Although she’s been with Duke Energy since 2012, Porsha Ward has been in her current role for just a couple of months.
“Duke Energy calls my position ‘radiation protection superintendent,’ but industrywide, that role is known as radiation protection manager, or RPM,” she explained. “It’s basically the radiological conscience for the site. I’m responsible for the health and safety of everybody who works at this plant.
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This story is part of a series on in-demand nuclear roles, essential jobs that enable Duke Energy to continue generating the electricity our customers count on. Read the other stories here.
“Fortunately, I don’t do that alone,” Ward continued. “I have a great team of supervisors, scientists, planners and technicians.”
Nuclear is different from other methods of generating electricity. “It’s the one area where you can’t always see the hazard,” she said. “You know a valve isn’t working if you see oil spilling out. But you can’t see radiation. You need the proper instrumentation – and people – to detect the issue.”
Ward is in a very specialized role. Only a handful of colleges in the country offer radiation protection programs. But that’s not the route she took.
A more traditional path would’ve been an engineering or chemistry degree. Instead, she went to Coastal Carolina University with the intention of becoming a lawyer – until her advisor, a former lawyer himself, steered her away from law.
Just as Ward was considering what to do with her degree in political science and Spanish, she met the training manager at Robinson and soon joined the department herself. She knew nothing about the field (only that her Hartsville, S.C., hometown is home to Robinson Nuclear Plant) but learned quickly.
When she transferred to Brunswick Nuclear Plant’s radiation protection department in 2014, there was more to learn. In addition to on-the-job training, Duke Energy sent her to a university in Tennessee – and paid for her master's degree in management and leadership in 2020.
Ward’s political science degree wasn’t wasted since she’s “always looking at policies and procedures for our highly regulated industry.”
She also finds similarities between the nuclear “operating experience” and what, in legal circles, is called precedence. “The ‘operating experience’ is essentially when there’s an incident in the industry and lessons to be learned from it. Instead of having to recreate it, you accept it as precedent.”
Ward loves a lot about her job – her teammates, first and foremost.
“We have this thing – Brunswick United – which is our mantra,” she said. “It’s all about teamwork. We genuinely care about each other.”
She appreciates the job’s challenges, too: “This work is very dynamic. You may think you know what the day will hold when you come in, but the plant’s demands may be different. You have to be engaged, vigilant and conscientious.”
Ward values the diversity of her team – and appreciates that diversity at Duke Energy is about more than race and gender. It also includes diversity of thought. She said, “There are people who don't have nuclear engineering degrees – like me – who still have a seat at the table.”
Lastly, Ward values how “Duke Energy excels in promoting women – myself included. Some of my friends in other industries don’t have the upward mobility Duke affords us. In my 12 years here, I’ve had so many opportunities to grow. Going into the nuclear industry is the best decision I ever made.”
