Page 10 - Nuclear Plant Journal May-June 2012
Basic HTML Version
10
Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2012
Utility,
Industry &
Corporation
Utility
I&C
ASN (the French Nuclear Safety Au-
thority) considers that the changes EDF
has made to the instrumentation and con-
trol (I&C) architecture of the Flamanville
3 EPR, France, are satisfactory and en-
able it to lift the reservations it expressed
in October 2009. This position is based
on the analysis by its technical support
organization, IRSN, and the opinion of
the Advisory Committee for nuclear re-
actors.
EDF has been carrying out
considerable work to comply with the
ASN requests and finally, as requested
by ASN, has implemented an I&C
architecture
modification
designed
to improve robustness and enable the
SPPA-T2000 platform to be used for
the Flamanville 3 EPR reactor. This
modification consists in duplicating some
of the SPPA T2000 platform’s reactor
protection functions on the Téléperm
XS platform. The aim is to improve I&C
robustness in the event of failure of the
SPPA-T2000 platform combined with
certain accident situations.
Following the IRSN analysis of these
modifications and the 16th June 2011
opinion from the Advisory Committee
for nuclear reactors, ASN considers that
the I&C architecture of the EPR reactor
proposed by EDF is such as to be able to
guarantee the safety of the systems used
to manage incident or accident situations
and their independence from the control
systems used for normal operation of
the plant. EDF may thus continue with
deployment of this system, the detailed
design of which will be analyzed
by ASN prior to the commissioning
authorization.
Credit: The Nuclear Safety Authority
(ASN).
SPOTC Title
For the seventh consecutive year,
Bruce Power
’s Nuclear Response
Team’s competition team has claimed
top spot at the Security Protection Officer
Team Competition (SPOTC), held at
the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South
Carolina in late-April, 2012.
Bruce Power’s team claimed first
place in eight of nine events, receiving
990.5 of a possible 1,000 points. The
SPOTC is a competition for the U.S.-
based Department of Energy (DOE)
security forces, but is also open to US
military and police SWAT, as well as
Canadian and U.K. teams, which compete
in the non-DOE category. Bruce Power
was represented by Officers Jordan
MacDougall, Mike McFarlane, Rob
Bosman, Sam McCulloch, Kyle Roulston
and Jeff Steven.
The nine events are designed to test
tactical, physical, and firearm proficiency,
while focusing on speed, strength, agility
and teamwork.
Contact: John Peevers, telephone:
Industry
ISOE
Information
System
on
Occupational
Exposure
(ISOE)
was created in 1991 to improve the
management of occupational exposures
at nuclear power plants through the
collection and analysis of occupational
exposure data and trends, and through the
exchange of lessons learned among utility
and national regulatory authority experts.
The system has grown continuously
and now provides participants with a
comprehensive resource for optimizing
occupational exposure management at
nuclear power plants worldwide.
Membership in the ISOE program is
open to nuclear utilities and to radiation
protection regulatory authorities.
The ISOE database itself contains
information on occupational exposure
levels and trends at 482 reactor units in
29 countries covering about 91% of the
world’s operating commercial power
reactors.
NRC
The
Nuclear Regulatory Commis-
sion
staff issueed Orders on March 12,
2012 to U.S. commercial nuclear reac-
tors. This action begins implementation
of several recommendations for enhanc-
ing safety at U.S. reactors based on les-
sons learned from the accident at Japan’s
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Two of the Orders apply to every
U.S. commercial nuclear power plant,
including those under construction and
the recently licensed new Vogtle reactors.
The first Order requires the plants to
better protect safety equipment installed
after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and to
obtain sufficient equipment to support all
reactors at a given site simultaneously. The
second Order requires the plants to install
enhanced equipment for monitoring water
levels in each plant’s spent fuel pool.
The third Order applies only to U.S.
boiling-water reactors that have “Mark I”
or “Mark II” containment structures.
These reactors must improve venting
systems (or for the Mark II plants,
install new systems) that help prevent
or mitigate core damage in the event of
a serious accident. Plants have until Dec.
31, 2016, to complete modifications and
requirements of all three Orders.
The Orders and the information
request datedMarch 12, 2012 are available
on the NRC’s website. These actions
address what the NRC determined to be
the highest-priority recommendations
from the agency’s Japan Near-Term Task
Force. The Task Force issued its report
in July 2011. The NRC staff continues
to examine how to best address the
remaining Task Force recommendations,
as well as additional topics raised during
the early implementation effort.
Corporation
Versatile Measuring
Instruments
Curtiss-Wright Corporation
has
acquired theVersatileMeasuring Instruments
(VMI) and Lisle-Metrix (L-M) product lines
from the Amidyne Group for approximately
$7 million. The VMI and L-M product lines
serve the commercial nuclear power market,
and consist of original equipment and re-
engineered replacement products for obsolete
