Download or read book Use of Collaboration Software to Improve Nuclear Power Plant Outage Management written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) refueling outages create some of the most challenging activities the utilities face in both tracking and coordinating thousands of activities in a short period of time. Other challenges, including nuclear safety concerns arising from atypical system configurations and resource allocation issues, can create delays and schedule overruns, driving up outage costs. Today the majority of the outage communication is done using processes that do not take advantage of advances in modern technologies that enable enhanced communication, collaboration and information sharing. Some of the common practices include: runners that deliver paper-based requests for approval, radios, telephones, desktop computers, daily schedule printouts, and static whiteboards that are used to display information. Many gains have been made to reduce the challenges facing outage coordinators, however; new opportunities can be realized by utilizing modern technological advancements in communication and information tools that can enhance the collective situational awareness of plant personnel leading to improved decision-making. Ongoing research as part of the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program (LWRS) has been targeting NPP outage improvement. As part of this research, various applications of collaborative software have been demonstrated through pilot project utility partnerships. Collaboration software can be utilized as part of the larger concept of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Collaborative software can be used for emergent issue resolution, Outage Control Center (OCC) displays, and schedule monitoring. Use of collaboration software enables outage staff and subject matter experts (SMEs) to view and update critical outage information from any location on-site or off.

Download or read book Advanced Outage and Control Center written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The research effort is a part of the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program. LWRS is a research and development program sponsored by the Department of Energy, performed in close collaboration with industry to provide the technical foundations for licensing and managing the long-term, safe and economical operation of current nuclear power plants. The LWRS Program serves to help the US nuclear industry adopt new technologies and engineering solutions that facilitate the continued safe operation of the plants and extension of the current operating licenses. The Outage Control Center (OCC) Pilot Project was directed at carrying out the applied research for development and pilot of technology designed to enhance safe outage and maintenance operations, improve human performance and reliability, increase overall operational efficiency, and improve plant status control. Plant outage management is a high priority concern for the nuclear industry from cost and safety perspectives. Unfortunately, many of the underlying technologies supporting outage control are the same as those used in the 1980's. They depend heavily upon large teams of staff, multiple work and coordination locations, and manual administrative actions that require large amounts of paper. Previous work in human reliability analysis suggests that many repetitive tasks, including paper work tasks, may have a failure rate of 1.0E-3 or higher (Gertman, 1996). With between 10,000 and 45,000 subtasks being performed during an outage (Gomes, 1996), the opportunity for human error of some consequence is a realistic concern. Although a number of factors exist that can make these errors recoverable, reducing and effectively coordinating the sheer number of tasks to be performed, particularly those that are error prone, has the potential to enhance outage efficiency and safety. Additionally, outage management requires precise coordination of work groups that do not always share similar objectives. Outage managers are concerned with schedule and cost, union workers are concerned with performing work that is commensurate with their trade, and support functions (safety, quality assurance, and radiological controls, etc.) are concerned with performing the work within the plants controls and procedures. Approaches to outage management should be designed to increase the active participation of work groups and managers in making decisions that closed the gap between competing objectives and the potential for error and process inefficiency.

Download or read book Development of Methodologies for Technology Deployment for Advanced Outage Control Centers that Improve Outage Coordination Problem Resolution and Outage Risk Management written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This research effort is a part of the Light-Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program, which is a research and development (R & D) program sponsored by Department of Energy (DOE) and performed in close collaboration with industry R & D programs that provides the technical foundations for licensing and managing the long-term, safe, and economical operation of current nuclear power plants. The LWRS program serves to help the U.S. nuclear industry adopt new technologies and engineering solutions that facilitate the continued safe operation of the plants and extension of the current operating licenses. The long term viability of existing nuclear power plants in the U.S. will depend upon maintaining high capacity factors, avoiding nuclear safety issues and reducing operating costs. The slow progress in the construction on new nuclear power plants has placed in increased importance on maintaining the output of the current fleet of nuclear power plants. Recently expanded natural gas production has placed increased economic pressure on nuclear power plants due to lower cost competition. Until recently, power uprate projects had steadily increased the total output of the U.S. nuclear fleet. Errors made during power plant upgrade projects have now removed three nuclear power plants from the U.S. fleet and economic considerations have caused the permanent shutdown of a fourth plant. Additionally, several utilities have cancelled power uprate projects citing economic concerns. For the past several years net electrical generation from U.S. nuclear power plants has been declining. One of few remaining areas where significant improvements in plant capacity factors can be made is in minimizing the duration of refueling outages. Managing nuclear power plant outages is a complex and difficult task. Due to the large number of complex tasks and the uncertainty that accompanies them, outage durations routinely exceed the planned duration. The ability to complete an outage on or near schedule depends upon the performance of the outage management organization. During an outage, the outage control center (OCC) is the temporary command center for outage managers and provides several critical functions for the successful execution of the outage schedule. Essentially, the OCC functions to facilitate information inflow, assist outage management in processing information and to facilitate the dissemination of information to stakeholders. Currently, outage management activities primarily rely on telephone communication, face to face reports of status and periodic briefings in the OCC. Much of the information displayed in OCCs is static and out of date requiring an evaluation to determine if it is still valid. Several advanced communication and collaboration technologies have shown promise for facilitating the information flow into, across and out of the OCC. Additionally, advances in the areas of mobile worker technologies, computer based procedures and electronic work packages can be leveraged to improve the availability of real time status to outage managers.

Download or read book Technology Integration Initiative In Support of Outage Management written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plant outage management is a high priority concern for the nuclear industry from cost and safety perspectives. Often, command and control during outages is maintained in the outage control center where many of the underlying technologies supporting outage control are the same as those used in the 1980's. This research reports on the use of advanced integrating software technologies and hand held mobile devices as a means by which to reduce cycle time, improve accuracy, and enhance transparency among outage team members. This paper reports on the first phase of research supported by the DOE Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program that is performed in close collaboration with industry to examine the introduction of newly available technology allowing for safe and efficient outage performance. It is thought that this research will result in: improved resource management among various plant stakeholder groups, reduced paper work, and enhanced overall situation awareness for the outage control center management team. A description of field data collection methods, including personnel interview data, success factors, end-user evaluation and integration of hand held devices in achieving an integrated design are also evaluated. Finally, the necessity of obtaining operations cooperation support in field studies and technology evaluation is acknowledged.

Download or read book Handbook of Artificial Intelligence at Work written by Martha Garcia-Murillo and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2024-02-12 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the advancement in processing power and storage now enabling algorithms to expand their capabilities beyond their initial narrow applications, technology is becoming increasingly powerful. This highly topical Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on work, assessing its impact on an array of economic sectors, their resulting nature of work, and the subsequent policy implications of these changes.

Download or read book Guidelines for Implementation of an Advanced Outage Control Center to Improve Outage Coordination Problem Resolution and Outage Risk Management written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This research effort is a part of the Light-Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program, which is a research and development (R & D) program sponsored by Department of Energy (DOE) and performed in close collaboration with industry R & D programs that provide the technical foundations for licensing and managing the long-term, safe, and economical operation of current nuclear power plants. The LWRS program serves to help the U.S. nuclear industry adopt new technologies and engineering solutions that facilitate the continued safe operation of the plants and extension of the current operating licenses. Managing NPP outages is a complex and difficult task due to the large number of maintenance and repair activities that are accomplished in a short period of time. During an outage, the outage control center (OCC) is the temporary command center for outage managers and provides several critical functions for the successful execution of the outage schedule. Essentially, the OCC functions to facilitate information inflow, assist outage management in processing information, and to facilitate the dissemination of information to stakeholders. Currently, outage management activities primarily rely on telephone communication, face to face reports of status, and periodic briefings in the OCC. It is a difficult task to maintain current the information related to outage progress and discovered conditions. Several advanced communication and collaboration technologies have shown promise for facilitating the information flow into, across, and out of the OCC. The use of these technologies will allow information to be shared electronically, providing greater amounts of real-time information to the decision makers and allowing OCC coordinators to meet with supporting staff remotely. Passively monitoring status electronically through advances in the areas of mobile worker technologies, computer-based procedures, and automated work packages will reduce the current reliance on manually reporting progress. The use of these technologies will also improve the knowledge capture and management capabilities of the organization. The purpose of this research is to improve management of NPP outages through the development of an advanced outage control center (AOCC) that is specifically designed to maximize the usefulness of communication and collaboration technologies for outage coordination and problem resolution activities. This technical report for industry implementation outlines methods and considerations for the establishment of an AOCC. This report provides a process for implementation of a change management plan, evaluation of current outage processes, the selection of technology, and guidance for the implementation of the selected technology. Methods are presented for both adoption of technologies within an existing OCC and for a complete OCC replacement, including human factors considerations for OCC design and setup.

Download or read book Development of Improved Graphical Displays for an Advanced Outage Control Center Employing Human Factors Principles for Outage Schedule Management written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The long-term viability of existing nuclear power plants in the United States (U.S.) is dependent upon a number of factors, including maintaining high capacity factors, maintaining nuclear safety, and reducing operating costs, particularly those associated with refueling outages. Refueling outages typically take 20-30 days, and for existing light water NPPs in the U.S., the reactor cannot be in operation during the outage. Furthermore, given that many NPPs generate between $1-1.5 million/day in revenue when in operation, there is considerable interest in shortening the length of refueling outages. Yet refueling outages are highly complex operations, involving multiple concurrent and dependent activities that are somewhat challenging to coordinate; therefore, finding ways to improve refueling outage performance, while maintaining nuclear safety has proven to be difficult. The Advanced Outage Control Center (AOCC) project is a research and development (R & D) demonstration activity under the LWRS Program. LWRS is an R & D program that works closely with industry R & D programs to establish technical foundations for the licensing and managing of long-term, safe, and economical operation of current fleet of NPPs. As such, the LWRS Advanced Outage Control Center project has the goal of improving the management of commercial NPP refueling outages. To accomplish this goal, INL is developing an advanced outage control center (OCC) that is specifically designed to maximize the usefulness of communication and collaboration technologies for outage coordination and problem resolution activities. The overall focus is on developing an AOCC with the following capabilities that enables plant and OCC staff to; Collaborate in real-time to address emergent issues; Effectively communicate outage status to all workers involved in the outage; Effectively communicate discovered conditions in the field to the OCC; Provide real-time work status; Provide automatic pending support notifications; Provide real-time requirements monitoring; Maximize their collective situational awareness to improve decision-making; and Leverage macro data to better support resource allocation. INL has partnered with several commercial NPP utilities to develop a number of advanced outage management technologies. These outage management technologies have focused on both collaborative technologies for control centers and developing mobile technologies for NPP field workers. This report describes recent efforts made in developing a suite of outage technologies to support more effective schedule management. Currently, a master outage schedule is created months in advance using the plant's existing scheduling software (e.g., Primavera P6). Typically, during the outage, the latest version of the schedule is printed at the beginning of each shift. INL and its partners are developing technologies that will have capabilities such as Automatic Schedule Updating, Automatic Pending Support Notifications, and the ability to allocate and schedule outage support task resources on a sub-hour basis (e.g., outage Micro-Scheduling). The remaining sections of this report describe in more detail the scheduling challenges that occur during outages, how the outage scheduling technologies INL is developing helps address those challenges, and the latest developments on this task (e.g., work accomplished to date and the path forward).

Download or read book Status Report on the Development of Micro Scheduling Software for the Advanced Outage Control Center Project written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The long-term viability of existing nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the United States (U.S.) is dependent upon a number of factors, including maintaining high capacity factors, maintaining nuclear safety, and reducing operating costs, particularly those associated with refueling outages. Refueling outages typically take 20-30 days, and for existing light water NPPs in the U.S., the reactor cannot be in operation during the outage. Furthermore, given that many NPPs generate between $1-1.5 million/day in revenue when in operation, there is considerable interest in shortening the length of refueling outages. Yet, refueling outages are highly complex operations, involving multiple concurrent and dependent activities that are difficult to coordinate. Finding ways to improve refueling outage performance while maintaining nuclear safety has proven to be difficult. The Advanced Outage Control Center project is a research and development (R & D) demonstration activity under the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program. LWRS is a R & D program which works with industry R & D programs to establish technical foundations for the licensing and managing of long-term, safe, and economical operation of current NPPs. The Advanced Outage Control Center project has the goal of improving the management of commercial NPP refueling outages. To accomplish this goal, this INL R & D project is developing an advanced outage control center (OCC) that is specifically designed to maximize the usefulness of communication and collaboration technologies for outage coordination and problem resolution activities. This report describes specific recent efforts to develop a capability called outage Micro-Scheduling. Micro-Scheduling is the ability to allocate and schedule outage support task resources on a sub-hour basis. Micro-Scheduling is the real-time fine-tuning of the outage schedule to react to the actual progress of the primary outage activities to ensure that support task resources are optimally deployed with the least amount of delay and unproductive use of resources. The remaining sections of this report describe in more detail the scheduling challenges that occur during outages, how a Micro-Scheduling capability helps address those challenges, and provides a status update on work accomplished to date and the path forward.

Download or read book Benchmark Report on Key Outage Attributes written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advanced Outage Control Center (AOCC), is a multi-year pilot project targeted at Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) outage improvement. The purpose of this pilot project is to improve management of NPP outages through the development of an AOCC that is specifically designed to maximize the usefulness of communication and collaboration technologies for outage coordination and problem resolution activities. This report documents the results of a benchmarking effort to evaluate the transferability of technologies demonstrated at Idaho National Laboratory and the primary pilot project partner, Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. The initial assumption for this pilot project was that NPPs generally do not take advantage of advanced technology to support outage management activities. Several researchers involved in this pilot project have commercial NPP experience and believed that very little technology has been applied towards outage communication and collaboration. To verify that the technology options researched and demonstrated through this pilot project would in fact have broad application for the US commercial nuclear fleet, and to look for additional outage management best practices, LWRS program researchers visited several additional nuclear facilities.

Download or read book Nuclear Power Plant Outage Optimization Strategy written by International Atomic Energy Agency and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear power plant outage management is a key factor for safe and economic nuclear power plant performance. This publication discusses plant outage strategy and how this strategy is actually implemented. The main areas that are important for outage optimization that were identified by the utilities and government organizations participating in this report are: 1) organization and management; 2) outage planning and preparation; 3) outage execution; 4) safety outage review; and 5) counter measures to avoid the extension of outages and to facilitate the work in forced outages. Good outage management practices cover many different areas of work and this publication aims to communicate these good practices in a way that they can be used effectively by operators and utilities.

Download or read book Automatic Scheduling of Outages of Nuclear Power Plants with Time Windows written by Carla Gomes and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 75 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Nuclear Power Plant Outage Optimization Strategy written by and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Nuclear power plant outage management is a key factor for safe and economic nuclear power plant performance. This publication discusses plant outage strategy and how this strategy is actually implemented. The main areas that are important for outage optimization that were identified by the utilities and government organizations participating in this report are: (1) organization and management; (2) outage planning and preparation; (3) outage execution; (4) safety outage review; and (5) counter measures to avoid the extension of outages and to facilitate the work in forced outages. Good outage management practices cover many different areas of work and this publication aims to communicate these good practices in a way that they can be used effectively by operators and utilities."--Publisher's description.

Download or read book The Emerald Handbook of Higher Education in a Post Covid World written by Byron A. Brown and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2022-08-22 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing perspectives across multiple nations and settings, this volume is essential reading for higher education staff, researchers, and policy makers, to ensure higher education across the world is prepared to offer the best quality teaching and learning in the Covid and Post-Covid world.

Download or read book Good Practices for Outage Management in Nuclear Power Plants written by and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Indicators for Management of Planned Outages in Nuclear Power Plants IAEA TECDOC Series written by International Atomic Energy Agency and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Planned outages are a main contributor to nuclear power plant (NPP) unavailability, risk and cost. Effective management of planned outages is a key factor for improvement of NPP safety, availability and competitiveness. To support outage management an outage monitoring system is implemented that follows all the fundamental and critical activities and deadlines in each phase of the outage. The IAEA has produced this publication on indicators for planned outage monitoring as a complement to a series of technical publications related to practices regarding outage management and cost effective mai.

Download or read book The Agency s Draft Programme and Budget for written by International Atomic Energy Agency and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Handbook of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors written by Daniel T. Ingersoll and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2014-09-22 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Small modular reactors (SMRs) are an advanced, safe type of nuclear reactor technology that are suitable for small and medium sized applications including both power and heat generation. In particular, their use as individual units or in combination to scale-up capacity offer benefits in terms of siting, installation, operation, lifecycle and economics in comparison to the development of larger nuclear plant for centralised electricity power grids. Interest has increased in the research and development of SMRs for both developing countries as well as such additional cogeneration options as industrial/chemical process heat, desalination and district heating, and hydrogen production. This book reviews key issues in their development as well as international R&D in the field. - Gives an overview of small modular reactor technology - Reviews the design characteristics of integral pressurized water reactors and focuses on reactor core and fuel technologies, key reactor system components, instrumentation and control, human-system interfaces and safety - Considers the economics, financing, licensing, construction methods and hybrid energy systems of small modular reactors - Describes SMR development activities worldwide, and concludes with a discussion of how SMR deployment can contribute to the growth of developing countries