Nuclear Power in the United States

1. Nuclear Power in the United States Joseph Naser Electric Power Research Institute IAEA Technical Working Group on Nuclear Power Plant Control and Instrumentation (TWG-NPPCI) May 20-22, 2009 Vienna, Austria

2. Nuclear Power Plants in the United States • Operating plants: • 104 with a total net installed capacity of ~100 GW(e) • 51 plants have approved license extensions from 40 to 60 years • 18 license extension applications under NRC review • 21 license extension applications announced so far • New plants: • 1 currently under construction • 4 new plant certified designs and 3 more designs under review • 17 COL license applications submitted for 26 new units • All based on digital I&C and HSI technology

3. Interest in Extending License to 80 Years • Survey of executives in 2007 • Significant thought given to long-term operation • 87% believe license renewal past 60 years is likely • Driven by economics and expected carbon constraints

4. Benefit of Extending License to 80 Years

5. EPRI Long-Term Operation Program • Addresses actions needed from today until end of 80-year or longer operating life • Additional or accelerated projects to facilitate decisions in 2015 time frame • Projects address capacity factor, reliability, cost and/or safety • Project areas identified: • Instrumentation and control • Materials aging • Nuclear fuel • Safety analysis • Coordinate with DOE LWR Sustainability Program

6. DOE LWR Sustainability Program • Vision “Existing nuclear power plants will continue to safely provide clean and affordable electricity beyond their first license extension periods…” • Goals • Develop fundamental scientific basis • Apply knowledge in collaborative public-private partnerships • Apply new technologies to address obsolescence • Program • 11-year program (2009 to 2020) • Coordinated by Idaho National Laboratory (INL) • EPRI working with INL and others to define R&D Pathways

7. Issues to Address for Viable and Robust I&C and HSI for LTO • Several critical issues need to be addressed to allow operating plants to have long term operation up to 80 years or even more, examples are: • Aging and obsolescence • Need for new staff and bringing up their level of expertise quickly • Maintain high levels of safety and meet new regulatory and environmental requirements • Reduce the likelihood of human error, equipment damage, forced outages, exposure to radiation and other harsh environmental conditions (e.g., heat, cold, chemical) and challenges to safety

8. Issues to Address for Viable and Robust I&C and HSI for LTO (continued) • Maintain economic viability (improve efficiency and reliability and reduce time to perform jobs, time on critical path during outages, need for rework) • Leverage scarce resources • Supplemental workers need to be trained and brought to acceptable performance levels as quickly as possible • Technologies expected by younger generation needed to attract them into the industry • New tools and capabilities needed to address the issues to enable extended plant operation

9. Operation of Nuclear Power Plants Beyond 60 Years • Extended lifetimes • Will necessitate I&C and HSI modernization – and more than once, need to “design for replacement” • Provide the opportunities to gain substantial benefits from digital I&C and HSI

10. Sensors and Data Collection and Transmission • Provide more and better information • Harsh environment tolerant • Smart transmitters/sensors • Fiber optics • Wireless sensors and sensor networks • Self-testing, self-diagnostic, error tolerant, self-correcting • I&C, HSI, information and communications architectures • Micro and nano technologies

11. Monitoring, Diagnostics and Prognostics • Support equipment reliability and predictive maintenance to reduce likelihood of equipment damage, unplanned outages and safety challenges as well as maintenance costs and likelihood of human maintenance errors: • On-line monitoring, early fault detection, and diagnostics including the use of wireless • Prognostic capabilities • Integration of static information with active monitoring • Estimation techniques for accuracy of diagnostics and prognostics • Centralized monitoring for best access to experts • Automation of monitoring and analysis to help centralized staff • General reduction in staffing needs for subject matter experts (SMEs) • General reduction in development time for SMEs that are needed

12. Simulation & Visualization • Simulation capabilities, enhanced visualization and interactive interfaces • Revolutionize training (operations, maintenance, security, …) improving quality and reducing time consumption • Improve planning and decision-making (including faster-than-real-time simulation) • Improve design, reduce errors and facilitate early input from users • Link design, procurement, planning, installation, and plant acceptance into a seamless information process • Support development, tuning, dynamic performance testing, man-in-the-loop operability testing and human factors evaluation • Support rapid evaluation of proposed changes • Reduce likelihood of human errors • Provide visualization of key documents showing interrelationships and linking references

13. Automation & Intelligent Agents • Aids to reduce workload and likelihood of human errors • Automate procedures and activities more timely, accurately, and easily done by a system • Automate repetitive, time-consuming and error-prone activities • Use intelligent agents for information access with minimum human effort and time consumption • Incorporate automatic checks for human and system activities • Reduce time demands and stress levels allowing humans to better focus on essential activities • Enable humans to do what they do best and systems to do what they do best

14. Human-System Interfaces • Facilitate well-informed situation awareness and decision-making • Emphasis on user-friendly design for the user to accomplish job • Apply human factors engineering principles • Information presented in a manner that it is quickly and easily understood • Present preconditioned decision quality information

15. Technology Transfer & Training • Knowledge capture and presentation • Computer-based training • Interactive technical reports • Workshops and training classes • Collection of industry (including other industries) operating experience • Lessons learned • Best practices • Avoid learning curve mishaps • Integrate knowledge captured into the design information, training content, procedure content structure for life time retention and use

16. New Plants • Increase benefits through implementation of digital I&C and HSI, information and communications technologies for the first wave of plants and pursue even greater benefits for future waves; e.g., • Increased functionality and automation • Improved technical specifications • New support systems • … • Take advantage of what is being done in other countries’ nuclear plants and in other industries

17. Challenges Still Remain • Business cases needed to get approval for new systems • Technologies and systems must support safe and economic operation and reduce likelihood of human error • Design, technical, implementation, and regulatory challenges must be overcome • The proof of concept, pilot testing, and field implementation cycle must be shortened • Training on new technologies • Nuclear industry global, need as much common agreement on technical and regulatory requirements as possible • Regulatory issues and guidance need to be addressed generically to reduce costs, risks and time required to license new plants and to modernize operating plants

18. Questions?