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NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2015
Solutions
to Benefit
Utilities
By George Beam, AREVA Inc.
.
George Beam
George Beam is the Senior Vice
President of AREVA Inc., Installed Base
Services, responsible for all AREVA
engineering and services provided to
operating nuclear
plants in North
America.
George joined
AREVA in 1981,
formally Babcock
and Wilcox (B&W),
as a Strategic
Planner. Following
several assignments
in Business
Development and
Marketing for Steam
Generator and
Reactor Services,
he was promoted to
General Manager
for Plant Services
with responsibility
for all field services performed by B&W
Nuclear Technologies, excluding Steam
Generating Services.
Beam holds a Bachelor of Science in
Applied Math and Computer Science
from the University of Virginia, a Master
of Science in Nuclear Engineering from
North Carolina State, and a Masters
of Business Administration from the
University of Virginia. He is a registered
Professional Engineer in the State of
Virginia.
Responses to questions by Newal
Agnihotri, Editor of Nuclear Plant
Journal.
1.
Does the Chemistry and Material
Center have any cooperative arrangement
with EPRI, EDF R&D or other research
organizations? Also describe the benefits
from such cooperation.
AREVA’s
Plant
Chemistry
Team works with numerous research
organizations in performing testing and
analysis at AREVA’s Chemistry and
Material Center (CMC) and external
research facilities and universities. This
work helps AREVA maintain the state-
of-the-art innovations that are routinely
used in support of the asset management
of fuel and plant systems.
For example, the boiling water re-
actor (BWR) industry is experiencing
inter-granular stress corrosion cracking
(IGSCC) on reactor
vessel stainless steel
internals. The indus-
try has developed mit-
igation treatments to
address this issue for
power operation such
as using hydrogen in-
jection along with a
catalyst, a technique
known as noble metal
injection. In addition
to this innovation,
AREVA developed
a mitigation strategy
for use during startup
and shutdown, during
which time reactors
can experience up to
two orders of mag-
nitude higher crack
growth rates than while at power.
Further, the collaboration of experts
from both the nuclear and non-nuclear
industries is exceedingly beneficial to
the nuclear industry. For instance, film-
forming amines have been utilized in
fossil plants for the past 50 years. AREVA
has developed a film-forming amine that
has been qualified and demonstrated in
Europe to provide corrosion protection
to steam generators and other heat
exchangers, such as condensers and
balance-of-plant (BOP) heaters. The
application of this technology to nuclear
components is proving especially
beneficial for component layup during
outages. Demonstration testing is planned
in U.S. nuclear plants in the near future.
Further, the Electric Power Research
Institute (EPRI) has used the CMC over
the years to support a number of their
contracts. For example, AREVA has been
contracted to analyze, characterize and
evaluate fuel deposit samples (known as
“crud”) to determine impact of various
reactor water-chemistry programs on fuel
crud behavior and subsequent impact
on fuel reliability. The CMC’s support
for EPRI expands beyond the nuclear
industry to also include research related
to coal and gas.
The AREVA Group, based in France,
continues to have cooperative agreements
andcontactswithEDF.The twocompanies
have developed modeling tools and
performed corrosion testing, as well as
testing to understand deposition and the
impacts of various chemistry treatments
on fuel reliability and asset management
for key components, including steam
generators. This cooperation resulted in
improving the state-of-the-art technology
for optimizing nuclear plant chemistry to
ultimately support asset management.
2. Ha
ve any of the plant operators
taken credit for fixed in-core monitoring
system installation?
AREVA is a global leader in the
design and fabrication of a complete line
of fixed in-core detectors, which have
now been operating in U.S. plants since
1970. Many utilities adopted fixed in-core
monitoring systems to enhance reactor
operations through real-time continuous
monitoring of the actual core conditions
in B&W, Westinghouse and Combustion
Engineering pressurized water reactors.
In comparison to movable in-core
detection systems that periodically
supports the power distribution data, the
fixed in-core system provides continuous
monitoring that detects and diagnoses
any core anomalies. The system provides
24-hour, real-time assessment of actual
core safety, which allows operators
to respond to conditions and to safely
operate closer to reactor’s operational
limits. We believe the design of the fixed
in-core system provides a high-reliability,
low-maintenance solution for operations
because there are no moving parts and no
need for an external power supply.
