May-June 2018 NPJ

Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2018 NuclearPlantJournal.com 49 (Continued on page 50) Reloading Fuel at Vogtle Unit 2. Credit: Elizabeth Adams, Southern Nuclear Operating Company Everything is done in real time so we can work more expeditiously to help solve any emergent issues. That’s been an incredibly helpful operation at all sites that have implemented this system. It helps us for safety, it helps us to reduce human error and it also helps us to be more efficient. One more important technology I’d like to discuss is FUELNET ® , the Westinghouse refueling automation system. It facilitates automatic and semi- automatic operation in boiling water reactor and pressurized water reactor fuel- handling equipment around the world. Our fuel handling equipment group is continually working on software to make fuel movement safer and more efficient. Whether they are creating interlocks for safety – which are based on site-specific boundaries – or creating ways to control and minimize human error, they are always seeking to improve the safety of fuel handling. That’s an area where we put a lot of focus. We are always asking, what can we do in software, in engineering space, to reduce errors for our teams when they move fuel in and out of the vessel? 7. Fukushima has several research centers right on site at the plant, and around the plant. Do you have any interaction with them? For our field services applications, we’re not doing any direct work, currently. What we do have at some of our sites are full-scale mockups. We have one here at our Waltz Mill facility – for PWRs, and in our U.S BWR Service Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee – for BWRs. In these facilities, we can test any emerging technology, we can qualify any equipment and we can train personnel.We conduct rigorous testing and qualification of our updates and upgrades as well, for both robotics and software. 8. Is Westinghouse committed to developing user-friendly software and tooling? The answer is yes. Something we’re implementing is heads-up, touchscreen monitor displays and how we can incorporate that technology in our work, especially in the field for our machine controls. In partnership with some of our customers, we’re also looking at how we can use tablet devices while working in containment and we’re incorporating them into our work here at Waltz Mill, in our service center. These tablets would replace printed procedures to allow us to be more efficient. These are two examples of how, when we redesign equipment or processes, we’re looking at making the improved item more user-friendly, reducing human error and increasing safety and efficiency. 9. One of the instrumentation specialists told me that during the last 50 years, the instrumentation within containment has not changed. Are the current innovations bringing a change? In my group’s area of responsibility, instrumentation and control (I&C) for field services, we maintain many digital rod position indication systems as part of rod control services. Much of this technology in the plants is original equipment, and that’s what my group really specializes in. However, there are