By Don Marpe Not many years ago, there was a rumor of resurgence in the nuclear industry, and several companies started planning to add additional nuclear plants to their existing fleet. Then came shale oil and fracking. The new abundance of natural gas drove down the costs associated with natural gas generated electricity. This resulted […]
Ron Rowley (BCP Engineers and Consultants, President) attended the 62nd annual NEA gathering in Washington D.C. last month, and he wanted to share some of his thoughts on what was discussed there. You can check the NEA website at www.nei.org and stream some of the presentations to draw your own conclusions. Most of the industry […]
In today’s world, clean energy is not only popular; it is going to be king. The question is a matter of when and how clean energy will rule, not if clean energy will dominate the power industry. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will produce a final ruling on its Clean Power Plan coming this summer, […]
Thimble Puller BCP’s Plant Services Division has been working on fine tuning two new products that are immediately available for use by utility clients for their Incore Flux Thimble needs. The first is a lightweight hand tool called the ‘Thimble Puller’. The Puller is a manually operated device that can be used to aid in […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a number of proposed regulations; however, two in particular will present significant R&D opportunities for a number of utilities. With the addition of these two proposed rules, a number of electric generation facilities will be required to perform research to determine the best available technology (BAT) and/or combination of […]
We hear this debate rage about how US has lost its “nuclear prowess” to countries like China, Japan, South Korean and EU countries. I must admit I feel some angst when looking at the peaceful use of nuclear power that began as an industry in the US and see countries taking that technology and deploying […]
What I learned about organizations certainly didn’t come from my math, science and engineering professors in college. In some regards, this may be part of the issue in our industry as evidenced by INPO’s recently issued SOER 10-2, Engaged Thinking Organizations. This is not to diminish what the nuclear power industry has been able to […]
As Director of BCP’s Technical Services Division, I have had many opportunities to interface with potential clients that were not familiar with using contractors to satisfy peak work load demands. As first time users, they simply didn’t realize the full benefit of using contractor services. After explaining the following features, they were able to choose […]
In the last article, Part 1, the need for a robust Configuration Management System (CMS) was established. It is true for all nuclear plants and particular important for the new plants being proposed. The new plants as programmed for design and construction with compressed schedules and consortia development teams are at particular risk to cost […]
The Shuttle Challenger explosion was a configuration management issue. The bridge over the Tacoma Narrows nicknamed “Galloping Gertie” had a configuration management (CM) issue. Balconies that have collapsed and soccer stadium stands that have failed all can be tied to poor configuration control issues. In the nuclear power industry we have wrestled with configuration management […]
