CASE STUDIES FROM EXELON/CSA, ARIZONA PUBLIC SERVICE, CONSTELLATION ENERGY, AREVA, CB & I
The nuclear power industry’s renascence is driving major component replacements for existing plant-life extension as well as supporting new plant construction. How the nuclear industry is using laser scanning to reduce risk in modifications and new construction, shorten outage times and increase worker safety will be the focus of a new Nuclear Power track at SPAR 2008, March 3-5, Houston, TX – we think these sessions will offer valuable lessons not only for nuclear professionals but for all in the process, power and offshore/marine industries.
Dan Brush, project manager with Exelon Nuclear, and Amadeus Burger, president and CEO of CSA, will describe the utility’s massive deployment of laser scanning to support its fleet-wide dose reduction initiative for 17 nuclear plants (this week’s lead story).
Tom Trieckel, senior project manager for nuclear projects at Arizona Public Service‘s Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, will detail construction and design applications of laser scanning in operational nuclear power plants. Nuclear plants were not necessarily built with maintenance of components in mind, Trieckel notes. Interferences pose many problems, especially when the designers never planned on replacing or modifying components that were supposed to last a lifetime. Trieckel will show how APS is using laser scanning to overcome these obstacles.
Steve Hand, director of fabrication – nuclear with Chicago Bridge & Iron, will describe how his firm is reducing risk in nuclear power plant construction with control networks, precision survey features and surface imaging technologies. Hand will show how new experience with modular construction, controlled scheduling, and innovations in metrology are making it possible to reduce the historically enormous risks associated with building a nuclear power plant.
Houston Penny of Constellation Energy will present his firm’s experiences with laser scanning, and the benefits realized.
Lona Shaw, supervisor of the Metrology Services CADD Unit at AREVA NP, Inc., will discuss AREVA’s metrology workflows and standard deliverables. The nuclear industry is undergoing a renascence driving major component replacements for existing plant life extension and new plant construction, Shaw notes. AREVA NP, one of the world’s largest suppliers of services to the nuclear industry, has invested over $1.5 million in diverse metrology equipment to support this emergent need – this includes photogrammetry, laser tracker, laser scanner and total station systems. Her department has executed projects in 48 of the 66 commercial nuclear power plants in the U.S., and 36 of those plants have had a total of more than 300 laser scanning projects performed in them. Shaw’s presentation will detail AREVA’s workflows and standard deliverables using various software applications.
