Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2014 NuclearPlantJournal.com
23
systems into the forefront of the systems
that need to be replaced.
4.
How is AREVA keeping up with
the application of latest technology to
equipment and instrumentation?
You’re seeing different pieces of the
instrumentation system get upgraded as
new components get put forward. You’re
seeing variable-speed drives being
installed indifferent recirculation systems.
You’re seeing smarter transmitters and
relays being installed. This trend has been
underway for some time when it comes
to the smaller components, but now we’re
talking about the larger systems and the
integration of these systems.
Advanced technologies add value, in
terms of safety. It makes the plant easier
to operate. It gives the operator a better
human interface and you can see the
responsiveness of the plant much more
clearly. As companies look at taking their
plants from 60 to 80 years, you’ll see
more and more plants looking to integrate
these systems on a larger scale.
5.
How do you think control systems
will work 10 or 15 years from now? When
the current generation is operating the
plant—the ones who are always looking
at their iPads and iPhones—what kind of
control systems will they want?
We are already adapting our
inspection equipment. For the younger
generation of the workforce, game
controller-like consoles run the robots,
so the newer operators can maneuver
the robot using a handheld device that
they’ve grown up with. Our generation
was using a stick with a button; they’re
using both hands and all their fingers to
maneuver the robot around and inspect
things in minutes. These tasks took hours
to complete before.
In general, as this next generation
of skilled workers is coming in, I think
the movement of technology into this
industry and into the fleet ultimately will
result in a safer environment, not only
for the workers, but also for long-term
operation.
We manage outages from a control
center where we have live contact with all
the outage crews that are doing anything,
anywhere—from dry cask storage to fuel
inspections. They’re all plugged in and
communicating through this center. If
there are any needs or items to follow
up, they are immediately tied in with
the engineers. In some locations, we
also have smart boards, which allow us
to conduct just-in-time training for the
crews. So, it’s much more fluid now.
With current technology, we can also
go into containment areas and, with the
latest advancements in metrology, we
can take a picture of everything. Before
we go into a refueling outage, we can do
all the movements and models to see how
everything fits together. For modification,
we can build simulations and actually
move equipment around to find the safest
and most efficient way of doing the job in
terms of lifts and haul paths.
Aging concrete is also an issue
that the industry is facing. We can take
a picture of the concrete and map the
cracks, and then we just keep taking
pictures. Then you can tell if the crack
grows or not. It’s that type of technology
for managing aging that will enable us
to keep these plants running more safely
and healthily for longer periods of time.
6.
You’re talking about predictive
technologies. Is there a move in that
direction by AREVA?
Yes. We have a number of tools
including advancements in valve and
concrete monitoring. We have made
some investments in cable monitoring
that we haven’t commercialized yet, but
it’s getting there. In fact, in Lynchburg,
Virginia, we’ve built the AREVA
Solutions Complex. It’s a campus of
eight different venues with laboratories
where we can do all kinds of testing—
seismic, environmental, radio-frequency
interference, electromagnetic interference
and metallurgical, just to name a few. We
can do reverse engineering. We’ve got a
tooling inspection area for fuel and we
can test that in depth. We can look at
either contaminated or noncontaminated
equipment, in our refurbishment shops.
So, we’re investing in a very large
way into making sure that we can take
customers not only from 40 to 60 years,
but also advance and develop these
technologies to go from 60 to 80 years.
7.
Has any utility approached you for
80 years?
Yes, we’re in discussions with
several. We’re doing our own internal
studies as well about how we would
approach going to 80 years.
8.
We talked a bit about the younger
generation. A lot of the older generation
have already left the system. How you
are maintaining the knowledge that these
folks developed and passing it on to the
younger generation?
There’s a lot of ways we do that.
We have formal training programs and
mentorships, but there’s nothing like
doing the work, so we assign the younger
workers to do tasks under the supervision
of someone more senior who can pass on
that knowledge. We try to do that in our
work assignments and training programs
throughout the country and for all of our
different product lines.
Engineers these days are coming
out much more sophisticated in terms of
project management and communication
skills. The type of learning that they’re
doing is much more advanced. When
we were in college, to get information,
you would have to go to a library to get
a book. If they didn’t have the book, it
had to be ordered and you had to wait
weeks for it. Well, now, it’s fractions of
a second. They’re not spending the time
in college looking for information; they
have the information. The education that
they’re getting is really about concepts.
The younger engineers I see coming into
the workforce are far more prepared and
more well-rounded. What we focus on
is getting them those direct experiences:
making sure that they have access to
lessons learned from the operating
experience and databases, and that
they’re applying those lessons in their
early assignments.
9.
Research is a lot easier now. Is it a
total shift in culture?
It is. When we started, we didn’t have
anyone to ask. We were figuring it out
for the first time in the 1970s and 1980s.
This generation not only has information
instantly available, but they can also look
at someone sitting beside them and say,
“What did you mean when you wrote
this?” It’s a paradigm shift and that gets
back to the technology implementation
that we were talking about. I think the
technology is going to be an enabler in
this industry, as it has been in so many
