Leveraging
Technology
to Improve
Refueling
Outage
Coordination
and
Performance
By Shawn St. Germain, Idaho National
Laboratory and Carlos Williams, Palo
Verde Nuclear Generating Station.
Shawn St. Germain
Shawn St. Germain holds a master’s
degree in nuclear engineering from
the University of
Idaho, an MBA
from City University
of Seattle and a
BS in mechanical
engineering
from Michigan
Technological
University. He has
worked at the Idaho
National Laboratory
for 7 years as principal
investigator in the
Risk Assessment
and Management
Services department.
He is currently
the principal
investigator for
an NRC project titled “Operating
Experience Data for Risk Applications”
and a Department of Energy Light Water
Reactor Sustainability project titled
“Advanced Outage Control Center Pilot
Project”. He was a nuclear trained
surface warfare officer in the United
States Navy for 7 years where he was
qualified as a Navy Nuclear Engineer by
the Department of Naval Reactors and
qualified Propulsion Plant Watch Officer
on the USS Nimitz.
Managing nuclear power plant
refueling outages is a complex and
difficult task due to the large number of
maintenance and repair activities that
are accomplished in a relatively short
period of time. During a refueling outage,
the Outage Control Center (OCC) is the
temporary command center for outage
managers and provides several critical
functions for successful execution of
the outage schedule. Essentially, the
OCC functions to facilitate information
inflow, assist outage management with
processing information, and facilitate
the dissemination of information
to stakeholders. Currently, outage
management activities primarily rely
on telephone communications, face-to-
face reports, and periodic briefings in
the OCC. It is a difficult task to maintain
current information related to outage
progress and any discovered conditions.
One of few remaining areas where
significant improvement in plant capacity
factors can be made is in minimizing
the duration of refueling outages (St.
Germain et al. 2013).
Effectively managing refueling out-
ages is essential to
the long-term com-
mercial viability of
nuclear power plants.
Outage delays incur
significant expenses
due to the costs of re-
placement power and
additional labor. The
pilot projects have
shown that advanced
instrumentation, in-
formation, and con-
trol technologies can
improve
refueling
outage performance.
A new Advanced In-
strumentation, Infor-
mation, and Control
System Technologies Pathway pilot proj-
ect is focused on developing methods to
implement an Advanced OCC (AOCC).
The AOCC is intended to maximize
the use of communication and
collaboration technologies for outage
coordination, problem resolution, and
outage risk management. Light Water
Reactor Sustainability (LWRS)Program
researchers are working with the Palo
Verde Nuclear Generating Station (i.e.,
the pilot project industrial partner) to
evaluate the current outage function
allocation, identify areas where new
technology can improve safety and
efficiency, and effectively implement the
new technology.
The conceptualized AOCC will
provide tools for outage managers
to monitor work status, coordinate
resources, and communicate with the
rest of the station. Some of the AOCC
technology-enabled functions include
real-time collaboration to resolve
emergent issues, real-time work status,
automatic support notifications, and
improved information flow from and to
the OCC. Implementation of an AOCC
will require a technology infrastructure
that includes mobile worker technologies,
electronic work packages, plant-
wide Wi-Fi coverage, and electronic
component identification. Most nuclear
power plants currently do not have
the technology infrastructure to fully
implement all of the AOCC capabilities;
therefore, an important part of the
current approach involves planning for
incremental technology implementation.
An incremental introduction of new
technology and the resultant modification
of processes will allow workers to gain
proficiency with the new technology
and methods while developing the
infrastructure that supports future
capabilities.
LWRS Program researchers are
developing a first-of-a-kind AOCC
to investigate some of the advanced
functions in a real outage setting.
Using systems procured by Arizona
Public Services, candidate advanced
technologies and process improvements
were implemented for evaluation during
refueling outages by Palo Verde Nuclear
Generating Station, supported by LWRS
Program researchers.
LWRS
Program
researchers
observed outage activities at the Palo
Verde Nuclear Generating Station during
spring 2013. Through observations,
data were collected that supported a
function and task analysis of outage
activities and an assessment of the
human factor aspects of the physical
OCC layout. Based on observations of
outage activities and interviews with
Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station
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NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, July-August 2014
