below or search for “Chat NDT with ASNT” in your favorite podcast platform.
For more information about topics discussed in this episode:
- Professional Ethics: Falsifying and Failure to Report, https://blog.asnt.org/professional-ethics-falsifying-and-failure-to-report/
- Professional Ethics: The Role of the “Whistleblower,” https://blog.asnt.org/professional-ethics-the-role-of-the-whistleblower/
- Professional Ethics: The Employer and Employee Relationship, https://blog.asnt.org/professional-ethics-the-employer-and-employee-relationship/
- The ASNT Code of Ethics, https://www.asnt.org/MajorSiteSections/About/Ethics.aspx
- The crash of United Flight 232, https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a10478/the-final-flight-of-united-232-16755928/
This episode was sponsored by Waygate Technologies.
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Todd Sellmer has worked for the Nuclear Waste Partnership, LLC for 24 years and is currently the Manager of Packaging Engineering and Information Systems. Sellmer is an ASNT NDT Level III in LT, MT, and PT. He was elected to the ASNT Class of Fellows in 2015 and is a past chair of the ASNT Leak Testing Committee.
Debbie Segor is Marketing and Communication Specialist at ASNT, and the host of Chat NDT with ASNT. To be a guest on the podcast, contact desgor@asnt.org.
Haley Cowans is Educational Books Editor at ASNT, hcowans@asnt.org.