Nuclear Plant Journal - Digital Versions

2008-A Year of “Firsts” for
AmerenUE’s Callaway Plant
By Rick Eastman, AmerenUE.
Employees celebrated the plant’s
fi rst breaker-to-breaker run of 520 days
and the fi rst less than 30-day refueling
outage (which included no lost time or
recordable injuries).
Callaway Plant’s fi rst continuous
cycle run (Cycle 16) began in May 2007
and concluded in October 2008. Including
Callaway, only 26 of the nation’s 104
nuclear plants have achieved a record
run of more than 500 days. The previous
record for continuous operation at the
Callaway Plant was 483 days completed
in 1998.
The breaker-to-breaker run contributed
to the plant’s highest-ever capacity
factor of 99.36 percent for Cycle 16. The
plant’s previous record, 98.01 percent,
occurred during Cycle 7 which ended in
March 1995.
Prior to Refuel 16, the shortest
refueling outage for Callaway was just
under 31 days during Refuel 8 in 1996.
Safety-related HDPE
pipe Another fi rst occurred when the
plant installed the fi rst safety-related high
density polyethylene piping (HDPE) at a
nuclear power plant in the U.S. This was
done after the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) authorized the use
of this plastic pipe for a safety-related
system.
The HDPE pipe was used to replace
carbon steel piping in the plant’s essential
service water (ESW) system. The ‘A’ ESW
train was put into service in December
2008. Workers installed approximately
1,800-feet of 36-inch HDPE piping and
120-feet of 30-inch stainless steel piping
in the plant’s ESW Pump House, Ultimate
Heat Sink Cooling Tower and Control
Building, as well as underground in the
yard area between these buildings.
The work required thousands of cubic
yards of dirt and rock to be removed and
replaced. Fusing of the HDPE pipe also
required specialty equipment designed
for this purpose.
Rick Eastman
Rick Eastman is the supervisor of
Business Planning and Communications
at AmerenUE’s Callaway Plant. A
24-year Union Electric/AmerenUE
employee, he currently is responsible
for the development, implementation
and performance tracking for Callaway
Plant’s Business Plan, as well as
the plant’s internal and external
communications working in conjunction
with Corporate Communications.
Eastman earned a bachelor’s degree in
Mass Communication from Northeast
Missouri State University (now Truman
State University) in Kirksville, Mo., and
an MBA from William Woods University
in Fulton, Mo.
The project was completed 78 hours
ahead of schedule with no nuclear safety
events, no personnel safety events and no
human performance events.
The ‘B’ ESW piping train will be
replaced with HDPE pipe in March
2009.
COLA fi led for Callaway
2 The Callaway team also submitted
a combined Construction and Operating
License Application (COLA) to the NRC
to preserve the option to construct a new
nuclear plant. The COLA was docketed
by the NRC in late December 2008.
Adam Hefl in
Adam Hefl in is senior vice president
and chief nuclear offi cer of AmerenUE.
In this position he is responsible for
all of AmerenUE’s nuclear operations.
Mr. Hefl in joined AmerenUE in 2005
as site vice president for the Callaway
Plant, after serving as Unit 2 plant
manager at Arkansas Nuclear One,
owned by Entergy Corporation. Hefl in
joined Entergy Corporation’s nuclear
operations in 1992. He received his
nuclear training and started his nuclear
career while serving in the U.S. Navy.
AmerenUE is partnering with
UniStar Nuclear Energy to design, and
possibly construct, a U.S. Evolutionary
Power Reactor (EPR) which will be
located adjacent to the existing Callaway
Plant near Fulton, Mo.
If AmerenUE decides to build Callaway
2, the 1,600 megawatt pressurized
water reactor would represent the largest
single construction project in Missouri’s
history.
Also, the Callaway 2 team submitted
an application for federal loan guarantees
offered through the Energy Policy Act of
2005.
48 www.nuclearplantjournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, March-April 2009