Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2014 NuclearPlantJournal.com
33
THE EVOLUTION OF
ONSITE MACHINING
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Split Frame
End Prep
Other accident-tolerant fuel designs
are being developed by a number
of organizations around the world.
It’s possible that with these different
organizations doing different research,
they could get in the way of each other
because there will probably only be a few
places in the world where certain tests
can be done. And, even if you picked the
winner on day one, it’s probably a 10-
year project, probably on a magnitude of
a billion dollars to get from where we are
now to the fuel being in a reactor. So, if
you try and run with six or seven concepts,
it’s going to cost a lot more than $1 billion.
Also, without collaboration, we could
have a situation where only one country
or one vendor has the intellectual property
and the understanding of how to produce
the new fuel – that doesn’t feel like the
best situation, just for everyone to sit back
and say let’s race and see who gets to the
fuel first. So, we are working with the
Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development’s Nuclear Energy
Agency (NEA) and others to try and
pull together a global forum to actually
optimize this development. Conceptually,
that means you bring your concept to the
table, I bring my concept to the table,
someone else brings their concept to the
table, and the price of admission is that
you accept that your concept might not get
selected as one of the few that this effort
takes forward.
In such a global collaborative, all
the resources and test facilities would be
coordinated, and the accident tolerant fuel
comes to fruition more quickly. So, that
is the dialogue that’s happening at the
moment, trying to coordinate multiple
efforts into a concentrated plan to develop
a new fuel.
4.
How can research contribute to the
improvement of nuclear power plant
technology?
The theme of ANS’ Utility Working
Conference 2014 is cost-effective
excellence. It’s very easy at a time like
this, with the challenges the industry is
facing, to think we don’t need research.
Time and time again, however, we have
shown that research is important to the
safety, reliability, and cost-effective
operation of nuclear plants. For example,
it’s only through research that we’ve been
able to identify the technical issues that
might confront plants as they enter their
license renewal phase (40-60 years) – and
then develop and implement the necessary
aging management plans. And if some
plants decide to pursue subsequent license
renewal out to 80 years, these decisions
will depend at least in part on what
research can learn, for example, in terms of
the effect of additional fluence on reactor
material properties. Notably, our research
is not done in a vacuum – our relationships
with INPO, NRC, DOE, NEI, the utilities,
and others helps ensure that we remain
focused on the most important items.
5.
How will the acoustic mouse help the
industry?
The acoustic mouse is an example of
a product that could provide significant
benefits compared to existing technology,
but might not necessarily ever be devel-
oped by a vendor because of the lengthy
research and development process in-
volved.
Consider a manual ultrasonic (UT)
scan where you’re running your probe
over an area of interest. You’re looking
at a CRT display, you’re seeing the peaks
and troughs in the signal, you’re using
your judgment to understand what you’re
