Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2016 NuclearPlantJournal.com
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control one NuScale power module. The
bank of seven screens in the middle are
the common systems; the common pool,
the reactor building HVAC controls,
everything in common systems is right
there. You can also tell from looking at the
panel (if you’re trained how to read it) the
condition and trends in 14 characteristics,
whether they are trending normal,
whether they are slightly increasing,
whether they are significantly increasing
or decreasing for all 12 modules in one
part of that top screen.
If you’re in a control room in today’s
plants and something’s going wrong,
there are a number of audible and visual
alarms that may remain. In the NuScale
control room, once you’ve acknowledged
an alarm, and understood it, then it will
go silent, so that the operator can move
on to the next items that matter.
Our approach to the control room
is based on human factors engineering
studies that we’ve done at the National
Labs over years. It’s based on how
people receive information and respond
to it. Everybody is different, and younger
people today receive information and
process it differently than people who are
55 or 60 years old in the control rooms of
today. People that are going to operate
our control rooms are today’s high school
seniors, and they’re going to be running
this plant in 10 years.
5.
What will the refueling outage look
like, as compared to the conventional
1200 MW nuclear power plant?
It’s going to be very different. The
gigawatt size reactor outages probably
average around 40 days, unless it’s
a major one. A 10-year ISI, a steam
generator replacement, a turbine change
out—the bigger outages—those will
run a couple months. A NuScale plant
refueling operation will take less than
10 days. About 9.6 days is the current
schedule for one module. The refueling
cycle is 24 months, and you have 12
modules.
6.
And you don’t have to do all of them
simultaneously?
No, you’ll never do them all
simultaneously. You do a one module
refueling outage in 10 days button it up,
put it back online, finish your paperwork,
begin your planning for the next one, and
two months later start the next one. Every
other month there will be a refueling
outage on one NuScale module. They’ll
be staggered like that. And the people
that do the refueling will be indigenous
plant staff—no outside nuclear staff from
all the different companies that provide
them.
7.
Do you have any final comments?
I would like to mention that we
have nearly 600 people working very
hard to complete our design certification
application by year’s end—achieving a
major milestone. We are hopeful that our
eight years of pre-application engagement
with the NRC will help make sure that
the application is found to be acceptable
and complete, and is put into the review
process quickly. That allows us to meet
the needs of our many customers who
really want a NuScale plant. There
are a lot of people, a lot of companies
around, talking about developing new
projects and new plants. Without real
customers and real money being spent
with real commercial significance, it’s
all just an intellectual exercise. This is
not an intellectual exercise. This is a
commercial, viable project being built
for people who are prepared to spend the
kind of money it will take and who want
the benefits of clean, safe, carbon-free
baseload nuclear energy as part of their
generation portfolio. So, we’re proud of
being a leader in this industry. We take
very seriously the responsibility that goes
with receiving several hundred million
dollars of taxpayers’ money to help
develop our technology, and we intend to
make the country proud and put the US in
a position where we can reestablish our
leadership in nuclear energy.
Contact: James Mellott, NuScale
Power, 6650 SW Redwood Lane, Suite
210, Portland, OR 97224; telephone:
618-244-6000
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