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NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, July-August 2016
On Time
and On
Budget
By Tony Orawiec, Exelon Corp. and
Jennifer Hurst, The Injenuity Group.
Tony Orawiec
Tony Orawiec is responsible for Plant
Operations, Nuclear and Industrial
Security, Quality
Assurance,
Corrective Action
and Document
Control departments
at Zion Station.
Orawiec began work
in the operating
nuclear profession in
1981 with time spent
at both Zion and
Braidwood stations.
He has held various
positions with increasing responsibilities
over the years. Before becoming
decommissioning plant manager, he
served in a number of supervisory
roles including operations manager,
operations shift supervisor, certified
fuel handler and clearance and tagging
coordinator.
Orawiec held a reactor operator license
and senior reactor operator certification
at Zion station.
Decontaminating & Decommission-
ing (D&D) a nuclear power plant is, of
course, a major undertaking. In an active
corner of Northeastern Illinois the Zion
Nuclear Power Plant decommissioning
project is no exception and is quickly be-
coming an example in safe, economical
and industry leading decommissioning
execution.
EnergySolutions was awarded the
Zion D&D project in 2010 and began de-
veloping a strategy using past experience
and knowledge aligned with a modern
day approach to critical decision making.
The result is a project that has exceeded
scheduled milestones, stayed within bud-
get, maintained an excellent safety record,
preserved its commit-
ment to environmen-
tal stewardship and
that ultimately will be
completed ahead of
schedule.
Throughout each
phase of D&D, En-
ergySolutions
has
demonstrated leader-
ship and expertise by
advancing decommis-
sioning technology
and methodology to
deliver a safe project. Through success at
Zion, the company will fully support the
long term transfer of these advancements
in decommissioning on a global scale.
Fuel Relocation
Early in the project safely relocating
the spent nuclear fuel was a top project
priority as the site began the parallel
construction of the Zion Interim Spent
Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI). Other
priorities focused on the programmatic
selection, training and staffing of the
ZionSolutions fuel handling and dry cask
storage crews. In late December 2013,
following rigorous testing and physical
inspection by the US Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC), the site received
approval for the fuel transfer and storage
of spent fuel at the state of the art ISFSI.
This major milestone signaled the
beginning of Zion’s dry fuel storage
project and resulted in the first spent
fuel cask being delivered to the ISFSI on
January 9, 2014.
Throughout the remaining campaign,
the dry cask storage teams maintained
the highest standards for nuclear and
radiological safety. On January 10, 2015,
theysuccessfullycompleted theplacement
of the 61st and final spent fuel cask in the
ISFSI. This accomplishment marked the
largest spent fuel transfer campaign in the
nuclear energy industry on a timeline that
has never been achieved before. It took
only 366 days to complete, largely due
to the specially trained ZionSolutions
personnel, advanced tooling, industry
best practices and approved dry container
processing and methodologies.
“We are extremely proud of our
employees for the safe and efficient job
they have done in transferring the spent
nuclear fuel from the fuel pool to the
ISFSI pad,” said Ken Robuck, President
of Decontamination & Decommissioning
for EnergySolutions. “In completing this
portion of the decommissioning project,
we successfully established the largest
fuel transfer campaign to date in the
United States, a major milestone for the
project and for the nuclear industry.”
Large Components
The Zion Nuclear Power Plant
represents two identical nuclear units
comprised of a total of eight steam
generators, two primary reactor vessels,
two primary system pressurizers, four
reactor internal assemblies, eight reactor
coolant pumps and all associated motors
as well as interconnected normal and
emergency coolant system piping and
valves.
For the first time in history,
EnergySolutions executed a plan
to dismantle and remove the large
components in both units, simultaneously.
Peak efficiency was achieved alongside
industrial and radiological safety as well
as environmental stewardship to meet
commitments to employees, customers
and the surrounding community.
Dismantling and safely disposing of
Zion’s large components was completed
in approximately two years and positioned
the project with more than 98 percent of
the radioactive source removed from the
plant and safely disposed.
“After completing this milestone
at Zion, we were pleased with our
progress against the targeted plan for
decontamination and decommissioning,”
