Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2015 NuclearPlantJournal.com
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Curtis Van Cleve
Curtis Van Cleve is Vice President of
Components, Replacement and Repair
(CR&R) for AREVA Inc., Installed Base
Services. Curtis leads the organization
with the commitment
to broaden AREVA’s
Operational
Excellence culture
through continued
focus on developing
innovative technologies
and positioning the
organization for
future growth and
opportunities. Curtis
joined AREVA in 2002
as a reactor services
engineer responsible
for mechanical
design and field
implementation. He
transferred to the
Pressurized Water
Reactor (PWR) refueling organization
serving as an outage project coordinator,
field manager, PWR refueling operations
manager and PWR product line
manager. In these roles, Curtis developed
strong customer relationships, internal
resources, and international alliances.
He also improved many field processes
to aid in the group’s sustained growth.
Curtis holds a Bachelor of Science
degree in Mechanical Engineering from
Virginia Military Institute and he is a
licensed Professional Engineer (PE)
in the state of Virginia. He is an active
member of the American Nuclear Society
(ANS) and ASME.
Used preventatively, cavitation
peening removes many causes of
aging, since by creating deep residual
compressive stresses it improves fatigue
life and damage tolerance. This process
is commonly used in airliner construction
to improve metal surfaces, as well as in
nuclear plants in Japan. Just recently,
AREVA Inc. began offering cavitation
peening to nuclear utilities operating
BWRs and PWRs in the United States.
What to Expect
When a utility decides to complete
cavitation peening, the first step is to
perform 50.59 analyses to determine the
impact on the plant’s licensing basis. If the
utility is not seeking inspection relief, the
next step is to establish a contract with an
authorized supplier. This contractor will
work with the utility to determine the best
timing to complete the process during an
already scheduled service outage.
The supplier will use diagrams
of the laydown space in containment
to determine the optimal position for
the ultra-high-pressure pumps used
in the process. To avoid personnel
radiation dosage, all pumps and hoses
are installed and operated remotely
using a programmed control system.
The weld fabrication drawings related
to the components being peened are
also required to determine the required
peening coverage.
After setup, each nozzle takes less
than two hours to complete the peening
process. Trained operators first run a test
strip to double check the peening impact
on each metal component. Then, they
enter the data for a particular nozzle or
part to be peened and carefully monitor
the system’s progress. To ensure chemical
integrity, the plant’s cavity water is used
and returned directly to the reactor cavity.
Once the peening process is
complete, the high-pressure pumps and
hoses are removed, and the reactor can
seamlessly resume operation.
The Benefits
For utilities, there are many benefits
to performing cavitation peening on
reactor components. The primary purpose
for using peening is to extend the life of
reactor components, in turn extending the
life of the reactor. Most impressively, the
material benefits of cavitation peening
last for 40 to 60 years.
Incorporating this process into a
maintenance schedule requires only a
minimal impact during a service out-
age. Peening can typically be completed
within a few days and in parallel with
other
maintenance
work, like refueling.
Since AREVA’s ultra-
high pressure cavita-
tion peening process
operates at a higher
pressure than other
providers, our process
achieves better results
and faster work com-
pletion, leading to a
lower overall imple-
mentation schedule.
In many aging
plants, one of the
biggest expenses is
the replacement of
components due to
wear and degradation,
such as the reactor vessel closure head.
By proactively peening such components,
utilities can mitigate the effects of aging
and extend the use of the overall reactor.
Even better, the cavitation peening
mitigation of all nozzles is often less
expensive than repairing a single nozzle.
For more information on cavitation
peening, visit
/
home-3275/areva-inc-arevas-innovative-
cavitation-peening-solution-selected-
for-life-extension-at-u-s--nuclear-power-
plants.html
Contact: Curtis Roberts, AREVA
Inc., telephone: (202) 374-8766, email:
