For those of you who don't know, I work at a nuclear plant in North Carolina. We were going to take down the plant for a refueling outage at midnight, which we do every 18 months. I was scheduled to work 6pm-6am, but I was required to come in early for an oral board examination for one of the watch stations so I could qualify to operate components in that building. I passed my board (which was really difficult), and then I only needed to do a evaluated walkthrough with one of the bosses. We finish the walkthrough as the plant is being brought down in power slowly from 100% to 20% where we then trip the turbine so we can bring the reactor offline in a smooth manor. We are about 90 minutes away from our scheduled shutdown time, and there are about 400 contractors and staff members on site ready to get to work. I am finishing up the paperwork to complete my qualifications (20% of my job title effectively) when the lights go out. The jist of what everyone said was "oh, poopy!" Then the announcement was made: "Attention plant personnel, Reactor Trip". Suddenly, the office area I'm in bursts into action and everyone is immediately busy instead of waiting. The next 4 hours fly by, while I complete multiple tasks to put the plant in a safe condition. I want to reiterate that the plant is safe and no one was hurt, and no contamination was leaked, but to have a plant operate correctly for 361 days straight and then trip within 90 minutes of your scheduled time is INSANE.