May-June 2018 NPJ

Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2018 NuclearPlantJournal.com 11 (Continued on page 12) Utility, Industry & Corporation Utility Best of the Best A team of Exelon Generation and PowerLabs employees took home the nuclear energy industry’s highest innovation honor, “The Best of the Best Top Innovative Practice Award,” for developing a program that has enhanced equipment reliability and supply chain quality across the industry. The employees received the award at the Nuclear Energy Institute’s (NEI) annual conference in Atlanta, Ga., today for their ground-breaking Parts Quality Initiative (PQI). Through this initiative, Exelon Generation tests critical component spare parts before they are put into use and enters the test results into a comprehensive database called OneLab, which contains performance data on more than 27,000 parts. The PQI program helps identify defective or deficient parts before they are issued or installed at the plant. Parts categorized as “critical components” are first sent to Exelon PowerLabs where they are tested for defects. Once tested, parts are either sent to the plant for receipt or back to the supplier for refurbishment or replacement. To date, the PQI program has kept more than 2,100 deficient parts from being installed in the plants. David Tillman, Exelon Generation, telephone: (717) 368-0969, email: David. Tillman@exeloncorp.com. Atucha I On April 12, the Atucha I Nuclear Power Plant obtained the extension of its Operation License by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority. The new authorization allows the Plant to operate for five years of full power generation or until September 29, 2024, the end date of the current Periodic Safety Review, whichever occurs first. In this way, the pioneering nuclear power plant in Latin America continues to generate energy for millions of Argentines with excellence rates. This fact is a fundamental milestone for Nucleoeléctrica Argentina , the operating company of the Atucha I, Atucha II and Embalse nuclear power plants. Atucha I began its commercial production on June 24, 1974, becoming the first nuclear power plant in Latin America. Its indicators placed it on several occasions among the most outstanding power plants in the world. The updated security systems of this installation meet all local and international requirements, providing high levels of reliability and availability. Contact: Nucleoeléctrica Argentina, website: www.na-sa.com.ar/ Industry Technical Working Group The IAEA’s new Technical Working Group on small and medium sized or modular reactors (SMRs) held its first meeting with 34 experts from 14 Member States and 2 international organizations. With some 50 SMR concepts at various stages of development around the world, global interest in SMRs is growing. They have the potential to meet the needs of a wide range of users and to be an additional low carbon replacement option for ageing fossil fuel fired power plants. They also display enhanced safety features and are suitable for non- electric applications, such as heating and water desalination. These reactors have advanced engineered features, deployable either as a single or multi-module plant, and are designed to be built in factories and shipped to utilities for installation as demand arises. Assembling a global network of experts, the working group is providing guidance to the IAEA on addressing the challenges associatedwith the readiness of the technology to be deployed in the near future. Experts discussed the evaluation of local infrastructure and supplier capabilities, with a recommendation that a consultancy meeting be held in 2018, to develop the first draft of generic SMR user requirements for countries which are not technology developers. The working group aims to develop synergies with other IAEA programmes and support the two ongoing coordinated research projects on advanced passive safety system reliability and emergency planning zone sizing criteria. Contact: IAEA, website: www.iaea. org Industry Awards U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 13 projects to receive approximately $60 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development for advanced nuclear technologies. These selections are the first under DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy’s U.S. Industry Opportunities for Advanced Nuclear Technology Development funding opportunity announcement (FOA), and subsequent quarterly application review and selection processes will be conducted over the next five years. DOE intends to apply up to $40 million of additional FY 2018 funding to the next two quarterly award cycles for innovative proposals under this FOA. The selected awards underscore the importance of the private-public partnerships engaged in by U.S. companies in order to share expertise needed to successfully develop innovative nuclear technologies. The projects will allow industry-led teams, which include participants from federal agencies, public and private laboratories, institutions of higher education, and other domestic entities, to advance the state of U.S. commercial nuclear capability. This FOA covers three innovative funding pathways: 1. First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) Nuclear Demonstration Readiness Project pathway, intended to address major advanced reactor design development projects or complex technology advancements for existing plants which have significant technical and licensing risk and have the potential to be deployed by the mid-to-late 2020s. 2. Advanced Reactor Development Projects pathway, which allows a broad scope of proposed concepts and ideas that are best suited to improving the capabilities and commercialization potential of advanced reactor designs and technologies.