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NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2016
Delivering the...
Marvin Fertel
Marv Fertel is president and chief
executive officer of the Nuclear Energy
Institute (NEI).
Mr. Fertel has
over 40 years of
experience working
with the electric
utility industry on
issues related to
designing, siting,
licensing and
managing both fossil
and nuclear plants.
He has worked
in executive
positions with
such organizations
as Ebasco and
Management Analysis Company. In
November 1990, he joined the U.S.
Council for Energy Awareness as
vice president of Technical Programs.
With the formation of NEI in 1994, he
became NEI’s vice president of Nuclear
Economics and Fuel Supply.
Mr. Fertel was named senior vice
president and chief nuclear officer
in 2003 and in 2009 he was named
President and Chief Executive Officer of
NEI.
He is a member of the Board of
Directors of the Center for Energy
Workforce Development, the United
States Energy Association, the
Foundation for Nuclear Studies and the
National Energy Foundation.
through this initiative gets documented in
this bulletin. The steering committee we
attended yesterday is the final approval
of these bulletins. The bulletin basically
said here’s the problem. Here’s what we
think the best solution is. If the solution
goes through anything from, let’s say, the
NRC or INPO, we’ve already worked
with NRC, or we’ve already worked with
INPO. We’ve already done a pilot or
done a lead plant. So, we’ve paved the
way.
One example of something is that
when we say in-processing, it’s if you
want to come to work at my plant,
you go through in-processing. You go
through a process that you take tests, I get
information, and I make sure that you can
have a badge at my station. If you’re a
vendor, you come to work for my plant,
I give you all these tests. Then you go
to work for Marv’s plant. You stand in
line, and you take all these tests again.
He adds a little tweak. Then they go to
your plant, and they’ve got to take all the
tests again. You ask a couple different
questions, something specific to your
station.
We said well, geez, guys, we’re all
essentially asking the same questions, so
why are we all giving our own tests? The
in-processing is to take one version of
these tests, and then if I give you a badge,
then you can go work at Marv’s plant.
They’ll do some checking, but you don’t
have to take the test again. They’ll make
sure that they understand what you did
between my plant and his plant. Did you
work at another plant? Have you been
in trouble, from a security perspective?
They have to ask a few questions, but
you don’t have to take any retest again.
If you go to Marv’s plant and you get
qualified to be a fire watch or to work
with foreign materials exclusion, FME,
which is something that is pretty typical
at a plant, then if it’s good enough to
work at his plant, then it’s good enough
to work at my plant. As an industry, we
always wanted to tailor just to ourselves,
each plant, what exactly you needed for
a badge. We’re getting everybody to the
table. This is an example of an efficiency
bulletin, where we say everybody has to
do this one because it minimizes the value
if we don’t all do it, but we’re all going
to do in-processing
the same way, so
that from a vendor
perspective, once you
get a badge at one site,
then you are badged
at another site. That’s
very powerful for
vendors and much
more efficient for
them to go to work
and therefore, much
more efficient for us.
4.
Concluding com-
ments.
Fertel
: The great
momentum
we’re
seeing across the industry is indicative
of the important role that I think we all
know nuclear is going to play, both for
America, both in the short term and
much more importantly in the long term,
and globally. We are going to export
our technology. It’s the most advanced
technology in the world. We have the
best safety culture for operating plants in
the world. While we don’t always agree
with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
on everything, they are one of the best
regulators, if not the best regulator in the
world, and they’re moving much more
into risk informed regulation, which we
think will also improve safety because
it’ll be more safety focused, and reduce
burden because we won’t go chasing
things that don’t have a lot of safety
focus. So, I think that you’re pursuing
a good line of questioning and a very
good momentum for our industry and our
country.
Korsnick
: We’re paving the way
for the nuclear of tomorrow. Nuclear
is more than just the hardware. It’s the
people, and it’s the processes. If you
can imagine what we’re doing today to
make our processes more efficient and to
get our people engaged in defining what
those processes are and the most efficient
way to do it, these are the same processes
that those new plants are going to use.
These are the same processes that those
advanced reactors are going to use. If
you think about it, we’re working today
on the inside, if you will, to pull together
the best processes and the best way that
we can operate these plants, and it will be
transferred as we continue to build on the
strong foundation that we have of today’s
fleet, for that new foundation for those
new fleet of tomorrow.
Contact: Tom Kauffman, Nuclear
Energy Institute, 1201 F Street NW, Suite
1100, Washington, DC 20004; telephone:
(
202) 739-8010, email:
