Benefits of
Research
By Neil Wilmshurst, Electric Power
Research Institute.
Neil Wilmshurst
Neil Wilmshurst is Vice President of
Nuclear for the Electric Power Research
Institute (EPRI). He has overall
management and technical responsibility
for the more than $160 million in annual
research activities conducted by EPRI
with its global nuclear membership.
Wilmshurst
joined EPRI’s
Plant Support
Engineering
Program in 2003,
and became
Director of the
Plant Technology
department in 2008.
Before joining
EPRI, Wilmshurst
worked in a variety
of nuclear utility
engineering and
maintenance roles
with AmerGen and
British Energy. Prior to joining the civil
nuclear program, Wilmshurst served for
13 years in the Royal Navy as a Nuclear
Submarine Engineer Officer.
Wilmshurst received a bachelor’s degree
in electrical, mechanical and control
engineering from the Royal Naval
Engineering College, Manadon, UK,
a Post Graduate Diploma in nuclear
reactor technology from the Royal Naval
College, Greenwich, UK and a master’s
degree in defense administration from
Cranfield Institute of Technology,
Shrivenham, UK. He was also certified
as a Naval Nuclear Plant Operator.
An interview by Newal Agnihotri,
Editor of Nuclear Plant Journal, at
the American Nuclear Society Utility
Working Conference in Amelia Island,
Florida on August 11 ,2014.
1.
How can a tablet be used in nuclear
power plant maintenance?
Over the years, our Nuclear
Maintenance Application Center has been
very successful in producing paper-based
maintenance guides on dozens of different
maintenance tasks, overhauling motors,
replacing chemical seals, things as simple
as torqueing flanges to make sure they’re
leak tight. We’ve got a huge library and
a huge amount of expertise that is paper
based. So, when you sit back and look at
the way the new generation is working,
we came to the realization that we needed
to transition our delivery to things like
tablets.
Because the nuclear industry is
necessarily conservative, it takes time to
move ideas like this along. We’ve had
plants in the US and
around the world
that have started
installing wireless
networks. I think
Comanche
Peak
was one of the
first, and there are
other plants around
the country which
also have wireless
networks inside the
plant. The full value
is realized when you
can link that wireless
network to a tablet-
based maintenance program, and have
the capability to capture the procedures,
the check sheets, the walk-down logs on
a tablet, and then transfer that information
in real time back to the plant’s computer
systems.
We’re even looking at doing things
like using pattern recognition software,
so that just by looking at a valve and the
position of the handle, we can tell whether
the valve is open or not. You have a
picture in the database that shows where
the handle is when it’s open and where the
handle is when it’s shut. You then take a
photograph of an area and the system gives
you the valve alignments. It’s not ready to
be deployed yet, but that’s an example of
where things could go.
We have a very close relationship
with INPO, which identified some time
ago that one of the components they were
really concerned about was air-operated
valve (AOV) maintenance. So, we picked
that as the first one to look at for what
could we do using a tablet or computer-
based app. We actually went to a company
that produces computer games to help
us develop this app. We took the CAD
information for the AOV, and we built
a ‘game’ using an AOV, how you take it
apart, how you put it together, how you
test it, what tools you use. The ultimate
goal is to help people understand the AOV
before they go to the field, understand
what the job is, and see how things work
and how things fit together. It’s been very
well received, and we’re doing a few more
of those.
EPRI’s role isn’t necessarily to be
the source of these tablet applications for
every component in the nuclear industry.
Our role is to demonstrate to the world
what is possible and what can be done.
Then if someone wants to commercialize
that and take it, our role is to basically
enable whoever wants to take it and
help the industry. We’re just looking to
demonstrate what’s possible.
2.
How is EPRI’s nuclear research
funded?
Our funding comes, traditionally,
from utility members. We started 40+
years ago, and EPRI was a US-focused
organization, but we are increasingly
becoming a global organization. Our
independence, objectivity, and the quality
of our people and our research encourage
companies to join. I wouldn’t say that
we really sell anything. We live by our
independence and our reputation. And
people come to us wanting to join because
of that.
3.
What efforts are underway with
respect to accident-tolerant fuel designs?
People have talked about opportunities
to remove zirconium from nuclear fuel
assemblies for a long time. Some of the
hydrogen at Fukushima was generated via
zirconium oxidation; additional hydrogen
likely came from corium-concrete
interactions. Without zirconium, however,
the operators may have had several hours
longer to actually get water in the cores.
So, while I don’t think the removal of
zirconium would prevent a core melting,
it would provide more time.
Coming out of Fukushima, a number
of organizations around the world started
thinking about a zirconium-free core,
including ceramic fuel and stainless steel
fuel. EPRI’s concept is a molybdenum
fuel cladding coated with a thin layer of
zirconium.
32
NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2014
