Back in my Navy days, I used to be an ELT (an Engineering Laboratory Technician for those of you who are non-nuclear types). One of my main duties was to provide coverage for maintenance jobs that involved contamination controls. You see, a lot of the systems in the engine room were associated with the Nuclear Reactor and could become contaminated with radioactive material. My primary purpose in providing coverage for these jobs was to make sure that none of that radioactive material would get spread around the submarine. The general term for this type of work was called Radiological Controls or RadCon for short.

After spending several years doing this type of work, I became very familiar with where we would and would not find contamination (more than likely). There were certain shortcuts that could be taken as long as no one important was around. These shortcuts saved a lot of time and were especially appreciated by the workers actually performing the maintenance. Since my first name is Brad, this particular form of mid-watch maintenance came to be referred to as "BradCon".