These are exciting
times in the nuclear power industry: Capacity factors are the highest
they have ever been, outage durations are falling, and production costs
are attractively low in comparison with some other forms of generation.
And Framatome ANP, Inc., led by President and Chief Executive Officer
Thomas A. Christopher, is at the right place at the right time. Christopher
took over the reins of this exciting company in April 2000, after having
served most recently as Vice President and General Manager of the Siemens
Westinghouse Power Corporation's Energy Services Divisions.
Framatome ANP, Inc. (Advanced
Nuclear Power) provides specialized design engineering, operation and
maintenance services, specialized parts and equipment, and fuel and fuel-related
control components to the nuclear power generation industry in North America
and internationally. Framatome ANP combines the nuclear activities of
Framatome and Siemens to create the world's leading nuclear supplier.
"Our culture of excellence looks beyond traditional answers to offer
the very best technical solutions for safe, reliable, and economical plant
performance," said Christopher.
During the past twenty
years, Framatome ANP has designed and built more power plants than any
other nuclear supplier. The company is the OEM for more than 90 reactors
that provide nearly 30% of the world's total installed nuclear power capacity.
"And we are building for tomorrow by investing in the latest technologies
and innovation for both PWRs and BWRs. Working together, Framatome ANP
in France, Germany, and the U.S. is designing the future of nuclear power
to help satisfy the world's growing energy demands" reported Christopher.
Low production costs and energy
security issues are fueling a renewed emphasis on nuclear power. Today,
the nuclear industry is responding with plant life extensions and power
upgrades. These plants are valuable assets that need to be preserved,
particularly in the areas of component repairs and replacement and electrical
and I&C upgrades. To meet these modernization challenges, nuclear
plants are looking to service providers for assistance to form long-term
alliances.
Previously, plant operators
dealt with a multitude of suppliers. Each of these required formal requests
for proposal is a time-consuming process.
Today, the number of utilities
established alliances or partnering arrangements is mushrooming. And consolidation
in the nuclear utility industry, in particular, has led to the formation
of multiple types of partnering utilities and a single vendor. Some are
between a utility and a consortium of vendors, some are a group of utilities
that have banded together to achieve volume discounts for service and
components, and yet another model is an arrangement in which a single
company operates multiple plants for different owners. Reliance on a particular
vendor or group of vendors now allows the utility to improve the overall
operations of their plants through cost reductions, risk sharing and other
benefits. Forming alliances to take on this broad range of responsibilities
is Framatome's forte.
Framatome ANP Inc. has a staff
of more than 2100 nuclear professionals that provide responsive services,
fuel, and technological innovation to customers worldwide. The company
provides engineering support for a wide variety of reactor systems and
designs; digital instrumentation and control systems, modernization, and
a full range of outage services that includes major component repair and
replacement, NDE inspections, chemical cleaning, decontamination, and
refueling.
Typical Work
Scopes
Full scope outage services,
including refueling, steam generator inspections and services, pump and
motor services and RV head inspection, and repair, are a few of the work
scopes usually covered by partnering arrangements. However, fuel, mechanical
components, plant modifications, valves, I&C/ electrical systems,
and welding work also can be included. The initial length of an alliance
tends to be between three and five years with options for continuation
based upon performance.
Evaluation
is Essential
An evaluation mechanism with
pre-established criteria for performance is a key feature of alliances.
These criteria usually are in the areas of safety, long-term cost reduction
goals, production targets, quality, schedule, radiation dose reduction
and overall cost goals. The parties mutually agree to the goals of the
alliance and participate equally in the analysis.
Both share in the risks and
the rewards, so each has an incentive to exceed the established goals.
Other types of performance measurements include industry plant ratings
and rankings, safety standards, and cost of production.
An increasingly competitive
marketplace will drive the need for low-cost operations and maximum output
by all nuclear power plant operators. Thus, the trend towards partnering-type
relationships will continue.
Optimizing
the CI to Get More Power Out of Your PWR
Up to now nuclear power plant
operators and suppliers have focused on optimizing the Nuclear Island
(NI) as well as the turbine generator set to obtain more power put of
their plants. Little attention has been paid to the fact that the Balance
of Plant (BOP) - also known as the Conventional Island (CI) - also offers
many opportunities for increasing net electric output at relatively low
cost and with short payback periods.
The CI is a highly complex
network of pipes, process components, and instrumentation and control
systems that serve the sole purpose of efficiently and reliably converting
thermal energy to electricity. At many plants, electric output can be
increased by up to 4% through a variety of carefully coordinated measures
without having to increase the thermal output of the reactor.
Turnkey
Most of today's nuclear power
plants were built according to the Architect-Engineer (AE) model where
one company supplied the nuclear steam supply system or the NI, several
companies supplied the BOP systems, and all of their various tasks were
coordinated by the AE. This often resulted in individual BOP systems being
improved without the plant as a whole being optimized.
Framatome ANP, with its wide-ranging
expertise in turnkey plant construction, follows a holistic approach:
it treats the entire BOP as a single entity - the CI - while carefully
accounting for its interaction with the NI at one end and the conditions
of the main heat sink at the other.
Framatome ANP currently is
performing a CI optimization study, based on this holistic approach, for
the first time with a Japanese client. The study, started in June 2002,
should be completed by March 2003. Working in close cooperation with the
customer, areas for improvement are being identified.
Comprehensive
Portfolio
The company's comprehensive
portfolio is impressive: it has manufactured and installed 272 steam generators,
including 79 replacement steam generators, with another 27 on order. It
has also manufactured 220 reactor coolant pumps and motors, and built
45 replacements Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) heads with an additional
14 on order. Fourteen replacement RPV heads are under contract. Framatome
ANP also supplies fuel to 115 PWRs and 28 BWRs around the world.
Current major projects include
the development of advanced reactors (such as the EPR and SWR 1000), and
construction of new plants in Asia.
Following a successful project
at North Anna Unit 2, Framatome ANP, an AREVA and Siemens company, will
provide Dominion Energy with two additional reactor vessel heads and perform
the replacement work at North Anna Unit 1 and Surry Unit 1.
Framatome ANP delivered the
reactor vessel head for North Anna Unit 2 on December 17, 2002. It was
the first time the company shipped a major component by air, which was
necessary in order to meet Dominion's schedule for returning the plant
to service. The reactor vessel head was installed by Framatome ANP and
plant technicians.
On April 30, 2002, Framatome
ANP completed its purchase of Duke Engineering and Services (DE&S).
The organization, called Framatome ANP DE&S, will maintain its headquarters
in Charlotte, North Carolina.
New Facility
Ground was broken on March
30, 2002, for the Framatome ANP Nuclear Training Center at Lynchburg,
VA. This 27,000 square-foot (2508m2) facility will house classrooms, office
space, and full-scale mock-ups of a reactor vessel head, fuel-handling
crane, and other heavy equipment. In addition, there will be a water-filled
reactor vessel pit for wet-fuel movement training.
Framatome
ANP Opens Canadian Subsidiary
Framatome ANP Canada, Ltd.,
a new subsidiary of Framatome ANP, Inc. will focus on the Canadian nuclear
services market. This market has Canada 14 nuclear reactors. Ontario Power
Generation owns 12.
Framatome ANP just received
ISO 9001:2000 certification for all of its business groups in Germany,
France and the US. To date, only 10% of companies worldwide have been
awarded this new ISO certification. The 2000 version explicitly integrates
customer satisfaction as measure and demands continuous quality improvement.
Christopher joined
Westinghouse Power Systems Division in 1973 as a Project Engineer and
served in various management positions in Project Management, Engineering
and Field Services. He was also General Manager, Nuclear Services Division,
responsible for providing the field services engineering, training, and
replacement parts utilities needed to help keep their nuclear plants running
at maximum efficiency. He was the General Manager of this rapidly expanding
division, or its subset Nuclear Services Integration Division, from 1983
until 1995.
Christopher received
a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1967 from the
U.S. Naval Academy and a Master of Science Degree in Engineering Mechanics
in 1968 from Georgia Tech.
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