Nuclear Plant Journal Outage Management ... - Digital Versions

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