Page 40 - May-June 2013

Outage
Performance
Improvements
By Mark Hansen, NextEra Energy, Inc.
Mark Hansen
Mark Hansen is the current outage
manager at Point Beach Nuclear Plant
where he has been employed for over
25 years. His current position is a
culmination of experiences gained at
Point Beach following a short tour of
duty in the US Navy. Mr. Hansen started
at Point Beach in 1988 and over the next
22 years was able to obtain his Reactor
Operator’s License, Senior Reactor
Operator’s License and a Bachelor’s of
Science from the University of Maryland
University College. During this time he
discovered that he had a niche in outage
management and in 2010 he was given
an opportunity as the Operations Shift
Manager – Outage. Mr. Hansen’s overall
successes with operation’s outage
performance lead to his promotion to
Outage Manager in the spring of 2011
where he has provided oversight of the
past three successful outages.
Nuclear Energy Institute’s Top Industry
Practice (TIP) Awards highlight the
nuclear industry’s most innovative
techniques and ideas.
This was a 2012 NEI Process Award
Winner.
The team members who participated
included: Mark Hansen, Outage
Manager; Robert Gilbertson, Outage
Supervisor; John Ramski, Outage
Supervisor; Steve Robitzski, SPU Site
Manager; and Don Leclair, Senior
Outage Scheduler.
Summary
Point Beach Nuclear Plant (PBNP)
implemented 17% Power Uprate Outages
on both Unit 1 and Unit 2 in 2011.
The outages included scope that was
unprecedented in the Nuclear Industry
resulting in an additional 90 MWs per
unit. This article describes how the
lessons learned from the Unit 2 spring
outage were applied to the Unit 1 outage
in the fall resulting in a shorter outage and
improved industrial safety performance.
In the spring of 2011, Point Beach
completed the third of three uprate
outages on the Unit 2 plant. The scope
included upgrades on all major secondary
pumps, piping and heat exchangers to go
along with an uprated electrical generator
system resulting in essentially a new
secondary plant to ensure safe operation
of the plant for the foreseeable future.
While the spring outage was successful
on many fronts, the outage did have its
challenges in safety, cost and duration.
The station focused on improved
execution of the 2011 fall outage on Unit
1 by understanding and implementing
lessons learned. The fall outage work
included new main feed water pumps &
motors, new condensate pumps &motors,
new low pressure feed water heaters, new
main power transformers, new main feed
isolation valves and a main generator
output breaker. The HP Turbine was
replaced and the main generator was
rewound. Upgrades were performed on
the main steam isolation valves, main
feed regulating valves and the non-return
check valves. The steam generators also
needed to be modified. Many balance-
of-plant and nuclear steam supply
system set point changes were required,
and start-up testing was very extensive.
Significant routine outage activities
were also completed: Integrated Leak
Rate Testing, Residual Heat Removal
Heat Exchanger inspections, check valve
program work, water box coatings, pump
overhauls, multiple valve repairs and
breaker inspections. By implementing the
improvements outlined in the following
sections, the station was able to complete
a broader outage scope in 35 less days
without sacrificing safety or quality.
Safety Response
Safety has always been Point Beach’s
number one priority. However, during the
2011 spring outage, the station was chal-
lenged in the safety arena, particularly in
the area of contractor safety. The large
number of construction activities com-
bined with a large new-to-nuclear work
force created many of these challenges.
The station took aggressive action to
develop and communicate a safe outage
strategy to the station and its contractor
partners. Key was ensuring the station and
contractor partner personnel understood
and believed that the most important goal
was safety. This was conveyed by a strong
plan, management involvement and con-
tinuous communication with the site per-
sonnel. The senior management team’s
involvement was evident and crucial from
the start as the Plant Manager, Director of
Maintenance and Safety Manager visited
the local union halls to convey the mes-
sage that at Point Beach, safety is always
first. The implementation of the 5 Rules
to Live or Leave by was also key to en-
suring that the message was received by
our station and contractor personnel. The
rules were:
Do not put any part of your body 1.
under suspended loads.
Wear fall protection when required. 2.
Do not violate circuit breaker arc 3.
flash zones.
Do not violate danger tags or danger 4.
tape.
Do not violate confined space 5.
requirements.
Ensuring the message was delivered
prior to contractor personnel arriving on
site made the focus on safety during initial
training more effective. Personnel had
a safety focus before they started work.
The station also used safety advocates
(fleet and industry safety personnel), who
monitored the individual work locations
for safety practices using a Behavior
Based Safety (BBS) observation system.
These observations and trends from the
observations were the focus of the daily
outage messages to the station. Another
aspect that was addressed was courageous
leadership. This program taught
supervisors that safety was personal and
how to best approach the workers and
demonstrate that we are all looking out
for their best interests. To truly ensure
that the station and our contract partners
were ready to conduct a safe fall outage,
the station had a “30 Day Safety Blitz”
immediately preceding the outage. Each
40 NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2013