Nuclear Plant Journal, March-April 2016 NuclearPlantJournal.com
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transmitted from inside containment to
our OCC and to the OCC at the plant. So
we have real-time visuals of what’s going
on, which allows our engineers to help
make decisions on the spot when needed.
With the WEConnect System being
piloted, our technicians will be using
tablets and through our Interactive Work
Management System, will be able to
track their procedures on tablets and
report real-time status from the plants
back to our OCC. This information will
automatically update related schedule
activities and provide updates to the
customer’s overall outage schedule.
4.
What is the scope of involvement of
the Westinghouse OCC?
We primarily monitor Westinghouse
activities. However, we have input to the
customer. If we see some other things
that we feel that we can help them with, or
if they’re struggling with something, then
we will offer assistance. But primarily,
we are monitoring Westinghouse activity.
5.
Will all the data from the outage at
the plant be available at your Outage
Control Center?
That’s correct. Our customers see
the value in working with us to make
sure that they have the instant support,
because what they’re looking for are
short, predictable outages with reliable
return-to-power dates. Since utilities
have to buy their replacement power they
want to have confidence that if they are
planning to shut the plant down onApril 1
and bring it back up online April 30 that
is exactly what will happen. They want
from Westinghouse a predictable outage
with no quality issues. So they’re very
interested in us leveraging innovative
technology as well as providing us the
outage information needed to make that
happen. This includes letting us have live
feed of data back to our OCC so that not
only do we monitor our activities, but if
the plant has an issue, then we can help
them with that, just like we did with the
pressurizer nozzle.
6.
Does
Westinghouse service PWRs,
BWR and VVERs?
Yes. For PWRs this includes the
Westinghouse, Combustion Engineering,
and VVER designs. The ASEA-Atom
BWR in Sweden is a Westinghouse-
owned technology, since we acquired
the ABB [ASEA Brown Boveri] nuclear
business; we work on all the Swedish
BWR plants. In the US, we can service all
PWR designs and, through our majority
owner, Toshiba, we have technology to
service BWRs of GE design. We perform
all BWR and PWR service activities.
For VVERs, we are working with
automation and in steam generator and
fuel inspection equipment. We completed
automation upgrades of VVERs in
Bulgaria, Ukraine and Czech Republic.
We are now also looking at engineering
services in Ukraine and other countries
with VVER plants, and technology for
field service applications.
7.
DescribeWestinghouse’s measurement
uncertainty recapture.
Power uprates can basically apply to
all of the currently operating nuclear plants,
those that were built in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Because these designs were developed
without all of the complex computer
codes, analytical tools, and advanced
instrumentation and control systems that
we have today, the reactor and safety
features were all designed with very high
operational and safety margins. Since
that time, Westinghouse has continuously
advanced its computing power, analytical
tools and I&C capability. One aspect of
this is an increased capability to determine
a reduced uncertainty in power output.
Leveraging this capability and more
accurately determining the power has
enabled plants to increase their power
output by almost 2%, which is referred to as
measurement uncertainty recapture (MUR).
Many plants have performed MURs;
as well as stretch and extended power
uprates. The largest, or extended power
uprate, can increase the generating
capacity to more than 15% of its
original design, depending on the plant.
Power uprate projects also present the
opportunity to integrate plant license
extension initiatives, major equipment
upgrades and enhanced operating
flexibility. Over the past 40 years,
Westinghouse support of plant upratings
has added approximately 4,800 MWe to
world generating capacity.
8.
Identify two of the most innovative
inspection tools which have been
developed recently?
For more information or
to schedule a demonstration
contact Kim Monti at
or
505.508.8952
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Packbot is a registered trademark of Endeavor Robotics.
Endeavor Robotics is a trademark of Endeavor Robotics.
Robots.
Reduce.
Dose.
For routine tasks in BWRs, PWRs
and CANDU, robots perform
remote inspections, investiga-
tions, sampling, monitoring, and
moving/manipulating materials
without human-entry.
