Nuclear Plant Journal Outage Management ... - Digital Versions

Nuclear 

Plant 

Journal 

Outage Management & 

Health Physics 

May-June 2009 

Volume 27 No. 3 

ISSN: 0892-2055 

Harris, USA

KEY QUESTION FOR THE FUTURE 

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© 2009 AREVA NP Inc.

Kinectrics offers unique testing and assessment 

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Nuclear Experts 

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NEW PLANT DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION SUPPORT 

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• Seismic Qualification & Testing 

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• Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) 

• Environmental Testing & Studies 

OPERATING PLANT ISSUES SUPPORT 

Nuclear Safety Margins & Performance Demonstration 

• Equipment Qualification Testing & Studies 

• Operability Simulations & Testing 

• Probability Risk Assessment Analysis 

• Licensing & Regulatory Affairs Support 

Sustaining or Improving Equipment Reliability 

• Field NDE (VT to Phased Array UT methods) 

• Electrical Equipment & Cable Condition Assessment 

• Mechanical Testing 

• Rotating Machine Monitoring & Condition Assessment 

• Root Cause Failure Analysis & Forensic Evaluation 

• Concrete Structure Assessment, Repair & Rehabilitation 

• Obsolescence Management & Reverse Engineering 

Enhanced Radiation & Environmental Protection 

• Tritium Management 

• Radioactive Materials Characterization 

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• EMI / RFI Testing 

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Nuclear 

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©2009 EDF Group 

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For monthly photo updates of construction progress, send your e-mail address to info@unistarnuclear.com.

Nuclear Plant Journal 

May-June 2009, Volume 27 No. 3 

27th Year of Publication 

Nuclear Plant Journal is published by 

EQES, Inc.six times a year in February, 

April, June, August, October and December 

(Directory). 

The subscription rate for non-qualified 

readers in the United States is $150.00 

for six issues per year. The additional air 

mail cost for non-U.S. readers is $30.00. 

Payment may be made by American 

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ext. 103; Fax: (630) 858-8787. 

*Current Circulation: 

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Utilities: 4,600 

*All circulation information is subject to 

BPA Worldwide, Business audit. 

Authorization to photocopy articles is 

granted by EQES, Inc. provided that 

payment is made to the Copyright 

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8400, Fax: (978) 646-8600. The fee code 

is 0892-2055/02/$3.00+$.80. 

© Copyright 2009 by EQES, Inc. 

Nuclear Plant Journal is a registered 

trademark of EQES, Inc. 

Printed in the USA. 

Staff 

Senior Publisher and Editor 

Newal K. Agnihotri 

Publisher and Sales Manager 

Anu Agnihotri 

Editorial & Marketing Assistant 

Michelle Gaylord 

Administrative Assistant 

QingQing Zhu 

® 

Articles & Reports 

Outage Management & 

Health Physics 

Planning & Scheduling to Minimize Refueling Outage 20 

By Pat McKenna, AmerenUE 

Prioritizing Safety, Quality, & Schedule 24 

By Tom Sharkey, Dominion 

Benchmarking to High Standards 26 

By Margie P. Jepson, Entergy Nuclear 

Benchmarking Against U.S. Standards 29 

By Magnox North, United Kingdom 

Enabling Suppliers for New Build Activity 31 

By Marcus Harrington, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy 

Identifying, Cultivating & Qualifying Suppliers 32 

By Thomas E. Sliva, AREVA NP 

Creating New U.S. Jobs 36 

By François Martineau, Areva NP 

Industry Innovations 

MSL Acoustic Source Load Reduction 38 

By Amir Shahkarami, Exelon Nuclear 

Dual Methodology NDE of CRDM Nozzles 41 

By Michael Stark, Dominion Nuclear 

Electronic Circuit Board Testing 45 

By James Amundsen, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company 

Plant Profile 

The Future is Now 48 

By Julia Milstead, Progress Energy Service Company, LLC 

Departments 

New Energy News 8 

Utility, Industry & Corporation 10 

New Products, Services & 

Contracts 14 

New Documents 17 

Meeting & Training Calendar 18 

Journal Services 

List of Advertisers 6 

Advertiser Web Directory 44 

On The Cover 

Harris Nuclear Plant is located in North 

Carolina. It has a Pressurized Water 

Reactor. Harris has been in operation 

since 1987. See page 48 for a profi le. 

Mailing Identification Statement 

Nuclear Plant Journal (ISSN 0892-2055) is published bimonthly in February, April, 

June, August, October and December by EQES, Inc., 799 Roosevelt Road, Building 6, Suite 

208, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137-5925. The printed version of the Journal is available cost-free to 

qualified readers in the United States and Canada. The subscription rate for non-qualified readers 

is $150.00 per year. The cost for non-qualified, non-U.S. readers is $180.00. Periodicals (permit 

number 000-739) postage paid at the Glen Ellyn, IL 60137 and additional mailing offices. POSTMAS- 

TER: Send address changes to Nuclear Plant Journal (EQES, Inc.), 799 Roosevelt Road, Building 6, 

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Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2009 www.nuclearplantjournal.com 5

List of Advertisers & NPJ Rapid Response 

Page Advertiser Contact Fax/Email/URL 

2 AREVA NP, Inc. Donna Gaddy-Bowen (434) 832-3840 

19 Bechtel Power www.bechtel.com 

15 Day & Zimmermann Power Services David Bronczyk (215) 656-2624 

11 Enercon Services, Inc. Art Woods (770) 919-1932 

52 Enertech Tom Schell (714) 528-0128 

37 FCI USA Inc. Angela Toppazzini (603) 647-5205 

40 G. D. Barri & Associates, Inc. Georgia D. Barri (623) 773-2924 

21 HSB Global Standards Catherine Coseno (860) 722-5705 

3 Kinectrics Inc. Cheryl Tasker (416) 207-6532 

28 NPTS, Inc. Rebecca Broman (716) 876-8004 

35 Nuclear Logistics Inc. Craig Irish (978) 250-0245 

23 Rolls-Royce Gordon Welsh www.rolls-royce.com 

43 Thermo Fisher Scientific, Scientific Instruments 

Division CIDTEC Cameras & Imagers Tony Chapman (315) 451-9421 

13 Trinitek Services, Inc. Gloria Chavez (505) 281-4074 

4 UniStar Nuclear Energy Mary Klett (410) 470-5606 

33 Urenco Enrichment Company Ltd. Please e-mail enquiries@urenco.com 

51 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC Karen Fischetti (412) 374-3244 

7 WorleyParsons Thomas Penell (610) 855-2602 

9 Zachry Nuclear Engineering, Inc Lisa Apicelli (860) 446-8292 

Advertisers’ fax numbers may be used with the form at the bottom of the page. Advertisers’ web sites are listed in 

the Web Directory Listings on page 44. 

Nuclear Plant Journal Rapid Response Fax Form 

May-June 2009 Nuclear Plant Journal 

To: _________________________ Company: __________________ Fax: ___________________ 

From: _______________________ Company: __________________ Fax: ___________________ 

Address:_____________________ City: _______________________ State: _____ Zip: _________ 

Phone: ______________________ E-mail: _____________________ 

I am interested in obtaining information on: __________________________________________________ 

Comments: _____________________________________________________________________________ 

6 www.nuclearplantjournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2009

31,700 

Personnel 

37 

Countries 

114 

Offices 

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New Energy News 

Energy Research 

Centers 

Argonne National Laboratory will 

be home to two of 46 new multi-milliondollar 

Energy Frontier Research Centers 

(EFRCs) announced by the White House 

in conjunction with a speech delivered 

by President Barack Obama at the 

annual meeting of the National Academy 

of Sciences. The EFRCs, which will 

pursue advanced scientific research on 

energy, are being established by the U.S. 

Department of Energy Office of Science 

at universities, national laboratories, 

nonprofit organizations, and private firms 

across the nation. 

EFRC researchers will take advantage 

of new capabilities in nanotechnology, 

high-intensity light sources, neutron 

scattering sources, supercomputing, and 

other advanced instrumentation, much 

of it developed with DOE Office of 

Science support over the past decade, in 

an effort to lay the scientific groundwork 

for fundamental advances in solar energy, 

biofuels, transportation, energy efficiency, 

electricity storage and transmission, clean 

coal and carbon capture and sequestration, 

and nuclear energy. 

DOE awarded Argonne’s Institute for 

Atom-efficient Chemical Transformations 

(IACT) $19 million over five years. The 

funding award will allow IACT to use a 

multidisciplinary approach to address key 

catalytic conversions that could improve 

the efficiency of producing fuels from 

coal and biomass. IACT will focus on 

advancing the science of catalysis for the 

efficient conversion of energy resources 

into usable forms. 

Contact: Angela Hardin, telephone: 

(630) 252-5501, email: ahardin@anl. 

gov. 

Wave Reactor 

Burns and Roe Enterprises, 

Inc. was awarded an architectural and 

engineering contract for a conceptual 

design of a Traveling Wave Reactor 

(TWR) by TerraPower, LLC, Bellevue, 

Washington. The conceptual design will 

be for a nuclear electric power plant 

with a 3000 thermal MW reactor using 

a revolutionary core design. The value 

of the contract is $1 million with an 

estimated period of performance of eight 

months. 

The reactor core is based on a 

proprietary breed-and-burn process that 

yields very long core life and favorable 

fuel cycle costs. The conceptual design 

will be for a first generation (nth of a 

kind), full-scale power plant with the 

intent of seeking a U.S. NRC design 

certification at the appropriate time. The 

net electrical power output of the plant, 

the overall plant layout, and the plant 

site requirements will be determined 

during the conceptual design. The 

reference reactor design will be a liquid 

sodium-cooled, pool-type reactor with an 

intermediate liquid sodium heat transport 

system. The reactor does not require 

refueling for up to 60 years. 

Contact: Donald Flood, telephone: 

(201) 986-4623. 

Manufacturing 

Agreement 

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) 

announced a strategic agreement naming 

Spanish manufacturer Equipos Nucleares 

SA (ENSA) as a key supplier of reactor 

pressure vessel (RPV) fabrication for new 

nuclear power plants. 

The agreement strengthens GEH’s 

global supply chain and ensures it will 

have substantial RPV production capacity 

to meet customer needs. 

Building on the strengths of both 

companies, GEH and ENSA will 

collaborate under the new agreement on 

RPVs for certain Advanced Boiling Water 

Reactor (ABWR) and the Economic 

Simplified Boiling Water Reactor 

(ESBWR) power plant opportunities. 

Contact: Ned Glascock, email: 

Edward.glascock@ge.com. 

Project Agreements 

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy 

announced the signing of two agreements 

with the Nuclear Power Corporation 

of India (NPCIL) and Bharat Heavy 

Electricals Limited (BHEL) as the 

companies prepare to collaborate on 

building multiple GEH-designed nuclear 

reactors to help meet India’s energy 

production goals. 

GEH signed separate agreements 

with Mumbai-based NPCIL, India’s only 

nuclear utility operating 17 reactors, and 

New Delhi-based BHEL 

The two government-owned companies 

are helping lead India’s efforts to expand 

electricity generation from nuclear 

energy more than tenfold over the next 

two decades, from 4.1 GW today to 60 

GW by 2032. 

Under the preliminary agreements, 

GEH will begin planning with NPCIL 

and BHEL for the necessary resources 

in manufacturing and construction 

management for a potential multipleunit 

Advanced Boiling Water Reactor 

(ABWR) nuclear power station. 

Contact: Ned Glascock, email: 

Edward.glascock@ge.com. 

Memorandum of 

Understanding 

The advancement of the next 

generation of nuclear reactors has 

received a boost with the signing of a 

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) 

in Beijing on March 26, 2009 between the 

Chinese and the South African developers 

of pebble bed technology. 

Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty) 

Ltd (PBMR) of South Africa has been 

developing the pebble bed technology 

in parallel with the Institute of Nuclear 

and New Energy Technology (INET) of 

Tsinghua University and Chinergy Co 

Ltd of China, whose pebble bed concept 

is based on a 10 MW (thermal) research 

reactor that was started up in Beijing in 

December 2000 and achieved full power 

operation in January 2003. 

The MOU, based on mutual respect 

and appreciation for the developments 

achieved by both countries to date, is 

designed to facilitate cooperation on 

identified areas of common interest. 

South Africa and China hope to pursue 

collaboration in a number of strategic 

and technical areas relating to high 

temperature reactor (HTR) projects in 

both countries. 


Contact: Tom Ferreira, telephone: 

27 0 12 641 1132, email: tom.ferreira@ 

pbmr.co.za. 

NRC License 

TVA will continue to pursue Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission approval to build 

and operate two Westinghouse AP1000 

reactors at the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant 

site near Hollywood, Alabama although 

the NuStart consortium will shift initial 

licensing efforts for the new reactor 

design to another plant. 

NuStart is transferring the “reference” 

designation to build the first of a new 

generation of reactors to Southern 

Nuclear’s Plant Vogtle application. The 

change is designed to align industry 

and regulatory resources with a license 

application that has specific, near-term 

construction plans. 

Contact: Terry Johnson, telephone: 

(423) 843-7839, email: twjohnson@tva. 

gov. 

Nuclear Research 

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu 

recently announced the selection of 71 

university research project awards as part 

of the Department of Energy’s investments 

in cutting-edge nuclear energy research 

and development (R&D). Under 

the Nuclear Energy University Program 

(NEUP), these 71 projects will receive approximately 

$44 million over three years 

to advance new nuclear technologies in 

support of the nation’s energy goals. By 

helping to develop the next generation 

of advanced nuclear technologies, the 

Nuclear Energy University Program will 

play a key role in addressing the global 

climate crisis and moving the nation toward 

greater use of nuclear energy. 

Contact: telephone: (202)586-4940. 

Concrete Pour 

Westinghouse Electric Company, 

its consortium partner The Shaw Group 

Inc., China’s State Nuclear Power 

Technology Corporation (SNPTC) and 

Sanmen Nuclear Power Company of 

China National Nuclear Corporation 

announced the successful completion, 

on schedule, of the first pour of basemat 

structural concrete for the nuclear island 

at Sanmen, the site of the first of four 

Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power 

plants to be built under a contract signed 

in 2007. 

The pour encompassed 5,200 

cubic meters of concrete, 950 tons of 

reinforcing steel and 1000 anchor bolts. 

The concrete will serve as the foundation 

for all of the nuclear island buildings, 

including the containment vessel and the 

shield building. 

Contact: Vaughn Gilbert, telephone: 

(412) 347-3896, email: gilberhv@ 

westinghouse.com. 

 

ZACHRY– 

a new 

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for the 

future. 

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Utility, Industry & Corporation 

Utility 

Safety Program 

Constellation Energy announced 

that its R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power 

Plant in Ontario, New York has been 

recognized for its outstanding safety 

program by achieving STAR status under 

the Occupational Safety and Health 

Administration (OSHA) Voluntary 

Protection Program (VPP). STAR is 

the highest safety designation given by 

OSHA and the federal government. 

Ginna employees celebrated the 

achievement in a ceremony, along with 

OSHA officials and local leaders. The 

highlight was the presentation of the VPP 

STAR flag by Mike Levy, OSHA’s New 

York State VPP manager. 

Contact: Dave Joslin, telephone: 

(585) 771-5221, email: David.Joslin@ 

Constellation.com. 

Development Services 

Entergy Nuclear is teaming with 

ENERCON to offer distinct nuclear 

development services ranging from 

existing plant relicensing to full service 

new plant deployment. 

The new venture will tap the 

combined expertise of both nuclear 

renaissance leaders, allowing a full 

spectrum of customer-focused services 

that further the companies leadership in 

the nuclear arena. 

Together, Entergy Nuclear and 

ENERCON will leverage their experience 

to offer services from a unique, customerfocused 

perspective. Primarily, the team 

will provide a full spectrum of services. 

Contact: Mike Bowling, telephone: 

(601) 368-5655, email: mbowlin@ 

entergy.com. 

Industry 

Request for Information 

The Canadian Nuclear Safety 

Commission (CNSC) has put out a 

Request for Information (RFI) seeking 

responses from suppliers with Light 

Water Reactor (LWR) technology 

expertise, in Canada and internationally. 

The RFI closes on June 1, 2009 at 2:00 

PM Eastern Time. 

The CNSC has initiated this RFI 

to prepare for the potential license 

applications for new nuclear power plants 

that are based on light water reactor 

technology. The CNSC would need to 

increase its LWR expertise to prepare for 

and assess such license applications. 

Responses to the RFI process will be 

used for procurement planning of LWR 

expertise. Once the new nuclear power 

plants/light water reactor applications are 

received, a Request for Proposal process 

will be initiated to retain the required 

professional services. 

Contact: Andree Mongeon, 

telephone: (613) 947-3578, email: 

andree.mongeon@cnsc-ccsn.qc.ca. 

EPA Recertification 

Ten years after the start of disposal 

operations, the U.S. Department of Energy 

(DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant 

(WIPP) will demonstrate its continued 

compliance with U. S. Environmental 

Protection Agency (EPA) regulations for 

radioactive waste disposal. DOE submitted 

its second Compliance Recertification 

Application (CRA) to EPA, initiating a 

recertification process required by Congress. 

Contact: Roger Nelson, telephone: 

(575) 234-7213. 

Public Comments 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission 

is seeking public comment on 

regulatory issues and options for potential 

changes to the agency’s radiation 

protection regulations, to achieve greater 

alignment between the regulations and 

the 2007 recommendations of the International 

Commission on Radiological 

Protection (ICRP). 

The NRC believes that the agency’s 

current regulations continue to provide 

adequate protection of health and safety of 

workers, the public and the environment. 

The ICRP recommendations, contained 

in ICRP Publication 103, propose 

measures that go beyond what is needed 

to provide adequate protection. In a Staff 

Requirements Memorandum dated April 

2, 2009 the Commission directed the staff 

to engage stakeholders and interested 

parties on the benefits and burdens of any 

potential regulatory changes based on the 

ICRP recommendations. 

The staff will use public comments 

over the next two to three years to 

develop a technical basis for potential 

rulemaking, for presentation to the 

Commission. The staff will consult with 

state regulatory agencies, the Conference 

of Radiation Control Program Directors, 

the Interagency Steering Committee 

on Radiation Standards, other federal 

agencies, and other organizations while 

developing the technical basis. 

The NRC is currently developing a 

dedicated Web site for public comments 

on this issue. Comments may also 

be submitted by e-mail to Regs4RP. 

Resource@nrc.gov. 

Contact: NRC, telephone: (301) 415- 

8200. 

Corporation 

Merger 

Patrick Kron, Chairman & CEO 

of Alstom, reorganized the company 

by merging into a single entity all the 

activities related to power generation, 

currently managed by two Sectors, Power 

Systems (plants, equipments and retrofit) 

and Power Service (after-sales, from 

service to renovation and spare parts). 

The set-up of a single Power Sector 

will improve the commercial performance 

of the Group and optimize its engineering 

and production means. 

Contact: Philippe Kasse, telephone: 

33 1 41 49 29 82 33 08, email: philippe. 

kasse@chq.alstom.com. 

(Continued on page 12) 


From our perspective, the future 

has never looked brighter. 

For more information, 

please visit our website at 

www.enercon.com. Submit 

résumés in confidence to 

resume@enercon.com. 

For over two decades, we have been at the forefront of the nuclear 

power industry, providing engineering or technical services to virtually 

every nuclear power plant in the United States. Now, with the emerging 

nuclear renaissance, growth opportunities for our company on existing 

and new nuclear power plants are unprecedented. And we’re looking 

for highly motivated professionals who would like to join our team and 

grow along with us. 

With 16 offices stretching from coast to coast and over 00 

professionals in a broad range of disciplines, ENERCON is unique in 

its capability to help our clients address both today’s and tomorrow’s 

challenges. We are an employee-owned company, with a commitment 

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Corporation... 

Continued from page 10 

Organizational changes 

AREVA announced an organizational 

realignment to address increased 

U.S. demand for modernization and 

services of the existing fleet of nuclear 

power plants and plans for deploying a 

new fleet of U.S. EPR plants. These 

changes take effect immediately. 

George Beam, formerly Nuclear 

Services Senior Vice President, has been 

appointed to the new position of Chief 

Operating Officer. He will lead AREVA 

NP Inc. Nuclear Services, Fuel Sector, 

AREVA Canada, Ltd., and SGT LLC, 

AREVA’s joint venture with URS. 

Joe Zwetolitz returns to the Nuclear 

Services organization as Senior Vice 

President to continue to strengthen 

those operations. Ron Land succeeds 

Zwetolitz as the acting senior executive 

for AREVA Fuel Sector. 

AREVA also recently announced 

the appointment of Mark Marano to 

Senior Vice President for New Plants 

Business Development, and additional 

steps are being taken to strengthen that 

organization. Matt Dryden has joined 

AREVA NP Inc. as Manager of Business 

Development. 

Contact: Susan Hess, telephone: 

(434) 832-2379, email: susan.hess@ 

areva.com. 

Valve Orders 

Flowserve Corporation confirmed 

it had earlier received two significant 

orders from Westinghouse Electric 

Company for AP1000 nuclear power 

projects in China. 

Flowserve announced in May 

2008 that it received an order to supply 

main steam isolation valves for two 

Westinghouse nuclear power plant 

projects in China. Since that time, 

Westinghouse has also placed additional 

safety related valve orders to include 

main feedwater isolation valves and 

motor-operated gate and globe valves 

for two AP1000 Westinghouse nuclear 

projects in China. 

These additional orders were 

recorded as bookings in 2008. 

Contact: Lars Rosene, telephone: 

(469) 420-3264. 

Award 

Invensys Process Systems (IPS), 

a global technology, software and 

consulting firm, announced that it has 

received the 2009 Frost & Sullivan South 

East Asia Industrial Technologies Award 

for “Customer Service Leadership for 

Safety Systems” at a ceremony in Kuala 

Lumpur, Malaysia. 

Across the globe, IPS powers 

thousands of companies in the oil and 

gas, petrochemical, fossil and nuclear 

power, hydrocarbon processing and 

specialty chemicals industries, helping to 

secure safer, more efficient operations. 

Contact: Tom Clary, telephone: 

(469) 365-6651, email: tom.clary@ips. 

invensys.com. 

Joint Venture 

The JSC Atomenergoprom, Russia 

and Toshiba Corporation, Japan have 

agreed to carry out joint activities in 

nuclear fuel cycle products and services 

in Japan and other countries in Asia (a 

non-exclusive contract). For these purposes 

the parties considered establishing 

the Joint Venture which will be engaged 

in deliveries of nuclear fuel and its components. 

The parties will strive to a 

maximum use of their existing potential; 

jointly develop market infrastructure elements 

improving the level of assured 

deliveries for national energy security. 

The parties are working on establishing 

guaranteed stockpiles of low-enriched 

uranium at the sites of nuclear fuel fabrication. 

Both parties have also agreed to 

commence the joint study on improvement 

of Russian Nuclear Power Plant 

design process and construction technology 

to shorten the construction period. 

Furthermore, for the manufacturing 

arena, an agreement has taken place to 

continue the study for establishing the 

partnership on manufacturing for power 

generation systems. 

Contact: JSC Atomenergoprom, 

telephone: 7 495 969 2939, email: 

info@atomenergoprom.ru. 

Acquisition 

David Harris, President and CEO of 

Kinectrics Inc. announced that Kinectrics 

will expand its expertise in nuclear 

regulatory and licensing capabilities 

through the acquisition of Candesco 

Corporation of Toronto, Ontario. 

Candesco specializes in providing 

regulatory affairs consulting for the 

Canadian power industry. 

Both companies will continue to 

provide advanced services in nuclear 

asset management, condition assessment, 

engineering and operations support. All 

of the Candesco partners will continue 

to work for the company. 

On completion of the acquisition, 

Candesco will operate as a separate 

company within the Kinectrics family 

of companies. 

Contact: Shahrokh Zangeneh, 


shahrokh.zangeneh@kinectrics.com. 

Engineering Simulator 

L-3 MAPPS has received 

authorization from AREVA NP to 

proceed with the development of an 

engineering simulator based on the 

Flamanville 3 (FA3) EPR design. This 

is part of the continuing services L-3 

MAPPS provides to AREVA’s Real- 

Time Simulation Centre in Paris and 

closely follows the Olkiluoto 3 EPR 

Engineering Simulator which was put 

into service by L-3 MAPPS at AREVA’s 

Erlangen, Germany test facility in 

October 2008. The FA3 Engineering 

Simulator is expected to be delivered at 

the end of 2010. 

Key technical highlights for the FA3 

Engineering Simulator are: 

• the instrumentation and control 

(I&C) and human-machine in- 


terface (HMI) for the distributed 

control systems (DCS)—AREVA’s 

Teleperm XS for the safety systems 

and the Siemens T2000 for the operational 

I&C—will be simulated 

using L-3 MAPPS technology, 

• a second phase to incorporate 

CATHARE, a thermal-hydraulic 

computer engineering code for 

nuclear power plant safety analysis. 

Contact: Andre Rochon, telephone: 

(514) 787-4953. 

Modular Construction 

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and 

Westinghouse Electric Company have 

signed a Memorandum of Understanding 

for co-operation to effectively address the 

projected need in India for Pressurized 

Water Nuclear Reactors with Modular 

construction technology. 

L&T has been playing a lead role 

in equipment manufacture, construction 

and project management for Pressurized 

Heavy Water Reactors in India’s domestic 

program, this MoU with Westinghouse 

represents a major step forward 

for L&T in Pressurized Water Reactors 

of modular design. It will enable L&T 

as well as Westinghouse Electric Company 

to utilize indigenous capabilities 

for the Turnkey Construction of nuclear 

power plants including supply of reactor 

equipment and systems, valves, electrical 

& instrumentation products and fabrication 

of structural, piping and equipment 

modules for the Westinghouse AP 

1000 plants. 

Contact: Debojyoti Chatterjee, 

telephone: 022 6658 5144, email: dcccd@lth.ltindia.com. 

Share Transfer 

Agreement 

Westinghouse Electric Company 

announced the signing of a share transfer 

agreement with Furukawa Electric 

Co., Ltd., Japan and Sumitomo Electric 

Industries, Ltd., Japan, under which 

Westinghouse Electric UK Limited will 

acquire a combined 52 percent stake in 

Nuclear Fuel Industries, Ltd. (NFI), Japan’s 

sole producer of nuclear fuel for 

both boiling-water and pressurized-water 

reactors. 

The acquisition, at an approximate 

cost of $100 million, is expected to be 

finalized in May. 




Supplier Conference 


and its consortium partner The Shaw 

Group Inc., conducted a Supplier 

Conference in the United Arab Emirates 

on April 21, 2009, the first to be held the 

in the Middle East. 

The event was held to identify 

potential suppliers for its AP100 Nuclear 

Power Plant Global Supply Chain. 

United Arab Emirates was chosen 

for its centralized location within the region, 

as well as access to potential suppliers 

who may already have specialized 

knowledge and skills in the energy sector. 

During the Supplier Conference, 

participants were identified for later 

qualification in areas of work that includes, 

fabrication of construction modules, 

development of a qualified and 

skilled supply base, onsite erection and 

assembly of components, and nuclear 

component manufacturing. 




Zirconium Sponge 


announced that it and the State Nuclear 

Baoti Zirconium Industry Company, 

Ltd. (SNZ), China have agreed to form a 

joint venture to build and operate a plant 

to produce nuclear grade zirconium 

sponge. The plant will be located 

at Nantong in the Jiangsu Province, 

China. 

The plant will supply nuclear 

grade sponge to the China market and 

to Westinghouse’s Western Zirconium 

Plant in Ogden, Utah. 

The new joint venture plant in China 

is expected to be completed in 2011 and 

will start providing products in 2012. 




 

3TKS SM 

Trinitek Services, Inc. 

Nuclear and Environmental 

Safety Consultants 

Environmental and Nuclear Scientists, 

Health Physicists, Nuclear Engineers, 

Safety Engineers, Industrial Hygienists, 

Hazardous Materials Managers, RCTs 

Former NRC/Agreement State Regulators 

– Programs, Procedures, Audits 

– Radioactive Material Licensing 

– Environmental Permits, Reports, EIS 

– Rad & Haz Waste Management 

– D&D, Remediation, Restoration 

– DOT Shipping Requirements 

– Nuclear Quality Assurance 

– Training 

– Nuclear Materials Security 

– Staff Augmentation, Outages 

We are a small, women-owned, 

disadvantaged business 

Contact us for a Quote 

(866) 990-4387 

Toll Free in U.S. & Canada 

http://www.3tks.com/ 

LocatedinAlbuquerque–ServingWorldwide 


New Products, Services & Contracts 

New Products 

Radiation Detector 

The Canberra Cryo-Cycle 

Cryostat is a revolutionary innovation in 

the field of cryogenically cooled radiation 

detectors. This product is described as a 

“hybrid” cryostat because it utilizes both 

conventional liquid nitrogen and electric 

cooling. This arrangement, whereby the 

built-in cryocooler condenses the boiloff 

gas from an LN2 reservoir, provides 

the convenience of electric cooling 

and the reliability of liquid nitrogen 

cooling, something never seen before 

in this field. This capability overcomes 

one of the most common complaints 

against conventional electrically powered 

detector coolers which is loss of cooling 

during a power failure. With conventional 

electrically powered coolers, even a short 

power failure can result in downtime of 

24-48 hours for the requisite warm-up/ 

cool-down cycle. There is also the ever 

present risk that the detector will not 

make a complete recovery following the 

temperature cycle. 

Contact: Joanna Lipper, telephone: 

(203) 639-2441, email: Joanna.lipper@ 

canberra.com. 

Hot Cell Monitor 

Ideal for both the Nuclear Industry 

and Medical environments, Laboratory 

Impex Systems (LIS) introduce HC833: 

this self-contained gamma monitoring 

system, for use within shielded areas 

such as hot-cells and glove-boxes, features 

a large analogue scale to give users 

an immediate and clear visual indicator of 

the radiation level within the cell. Its additional 

safety functions, should radiation 

levels exceed a preset threshold, include a 

door interlock and visual alarm. 

Contact: Laboratory Impex Systems, 

telephone: 01202 684848, email: sales@ 

lab-impex-systems.co.uk. 

Analysis Software 

The ORTEC ® business unit of 

AMETEK Advanced Measurement 

Technology (AMT) has released the latest 

version of GammaVision-32 Gamma 

Spectroscopy Analysis software for highpurity 

Germanium detector spectra. 

This latest release, version 6.08, 

includes all changes necessary for compatibility 

with Microsoft Windows Vista 

operating system. In addition, all of 

GammaVision-32’s Help files have been 

converted to HTML (Hyper Text Markup 

Language) increasing ease of access and 

functionality. 

GammaVision-32 version 6.08 

includes updated analysis algorithms 

to improve accuracy and reliability. It 

also supports forthcoming industry 

standard ISO/DIS 11929 calculation 

methodologies and multiple languages 

in enhanced reports and graphical user 

interface. 

Contact: Susie Brockman, telephone: 

(865) 483-2124. 

Hose 

River Bend Transfer Systems 

continues to improve the safety of our 

containment technology with the new 

iHose system. With iHose , if a leak 

occurs in the inner tube of the hose, the 

liquid will seep into the reinforcement 

area of the hose and will be immediately 

detected. Safety is greatly enhanced when 

the presence of a leak can be immediately 

determined. Undetected, a leak could 

eventually find it’s way through the outer 

casing of the hose. 

iHose has helical sensing wires 

within the reinforcement layer that will 

detect any conductive fluid that leaks 

through the inner tube of the hose before 

the outer casing is breached, allowing 

operators to shut down and assess the 

system before an environment impact can 

occur. 

Contact: Geoff Barnes, telephone: 

(509) 943-4673, email: gabarnes@ 

riverbendtransfer.com. 

Services 

Labor Services 

G.D. Barri & Associates is a full 

services contract engineering, design 

and technical services firm. They are a 

recruiting labor solutions company that 

manages staffing solutions and staff. G.D 

Barri offers labor services in a manner 

consistent with client requirements while 

maintaining high performance, quality, 

competitive pricing, honest relationships, 

and adapting quickly to change. 

Contact: Georgia Barri, telephone: 

(623) 773-0410, email: gdbarri@gdbarri. 

com. 

Technical Services 

Trinitek Services provides expert 

regulatory consulting, and professional 

scientific and technical services in 

areas related to nuclear licensing and 

permitting, environmental science, 

radiation safety, and radioactive materials 

and waste management. 

Their expertise also includes 

developing and managing programs for 

high-level, transuranic, and low-level 

radioactive waste operations. 

Contact: Gloria Chavez, telephone: 

(505) 286-4387, email: gec@3tks.com. 



We look at power plant maintenance 

from a different angle. 

We build customer-centered 

solutions from the ground up 

In the power value chain, the breadth of 

services, experience, industry knowledge, 

strategic vision, and project execution 

delivered by Day & Zimmermann is 

unmatched. 

Our innovative solutions for nuclear, 

fossil and hydroelectric power generation 

facilities include plant maintenance 

and modifications, major construction, 

fabrication and machining, professional 

staffing, as well as valve, condenser, and 

radiological services. 

This offering enables our suite of 

Managed Maintenance Solutions SM to 

truly be a one-stop shop for all of your 

power generation needs. 

Safety, Integrity, Diversity, Success 

www.dayzim.com

Contracts... 


Contracts 

MOX Fuel 

AREVA recently signed a contract to 

supply MOX fuel assemblies for Japan’s 

Ohma nuclear power plant, scheduled to 

be in operation in 2014, located in the 

Aomori prefecture and which will be 

operated by the Japanese utility Electric 

Power Development Co., Ltd. 

Under the terms of the contract, 

the fuel will be fabricated at AREVA’s 

MELOX plant in southern France, using 

Japanese plutonium recovered from 

the treatment operations performed 

at AREVA’s La Hague plant, thereby 

recycling it to be used in Japan as MOX 

fuel. 

Contact: Donna Gaddy-Bowen, 

telephone(434) 832-3702, email: Donna. 

GaddyBowen@areva.com. 

Annual 

Editorial 

Schedule 

January-February 

International Trade & 

Waste & Fuel Management 

Issue 

March-April 

Plant Maintenance & Plant Life 

Extension Issue 

May-June 

Outage Mgmt. & Health 

Physics Issue 

July-August 

New Plants & 

Vendor Advertorial Issue 

September-October 

Plant Maintenance & 

Advanced Reactors Issue 

November-December 

Annual Product & 

Service Directory Issue 

Reactor Coolant Pumps 

AREVA, through its subsidiary 

AREVA DONGFANG, has won two 

contracts worth over 150 million euros 

to supply Chinese utility CNPEC with 18 

reactor coolant pumps. 

These pumps, which are essential 

components of the primary system of 

a nuclear reactor, will equip the 1000 

MW Generation II plants in Yangjiang 

in Guangdong province and Ningde in 

Fujian province in South Eastern China. 

Production will begin in 2009 and 

the pumps will be delivered in batches 

between 2011 and 2013. 

Contact: Donna Gaddy-Bowen, 

telephone(434) 832-3702, email: Donna. 

GaddyBowen@areva.com. 

Desktop Simulator 

L-3 MAPPS has been awarded a 

contract from Romania’s Nuclearelectrica 

SA (SNN) for replacing the Cernavoda 

Unit 1 digital control computer (DCC) 

central processing unit (CPU) equipment 

and to provide a desktop simulator to 

validate DCC software. Project work 

is proceeding immediately and the new 

DCCs are expected to be in service during 

summer 2010. 

Contact: Andre Rochon, telephone: 

(514) 787-4953. 

Simulator Upgrade 

L-3 MAPPS has been awarded 

a contract from Hydro-Québec to 

significantly upgrade its Gentilly-2 

simulator. The simulator upgrade is part 

of a plant refurbishment project which 

will extend the life of the Gentilly-2 

Nuclear Generating Station until the year 

2040. 

The order also includes optional 

phases which could be selected later by 

Hydro-Québec for emulating the plant’s 

new turbine control system, a new plant 

display system and further modeling 

changes. Work has already started under 

a pre-authorization from Hydro-Québec 

and the new simulator is expected to enter 

service progressively in various phases 

until fall 2011. 

Cooperation Agreement 

The Shaw Group Inc. signed a 

strategic cooperation agreement with 

China’s State Nuclear Power Technology 

Corporation (SNPTC). The agreement 

is a task-order based contract, which 

allows both companies to issue tasks to 

support each other in growing nuclear 

infrastructure businesses. 

Shaw currently is under contract with 

SNPTC and other Chinese organizations 

to provide engineering, procurement, 

commissioning, information management 

and project management services for four 

AP1000 nuclear plants being built at 

the Haiyang nuclear power plant project 

in China’s Shandong province and the 

Sanmen nuclear power plant project in 

Zhejiang province. 

Contact: Gentry Grann, telephone: 

(225) 987-7372, email: gentry.brann@ 

shawgrp.com. 

Construction Cleared 

Local authorities in South Bohemia 

have signed a contract with Czech 

utility CEZ that clears obstacles to 

the construction of units 3 and 4 at the 

Temelin nuclear power plant in Czech 

Republic. 

CEZ confirmed to NucNet that 

the Council of South Bohemia had 

overturned a 2004 resolution blocking 

construction of the units. The contract, 

signed yesterday, will bring the equivalent 

of about 200 million US dollars to the 

region by 2018 for general infrastructure 

and development. 

Contact: David Dalton, email: david. 

dalton@worldnuclear.org. 


New Documents 

EPRI 

1. Nuclear Maintenance Applications 

Center: Preservation of Failed Parts to 

Facilitate Failure Analysis of Nuclear 

Power Plant Components. Product ID: 

1016907, Published March, 2009. 

Equipment failure analysis and damage 

mode determination are cornerstones 

for improving equipment reliability. 

Methods and techniques for performing 

failure analysis are becoming more sophisticated 

and are used to prevent recurring 

equipment failures. Maintenance and 

engineering personnel usually perform at 

least initial troubleshooting and disassembly 

of failed components. 

2. Nuclear Maintenance Applications 

Center: Tiered Valve Maintenance Program, 

Product ID: 1018015, Published 

March, 2009. 

Thousands of valves of various types 

with various actuators perform a variety 

of functions in a nuclear power plant. 

These valves require varying degrees 

of corrective, predictive, and preventive 

maintenance, depending on their safety 

significance, economic impact, or other 

factors such as operating environment or 

historical performance. 

3. Steam Generator Management Program: 

Automated Analysis of Array 

Probe Eddy Current Data, Product ID: 

1018559, Published March, 2009. 

Utilities perform eddy current tests 

on nuclear power plant steam generator 

(SG) tubes to detect degradation. This 

report summarizes the status of ongoing 

research to develop signal-processing 

algorithms that automate the analysis of 

eddy current test data. 

4. US Steam Turbine Valve Metallurgy 

Guide, Product ID: 202+89+, Published 

March, 2009. 

This report provides nuclear and 

fossil plant personnel with current 

information on the metallurgical aspects 

of the steam turbine valve components 

used in U.S. power plants. 

5. Materials Reliability Program: 

Inspection and Evaluation Guidelines for 

Reactor Vessel Bottom-Mounted Nozzles 

in U.S. PWR Plants (MRP-206), Product 

ID: 1016594, Published March, 2009. 

This report presents inspection and 

evaluation guidelines for reactor vessel 

bottom-mounted nozzles in U.S. pressurized 

water reactor (PWR) plants. 

6. Quantifying Corrosion Products Removed 

from Fuel Assemblies by Ultrasonic 

Fuel Cleaning, Product ID: 1018718, 

Published April, 2009. 

Ultrasonic Fuel Cleaning (UFC) is a 

mechanical cleaning process developed 

by EPRI to remove corrosion product 

deposits (crud) that have formed on 

nuclear fuel assemblies during the 

operating cycle. This report documents 

the effort and procedure that will allow 

utilities to determine the mass of crud 

removed during UFC. 

7. BWRVIP-210: BWR Vessel and Internals 

Project, XGEN Engineering Jet 

Pump Restrainer Bracket Repair Design, 

Product ID: 1018868, Published April, 

2009. 

The purpose of this work is to develop 

conceptual designs for modification of 

jet pump restrainer brackets to provide 

rigid lateral restraint of the jet pump inlet 

mixers. 

8. International Review Team Report: A 

Peer Review of the Yucca Mountain IM- 

ARC Total System Performance Assessment 

EPRI Model, Product ID: 1018711, 

Published April, 2009. 

The intent of this peer review is to 

provide an independent evaluation of 

EPRI’s TSPA code, IMARC, in light of 

EPRI’s role as an independent third party 

to the Yucca Mountain process. 

9. Program on Technology Innovation: 

Information Integration for Equipment 

Reliability at Nuclear Plants, Product ID: 

1018910, Published April, 2009. 

The nuclear power industry has made 

notable advances in the effectiveness of 

the equipment reliability process over the 

last decade. As the plants’ equipment and 

workforce age, it will be even more challenging 

to sustain and improve current 

high levels of equipment performance. 

10. Surface Analysis of Pressurized 

Water Reactor Steam Generator Tubing 

Specimens: Results of Surface and 

Microstructural Analysis of Tubes from 

Diablo Canyon 1, Oconee 2, Seabrook, 

and Vogtle 1 and 2 PWRs, Product ID: 

1018720, Published April, 2009. 

The amount and composition of surface 

oxides present on the surface of pressurized 

water reactor (PWR) reactor coolant 

system (RCS) components can have a 

major impact on fuel assembly corrosion 

product deposits during the operating 

cycle. This study analyzes primary side 

surface oxides of steam generator tubes 

from five U.S. PWRs. 

The above documents may be obtained 

from EPRI Order and Conference Center, 

1300 West WT Harris Blvd., Charlotte, 

NC 28262; telephone: (800) 313-3774, 

email: orders@epri.com. 

Publication 

The ASTM International technical 

publication, STP 1492, Effects of Radiation 

on Materials: 23 rd International Symposium, 

features 18 peer-reviewed papers 

focused on the irradiation embrittlement 

of reactor pressure vessel steels. The new 

research provides a broad perspective on 

the development and application of trend 

curves used to predict fracture toughness 

transition temperatures in irradiated reactor 

pressure vessel steels. ISBN: 978-0- 

8031-3421-8, 237 pages. Price: $74. 

Contact: ASTM Customer Service, 

telephone: (610) 832-9585, fax: (610) 

832-9555, email: service@astm.org. 


Meeting & Training Calendar 

1. Canberra’s 2009 Users’ Group Meeting, 

June 15-19, 2009, Loews Lake 

Las Vegas Resort, Henderson, Nevada. 

Contact: Canberra, telephone: 

(203) 639-2148, email: 

events@canberra.com. 

2. Emergency Preparedness Training 

Course, June 17-19, 2009, Hyatt Regency 

Coconut Point, Bonita Springs, 

Florida. Contact: Martin Hug, Nuclear 

Energy Institute, telephone: (202) 

739-8129. 

3. 2009 ASME/EPRI Radwaste Workshop, 

June 22-23, 2009, Knoxville 

Marriott Hotel, Knoxville, Tennessee. 

Contact: EPRI, telephone: (248) 336- 

8611, email: epri@specialdevents. 

com. 

4. ASME Nuclear Technical Seminars, 

June 22-23, 2009, JW Marriott 

Buckhead, Atlanta Georgia. Contact: 

Jennifer Delda, American Society of 

Mechanical Engineers, telephone: 

(212) 591-7108, email: deldaj@asme. 

org. 

5. International Symposium on Uranium 

Raw Material for Nuclear Fuel Cycle 

(URAM 2009), June 22-26, 2009, Vienna, 

Austria. Contact: International 

Atomic Energy Agency, telephone: 

43 1 2600 21314. 

6. International Low Level Waste 

Conference 2009, June 23-25, 2009, 

Knoxville Marriott Hotel, Knoxville, 

Tennessee. Contact: EPRI, telephone: 

(248) 336-8611, email: epri@ 

specialdevents.com. 

7. Platts 4 th European Nuclear Power 

Conference: Sustaining the Momentum, 

June 29-30, 2009, Paris, France. 

Contact: Platts, telephone: 44 20 

7176 6111, fax: 44 20 7176 6144, 

email: nukes@platts.com. 

8. 5 th Annual World Nuclear University 

Summer Institute, July 5-August 

15, 2009, Oxford, United Kingdom. 

Contact: WNU, telephone: 44 0 20 

7839 1501, email: wnu-applications@ 

world-nuclear-university.org. 

9. Energy Business Opportunities Conference 

2009, July 7-8, 2009, ENERGUS, West 

Cumbria. Contact: Hazel Duhy, West 

Cumbria Business Cluster, email: hazel. 

duhy@westcumbriabusinesscluster. 

org.uk. 

10. 17 th International Conference on 

Nuclear Engineering, July 12-16, 

2009, Sheraton Brussels Hotel, Brussels, 

Belgium. Contact: Erin Dolan, 

American Society of Mechanical 

Engineers, telephone: (212) 591- 

7123, email: DolanE@asme.org. 

11. 50 th Annual Meeting of the Institute 

of Nuclear Materials Management 

INMM, July 12-16, 2009, Tucson, 

Arizona. Contact: INMM, telephone: 

(847) 480-9573, email: inmm@inmm. 

org. 

12. Combined U.S. WIN and Global WIN 

Conference, July 20-24, 2009, Grand 

Hyatt Washington, Washington, D.C. 

Contact: Carol Berrigan, Nuclear 

Energy Institute, telephone: (202) 

739-8050, email: clb@nei.org. 

13. Nuclear Fuel Supply Forum, July 

21, 2009, Willard Intercontinental, 

Washington, D.C. Contact: Suzanne 

Phelps, Nuclear Energy Institute, 


srp@nei.org. 

14. ASME Power 2009, July 21-23, 

2009, Hyatt Regency, Albuquerque, 

New Mexico. Contact: John Varrasi, 

American Society of Mechanical 

Engineers, email: varrasij@asme. 

org. 

15. Utility Working Conference and Vendor 

Technology Expo, August 2-5, 

2009, Amelia Island Plantation, Amelia 

Island, Florida. Contact: American 

Nuclear Society, telephone: 

(708) 352-6611. 

16. 44 th Tennessee Industries Week, 

August 10-14, 2009, University of 

Tennessee Main Campus, Knoxville, 

Tennessee. Contact: Kristin England, 


kengland@utk.edu. 

17.Health Physics Forum, August 16-19, 

2009, Laguna Cliffs Marriot, Dana 

Point, California. Contact: Ralph 

Andersen, Nuclear Energy Institute, 


rla@nei.org. 

18. 14 th International Conference on Environmental 

Degradation of Materials 

in Nuclear Power Systems, August 

23-27, 2009, Virginia Beach, Virginia. 

Contact: American Nuclear Society, 


allen@engr.wisc.edu. 

19. Global 2009 & Top Fuel 2009, September 

6-11, 2009, Paris, France. Contact: 

Sylvie Delaplace, SFEN, telephone: 33 

(0) 1 53 58 32 16, email: global2009@ 

sfen.fr. 

20. “Facility Decommissioning” Training 

Course, October 5-7, 2009, SpringHill 

Suites Virginia Beach Oceanfront, 

Virginia Beach, Virginia. Contact: 

Lawrence Boing, Argonne National 

Laboratory, telephone: (630) 252- 

6729, email: lboing@anl.gov. 

21. Nuclear Manufacturing Outreach Workshop, 

October 8, 2009, Rosen Shingle 

Creek Resort, Orlando, Florida. Contact: 

Carol Berrigan, Nuclear Energy 

Institute, telephone: (202) 739-8050, 

email: clb@nei.org. 

22. The 12 th International Conference on 

Environmental Remediation and Radioactive 

Waste Management, organized by 

International Conference on Environmental 

Remediation, October 11-15, 

2009, Liverpool Arena and Convention 

Centre, UK. Contact: website: http:// 

www.icemconf.com/ 

23. ETRAP- Education and Training Radiation 

Protection, November 8-11, 

2009, Lisbon, Portugal. Contact: European 

Nuclear Society, telephone: 32 2 

505 30 54, fax: 32 2 505 39 02, email: 

etrap2009@euronuclear.org. 

24. “Facility Decommissioning” Training 

Course, November 16-19, 2009, Tuscany 

Suites & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Contact: Lawrence Boing, Argonne 

National Laboratory, telephone: (630) 

252-6729, email: 

lboing@anl.gov. 

25. Nuclear Industry, China 2010: The 11 th 

China International Nuclear Industry 

Exhibition, March 23-26, 2010, Beijing, 

China. Contact: Lin Yi, Beijing International 

Exhibition and Economic Relations 

& Trade Association, Inc. telephone: 

0086 10 6526 8150, 65260852, 

email: linyinic@126.com. 


Bechtel Nuclear: Building on the Past 

Powering the Future 

Bechtel Power has been the active world leader in the nuclear industry for more than 60 years with 

more than 74,000 MW of nuclear design, construction and operating plant support experience. We 

have designed and/or built more than half of the nuclear power plants in the United States and 150 

nuclear power plants worldwide. 

Today, we are leading the nuclear renaissance in the United States. From plant restarts and completions 

to steam generator replacements and extended power uprates, we’re helping customers get the most 

out of existing assets. We also offer a full range of services for new-generation nuclear plants, including 

construction and operating license applications, EPC, and owner’s engineer/program management. 

BECHTEL POWER 

Frederick, Maryland, USA ◆ 1-301-228-8364 ◆ bechtel.com 

San Francisco ◆ Houston ◆ London ◆ New Delhi ◆ Shanghai

Planning & Scheduling to Minimize 

Refueling Outage 

By Pat McKenna, AmerenUE. 

1. Which of AmerenUE’s plants has 

minimum refueling outage period? Please 

describe about AmerenUE’s strategies 

which have resulted in this minimal 

refueling outage accomplishments. 

This past fall, the Callaway Plant 

reached a significant milestone by 

completing its first ever sub thirty day 

refueling outage, finishing up in 27.9 

days. For Refuel 17 (scheduled to begin 

April 17, 2010), Callaway set a goal of 

21 and a half days, which is just two days 

over our minimum outage period of 19 

and a half days. 

The strategy which enables Callaway 

to continue to draw closer to minimum 

outage goals centers on planning and 

scheduling. Callaway replaced all four 

Steam Generators during Refuel 14 and 

followed with a full inspection during 

Refuel 15. That will allow Callaway to go 

two outages without any Steam Generator 

maintenance. We also completed all 

turbine maintenance during Refuel 15, 

which means no turbine work for two 

consecutive outages. Good long range 

scheduling has enabled Callaway to 

reduce outage duration. 

2. How is “lessons learned” from one 

refueling outage transferred to implementation 

of “refueling outage” of the same 

plant or another AmerenUE plant? 

Callaway Plant has also applied 

“lessons learned” by having all 

supervisors and above record their 

comments throughout the refuel in a 

Corrective Action documents. At the 

conclusion, there is a formal review and 

critique process site wide and with each 

department. Actions are then assigned 

from review of the recorded comments 

from the refuel and the formal critique 

process to incorporate necessary changes 

for future refuels. 

3. How does AmerenUE ensure continued 

availability of experienced staff at its 

different nuclear power plants during 

outage? How is the attrition of staff made 

up by new personnel? 

Outage staffing is also important, 

and to ensure that experienced personnel 

are available, we assign less experienced 

workers to be observed and mentored 

by those with more experience. We have 

created a pipeline of personnel to fill 

positions opened from attrition which 

requires us to obtain new personnel then 

spend up to two years training them to be 

fully qualified to fill positions. 

4. How does AmerenUE management 

ensure creating a condition during 

refueling outage that enhances teamwork, 

communication, create harmony, among 

the staff which belongs to several different 

organizations? 

It is vital that everyone is engaged 

and feels like they are part of the Callaway 

team. To help facilitate that, we select 

a theme for each refuel. For example, 

Refuel 15 we used the slogan “Keep 

the Pace” and built everything around 

a racing theme. Refuel 16’s theme was 

“Takin’ Care of Business” and centered 

on Rock and Roll. Our next refuel will 

be “Mission Control” and is based on the 

Pat McKenna 

Pat McKenna brings more than three 

decades of nuclear experience in his 

role as Outage Manager at AmerenUE’s 

Callaway Nuclear Plant. Pat began 

his career in the U.S. Navy on a 

nuclear submarine, before moving on 

to Callaway where he’s worked as an 

Equipment Operator, Senior Reactor 

Operator, Training Instructor, Control 

Room Supervisor, Shift Manager and 

Assistant Manager of Operations. 

theme of space exploration. We utilize 

contests, giveaways, posters, music and 

special events to promote team unity such 

as the “Pancake Man,” who serves 90 

pancakes every two minutes to everyone 

on site during one day of the outage. 

These activities, where site personnel and 

contractors are treated equally, result in 

all personnel knowing they are part of the 

team. 

5. How does the management defi ne performance 

indicators that ensure accountability 

and also allows the management 

to quantify success or failure and indicate 

areas for improvement? 

Teamwork is also enhanced through 

performance indicators. Each day of the 

refuel we track things like overall budget 

and scope change, as well as individual 

department work and completing that 

work on schedule. If expectations aren’t 

being met, the plant director gets involved 

to review recovery plans on how to get 

things back on track. 

6. How does the management ensure 

that outage activities are completed in a 

minimum time while ensuring quality and 

continued safety of the reactor core? 

Our bottom line is always safety 

first—nuclear, radiological and industrial. 

Responses to questions by Newal 

Agnihotri, Editor of Nuclear Plant 

Journal. 


We schedule jobs that we have performed 

before per those durations from the past. If 

it’s a new job, we make our best guess and 

peer check that duration to make sure it’s 

reasonable, but we will never compromise 

safety for the sake of schedule. To make 

sure quality is never compromised, we 

will do a rework performance indicator 

where we know how many jobs had to be 

performed over again. So we emphasize 

safety and monitor schedule versus work 

performance, making sure the work is 

done as quickly as possible but safely, 

while monitoring rework to insure that 

work is of the highest quality. 

7. What incentives (fi nancial and other) 

are used by the management to ensure 

optimal effi ciency of different groups 

as well as the individual craftsmen and 

engineers involved in refueling outage? 

We offer a number of incentives to 

encourage optimal efficiency during an 

outage. Each day we have prize drawings 

(which are broadcast over our internal cable 

television network) for meeting goals 

concerning safety, schedule duration, 

dose, and observations. Also, refuel safety, 

budget, schedule duration and quality 

impacts our Key Performance Indicators 

(KPI) that helps determine a portion of 

each employee’s end of year bonus; both 

management and contract workers. 

8. How does AmerenUE ensure minimal 

radiation exposure to its workers during 

refueling outages? 

As mentioned, the safety of each 

worker is our top priority. In the area 

of radiological safety, Callaway stresses 

the need to work ALARA (As Low As 

Reasonably Achievable). The Radiation 

Protection group estimates dose levels 

for each job and works with each group 

to find the most efficient way to work 

that job to minimize dose. Higher dose 

jobs are reviewed by Callaway’s plant 

ALARA review committee to determine 

if additional actions need be taken to 

reduce dose. 

9. How has information and internet 

technologies helped outage management 

to reduce radiation dose and to reduce 

outage duration? 

Another tool we use to both minimize 

radiation exposure and outage duration 

is a specific Outage Department website 

that provides all Callaway personnel and 

contractors access to help them perform 

work in a safe and efficient manner. 

For example, workers can find what job 


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Planning & Scheduling... 


precedes theirs, what job follows theirs, 

projected dose levels for those jobs and 

the information is real time and up to 

date, not a paper schedule several days 

old. This allows the schedule to move 

forward with fewer delays and fewer 

potential dose issues. 

10. What is the procedure to handle last 

minute addition of projects to the outage 

schedule to ensure minimum impact from 

the predetermined outage planning due to 

these contingencies? 

We have occasions when work 

must be added to an outage schedule. 

That process at Callaway requires review 

by several groups prior to the job being 

evaluated. It requires budget review, 

risk review, operations review, and work 

group review before going to the Outage 

11. What scheduling software is used 

to prevent interferences and resources 

(equipment and human resources) 

confl ict? Describe briefl y (200 words 

maximum) salient features of the software 

indicating its subprogram. 

We use P3E version 5 of the 

Primavera scheduling software. It’s a 

very powerful tool to look at resources 

to determine whether we’re capable of 

performing the work with the people we 

have and rearranging schedules with that 

information. We’re also capable of getting 

additional data such as cost. 

12. How does AmerenUE make the 

personnel and the supervisors of the 

contractors to take ownership about the 

outcome of the refueling outage? What 

are the organizational, administrative, 

supervisor or contract administrator 

responsible for that group works to 

ensure that everyone understands our 

expectations and goals and we emphasize 

that they’re part of the team. They are as 

important to us being successful as we 

are ourselves. 

One of the techniques a contractor 

used during Refuel 16 to help accomplish 

that mission was the implementation of 

the “Green Stripe” program. All personnel 

of this contractor new to nuclear or to 

Callaway received a green sticker which 

they applied to their hard hat and wore 

for the first ten days on site. This alerted 

experienced personnel to the fact they 

were new, and enabled those workers 

to provide coaching and opportunities 

for the “green stripe” participants to 

ask questions. At the end of the ten-day 

period, we held a graduation ceremony 

and treated everyone to ice cream. The 

feedback was very positive as everyone 

involved indicated the program benefited 

them. 

Contact: Rick Eastman, AmerenUE 

Callaway Plant, Junction CC & Highway 

O, P.O. Box 620, CA-40, Fulton, MO 

65251; telephone: (573) 676-8932, fax: 

(573) 676-4300, email: REastman@ 

ameren.com. 

 

leadership team, or if the addition is 

during the outage, going to the Outage 

Shift Manager for review and if required, 

approval to place the job in the schedule. 

A corrective action document is then 

submitted that must provide a recovery 

plan to bring it to the level needed so it 

doesn’t negatively impact the outage. 

and motivational techniques used to 

accomplish this objective? 

At Callaway, we want everyone 

involved in our outage to take ownership, 

including our contractors and support 

personnel. To do this we make sure there 

are incentives in the contract. When 

these folks arrive on site, an AmerenUE 

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Prioritizing Safety, Quality, & 

Schedule 

By Tom Sharkey, Dominion. 

1. Which of Dominion’s plants has 


describe about Dominion’s strategies 



Our primary focus above all else during 

our refueling outages is to protect the 

reactor cores. It is our industry’s unique 

and ultimate responsibility. During a 

plant’s refueling outage, we remove two 

of the three primary barriers between the 

nuclear fuel and the outside atmosphere, 

the reactor vessel head and usually 

the containment equipment hatch. Our 

staff clearly plans and focuses on these 

planned conditions especially with the 

addition of several hundred supplemental 

workers on our sites, many without previous 

nuclear experience. Our ability to 

prepare and execute an efficient refueling 

outage duration allows us to best manage 

the risks involved. 

The plant staffs are focused on outage 

preparations by our leaders and processes. 

The Chief Nuclear Officer establishes 

the importance of successful outage 

preparations by being involved in the two 

executive outage readiness reviews for 

each plant. Station leaders use weekly 

outage management meetings, challenge 

reviews, High Impact Teams, project 

teams to ensure the staff is engaged. 

Outage scope and milestones are 

critical. Scope determines the outage 

duration. Milestones met on time and 

accurately are the best outage preparation. 

Our two Virginia nuclear stations have 

had seen successful durations in their 

last refueling outages. North Anna just 

completed a 25 day spring 2009 outage 

that included a 10 year reactor vessel ISI 

inspection. Surry station’s last outage 

was 24 days. Selecting the proper outage 

scope is the key factor in determining the 

outage duration. Just-In-Time review of 

scheduled preventative maintenance by 

Tom Sharkey 

Tom Sharkey is the Dominion Director 

of Nuclear Fleet Outage Performance. 

He has 31 years of nuclear power 

a cross discipline team has helped scope 

selection. Another factor is the continuous 

outage preparation by the site management 

and staff with cross-discipline project 

teams and the subsequent challenge board 

reviews. Meeting outage milestones 

on time in a quality manner forces the 

organization to be ready. From industry 

benchmarking, we instituted corporate 

executive outage readiness reviews at 

6 months and 2 months prior to the 

outage in order to ensure the station staff 

maintains a focus on outage preparations. 

leadership experience beginning with 

fi ve years in the U.S. Navy, followed 

by three years as a shift test engineer 

at a submarine shipbuilder, 22 years 

at a commercial nuclear power plant 

in the areas of Operations, Licensing, 

and Engineering, a loaned employee 

tour in the areas of maintenance and 

work management at the Institute of 

Nuclear Power Operations, and a two 

year corporate position in nuclear fl eet 

integration. He has held a senior reactor 

operations license. His degrees include 

a BS in Aerospace Engineering from St. 

Louis University, and an MS in Nuclear 

Engineering from the University of 

Missouri. He is a licensed Professional 

Engineer in Missouri and Virginia. 

The leaders and the Chief Nuclear Office 

in particular have made outages a priority. 

Proper station oversight of vendor 

projects particularly projects that are 

unique or first time evolutions are critical 

to a successful duration. 

2. How are “lessons learned” from 

one refueling outage transferred to 

implementation of “refueling outage” 

of the same plant or another Dominion 

plant? 




Surry Nuclear Station 


The Outage & Planning managers 

from each of our four stations and a 

corporate outage director meet weekly 

by phone to share outage lessons learned. 

Three times a year the group meets face 

to face to engage in detailed discussions 

for improvements needed. We identify 

process changes needed and then revise 

our fleet outage documents to improve 

our common processes. 

3. How does Dominion ensure minimal 

radiation exposure to its workers during 

refueling outages? 

As a result of comparing our nuclear 

fleet’s Collective Radiation Exposure 

(CRE) history against the industry, our 

RP manager peer group established a 

charter initiative to improve CRE. The 

peer group consists of the RP/Chemistry 

managers form each of our four stations 

along with a corporate support peer. North 

Anna achieved a spring 2009 outage by 

meeting their stretch dose goal of less 

than 78 Rem. 

4. How does Dominion make the 

personnel and the supervisors of the 

contractors to take ownership about the 

outcome of the refueling outage? What 

are the organizational, administrative, 

and motivational techniques used to 

accomplish this objective? 

Our philosophy on supplemental 

personnel is that they are part of the 

Dominion team when they are on site 

and that they are an essential and integral 

part for the success of our outage. We 

treat them with dignity and respect, while 

holding them accountable to the same 

standards, expectations, and procedures as 

Dominion personnel. We emphasize that 

our priorities are “SAFETY, QUALITY 

and SCHEDULE and send a clear 

message that Safety is the most important 

attribute with Quality being second. We 

communicate the message that when the 

first two are achieved, the schedule will 

follow. 

We have a core group of supplemental 

personnel on site year round which 

perform plant modifications. These 

personnel have been on-site long enough 

to understand the Dominion model, 

our policies and procedures. The core 

supplemental personnel typically assume 

key leadership roles during an outage. 

This improves the oversight by providing 

experienced personnel who understand 

North Anna Nuclear Station 

the Dominion model. The remainder of 

the leadership team is brought in early 

to allow for time to prep for their jobs 

and acclimate to Dominion policies and 

procedures. The core group is involved 

in selecting the additional foreman for 

the outage. The craft are evaluated upon 

exit and those who are recommended for 

return are requested. These craft return 

with the attitude that they are part of 

the Dominion team and have an impact 

on the outage. For example, the turbine 

group had greater than 90% returnee rate 

in North Anna’s recent outage. 

Ownership by the craft is improved 

by the fact that they are involved in 

many of the day to day activities of plant 

modifications including walkdowns of 

the jobs, review of the design change 

packages and work orders and attendance 

at meetings where the design changes are 

discussed. A supplemental electrician 

is currently on the station’s safety 

committee which reinforces that they 

are part of the team and their input is 

important. Supplemental craft have also 

been utilized in station self assessments. 

This increases their understanding of the 

stations’ programs while reinforcing their 

benefit to the station. 

Supplemental workers are recognized 

for good work. Examples of these include 

the Good Catch Program, meal tickets, 

ALARA awareness recognition, and 

BOOST team observations. 

Weekly safety meetings are continued 

through the outage. The meetings are led 

by the supplemental craft and attended 

by Dominion leadership. This reinforces 

that they own safety and that Dominion 

supports it. 

Our Fleet document on Control of 

Supplemental Workers provides guidance 

in this area. Two attachments ensure that 

all supplemental personnel meet with 

their Dominion point of Contact (DPOC) 

prior to starting work and evaluate 

supplemental supervisor candidates and 

document their acceptability. 

Outage presentations are provided 

to all supplemental. These presentations 

reinforce the Dominion message of safety 

first, their importance to our success, 

expectations, and operation experience, 

etc. 

Contact: Richard Zuercher, 

Dominion, 5000 Dominion Blvd. Suite 

2SE, Glen Allen, VA 23060; telephone: 

(804) 273-3825, fax: (804) 273-3471, 

email: Richard.Zuercher@dom.com. 


Benchmarking to High Standards 

By Margie P. Jepson, Entergy Nuclear. 

Planning and 

Performance 

Ask James Hoffpauir what outage 

management means after nearly 30 years 

with Entergy and he will pause, lean back 

in his chair and say, “It all starts with 

benchmarking your performance to the 

very best in the industry.” 

Hoffpauir, director of outage and 

work management for Entergy’s fleet 

of 12 reactors that they operate, has a 

veteran’s eye for outage performance. 

“We look at the industry’s best marks 

per segment of an outage and then look 

at the plant’s best performance. The delta 

– the difference between those marks 

– is where we focus,” he stated. “We 

have high impact teams that meet often, 

identify issues, develop action plans and 

know that execution depends on a well 

prepared and detailed plan. That includes 

contingency planning.” 

The other part of benchmarking 

for Entergy facilities comes in sharing 

information at the peer group level. 

This has been a critical element of the 

company’s success and is a valued 

resource for outage managers. “We learn 

a lot from each other and support each 

site in various ways. It is the Entergy 

management philosophy that we better 

ourselves through active learning from 

peers,” Hoffpauir comments. That’s where 

the Entergy Continuous Improvement 

program comes into play. 

The Entergy Continuous Improvement 

program has a high level of involvement 

across all staff levels and is 

constantly evaluating work processes and 

asking questions – how can we do this 

better, more efficiently or eliminate unneeded 

work. 

Staffing Gets the Focus 

The significant improvement across 

the fleet, from Entergy’s perspective, 

has been the focus on in-processing of 

personnel for outages. Entergy Vice 

President for Operations Support, Russ 

William Russell Brian 

William Russell Brian is vice president 

of operations support for Entergy 

Nuclear serving in this role since 

April 2008. Brian is responsible for 

providing strategic direction and 

oversight to Entergy’s nuclear safety and 

licensing, training, security, information 

technology, human performance and 

industrial safety and the outage and 

work management functions. 

Brian obtained a senior reactor operator 

certifi cation at River Bend Station 

and completed the plant management 

certifi cation course at Waterford-3. He 

received his bachelor’s degree in nuclear 

engineering from the University of 

Missouri-Rolla. 

Brian has been a member of the 

American Nuclear Society since 1976. 

Brian, led an effort to improve inprocessing 

and scheduling of contractors 

noting the challenges of those new-tonuclear. 

In working with Brian, Hoffpauir 

reported that the new to nuclear people 

now come in earlier to ensure they are 

security-cleared and trained so that in 

processing is executed to match resource 

needs more efficiently. This change 

and the new attention to this aspect of 

outage management have made a big 

difference.” 

James G. Hoffpauir 

James G. Hoffpauir is the director of 

outage and workforce management. 

He reviews preparations and works 

with site outage managers across 

the Entergy Nuclear fl eet. He has 

been in this role since 2001. Prior to 

serving in the fl eet role, Hoffpauir has 

worked as operations manager, outage 

manager and maintenance manager 

at Entergy’s Waterford 3 facility in 

Killona, Louisiana, for 21 years and at 

the Arkansas Nuclear One facility in 

Russellville, Ark., for more than nine 

years. 

As with all nuclear plants, it is 

important to work with vendors to put a 

priority on getting returning workers to 

your site during an outage. With craft 

and other workers this is always not 

possible and puts additional emphasis on 

managing and monitoring performance 

levels of personnel. 

The Fleet Advantage – 

Teamwork 

In over 20 years at Entergy’s 

Waterford 3 plant and more than nine 


years at the Entergy Arkansas Nuclear 

One facility, Hoffpauir has been in 

management in the areas of operations, 

outages and maintenance. While noting 

that the maintenance management job was 

the “hardest – and the most rewarding,” 

he emphasizes the advantages of being 

part of a fleet with shared resources. 

“When you are in an outage you 

are looking at the quality of work and 

managing performance behaviors. With 

shared resources from other Entergy 

plants, you have a quality advantage. 

With contractors it’s about oversight of 

the work; with our own employees, you 

have an instant team member.” 

At Entergy, you have three jobs: 

your regular plant job; your emergency 

plan job; and your outage job. For some, 

that outage job means going regularly to 

other Entergy facilities. For example, up 

to 30% of the maintenance staff goes to 

work other outages within the fleet. 

FitzPatrick Improves 

Outage Performance 

John Bouck, outage manager for 

FitzPatrick, details how benchmarking 

for lessons learned from 2007 and 2008 

within the Entergy fleet and throughout 

the industry in conjunction with General 

Electric-Hitachi, resulted in major 

improvements. Innovative and economic 

solutions included: 

• The design and development of a 

remote “strong back” device for 

the refueling transfer canal that 

facilitates the transfer of irradiated 

components and new and spent fuel 

to and from the reactor cavity and 

spent fuel pool. 

Margie P. Jepson 

Margie Jepson, as manager of external 

communications for Entergy Nuclear, is 

• A new technique was developed for 

decontamination of the inner and 

outer cavity bellows through nonaggressive 

chemical cleaning using a 

Benchmarking to... 


using 20 foot-long shipping containers 

which can be stored outdoors during nonoutage 

periods. 

The result is noteworthy. A reduction 

of 18 days of total critical path savings 

NPTS, Inc. 

an Engineering, Design, and 

Construction Management firm has 

current and anticipated openings for 

the following positions: 

• Licensing, USAR & Regulatory 

Engineers 

• Engineering Design (All Disciplines) 

• Sr. Project Managers (All Disciplines) 

• Sr. Project Planners (All Disciplines) 

• Power Upgrade Project Engineers 

• Construction Management, Planners, 

Schedulers, Estimators 

• Resident Engineers (All Disciplines) 

• Operations Support Engineers 

• Operations Training Instructors 

• Procurement Specialists & Expeditors 

• Start-up & Commissioning Engineers 

For Power Uprates, New Builds, Life 

Extension, Upgrades, Modification and 

Maintenance Projects 

Please forward Resumes to: 

NPTS, Inc. 

2060 Sheridan Drive 

Buffalo, New York 14223 

Phone: 716.876.8066 

Fax: 716.876-8004 

E-mail: rbroman@npts.net 

for the Entergy fleet is realized across the 

three plants. Additionally, a safer work 

environment is created as it is designed 

to allow the addition of lead shielding for 

worker protection. 

Summary indicators for the three 

Entergy facilities, FitzPatrick, Pilgrim 

and Vermont Yankee are: 

• Total time saved: 18 days- 6 days per 

site- due to platform 

Additionally, a total of 720 hours of 

non- productive standby time for invessel 

inspectors was eliminated for 

the three stations 

• Total cost-savings: $10,869,120 Additional 

cost saving are realized by 

using the platform at each site 

ANO Seeks to be the 

Best 

After working at Entergy’s Arkansas 

Nuclear One Station in Russellville, 

Hoffpauir says of his current management 

role that he “misses seeing the 

people in the plant every day.” He knows 

of the dedication and team-work that the 

personnel at ANO display year-round and 

especially during an outage. Make that, 

record-breaking outages. 

Bob Pace, outage manager at ANO, 

thinks that a competitive spirit can be a 

healthy thing. ANO unit 1 set a personal 

best for a Babcock & Wilcox reactor 

at 22.5 days then bested that mark to a 

notable 21.2 days. The ANO unit 2 holds 

the Entergy PWR record at 20 days, 11 

hours for reactor outage duration. 

Ask Pace what makes the difference 

in performance and he answers quickly 

and credits the ANO staff. “ANO 

has an experienced workforce that is 

conscientious, loves working in the area 

and they have a strong work ethic across 

the board. I am constantly impressed with 

the people here,” Pace states. 

“I have had outstanding predecessors 

that have set high expectations and 

excellent processes in place,” notes Pace 

who has been in the current position 

nearly 2 years. The support of the Entergy 

fleet is of paramount importance. “We are 

supported by the entire fleet and couldn’t 

do it without them,” he says. 

Two other aspects stand-out as 

success factors for ANO. Pace noted 

that ANO has a high rate of workers 

that return year-after-year for outages. 

Historically, this minimizes the new-tonuclear 

staffing. “People love coming 

here to do the work. They understand the 

plant and the culture,” Pace adds. 

The second factor is that ANO is 

“very critical of our own performance.” 

Pace discussed how during systematic 

reviews, the staff is very critical and very 

detailed at uncovering emerging issues and 

overcoming challenges. Benchmarking to 

high standards is a part of the culture. He 

sees that as a plus for his site. 

Do they talk about records? 

“Absolutely. We see every outage as the 

next opportunity to be the best – in safety, 

in staffing, in outage performance,” Pace 

concluded. 

Contact: Margie Jepson, EquaGen, 

1340 Echelon Parkway, Jackson, MS 

39213; telephone: (601) 368-5460, email: 

mjepson@entergy.com. 

 


Benchmarking Against U.S. 

Standards 

By Magnox North, United Kingdom. 

1. Which of Magnox North’s plants has 


describe about Magnox North’s strategies 



The Magnox North has 2 Operational 

Nuclear Power Plants, Wylfa in North 

Wales and Oldbury in the south west of 

England. Both of our operational power 

plants are first generation twin unit Gas 

Cooled Reactors (Magnox Reactors), 

which have an on-load refueling capability, 

therefore refueling outages are not 

required. 

The Reactor Pressure Vessels at each 

of our sites do require “statutory” biennial 

inspection and maintenance, along 

with plant systems that can not be released 

during normal operations. In order 

to facilitate this work Statutory outages 

occur on each reactor every 2 years. 

Oldbury Power Station is the oldest 

operational Nuclear Power Plant in the 

world and Wylfa is the second oldest. 

Although both sites are of the Magnox 

Design they were built during a period of 

fast paced engineering change and other 

than the basic design elements, the sites 

are dissimilar. Outage durations at both 

sites are determined by a variety of plant 

aging related problems. 

The Magnox North employs a 

strategy of Incentivization of the M&O 

contract through increasing fee associated 

with generation, which leads to pressure 

to reduce Outage durations. 

Magnox North Sites the current 

M&O contractor (Magnox North Sites) 

has employed a number of strategies to 

reduce Outage durations, comprising:- 




Magnox North is owned by 

EnergySolutions, Inc. Magnox reactors 

fuel on-load so outages are for 

maintenance purposes only. 

• Benchmarking of the Outage processes 

against US standards. 

The Magnox sites reviewed the 

US model for outage management 

between 2002 and 2005 to identify 

best practices that could reduce Outage 

durations across the Magnox 

fleet. Changes brought about through 

this process included:- 

1. The use of project management 

techniques. 

2. Outage area Project leads 

were appointed to provide a 

focus for each plant area. 

3. Development of dedicated 

plant area teams. 

4. The use of a common Out- 

Oldbury Reactor and Pylon 

age standard, 

5. the use of critical path analysis. 

• Greater utilization of Operational 

Event Feedback (OEF) linked to the 

Outage program. 

The Outage teams use the OEF 

process to capture any non conformance 

with the Outage plan or any loss or event. 

More details in response to question 2 

below. 

• Magnox cross site learning 

The 2 operational sites work 

closely to share learning and best practice. 

The Outage managers from each site are 

both involved in all post outages reviews. 

2. How is “lessons learned” from 

one refueling outage transferred to 

implementation of “refueling outage” of 

the same plant or another Magnox North 

plant? 

The Outage teams use the site OEF 

process to capture any non conformance 

with the Outage plan or any loss or event. 

All items/learning captured are then 

reviewed and links to the OEF is created 

to the Outage program such that learning 

can be presented to Outage teams “just in 

time” at the next outage. This process was 

observed by WANO to be a best practice. 

A program of reviews is completed 

with each of the Outage Project leads with 

their area team to identify lessons learnt. 

The review process is then used to feed 

into the next outages gate review process 

and project leads provide a presentation 

to the site lead team on lessons learnt and 

how these will be addressed in the next 

outage. 

3. How does Magnox North ensure 

continued availability of experienced 

staff at its different nuclear power plants 

during outage? How is the attrition of 

staff made up by new personnel? 

It is the M&O contractors responsibility 

to manage the availability of resources 

and experienced staff. 

The M&O contractor (Magnox North 

Sites) arrangements are encapsulating 

under the UK Nuclear Site license 

requirements to manage changes to 

resources and management of Core 

Competence. 

With the sites now at the end of their 

operational lives (both sites have less than 

4 years of operational service left) they 

have in place transition plans to manage 

the resources through to the end of life. 

These plans include:- 

• Retentions of some specific skilled 

employees with specialist skilled 

staff 

• Agreements with some OEM’s to 

ensure their skills are retained 



Benchmarking Against... 


• Apprenticeship schemes to transfer 

knowledge from over 50’s to under 

30’s 

• Management of common skills for 

remote operations has been assured 

by the recruitment of the skills that 

both sites need. 

4. How does Magnox North management 

ensure creating a condition during 

refueling outage that enhances teamwork, 

communication, create harmony, among 

the staff which belongs to several different 

organizations? 

The M&O contractor (Magnox 

North Sites) has created area teams. 

Within the Outage period the site 

structure is amended with the creation of 

an Outage Organization which comprises 

of multi skilled teams. Each area will 

have a dedicated team that will comprise 

Wylfa Nuclear Plant 

engineers, craftsmen, clerical support and 

safety representative. Staff are brought 

together into this new team in a way that 

cuts across normal functional barriers and 

the team leaders (Outage Project Leads) 

are also developed with the role out of 

Project Management Leadership skills & 

techniques to promote Team working. 

5. How does the management defi ne 

performance indicators that ensure 

accountability and also allows the 

management to quantify success or failure 

and indicate areas for improvement? 

Promotion of Project Management 

incorporates Critical success criteria 

& alignment of delivery through the 

Responsibility Assignment Matrix. 

The Outage deliverables of each 

Area are reviewed daily at an Outage 

Project lead progress review meeting. 

The Outage Program is used to manage 

the performance of each project area. 

6. How does the management ensure 

that outage activities are completed in a 

minimum time while ensuring quality and 

continued safety of the reactor core? 

The establishment of Baseline Plan 

with Change Control are established to 

ensure that any changes to the program 

are managed. The Outage schedules 

are based on recommended times for 

activities, pressure is not put on teams 

to accelerate the program but to meet the 

agreed timescales in a safe manner. 

Each area team also incorporates a 

safety representative, who reports each 

day to an Outage safety coordinator. 

These are known as Outage Project 

Standards Leads with the role intended 

to promote the best standards attainable, 

including Industrial Safety Quality, 

Housekeeping and Nuclear Safety. The 

Project Standards leads also promote the 

use of the sites 10 human performance 

tools and ensure that just in time OEF is 

delivered to the area team. 

Any finding or result that is 

outside specification or any kind of non 

conformance is reported to the “Defect 

Assessment” panel. This group meets 

weekly and incorporates Independent 

Nuclear Safety professionals from the 

main engineering disciplines. The group 

reviews the findings significant to Nuclear 

Safety and reviews the recommended 

solutions to ensure that based on the 

findings/remediation the Reactor is safe 

for continued operation until the next 

period. 

7. What incentives (fi nancial and other) 

are used by the management to ensure 

optimal effi ciency of different groups 

as well as the individual craftsmen and 

engineers involved in refueling outage? 

Team & individual reward & 

recognition are provided, however these 

are not linked directly to “beating the 

plan”. The site takes care not to introduce 

behaviors that could compromise safety. 

The roles of Outage Project Leads 

are seen as an opportunity for personal 

development for career progression. 

8. How does Magnox North ensure 

minimal radiation exposure to its workers 

during refueling outages? 

The M&O contractor (Magnox North 

Sites) manages the Dose of those taking 

part in the outages. The radiation dose of 

staff working on Gas Reactor Outages is 

mainly associated with the maintenance 

of plant systems. In recent years the site 

has managed to reduce the Dose to staff 

significantly with site dose reduced to 

historic lowest levels in 2008 & 2009. 

This has been achieved through:- 

• Improved arrangements for the 

internal cleaning of components 

• The development of “radiation area 

maps” to identify to staff low dose 

routes & areas to avoid 

• Increase vessel entry training 

• Site Management drive to achieve & 

challenge “As Low as Reasonably 

Practicable” (ALARP) 

9. What is the procedure to handle last 

minute addition of projects to the outage 

schedule to ensure minimum impact from 

the predetermined outage planning due to 

these contingencies? 

Change Control Management system 

to manage changes to baseline. Plan is 

supported by risks & assumptions to 

secure agreed contingency provision. 

Contact: Dan Gould, Magnox 

North, 1100 Daresbury Park, Daresbury, 

Warrington, WA4 4GB, United Kingdom; 

telephone: 44 01928 737323, fax: 44 

01928 737332, email: Dan.Gould@ 

magnoxnorthsites.com. 

 


Enabling Suppliers for New Build 

Activity 

By Marcus Harrington, GE Hitachi 

Nuclear Energy. 

1. What incentives are provided by your 

organization to attract new vendors or 

to re-certify old vendors so that they are 

ready to supply safety related products 

and services to the new build nuclear 

power industry? 

During the design phase of our new 

products, we identify suppliers with 

world-class design expertise with whom 

we can team in order to complete the 

required design activities. This creates 

the opportunity for a win-win by enabling 

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy to leverage 

that supplier’s capability while enabling 

the supplier to get in on the ground floor 

of the new build activity. 

2. How does your organization take 

advantage of Nuclear Industry Assessment 

Committee (NIAC) and Nuclear Utility 

Procurement Issues Committee (NUPIC) 

to certify safety related vendors? 

As one of the founding members 

of the Nuclear Industry Assessment 

Committee in 1994, and as a long-time 

Steering Committee Member, GEH 

utilizes NIAC Supplier Assessments as 

an integral part of our quality oversight 

program. Tightly controlled by the NIAC 

Charter, these shared assessment reports 

augment GEH’s rigorous oversight 

capabilities. 

3. When does your organization 

perform audits directly as compared to 

going through NUPIC or NIAC? What 

procedures, standards, codes, guidelines 

are followed during direct audit process? 

We perform audits directly with strategic 

suppliers providing unique products. 

Other examples include follow-up 

on supplier process and product quality 

and unique contractual requirements. 

Quality Systems audits of safety-related 

suppliers are performed in compliance 




Marcus Harrington 

As Senior Vice President, Sourcing, for 

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH), 

Harrington leads a team responsible for 

maintaining the external supply chain 

with 10CFR50 - Appendix B, Part 21 and 

ANSI 45.2. 

4. What are the lessons learned due 

to direct audit of vendors in the last fi ve 

years? Also describe any improvement 

suggestions in vendor’s quality assurance 

and quality control procedures based on 

USNRC, NUPIC or NIAC’s experience. 

One area of focus is supplier compliance 

with 10CFR50 - Appendix B, Part 

21 and proper execution of the commercial 

grade dedication process, specifically 

related to the use of counterfeit material. 

To prevent such issues we have implemented 

a robust procurement process regarding 

supplier audits and final product 

inspection that has been successful. 

5. How does your organization invite 

price quotations from new suppliers 

worldwide? 

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy 

continually is in contact with a wide 

range of suppliers in strategic markets 

worldwide. For specific projects, we issue 

RFPs to target suppliers. 

6. How does your organization ensure 

compatibility of U.S. standards with 

international standards when awarding a 

contract to a vendor who is outside the 

United States? 

for GEH’s services and fuels businesses, 

while developing and executing the 

sourcing strategy for its new plants 

business. 

He earned a B.A. in Engineering 

Science from Dartmouth College and 

an MS in Industrial Administration 

from Union College in Schenectady, 

N.Y. Harrington is a certifi ed Six 

Sigma Black Belt. Before joining GE, 

Harrington served in the U.S. Navy as a 

nuclear-trained submarine offi cer. He 

held various division offi cer roles while 

completing four submarine deployments 

and associated maintenance periods. 

While in the Navy, Harrington completed 

qualifi cation as Nuclear Engineering 

Offi cer. 

Equipment-specific codes and standards 

are specified and each supplier 

must demonstrate to our satisfaction how 

the quality and design programs meet 

those standards through upfront bid reviews 

and in-process audits. 

7. The utilities are also responsible 

for certifying their suppliers. How does 

the responsibility divided between the 

utility and your organization in ensuring 

the quality of an available safety related 

supplier? 

Depending on the specific contract 

in question, the end-customer, in other 

words a utility, has oversight rights on 

equipment procurements. However, the 

responsibility resides with us regarding 

the supplier’s overall quality execution. 

8. What has your organization done 

to develop suppliers for reactor vessel, 

reactor vessel head, safety related diesel 

generators, and other equipment which 

are currently not readily available from 

manufactures in the United States? 

In this phase of the nuclear 

renaissance, we are focused on teaming 

with active suppliers with a demonstrated 

track record, regardless of location. 



Identifying, Cultivating & Qualifying 

Suppliers 

By Thomas E. Sliva, AREVA NP. 

1. What has your organization done to 

develop suppliers for reactor vessel, 

reactor vessel head, safety related diesel 

generators, steam generators, steam 

generator tubing, and other equipment 

which are currently not readily available 

from manufactures in the United States? 

AREVA’s Plants Sector has two key 

cross-functional organizations that are 

responsible for EPR design procurement. 

One of these organizations is made up of 

global commodity managers who identify 

the needs of the entire spectrum of AREVA’s 

business for various commodities, such 

as pumps, valves, heat exchangers, etc. 

A specific new plants program was put 

in place for the commodity managers to 

search for suppliers for all of the critical 

equipment required in the EPR design. 

This program has been very successful in 

locating and ensuring diversity of supply 

for the EPR deployment. The commodity 

managers coordinate their supplier 

programs with the regional divisions. 

The second organization is made up 

of the regional Procurement Divisions. 

The U.S. division is responsible for 

procuring equipment for North American 

EPR projects, including identifying 

specific suppliers to obtain quotations. 

Every three months there is a global 

meeting of the EPR Procurement Committee. 

This committee includes representatives 

of each of the Procurement Divisions, 

the Global Commodity Managers, 

and the Project Procurement Managers 

for all EPR projects globally. This committee 

shares information on procurement 

lessons learned for all of AREVA’s 

EPR projects. 

Topics covered include supplier evaluations 

worldwide, supplier performance, 

quality issues, and cost and schedule information. 

This information, and lessons 




learned, is taken back to each project for 

implementation as appropriate. 

In the USA, our program to line up 

suppliers has multiple facets. First, we 

coordinate efforts with the commodity 

managers to locate and visit suppliers 

globally for the EPR design. This 

includes many suppliers in the USA and 

Canada, but also extends to Europe and 

Asia. Secondly, we share EPR design 

supplier information with the other 

AREVA regions responsible for EPR 

projects in Europe, Asia and Africa, with 

a concerted effort to locate suppliers with 

global footprints. It is advantageous that 

a supplier have manufacturing facilities 

in multiple countries so that one supplier 

can supply “locally” to EPR projects 

across the globe. 

Customers want project certainty 

in two areas relative to supply chain – 

cost certainty and schedule certainty. We 

provide this certainty as the OEM for the 

most critical areas of the nuclear island 

- the Reactor Coolant System (RCS) 

components, the digital I&C system, and 

the fuel. Perhaps as important, AREVA 

Thomas E. Sliva 

Thomas E. Sliva is AREVA NP Inc. 

Vice President, New Plant Project 

Management and Construction. He is 

responsible for the organization and 

project management of new plants 

projects in the U.S.A. In addition, he 

is responsible for the development and 

implementation of the AREVA Erection 

and Commissioning program. Sliva 

graduated from the United States Naval 

Academy in 1973 with a Bachelor 

of Science degree in Mechanical 

Engineering and qualifi ed as a Naval 

Nuclear Engineer. He received a 

Masters of Engineering degree from 

the University of Virginia in Nuclear 

Engineering in 1986. 

is vertically integrated to further ensure 

supply of these components. For example, 

we not only manufacture the steam 

generators, but we also own the company 

producing most of the forgings. 

AREVA also has subsidiaries, partial 

ownership, and joint ventures with many 

other companies worldwide that can supply 

the U.S. EPR equipment needs. 

AREVA entered into a long term agreement 

with Japan Steel Works for supply 

of forgings. We also purchased a forging 

and machining company, Creusot Forge 

in France, to ensure supply of critical subcomponents. 

AREVA has invested in the 

significant expansion of the Chalon-St. 

Marcel manufacturing facility in France 

to meet the EPR demand. AREVA’s Jeumont 

facility in France is also undergoing 

expansion. We are also in the process of 

various discussions of new joint ventures 

and investments with suppliers to further 

ensure certainty of supply chain. We 

feel that we are ahead of the curve when 

it comes to identifying, cultivating and 

qualifying suppliers for the U.S. EPR 

design. 



confidence in the future 

Our uranium enrichment technology is a revolutionary force in the nuclear fuel cycle. As the cleanest 

and most energy-efficient technology, it provides a sustainable energy supply for nuclear power which 

helps ensure security of supply and affordability. In so doing, it ensures nuclear energy is a viable option 

as part of a balanced energy mix. 

As an independent energy and technology group with global leadership in centrifuge technology, 

Urenco is ideally placed to give a reliable and flexible source of support to the nuclear industry. 

www.urenco.com

Identifying, Cultivating... 


2. How does your organization take 

advantage of Nuclear Industry Assessment 

Committee (NIAC) and Nuclear Utility 

Procurement Issues Committee to certify 

safety related vendors? 

AREVA actively participates as 

a member of NIAC. The advantage to 

AREVA of being a NIAC member is to 

reduce both schedule and cost associated 

with evaluating suppliers. We are able 

to utilize NIAC audits in order to put 

a supplier on our Approved Suppliers 

List (ASL). However, this still does not 

mitigate our responsibilities and program 

relative to performance of that supplier 

as discussed previously. In other words, 

the roles of the QC Inspectors and 

Procurement Engineers are not changed. 

AREVA is a member of the Nuclear 

Energy Institute (NEI) Infrastructure 

Taskforce. This taskforce, under the 

leadership of Carol Berrigan at NEI, is 

focused on developing the supply infrastructure 

in the U.S. As a member of that 

taskforce, AREVA was a co-sponsor of 

three supplier workshops in 2008, and we 

are continuing this effort in 2009. These 

workshops focus on providing companies 

considering entering the market 

with information about what it means to 

be a commercial nuclear supplier. These 

workshops describe “typical” nuclear 

project requirements and operations and 

provide QA information and resources, 

ASME Code requirements, NRC requirements, 

industry information, etc. These 

have been extremely successful, with 

over 400 supplier representatives attending 

each workshop. 

Additional outreach activities 

include active participation in the major 

trade shows in the power industry, giving 

talks to various engineering societies, 

many visits to suppliers’ facilities, 

and a focused effort to locate and visit 

Canadian nuclear industry organizations 

and suppliers. Overall, our effort to reach 

out to suppliers has been extremely 

successful. We are confident that we now 

have a diverse supply base to support the 

U.S. EPR deployment. 

3. How do you promote need for new 

safety related vendors to the industry in 

the United States and worldwide? 

The supply of equipment and 

materials for the construction of the U.S. 

EPR plants is a joint effort between 

AREVA and Bechtel. AREVA’s specific 

focus is supply for the nuclear island 

equipment. Bechtel’s focus is supply of 

the turbine island equipment and supply 

of construction bulk materials plantwide. 

We have jointly created a complete 

list of equipment and materials required 

for construction of the plant. We have also 

jointly identified multiple suppliers for 

each commodity. There have been some 

specific areas of concern over the past 

few years, particularly heavy forgings, 

but the supply chain should eventually 

balance out with demand due to ongoing 

industry-wide efforts to address this 

issue. The current shortage for the U.S. 

nuclear industry is suppliers that have the 

appropriate 10CFR50 Appendix-B QA 

program and ASME N-stamps. As an 

example, the number of companies with 

ASME N-stamps in 1984 was 400. By 

2007 the number had decreased to 84. 

Therefore, part of our challenge has 

been to encourage existing suppliers to 

obtain these certifications. So far, we 

have been successful at this – through the 

workshops -- but there is more work to 

do. ASME has noted that the number of 

applicants for N-stamps have increased 

dramatically over the past six months, 

which is an example of partial success. 

We also have targeted companies that 

manufacture specific critical components 

to convince them to obtain the needed 

certifications. A good example of this is 

the increased availability of safety-related 

diesel generators. 

It should be noted that NSSS 

companies, along with NEI, are all 

focusing on obtaining a diverse supply of 

safety-related equipment in the USA. The 

combined effort of the entire industry is 

producing the results needed to support 

the first major deployment of nuclear 

power plants in decades. As a result of all 

of these efforts, there are now over 350 

suppliers identified for the U.S. EPR 

supply chain. We anticipate that about 

150 primary suppliers will ultimately be 

needed to support one EPR project. 

4. What incentives are provided by your 

organization to attract new vendors or 

to re-certify old vendors so that they are 

ready to supply safety related products 

and services to the new build nuclear 

power industry? 

We have instituted a multi-tiered 

program for evaluating suppliers 

and ensuring that not only quality 

requirements, but also scope, schedule 

and cost are maintained. This starts 

with performing an initial assessment 

of the capabilities of a supplier to 

determine if their products and services 

fit the needs of the U.S. EPR design. 

Following this, we perform a detailed 

holistic assessment to look at all aspects 

of the company, including quality, 

safety, project management, financial 

strength, experience, engineering, etc. 

These assessments require many trips 

to suppliers’ facilities throughout North 

America. The final step is for Quality 

Assurance to perform an audit to put the 

supplier on AREVA’s ASL as a supplier 

for the EPR plants. 

The program does not stop once 

a supplier is on the ASL. Procurement 

Engineers work closely with suppliers to 

ensure that the scope of work is performed 

on schedule, within budget, and of high 

quality. This is done in partnership with 

Quality Control Inspectors. Finally, 

Quality Assurance performs periodic 

audits of the supplier to ensure that the 

tenets of the quality assurance plan are 

being followed. 

For some of the most critical and 

complex procurements we will assign 

a full-time resident Expeditor at the 

supplier’s facility. 


Enabling Suppliers... 


5. Please describe any innovative efforts 

of your organization in developing new 

suppliers for safety related products and 

services in the United States. 

AREVA is not just a designer, it 

is also a supplier. In this regard, we 

have demonstrated innovation by our 

aggressive efforts to provide certainty 

for the U.S. EPR program. The EPR 

plants will be truly made in America by 

American workers. For example, the 

recently announced AREVA Newport 

News, LLC, a joint venture with Northrop 

Grumman Shipbuilding, will manufacture 

heavy components in the USA. We are the 

only designer-supplier to have announced 

plans to construct new manufacturing 

facilities in the USA. 

All of our efforts in one way or 

another are innovative and demonstrate 

AREVA’s commitment to the industry, 

to the EPR design and deployment and 

establishment of a robust, safety-certified 

supply chain. Perhaps the strongest 

indicator of AREVA’s innovative approach 

to supply chain certainty is the fact that 

three EPR plants are currently under 

construction, one each in Finland, France 

and China – five additional projects are 

in the procurement phase with plans or 

option agreements to build more. This 

speaks to the certainty provided by our 

large global footprint and our innovative 

supply chain coordination efforts. 

EPR is a trademark of the AREVA 

Group. 

Contact: Susan Hess, AREVA NP 

Inc., 3315 Old Forest Road, Lynchburg, 

VA 24501; telephone: (434) 832-2379, 

fax: (434) 382-2379, email: susan.hess@ 

areva.com. 

 

Longer term, we see opportunities to 

develop new supply chains in the United 

States and other nations. 

9. How does your organization ensure 

that the selected suppliers are cost effective 

and deliver the job on schedule? 

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy exercises 

a competitive bidding process that 

includes only qualified suppliers. Our 

experience, as a nuclear industry leader 

for over five decades, demonstrates that 

this approach is a successful strategy for 

satisfying our customers’ needs. 

Contact: Ned Glascock, GE Hitachi 

Nuclear; fax: (910) 819-5549, email: 

edward.glascock@ge.com. 

 

has a special 

significance to us. 

And it does to your facility, too. With “N”, “NPT” and “NS” Certificates covering 

Class 1, 2 and 3 Valves, Pressure Vessels, Pumps, Supports, and Parts, code reconciliation, 

designing, supplying, replacing, and maintaining certified equipment is just part of our extensive 

repertoire of services. So besides being the first letter in our name, “N” gives us the “in” on 

providing superior ASME Section III N-Certificate products and services to the nuclear industry. 

And that’s always been our incentive. 

Call us when engineered 

excellence is indicated. 

NUCLEAR LOGISTICS INC 

> the single source 

www.nuclearlogistics.com 800.448.4124 


Creating New U.S. Jobs 

By François Martineau, Areva NP. 

The American Nuclear Society 

(ANS) recognized AREVA’s Chalon/St. 

Marcel nuclear plant component manufacturing 

plant by designating it as a Nuclear 

Historic Landmark during its 2008 

winter meeting. ANS recognizes Nuclear 

Historic Landmarks to identify and memorialize 

sites or facilities where outstanding 

physical accomplishments took 

place, and which were instrumental in 

the development and implementation of 

nuclear technology and the peaceful uses 

of nuclear energy. The Chalon/St. Marcel 

plant, set on 87.5 acres in the Burgundy 

region of France, was completed in 1975 

in an area with a long history of specialized 

metalworking and mechanical activities. 

Francois Martineau, AREVA NP 

Marketing and Client Support Manager, 

accepted the award on behalf of AREVA. 

1. Please share the accomplishments 

leading to the award by the American 

Nuclear Society? 

In 1975 we initially began manufacturing 

all the large nuclear components 

for the French nuclear plant fleet, 

which totaled more than 50 units. Since 

that time, we have continuously produced 

high quality steam generators, pressurizers, 

and reactor vessels for plants worldwide. 

More than 600 heavy components 

have been manufactured there. It is truly 

an honor for Chalon/St. Marcel to be 

recognized as a historic facility that has 

provided exceptional service to the commercial 

nuclear power industry. 

2. What is AREVA’s motivation behind 

the U.S. plant for heavy equipment 

manufacture in Newport News, Va.? 

The Chalon/St. Marcel plant’s average 

annual production is the equivalent of 

1.7 EPR units. We expect to bring the 

capacity to 2.7 EPR units in the coming 

years. However, the Chalon/St Marcel 

An interview by Newal Agnihotri, Editor, 

Nuclear Plant Journal at the American 

Nuclear Society Winter Meeting in 

November, 2008 held in Reno, Nevada. 

plant capacity alone will not be sufficient 

to support the strong worldwide demand 

for nuclear power. That’s why we need 

the new facility at Newport News, Va. 

This new plant will manufacture steam 

generators, reactor vessel heads, and 

pressurizers, primarily for the American 

market. 

With AREVA Newport News, we will 

increase the U.S. content for new, Generation 

III-plus nuclear plants in the U.S.A., 

and we will share more than 30 years of 

operation experience from our facility at 

Chalon/St. Marcel. Chris Levesque, who 

comes out of our operation in Lynchburg, 

Va., has been appointed the General 

Manager of AREVA Newport News and 

will oversee the construction and startup 

of the facility as well as operations 

once completed. AREVA Newport News, 

LLC, is a joint venture with Northrop 

Grumman Shipbuilding. 

3. Who manufactures reactor pressure 

vessel forgings in the world? Is AREVA 

considering China and India as their 

resources for these forgings? 

One of the suppliers for the forgings 

is Creusot Forge, which is owned and 

managed by AREVA NP. We also are 

working with Japan Steel Works (JSW). 

At the end of last year we signed another 

agreement with them to ensure we have 

the capacity for all the forgings we need 

for all future EPR units. We just finished 

a number of contracts in the U.S.A. for 

François Martineau 

François Martineau is Marketing and 

Client Support Manager in the AREVA 

NP Equipment Business Unit, which is 

responsible for managing manufacturing 

operations. He has 30 years of nuclear 

power industry experience, including 

project manager for numerous nuclear 

plant component replacement contracts. 

Most recently, from 2004 to 2008, Mr. 

Martineau was a project manager for the 

St. Lucie 2 steam generator, pressurizer 

and reactor vessel closure head 

replacements. His education specialty 

is in general mechanics and welding 

processes. 

the component replacement market. We 

delivered steam generators, pressurizers 

and reactor vessel closure heads. These 

forgings were made by JSW. We have a 

very good partnership with them. There is 

one NSSS component forging that is not 

made in France at this time (the reactor 

pressure vessel nozzle shell). With our 

long- term agreement with JSW, AREVA 

is on track to meet worldwide nuclear 

demand. 

We have a technical partnership with 

China. Many technicians from our facility 

provide support to new manufacturers 

in China. We can apply this same knowledge-sharing 

process anywhere in the 

world, and we are willing to teach others. 

AREVA also is working with India to find 

resources to manufacture components. 

4. How many jobs are expected to be 

created with this new Newport News 

Plant? 

We anticipate that the plant will create 

more than 500 jobs. Construction will 

begin this summer, and it represents a $360 

million-plus investment in manufacturing 

in the U.S.A. It is important to note that 

the U.S. EPR plant will be made in the 

U.S.A. 

5. Please share AREVA’s experience 

on material degradation and related 

equipment replacements to ensure better 

maintenance and longer life of nuclear 

power plants? 


We have been heavily involved in 

the replacement market. The industry 

had some issues with Inconel 600 tubing 

for steam generators and for the CRDM 

housings for reactor vessel heads. The issue 

with Inconel 600 was corrosion. All 

of the utilities have decided to replace 

these components. The best material we 

have found at this time is the Inconel 690. 

It’s not sensitive to the corrosion effect. 

We have produced many steam generators 

and vessel heads made of Inconel 

690. For the replacement market in the 

USA, we warrant these new components 

for 20 years. Many improvements have 

been made on the secondary side internals 

of steam generators to preclude the 

flow accelerated corrosion effects. 

6. How many EPR units is AREVA 

building? 

We have three EPR units currently 

under construction and many others 

planned. It was AREVA’s EPR technology 

that launched the global renaissance 

of nuclear power when it became 

the first Generation III-plus nuclear plant 

construction project to break ground. 

This historic event took place in 2005 at 

Olkiluoto, Finland, the site of two existing 

nuclear units owned and operated by 

TVO. The second Generation III-plus design 

to begin construction was an EPR 

plant for EDF at Flamanville, France, in 

2006. The site for a second EPR plant 

in France will be selected later this year. 

AREVA prepared the designs and has 

started manufacturing for two EPR 

units in Guangdong Province, China. In 

the U.S.A., UniStar Nuclear Energy and 

two of its energy partners, AmerenUE 

and PPL, are taking steps to build four 

EPR plants. 

The preference shown for EPR 

technology, thus far, suggests the EPR 

design is seen as a plant that provides a 

large measure of commercial confidence 

in many countries. It is also a reflection of 

AREVA’s equipment manufacturing capability 

to ensure supply certainty for the 

global industry, so we are proud to have 

our Chalon/St. Marcel facility recognized 

by the American Nuclear Society for its 

contribution and historical significance. 

[Editor’s note: Since NPJ’s interview 

with Francois Martineau, the fi rst 

concrete pour for the Taishan EPR plant 

in China was scheduled for August 2009. 

In February 2009 AREVA signed a memorandum 

of understanding with Nuclear 

Power Corporation of India Limited for 

as many as six EPR units.] 

US 1-800-346-4175 

International 1-603-647-5299 

Canada 1-800-387-6487 

Mexico 011-52-722-265-4400 

Brazil 011-55-11-5515-7200 

© 2009 FCI USA, Inc. 

Contact: Susan Hess, AREVA NP 

Inc., 3315 Old Forest Road, Lynchburg, 

VA 24501; telephone: (434) 832-2379, 

fax: (434) 382-2379, email: susan.hess@ 

areva.com. 

 

30 

Ready 

for the 

next 

FCI–BURNDY ® Products has been 

heavily involved in testing and certifying 

tools and wire and cable connectors for 

the past thirty years. Our products are 

designed and certified to work together, 

with compliance to 10CFR50 Appendix B. 

We are a recognized NUPIC supplier, 

and what’s more, we offer compliance 

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calibration. In an industry where safety 

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connectors you can rely on for consistent 

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P R O D U C T S 

Experience. Technology. Answers. 

Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2009 www.nuclearplantjournal.com 37 

® 

years.

MSL Acoustic Source Load 

Reduction 

By Amir Shahkarami, Exelon Nuclear. 

Background: 

From the beginning of plant 

operations, Dresden and Quad Cities 

main steam line vibration levels were 

different. The Quad Cities units had 

higher vibration levels than the Dresden 

units. The main steam line vibration 

started to become a problem at Quad 

Cities by 1977, when a unit 2 main steam 

electromatic relief valve (ERV) failed to 

operate during surveillance. 

In March 1978, the site performed 

main steam line (MSL) testing to determine 

the root cause. The site concluded high 

frequency pressure pulsations from the 

valve standpipe were causing the valve 

disc piston rings to wear a groove into the 

valve disc guides and thereby locking the 

valve in the closed position. The solution 

was to improve the valve components so 

that the higher vibration levels could be 

withstood. 

The extended power uprate (EPU) 

vibration evaluation performed included 

Nuclear Energy Institute’s Top Industry 

Practice (TIP) Award’s highlight the 

nuclear industry’s most innovative 

techniques and ideas. They promote 

the sharing of innovation and best 

practices, and consequently improve the 

commerical prospects and competitive 

position of the industry as a whole. 

This innovation was a 2008 NEI Process 

Award Winner. 

The team members who participated 

included: Amir Shahkarami, Senior Vice 

President Engineering and Technical 

Services, Exelon Nuclear; Roman 

Gesior, Director of Asset Management 

and Engineering Programs, Exelon 

Nuclear; Guy DeBoo, Senior Staff 

Engineer, Exelon Nuclear;Kevin 

Ramsden, Senior Staff Engineer, Exelon 

Nuclear, Alan Bilinan, President, 

Continuum Dynamics, Inc.; and Tom 

Beringer, Sargent and Lundy. 

the MSLs, ERVs and main steam safety 

valves (MSSV), but not the steam dryer. It 

was believed that main steam line acoustic 

oscillations would dissipate rapidly once 

inside the larger reactor steam dome 

cavity, thereby having minimal structural 

impact on the steam dryer. 

After Quad Cities reached EPU power 

in March 2002, steam path component 

vibration induced problems began to 

increase in both number and severity. 

The Dresden units had relatively few 

problems due to steam path vibrations 

after EPU implementation. This led to 

further efforts to understand the cause and 

corrective actions to prevent recurrence. 

One of the first steps in understanding 

the root cause was to carefully determine 

the Dresden and Quad Cities MSL 

as built dimensions. The detailed as built 

dimensions were studied to identify MSL 

differences that were potentially resulting 

in structural performance differences. 

The review found very few significant 

differences actually existed. One notable 

difference was the Dresden ERV 

and MSSV standpipe internal diameter 

was over one inch smaller than the Quad 

Cities standpipe diameter. The Dresden 

standpipe internal diameter is 4.625 inches 

compared with the Quad Cities 5.761 

inch standpipe internal diameter. 

The next important step in understanding 

the issue was to comprehensively 

instrument and monitor both 

Dresden and Quad Cities MSLs. Strain 

gages were installed and monitored at 

different power levels during plant maneuvers. 

This step leads to the interesting 

observation that the high frequency 

response at Quad Cities started to significantly 

increase just prior to original 

licensed thermal power and continued to 

increase through EPU power levels. In 

contrast, the MSLs at Dresden showed a 

smaller spike in high frequency response 

at lower thermal power levels that dissipated 

quickly before reaching the original 

licensed thermal operating limits. At full 

EPU, the Dresden units showed very little 

high frequency response on the MSLs. 

Amir Shahkarami 

Shahkarami is the Senior Vice President 

of Engineering & Technical services at 

Exelon Nuclear. He is responsible for 

fuel, engineering, project management, 

license renewal, industry organizations, 

innovation, and the international 

exchange program. Shahkarami joined 

Exelon Nuclear in 2002 as Engineering 

Director of the Dresden Nuclear Station. 

He received his Bachelor and Master 

of Engineering degrees from Tulane 

University, MBA from Mississippi 

College, and completed PhD studies 

in nuclear engineering at Louisiana 

State University. He is a registered 

Professional Engineer and has a Senior 

Reactor Operator Certifi cate. 

The preliminary conclusion at this 

point was the difference in standpipe 

dimensions resulted in different acoustic 

pressure oscillation scenarios for the two 

stations. This is similar to different size 

organ pipes producing different sounds. 

As is normal with complex problems, 

independent reviews were performed to 

challenge the conclusions of dryer and 

main steam line loading sources. From 

these challenges, it was determined that 

additional in-plant testing was necessary 

to prove the hypothesis before development 

of appropriate mitigation devices. 

To accomplish this, Exelon, Exelon vendors 

and an independent team of experts 

developed a start-up test plan with the 

steam path instrumented. Based on domestic 

and international benchmarking 

this was the most extensive BWR instrumented 

steam path start up test plan ever 

performed. 

The Quad Cities unit 2 steam dryer 

was instrumented with the following sensors: 

nine strain gages, six accelerometers 

and twenty-seven pressure transducers. In 

addition, the existing high-speed pressure 

transducers on the reactor water level reference 

leg instruments were maintained 

in place from previous testing. 


Exelon, Continuum Dynamics, 

Inc. and Structural Integrity Associates 

identified MSL locations for 56 strain 

gages and 33 accelerometers. The 

instruments were strategically placed on 

the MSL as input to the acoustic circuit 

analysis for steam dryer loading and MSL 

vibration evaluations. 

In May 2005, Quad Cities unit 2 

ramped up in power based on the startup 

test plan and collected data from the 

sensors on the steam path at the designated 

power levels. Data acquisition equipment 

was obtained to collect steam dome, steam 

dryer and main steam line strain gage, 

pressure transducer and accelerometer 

data simultaneously. When a power level 

was reached, the data were collected and 

analyzed based on pre-established go 

/ no-go criteria until 2832 MWt; which 

was the highest MWt at EPU that could 

be reached with the environmental factors 

for that time of year. 

The data from the instrumented MSLs 

and steam dryer revealed the pressure 

oscillations at approximately 157 Hz 

that dramatically increased in amplitude 

above the original licensed thermal power. 

These high frequency pressure oscillations 

peaked on the dryer surface directly in 

front of the main steam line nozzles. This 

testing showed that the ERV and MSSV 

standpipes at Quad Cities were a probable 

cause of the increased loading on not only 

the dryer, but also on the entire steam 

path. 

In December 2005, an electrical 

ground was found present on the Quad 

Cities unit 2 3D ERV. The subsequent 

inspection revealed significant internal 

damage to the solenoid actuator. Additional 

inspections of the remaining ERVs 

for both Quad Cities units show significant 

wear and loose parts on the solenoid 

actuators. The root cause once again 

pointed to high frequency vibration damage. 

These valves are safety related components 

and are required to operate in the 

event of MSL over pressurization. 

The probable root cause identification 

and the additional ERV damage escalated 

the need for a MSL load reduction device. 

The starting point for this project was to 

assemble a team of industry experts to 

brainstorm possible mitigation devices. 

The ideas for mitigation ranged from 

making Quad Cities ERV and MSSV 

standpipes the same diameter as Dresden 

to changing the height of the standpipes 

as well as several other combinations of 

geometry changes. 

To ensure the various ideas were 

tested appropriately, the team determined 

a scale model test program that would be 

benchmarked against the in-vessel and 

steam path data collected at Quad Cities 

was required. To perform this successfully, 

the appropriate Reynolds Number 

had to be applied correctly throughout 

the test rig, otherwise the results would 

not reflect actual in-plant data. This presented 

a challenge since to achieve the 

appropriate Reynolds numbers, the scale 

model test had to be at elevated pressures, 

making the test rig at full scale very large. 

Continuum Dynamics, Inc. (CDI) was 

contracted to develop a pressurized test 

rig and perform the benchmark to Quad 

Cities in-plant data at subscale to avoid 

this problem. 

With this approach CDI was able to 

correctly duplicate the high frequency 

response from the Quad Cities main 

steam line actual in-plant data with the 

scale model test rig. This confirmed the 

probable root cause to be from the relief 

valve standpipes. Based on domestic and 

international benchmarking, this is an 

industry first, to take in-plant data from an 

instrumented steam path and successfully 

benchmark a scale model test rig against 

the data. 

With the benchmark completed, 

hundreds of tests were performed on 

numerous mitigation concepts, in addition 

to optimizing the acoustic side branch 

concept. 

In the end the team selected an 

acoustic mitigation device that branches 

off the valve standpipe side. This option 

was chosen for the following reasons: 

• The acoustic side branch (ASB) 

addition increases the effective length 

(L) of the standpipe, decreasing the 

acoustic standing wave frequency 

(f). 

• The vortex shedding frequency 

remains unchanged at the same 

power level, but the acoustic and 

vortex shedding frequencies are no 

longer coupled, so that resonance 

does not occur. 

• The acoustic frequency decrease 

lowers the velocity at which vortex 

shedding will excite the acoustic 

standing wave (i.e. the acoustic 



MSL Acoustic... 


signal occurs at lower plant power 

levels), 

• The addition of screen mesh material 

inside the ASB introduces a damping 

medium that absorbs the energy of 

the standing wave. 

• The end result is a reduced acoustic 

pressure oscillation that occurs at a 

lower MSL flow velocity. 

• The ASB proved to provide the 

greatest reduction in pressure 

oscillations of the mitigation 

concepts tested. 

A series of scale model and full-scale 

tests were performed to demonstrate the 

design would work and would be robust 

for nuclear power plant installations. 

This included performing shaker table 

and full flow and full-scale air resonance 

tests to confirm the ASB and safety valve 

performance would be acceptable in 

service. These tests showed that the side 

branch modification successfully reduced 

the high frequency pressure oscillations 

that were identified as the root cause for 

the main steam line vibration problems 

and the steam dryer vibrations. 

During the spring of 2006, Exelon 

installed the ASB modification on both 

Quad Cities units. The start-up testing 

results showed that the modification 

successfully reduced the high frequency 

loading that had affected the steam path. 

The high frequency response was not 

only below the EPU vibration levels but 

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also the pre-EPU response. Since the 

installation, both units have operated 

at EPU conditions without further 

incidence. 

Proof that the problem had been 

solved was ensured during the Quad 

Cities Unit 1 May 2007 refueling outage 

one year after the installation of the ASB 

modification. With an inspection scope 

that included the previously susceptible 

Quality 

Excellence 

steam path components (steam dryer, ERV 

actuators and 6 of the 12 ASB internals), 

no abnormal wear or degradation was 

observed. 

Since Quad Cities completed the 

work to identify and solve the steam path 

vibration root cause, every application for 

BWR power uprate in the USA has utilized 

the data and technique made available by 

Exelon, to assess the need for mitigation 

devices and/or structural reinforcement 

of key steam path components. 

Innovation: 

This project represented a number of 

first of a kind applications to successfully 

design and modify the ERV and MSSV 

standpipes in order to mitigate the highpressure 

oscillation steam path loads. 

• This was the first application 

of collecting steam path data 

simultaneously on the steam path, 

including inside the reactor dome, 

and then using the data to benchmark 



Dual Methodology NDE of CRDM 

Nozzles 

By Michael Stark, Dominion Nuclear. 

Summary: 

During an ultrasonic examination of 

the reactor vessel closure head penetration 

adapter nozzles, as required by NRC Order 

EA-03-009, a surface irregularity was 

encountered that prevented the ultrasonic 

transducer elements from coupling 

with the nozzles. The discontinuity 

was oriented circumferentially around 

the nozzles above the J-grove weld, 

and prevented compliance with the 

examination requirements for the most 

safety significant flaw; a circumferential 

crack above the weld. 

No other station had reported this 

occurrence and neither of the NSSS 

vendors that perform these examinations 

had previously reported detection of this 

phenomenon. 

There was no previously available 

methodology for interrogating this 

region in the absence of a uniform, prime 

surfaced geometry without removing the 

thermal sleeves. The only methodology 

available for interrogating the nozzle 

in the presence of surface irregularities 

involved removing the thermal sleeves 

and performing a combination of 

direct measurements and ultrasonic 

examinations with an open housing 

scanner. 

Dominion Nuclear Connecticut 

(DNC) engineering personnel worked in 









This innovation was a 2008 NSSS Vendor 

Award Winner. 


included Michael Stark, Dominion 

Nuclear; Tom Ribaric, AREVA; and 

Michael Story, AREVA. 

conjunction with their vendor AREVA 

to develop a first of a kind examination 

technique that enabled DNC to complete 

the examination and quantify the 

degradation without removing the thermal 

sleeves. 

This innovative examination 

technique resulted in a cost savings of 

$6,802,500.00; eliminated the addition of 

15 outage days, and a dose savings of 16 

person-rem. 

Although developed for the 

examination of reactor vessel closure 

head penetration nozzles, which are 

applicable to PWR stations only; the 

application of this examination technique 

can be extended to the interrogation of all 

near surface irregularities for flaws. 

Safety: 

NRC Order EA-03-009 amends 

the license of every PWR requiring 

the licensee to examine the reactor 

vessel closure head penetration adapter 

nozzles for discontinuities. The most 

safety significant of these discontinuities 

is a circumferential crack above the 

J-groove weld, as it could propagate to 

an unacceptable limit and result in nozzle 

ejection. 

The examination performed at 

Dominion Nuclear Connecticut’s 

Millstone Power Station Unit #3 resulted 

in the detection of unquantifiable 

circumferential degradation directly 

above the J-groove weld. 

Since wear was also observed on the 

thermal sleeves in a circumferential area 

on the same lateral plane as the end of 

the nozzles, DNC Engineering personnel 

theorized that the centering tabs had 

worn away some of the nozzle base 

material, creating a surface irregularity 

that prevented the ultrasonic transducer 

elements from coupling with the nozzles. 

The examinations also identified that 

the wear at some nozzles was essentially 

a 360-degree area indicating that since 

the thermal sleeve has three (3) centering 

tabs (120 degrees apart); the sleeve has 

Michael Stark 

Michael Stark is a Nuclear Technical 

Specialist III in the Nuclear Engineering 

Department of Dominion Nuclear 

Connecticut’s Millstone Power Station. 

He is currently responsible for the 

nondestructive examinations performed 

on the reactor vessels, reactor vessel 

closure heads, steam generators, in-core 

fl ux detector thimble tubes, and all heat 

exchangers. Michael has received four 

Nuclear Energy Institute -Top Industry 

Practice Awards. 

the ability to rotate within the nozzle 

causing the circumferential wear. 

The observed wear appears to be 

caused by the rotation of the thermal 

sleeves due to their relatively “loose 

fit” inside the penetration nozzle, their 

flexible cantilevered configuration, and 

normal fluid turbulence in the upper head 

area that causes dynamic loading on the 

sleeves. 

The only existing NDE methodology 

to perform the required examination and 

to determine if a safety significant flaw 

existed in this region of the nozzle required 

the removal of the thermal sleeves. 

Removal of just 9 thermal sleeves would 

have resulted in an estimated worker dose 

of 16 person-rem, (1.5 rem per nozzle for 

thermal sleeve replacement and 2.5 rem 

for the examinations). 

By developing a remote examination 

technique that quantified the degradation 

and qualified the nozzles for continued 

service without removing the thermal 

sleeves, 16 Rem of exposure was 

avoided. 

Cost Savings Impact: 

When the discontinuities were first 

detected, the initial ideology was to remove 

the thermal sleeves from the nine (9) 

nozzles where the required examination 

coverage could not be obtained, perform 

the required examinations, and reattach 

new thermal sleeves. (Although all of the 



Dual Methodology... 


thermal sleeves are assumed to contain 

degradation, only nine (9) of the nozzles 

contained degradation that prevented 

compliance with the examination 

requirements.) 

Proposals were obtained that 

detailed the cost of the thermal sleeve 

‘replacement’. 

Material and contracted labor costs 

for the first thermal sleeve replacement 

would be $480,000.00 and each subsequent 

thermal sleeve would cost $150,000.00 

each. Additionally, the timeline for 

the thermal sleeve replacement was 

estimated to be five (5) days for the initial 

deployment of personnel and equipment, 

and eleven (11) days to perform the 

thermal sleeve replacement and nozzle 

examinations, for a total of 16 days. 

The total cost of the thermal 

sleeve replacement and inspection 

was estimated to be $7,102,500.00; 

($1,680,000.00 for material and labor to 

replace the thermal sleeves, $622,500.00 

for keeping the examination crew for the 

additional duration required to complete 

the inspection, and $4,800,000.00 

for 16 additional critical path days if 

$300,000.00 per day is assumed) without 

factoring in the costs for DNC personnel 

supporting the project. The examination 

technique developed during the outage 

only required one (1) additional day 

of examination without the removal of 

any thermal sleeves, for a savings of 

$6,802,500.00. 

Innovation: 

The existence of thermal sleeve 

wear had been reported at several other 

PWR stations; however, the fact that 

the movement of the thermal sleeve 

had degraded the nozzle base material 

had previously gone undetected. No 

other station had reported the detection 

of the wear and neither of the vendors 

that perform these examinations had 

previously reported the detection of this 

phenomenon. 

The primary inspection probe 

utilized for the ultrasonic examination 

was an axial blade probe. The ultrasonic 

examination is performed by inserting a 

thin strip of stainless steel material (the 

blade) between the thermal sleeve and the 

nozzle ID surface. At the end of the blade 

are separate 5MHz transducer elements 

operated in a pitch-catch configuration 

mounted on one end. These elements 

are oriented circumferentially with 

respect to the nozzle being examined. A 

thin stream of water is delivered to the 

surface of the nozzle at the transducers to 

provide coupling. The distance between 

the transducers and the material to be 

examined must be filled with a medium 

capable of transferring the sound energy 

with a minimum amount of attenuation to 

facilitate coupling. 

The incomplete ultrasonic coverage 

was obtained on 9 of the 78 nozzles, 

(nozzle numbers 1 through 9). The 

area where complete coverage was not 

obtained with the axial blade probe is 

consistent with the location of the thermal 

sleeve centering tabs. Analysis of the 

ultrasonic data indicated that the surface 

of the nozzle was diverting away from the 

transducer elements just prior to the loss 

of coverage. This conclusion was reached 

due to the water-path, (the distance that 

the ultrasound is traveling through the 

water), increased just before no more data 

could be obtained. 

Since wear was also observed on the 

thermal sleeves in a circumferential area 

on the same lateral plane as the end of the 

nozzles, Engineering personnel theorize 

that the centering tabs had worn away 

some of the nozzle material, creating a 

surface irregularity that prevented the 

ultrasonic transducer elements from 

coupling with the nozzles. By removing 

the thermal sleeves, AREVA could use an 

open housing scanner that would fill the 

entire nozzle with a column of water and 

ultrasonically interrogate the nozzle in 

the area of the geometric distortion. 

Although data on the additional 

penetration nozzles could not be obtained 

at the lower centering tab locations, it 

must be assumed that signs of similar 

wear are also present for all nozzles that 

contain thermal sleeves. (Note that no 

data was obtained at the upper centering 

tabs of any nozzles due to blade length 

restrictions.) 

DNC Engineering personnel 

and AREVA ultrasonic examination 

technicians separately came up with 

examination techniques that provided 

additional examination coverage but 

individually fell just short of complying 

with the inspection requirements and 

determining the extent of condition. But 

collectively the two techniques provided 

enough quantitative and qualitative 

information to completely characterize 

the nozzle base material in the area of 

interest. This first of a kind approach 

provided the solution. 

The 9 nozzles where this condition 

existed were rescanned with a 

circumferential blade probe in the area of 

interest to obtain the required volumetric 

coverage and to assess the area for 

discontinuities. The circumferential blade 

probe has transducer elements oriented 

in the axial direction with respect to the 

nozzle, and allowed the transducers to 

be coupled on either side of the surface 

irregularity. With the transducer elements 

oriented axially, the circumferential probe 

was able to bridge the ‘gap’ created by the 

material loss and provide the necessary 

coverage by successfully transmitting and 

receiving the lateral, (surface wave), and 

back-wall signals, (angle beam). From 

this examination, Engineering obtained 

confidence that circumferential cracks 

did not exist in the nozzle base material 

in the area of interest. 

In addition to the ultrasonic data 

collected, DNC Engineering personnel 

developed a procedure for performing a 

quantitative and qualitative examination 

of the wear region utilizing an 



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Dual Methodology... 


electromagnetic examination technique. 

At the request of DNC Engineering, 

AREVA machined four 360 degree 

grooves, with graduating depths, into a 

spare CRDM nozzle to use as a reference 

specimen. Each of the grooves had an 

axial extent of 0.050 inches and was 

separated from each other by an axial 

distance of 1.00 inch. 

Eddy current coils were attached to 

the end of the blade probe and passed 

over the machined grooves from the ID 

surface of the reference specimen. As 

an electric current was induced into the 

reference specimen, the magnetic field that 

resulted from the current was monitored. 

As the probe passed over each of the 

artificial discontinuities, the magnetic 

field attenuated exponentially relative to 

increases in discontinuity depth. 

The amplitude of the signals obtained 

from the reference specimen was 

used to develop a calibration curve to 

correlate degradation in the nozzle base 

material. This electromagnetic examination 

technique was performed on 7 of 

the 9 nozzles that recorded surface irregularities. 

The eddy current examination 

provided additional quantitative and 

qualitative information. All of the surface 

irregularities interrogated were between 

0.025 and 0.0145 inches deep with no indications 

of crack like discontinuities or 

abrupt (sharp) geometry changes. 

Productivity/Efficiency: 

Development of an examination 

technique that satisfied the inspection 

requirements without removing the 

CRDM penetration nozzle thermal 

sleeves resulted in a savings of 15 critical 

path outage days, a financial savings of 

$6,802,500.00, and a dose savings of 16 

rem. 

Replacement of these thermal sleeves 

would have required a critical path design 

change and significant support from the 

entire DNC organization, (HP, Supply 

Chain, Construction, Maintenance, Engineering…). 

Transferability: 

Although developed for the 

examination of reactor vessel closure 

head penetration nozzles, which are 

applicable to PWR stations only; the 

application of this examination technique 

can be extended to the interrogation of 

near surface irregularities for flaws. 

Contact: Michael Stark, Millstone 

Power Station, Rope Ferry Road, 

Waterford, CT 06385; telephone: (860) 

447-1791ext. 5125, fax: (860) 440-0401, 

email: Michael.v.stark@dom.com. 

NPJ Advertiser Web Directory 

AREVA NP, Inc. 

www.areva-np.com/source 

Bechtel Power 

www.bechtel.com 

Day & Zimmermann Power 

Services 

www.dayzim.com 

Enercon Services, Inc. 

www.enercon.com 

Enertech 

www.enertechnuclear.com 

FCI USA Inc. 

www.fciconnet.com 

G. D. Barri & Associates, Inc. 

www.gdbarri.com 

HSB Global Standards 

www.hsbgsnuclear.com 

Kinectrics Inc. 

www.kinectrics.com 

NPTS, Inc. 

www.npts.net 

Nuclear Logistics Inc. 

www.nuclearlogistics.com 

Rolls-Royce 

www.rolls-royce.com 

Thermo Fisher Scientific, 

Scientific Instruments Division 

CIDTEC Cameras & Imagers 

www.thermo.com/cidtec 

Trinitek Services, Inc. 

www.3tks.com 

UniStar Nuclear Energy 

www.unistarnuclear.com 

Urenco Enrichment Company 

Ltd. 

www.urenco.com 

Westinghouse Electric 

Company LLC 

www.westinghousenuclear.com 

WorleyParsons 

www.worleyparsons.com 

Zachry Nuclear Engineering, 

Inc 

www.zhi.com 


Electronic Circuit Board Testing 

By James Amundsen, FirstEnergy 

Nuclear Operating Company. 









This innovation was a 2008 NEI Process 

Award Winner. 


included: James Amundsen, Component 

Testing Supervisor, FirstEnergy Nuclear 

Operating Company; James Pristov, 

Nuclear Specialist, FirstEnergy Nuclear 

Operating Company; Guy Tom When, 

Nuclear Technician, FirstEnergy Nuclear 

Operating Company; Steven Dzanko, 

Nuclear Technician, FirstEnergy Nuclear 

Operating Company; and Michael 

Yeager, Technical Services Engineer, 

FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating 

Company. 

Summary: 

FirstEnergy has established an innovative 

and cost effective approach to electronic 

circuit board testing and troubleshooting. 

Specialized test equipment and 

experience at FENOC BETA Laboratory 

are leveraged for testing and troubleshooting. 

Suspect circuit boards as well as critical 

or obsolete spares are evaluated by 

BETA Laboratory to provide plants with 

failure data or spare part condition assessments. 

Equipment reliability is enhanced 

since plants have detailed failure data for 

use in decision making. Failure of critical 

spare parts is avoided by bench testing 

beyond the standard techniques used 

at the plants. Cost savings are achieved 

by minimizing contracts to outside firms 

for similar activities. 

Safety: 

Because equipment reliability is enhanced, 

challenges to nuclear safety can 

be reduced. The testing techniques improve 

problem identification capabilities 

for circuit boards and nuclear safety is 

impacted by reduced out-of-service time, 

reduced Limiting Condition of Operation 

(LCO) time and avoidance of unexpected 

performance problems. 

Since out-of-service time for safety 

related and certain non-safety equipment 

can affect the plant’s CDF (Core Damage 

Frequency), validation of critical spares 

can provide a means to minimize impact 

to CDF by avoiding extended equipment 

outage time. 

Dose saving could occur when circuit 

boards are installed in radiation areas 

since ALARA is maximized by validating 

spare parts prior to installation. 

FirstEnergy Plant recently used the 

capabilities of BETA Laboratory to perform 

testing, inspections and failure analysis 

on circuit boards with potential “Tin 

Whisker” issues. 

A large project in support of a refuel 

outage involved the inspection of Solid 

State Protection System (SSPS) circuit 

boards. An NRC Information Notice 

identified an inadvertent trip and partial 

safety injection at the Millstone station 

due to a “tin whisker” creating a filament 

bridge on a SSPS circuit card. The vendor 

issued technical guidance with recommended 

actions that utilities should take. 

BETA Laboratory inspected SSPS circuit 

boards in accordance with the recommendations 

which included microscopic 

examination for tin whiskers and workmanship 

defects. 

A total of 152 SSPS circuit boards 

were inspected at BETA in support of 

the refuel outage including 64 new SSPS 

boards. During the outage, over 40 SSPS 

circuit boards were removed for the same 

inspections. Breakdowns of the findings 

are as follows: 

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E-mail: michelle@goinfo.com 



Electronic Circuit... 


• 64 “new” boards: 6 with tin whiskers, 

20 with workmanship defects, 

2 with bad components. 

• 42 Train “A” boards: 1 with tin whiskers, 

17 with workmanship defects, 2 

with bad components. 

• 46 Train “B” boards: 22 with tin 

whiskers, 29 with workmanship defects. 

Prior to sending the boards back to 

the plant, BETA also performed baseline 

scanning of each card, component by 

component, for future reference to facilitate 

troubleshooting and failure analysis. 

Clearly, a significant impact on nuclear 

safety and plant resources occurred 

by identifying problems with new spares 

before installation. Had some of these 

cards been installed, post installation test 

failures were a certainty. More importantly, 

had suspect boards made it through 

the post installation testing; challenges to 

plant safety including plant trips would 

have been possible. This is because certain 

workmanship defects did not immediately 

compromise the performance of 

the boards but could have degraded later 

resulting in latent failures. 

Cost Savings Impact: 

In general, the cost for in-depth, detailed 

board level troubleshooting is about 

half (50%) of sending it to a contracted 

facility. However, savings can be much 

more than that. For example, FENOC 

BETA Lab was able to repair 10 obsolete 

modules at a cost of $1,000 where special 

order replacements from the vendor 

were previously purchased at $25,000 per 

module. In this example alone, $240,000 

of savings was realized. Additionally, the 

knowledge learned during troubleshooting 

is retained within the company and 

can be leveraged for use on other issues. 

Overall cost savings at FENOC for 

2007 were estimated to be $370,000 

when compared to outside vendors. Not 

included in this estimate are hard to 

quantify savings due to shortened plant 

outage time and avoidance of plant or 

equipment outages. 

Extending the life of obsolete boards 

also contributes to cost savings by providing 

an interim solution until replacement 

technology is obtained. 

Innovation: 

Commercially available technology 

that is usually used by manufacturers to 

perform quality control checks on boards 

is used to validate spare board condition. 

The device is automated and measures 

electrical parameters for a predetermined 

set of test points on the board. This same 

device is also used to scan a suspect board 

during troubleshooting to identify potential 

problem components. 

This approach is above and beyond 

the traditional hands-on techniques used at 

plants and can speed up the troubleshooting 

process significantly by quickly pointing 

technicians to the problem area. Traditional 

hands-on techniques are then used 

to confirm the faulty components. Because 

this automated device can quickly scan tens 

or even hundreds of test points on a circuit 

board, the power of automation is leveraged. 

Likewise, spares can be scanned prior 

to installation in the plant to prevent post 

installation problems and unnecessary 

rework. 

Also, a commercially available software 

package is used to automate troubleshooting 

and testing. This package allows 

multiple inputs (voltage, current, switching) 

to be applied to the boards while simultaneously 

measuring outputs. The package goes 

beyond standard data acquisition system 

since inputs can be programmed to vary in 

a specific manner. The package also allows 

emulation of many control functions and 

final devices like valves. 

The above mentioned technology 

is applied in a way that allows quick but 

highly detailed troubleshooting coupled 

with automation of testing. Large populations 

of similar boards can be validated or 

troubleshot in a way that was previously 

not cost effective. 

Productivity/Efficiency: 

Several efficiency improvements 

result from this approach. 

a) The approach minimizes the time 

required for critical troubleshooting 

b) 

c) 

d) 

activities because the entire process 

is under the control of the utility. Delays 

associated with external vendors 

are eliminated. 

The demands on the utility’s supply 

chain are reduced since there is usually 

no need to search for a suitable 

vendor, process a purchase order, 

etc. 

The plant’s technical staff is relieved 

of the burden to perform these activities, 

allowing them to concentrate on 

other plant issues. 

The utility’s work management pro- 

cess (i.e. SAP) can be used to schedule 

and track the work items. For 

example, validation of some critical 

spares needed for an upcoming refueling 

outage could be scheduled for 

assessment via the normal planning 

process, to meet parts availability 

milestones. 

As mentioned elsewhere, this auto- 

mated device can quickly scan spares 

prior to installation in the plant to 

prevent post installation problems 

and unnecessary rework 

e) 


Any plant or utility could implement 

this approach by assembling the applicable 

staff and technology. All technology 

is commercially available and can 

be readily purchased for use. The necessary 

skills are typically available within a 

nuclear organization’s staff and it is only 

a matter of building the staff and technology 

into an organization that fits the utility's 

structure. 

In FENOC’s model, BETA Lab 

serves as the central location for circuit 

board issues. A dedicated staff with specific 

skills complements each other to 

deliver fast, efficient and accurate information. 

Contact: James Amundsen, 

FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company/ 

BETA Laboratory, 6670 Beta Drive, 

Mayfi eld Village, OH 44143; telephone: 

(440) 604-9894, fax: (440) 604-9800, 

email: jpamundsen@fi rstenergycorp. 

com. 

 


Radiation-101, An Internet-Based Course on Radiation Fundamentals 

With 2.4 CEUs (24 PDHs) from the Illinois Institute of Technology 

Start Date: July 27, 2009 Fax Registration to (630) 858-8787 

Radiation Fundamentals (Radiation-101) runs for 

seven weeks beginning July 27, 2009. Each week, participants 

complete a reading assignment and submit required 

tests electronically. A list of assignments is given at the 

right. The test responses are graded instantly, and participants 

may view their grades immediately. At the end 

of the course, a certificate and 2.4 Continuing Education 

Units (CEUs) from the Illinois Institute of Technology will 

be issued to those participants who successfully complete 

the course work. The course registration fee is $245.00 

per participant. 

Course author Dr. Bjorn Wahlstrom has written 

several books on radiation. He is a well-known nuclear 

physicist with experience in radiation safety, radioactive 

releases, radwaste, the deposition of spent nuclear fuel 

and environmental issues. 

Newal K. Agnihotri, editor and publisher of Nuclear 

Plant Journal, is the moderator of the course. 

Yes! Register me for the Radiation-101 class. 

Course Start Date: July 27, 2009 

$245.00 per course per participant 

_____ Amount authorized (fee x # of participants) 

Check is enclosed. 

(Make checks payable to Nuclear Plant Journal.) 

Charge my credit card. 

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Name ________________________________________ 

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Course Topics for July 27, 2009 Session 

Week 1: (July 27-August 2, 2009) 

1. “Radiation--As Old As the Universe.” 

2. “Unstable Nuclei Make Material Radioactive.” 

3. “The Unit of Activity, The Becquerel.” 

Week 2: (August 3-9, 2009) 

1. “Radionuclides & Your Body.” 

2. “Healing Radiation.” 

Week 3: (August 10-16, 2009) 

1. “Industrial & Consumer Applications.” 

2. “Radiation Protection Across Borders.” 

3. “Dose, Dose Rate and Dose Limits.” 

Week 4: (August 17-23, 2009) 

1. “Ionizing Radiation & Health.” 

2. “Any Harm from Small Doses?” 

Photo Credit: Pavlicek/IAEA 

Week 5: (August 24-30, 2009) 

1. “Late Health Effects of High Doses.” 

2. “Acute Health Effects of Very High Doses.” 

Week 6: (August 31-September 6, 2009) 

1. “Nuclear Accident or Incident?” 

2. “Radioactive Releases and Radwaste.” 

Week 7: (September 14-20, 2009) 

1. “True and False About Chernobyl.” 

2. “Radiation All Around Us All the Time.” 

Bulk registration costs are available for orders of 10+ participants. 

Fax or mail your order to: 

Michelle Gaylord Phone: (630) 858-6161, X103 

Nuclear Plant Journal Fax: (630) 858-8787 

799 Roosevelt Rd., #6-208 E-mail: NPJ@goinfo.com 

Glen Ellyn, IL 60137 USA 

www.radiationtraining.com 

May, 2009 

With 2.4 CEUs from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago 


The Future is Now 

By Julia Milstead, Progress Energy 

Service Company, LLC. 

The Harris Nuclear Plant is located 

just 20 miles outside Raleigh, 

North Carolina. It’s in one of the fastest 

growing regions in the country. Over 

the last three decades, the Carolinas 

service area has grown by 112 percent. 

Progress Energy expects to add close 

to 500,000 new customers in the Carolinas 

by 2026. The company is preparing 

now for the anticipated increase in 

energy demand. Recently, the Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted 

the Harris Plant a 20 year license extension. 

This will allow the nuclear plant to 

continue operations until 2046. In 2008, 

Progress Energy also applied to the 

NRC to build two new reactors at the 

Harris site. While the company has not 

made a decision on whether to build, the 

application allows Progress to keep its 

options open. 

The Harris Plant came online in 

1987. It was originally designed to be a 

four unit nuclear power plant; however, 

like many companies, Progress Energy 

scaled back the design due to changing 

economic conditions and demand. 

Since that time, the single unit facility 

has safely produced more than 142 

million megawatt-hours of electricitythe 

equivalent of the annual usage of 

10 million typical households. Harris 

is one of five reactors Progress Energy 

operates at four different locations 

in the Carolinas and Florida. During 

2008, the plants set a nuclear generation 

record, producing more than 35.1 billion 

kilowatt-hours of electricity. That power 

accounted for 46 percent of the energy 

provided to customers in the Carolinas 

service territory and 18 percent of 

the energy provided to customers in 

Florida. 

Fire Protection Project 

The Harris Nuclear Plant is one 

of two pilot plants transitioning to the 

new risk-based fire protection program, 

NFPA 805. The idea is to move from a 

standard “one size fits all” mentality to 

an approach that is more common sense 

and site specific. The new approach 

ensures the appropriate amount of fire 

protection will be placed in every area 

of the plant to allow for full compliance 

without supplemental measures. In 

some areas of the plant, this means 

additional fire protection measures will 

be implemented. 

This transition has been a complex 

and lengthy process. It has required 

NFPA-805 Cable Pull 

Julia Milstead 

Julia Milstead joined Progress Energy 

as a corporate communications 

specialist in June 2008. Prior to that, 

she worked for more than 15 years as 

a television reporter for WRAL-TV in 

Raleigh. Julia graduated from Sweet 

Briar College with a major in English 

and a minor in Government. 

an in-depth re-analysis of the fire risk 

of several thousand feet of cables. The 

analysis and engineering studies alone 


took roughly four years and had to be 

completed before the project could move 

forward. These studies were critical to 

ensure all components involved with the 

plant’s safe shutdown were accurately 

evaluated. 

Some of the projects involved in the 

NFPA-805 transition include: 

• additional cable separation 

• install fire rated cable 

• relocate/add alternate power supply 

• install a transfer switch 

• install emergency lighting 

Engineers expect to complete the 

NFPA-805 modifications by the fall of 

2010. Not only the NRC, but the rest of 

the industry will benefit from the work 

done at the Harris Nuclear Plant. 

Community Outreach 

The nuclear industry has been at 

the forefront of the national debate 

on energy. That’s why education and 

community outreach are more critical 

now than ever. Progress Energy believes 

it’s important to give people information 

so they can make an informed opinion 

when it comes to nuclear power. 

The Harris Energy and Environmental 

(E&E) Center, which recently 

underwent a major renovation, features 

hands-on educational resources and 

exhibits on electricity generation and 

transmission, alternative energy, energy 

efficiency, and the benefits of nuclear 

power. The exhibits, which include a 

touch-screen virtual tour of the Harris 

Nuclear Plant and a 10-foot model of 

the cooling tower that you can walk inside, 

are geared toward middle school 

through adult audiences. Nuclear engineering 

students from area colleges and 

universities are frequent visitors to the 

E&E Center. 

Every year, the Harris Plant hosts 

a number of outreach events at the 

E&E Center. This includes workshops 

for high school science teachers, high 

school summer engineering camps, 

tours for local elected officials, lunch 

and learn programs for local realtors 

and a community day for area residents. 

For community day, employees 

provide continual tours of the plant’s 

control room simulator and emergency 

operations facility. More than 500 

residents have come to this annual event 

over the past few years. 

The Harris Plant also participates in 

offsite activities, including high school 

and middle school career fairs, and 

community open houses on the potential 

expansion of the Harris Plant. 

Unit Specific Information 

• Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) 

• Approximately 900 MW 

• Nuclear steam supply system manufacturer: 

Westinghouse 

• Turbine generator manufacturer: 

Westinghouse 

• Cooling water source: Harris Lake 

• Commercial operation: May 2, 1987 

The Harris Nuclear Plant is named 

after Shearon Harris, a former president, 

chief executive officer and chairman 

of CP&L (now known as Progress 

Energy). Harris is jointly owned by 

Progress Energy (83.34%) and the 

N.C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency 

(16.16%). It is operated exclusively by 

Progress Energy. The company owns 

and operates four other nuclear units 

at three other sites in the Carolinas and 

Florida. 

Contact: Julia Milstead, Harris 

Nuclear Plant, 5413 Shearon Harris 

Road, HNP01, New Hill, NC 27652; 


Julia.milstead@pgnmail.com. 

Energy and Environmental Center 


MSL Acoustic... 


a scale model test rig to ensure that 

the appropriate test parameters were 

used to test a new design concept. 

• The acoustic side branch acoustic 

mitigation modification was a creative 

design that effectively mitigated 

the high pressure oscillations that 

developed due to the original standpipe 

design. 

• This application represents for the 

first time a load reducing acoustic 

side branch design that has been 

successfully tested with in-plant 

data to ensure it was a successful 

application. 


The data collection, benchmarked 

scale model testing, and application of 

the acoustic side branch modification 

are transferable to both BWR and PWR 

nuclear power plants. 

The current applications of this 

groundbreaking work are BWRs that are 

planning to increase power and operate 

with new steam flow velocities. Every 

power uprate application since Quad 

Cities has used the data and techniques 

to assess the need for mitigation devices 

and/or structural reinforcement of critical 

steam path components. Three plants 

are considering installation of similar 

ASB mitigation devices to control high 

frequency pressure oscillations at power 

uprate conditions. 

Exelon has made it a point to inform 

and provide the industry with updated 

information through the Boiling Water 

Reactors Owners Group and the Boiling 

Water Reactors Vessels and Internals 

Program. 

Contact: Keith Moser, Exelon 

Nuclear, 4300 Winfi eld Road, Warrenville, 

IL 60555; telephone: (630) 657-3878, fax: 

(630) 657-4328, email: keith.moser@ 

exeloncorp.com. 

 

Nuclear Plant Journal’s New Website 

www.nuclearplantjournal.com 


NO COMPANY IS MORE COMMITTED TO 

supporting operating 

nuclear plants. 

WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC COMPANY LLC 

Westinghouse supplied the world’s first full-scale commercial 

nuclear power plant in 1957 in Shippingport, Pennsylvania (USA). 

Today, Westinghouse technology is the basis for approximately 

one-half of the world’s operating nuclear plants, including 

60 percent of those in the United States. With global pressurized 

water reactor (PWR) and boiling water reactor (BWR) technology 

and expertise, and skilled employees at locations around the world, 

we provide outage services and component inspections; 

upratings; major plant capital improvements, such as I&C systems 

upgrades, and other services that ensure safe and efficient 

nuclear plant operations. 

Westinghouse is committed to helping provide safe, clean and 

reliable electricity. 

Check us out at www.westinghousenuclear.com

Integrated System Solutions for 

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As Utilities seek to maximize their nuclear assets by means 

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an upgraded system becomes vital to achieving this goal. 

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