Page 9 - Nuclear Plant Journal - March April 2013
Basic HTML Version
Nuclear Plant Journal, March-April 2013
9
Utility,
Industry &
Corporation
Utility
Crystal River
Following a comprehensive analysis,
Progress Energy Florida, a subsidiary
of
Duke Energy
, announced that it will
retire the Crystal River Nuclear Plant
(CR3) in Citrus County, Florida. The
plant has been safely shut down and
offline since late 2009.
The company’s decision comes
after a comprehensive, months-long
engineering analysis of the damaged
containment structure. The nuclear unit,
which began operating in 1977, had been
shut down in the fall of 2009 for refueling
and replacement of its steam generators
when a delamination, or crack, occurred
in the outer layer of the containment
building’s concrete wall.
The process of repairing the damage
and restoring the unit to service resulted in
additional delaminations in other sections
of the containment structure in 2011.
During the ensuing months, Progress
Energy – and, more recently, Duke Energy
– evaluated the ability to successfully
repair the unit, the risks associated with
any repair and the repair scope as well as
the likely costs and schedule.
A report completed in late 2012
confirmed that repairing the plant was
a viable option but that the nature and
potential scope of repairs brought
increased risks that could raise the cost
dramatically and extend the schedule.
Contact: Mike Hughes, telephone:
(800) 559-3853.
Industry
Funding for SMR
AspartoftheObamaAdministration’s
all-of-the-above energy strategy to speed
the transition to more sustainable sources
of energy, the
Energy Department
issued
a new funding opportunity announcement
to help U.S. industry design and certify
innovative small modular nuclear
reactors (SMRs). Building off the cost-
share agreement announced in November
2012, this follow-on solicitation is open to
other companies and manufacturers and
is focused on furthering small modular
reactor efficiency, operations and design.
The Energy Department will solicit
proposals for cost-shared small modular
reactor projects that have the potential to
be licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission and achieve commercial
operation around 2025, while offering
innovative and effective solutions
for enhanced safety, operations and
performance. Selected projects will span
a five-year period with at least 50 percent
provided by private industry. Subject to
congressional appropriations, federal
funding for this solicitation and the project
announced last year will be derived from
the total $452 million identified for the
Department’s Small Modular Reactor
Licensing Technical Support program.
Small modular reactors – which are
approximatelyone-third the size of current
nuclear power plants – have compact,
scalable designs that are expected to
offer a host of safety, construction and
economic benefits.
Contact: telephone: (202) 586-4940.
Corporation
Expansion
AREVA
is expanding in Charlotte,
North Carolina, through the addition of
130 positions over the next four years.
These new positions include the
relocation of AREVA’s North American
headquarters from Bethesda, Maryland,
to Charlotte along with the hiring of
additional professional engineers to
join AREVA’S operational center in
Charlotte, which is the city’s largest firm
of professional engineers comprising a
total workforce of 562 employees.
N.C. Governor Pat McCrory and
AREVA CEO Michael W. Rencheck
announced the company’s expansion
plans during a news conference at the
Charlotte Chamber of Commerce on
Monday, March 4, 2013.
AREVA opened its offices in
Charlotte in 2002 and has grown into
the largest engineering firm in the city
with more than 300 licensed professional
engineers, providing planning, design and
construction resources for the commercial
nuclear power industry in the U.S. and
internationally.
AREVA projects that its corporate
headquarters relocation, engineering jobs
addition and other investments will ac-
celerate the growth of its Charlotte opera-
tional center from more than $10 million
in annual revenue projected for 2013 to
more than $48 million in five years.
Contact: Mark Brock, telephone:
(
Fuel Quality
AREVA
and PPL commemorated
20 years of fuel quality in both units at
the Susquehanna nuclear power plant
located in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Both Susquehanna units have been
operating with leak-free AREVA fuel
since December 1992, for a total of 40
reactor-years of leak-free operations.
In the past 20 years, AREVA has
made advancements in the fuel design
for boiling water reactors (BWRs)
that contributed to this significant
achievement. The Susquehanna plant has
used AREVA BWR fuel for more than 40
reactor-years. The fuel used in both units
at the Susquehanna plant over the past 20
years is comprised of more than 500,000
fuel rods. Those rods represented 1.3
million successful welds with no defects
and contained more than 219 million fuel
pellets, which is equivalent to nearly 33
billion gallons of oil.
Contact: KellyCousineau, telephone:
(
e
Engineering Office
Day & Zimmermann
announced
that it has opened an engineering office
in Wilmington, Delaware. With this
expansion the firmcontinues to broaden its
already significant national footprint. The
addition of the Wilmington office gives
ECM10 U.S. operating offices, including:
Philadelphia andLancaster, Pennsylvania;
Norfolk, Virginia; Greenville, South
Carolina; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Houston and
Plano, Texas; Scott Depot, West Virginia;
and Goodyear, Arizona. The new office
enables the firm to focus on growth in its
process and industrial markets. It goes
