Page 34 - May-June 2013

(Continued on page 36)
Post-
Fukushima
Innovations
By Thomas Franch, AREVA, Inc., North
America.
Thomas Franch
Thomas Franch is Senior Vice President
of Reactor and Services for AREVA,
Inc., North America. Tom is responsible
for the groups’
business operations
overseeing
financial
performance,
innovative
products and
services, customer
relationships and
overall project
delivery for the
operating U.S.
nuclear fleet and
the design and
deployment of the
next generation
Nuclear Plant.
While driving
growth in the core
business and accelerating the transition
to a greater mix of services, Tom leads
AREVA Reactors and Services in
operational excellence for safety, quality,
performance and delivery.
Tom has more than 30 years of power
industry experience in various technical,
engineering, and executive positions.
Tom holds a Bachelor of Science degree
in Civil Engineering and Architecture
from the University of Illinois.
An interview by Newal Agnihotri,
Editor of Nuclear Plant Journal at the
Regulatory Information Conference in
Bethesda, Maryland on March 13, 2013.
1. What projects have currently been
undertaken by AREVA in response
to the US NRC’s post-Fukushima
recommendations?
Since the NRC organized their post-
Fukushima recommendations into three
tiers, the U.S. industry first addressed
the NRC’s Tier 1 recommendations. Tier
1 included seismic and flooding walk
downs and evaluations (among others),
and we helped various utilities with these
evaluations so they could respond back to
the Commission with the results.
Subsequent efforts are now address-
ing the follow-up work from Tier 1 along
with planning for Tier 2 and 3 recommen-
dations. Tiers 2 and 3 apply the lessons
learned and insights gained from the Tier
1 evaluations and re-
ports. These recom-
mendations consider
other natural events
such as tornados,
droughts or hurri-
canes, which will be
evaluated and their
results will build
upon the entirety of
the Tier 1 response.
AREVA is well po-
sitioned to address
Tier 2 and 3 activi-
ties with our custom-
ers as we have been
helping to initiate in-
dustry discussions on
the best path forward.
We are also developing innovative and
cost-effective products and services that
will help the industry to meet the NRC’s
recommendations while minimizing the
impact on their operations and costs.
A good example of one of our post-
Fukushima solutions is our Spent Fuel
Pool instrumentation system that simply
and safely identifies fuel pool levels so
that customers can measure, analyze,
report and trend results for the enhanced
safety of their plants. Through discussions
with customers and industry leaders,
we identified potential improvement
areas for spent fuel pool measurements
and explored options to use technology
to enhance safety at our U.S. plants.
During the technical evaluation process,
we found an off-the-shelf Through-Air
Radar system that works very well to
measure spent fuel pool levels. Through
successful field tests, we enhanced the
system to meet specific customer needs.
We’ve been able to demonstrate that the
spent fuel pool monitoring system will
meet utilities’ needs should a beyond-
design-basis event ever occur. At
AREVA, we’re always looking for new
technologies, services and products to
help the industry economically address
regulatory requirements, without the
constraints of undue costs.
We believe that our expertise in
the field and our technology can help
utilities meet the NRC’s post-Fukushima
requirements. We know that any solution
has to meet ever-increasing safety and
security requirements over the next
25 years and it also needs to be cost
effective.
2. What will be the application of the
radar system?
If you’ve ever been traveling on the
road and seen a state trooper checking
for speeding cars, that’s an application
of Through-Air Radar. We’ve been able
to take this technology and utilize it for
checking the water level in a spent fuel
pool, even if there is debris, saturated
steam or smoke in it, and demonstrate
that the radar will still be able to return
an indication of spent fuel pool level. The
radar wave shoots across the pool, reflects
back and the calibrated signal shows the
level of water in the spent fuel pool. We
are working with various customers to
implement this technology as part of their
response to meet the Spent Fuel Pool
Instrumentation Requirements.
The concept is to avoid exposing
plant workers to radiation during or
after a beyond-design-basis event. The
system has remote application and can
be used safely to measure spent fuel
pool levels without exposing personnel
to high radiation. While you have to
install the necessary equipment before
a beyond-design-basis event occurs, it
will help to reduce dose exposure during
an actual event. We’ve actually proven
the functionality of this technology in
our own facilities, where it has been
thoroughly tested.
3. Is AREVA working on any other new
technologies?
At AREVA we are always working
on new and innovative technologies. We
are very interested in robotics and the
solutions that advanced technology can
34 NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2013