Tailored Seminars

I studied chemistry in Ulm, Germany dealing with the special field of synthesis of Au clusters and methane hydrates and supra molecular chemistry in the Department of polymer chemistry/homogeneous catalysis. Since March 2006 I am the referee for Power Plant Chemistry in the Gundremmingen Nuclear Power Station. In this function I became aware – through colleagues from Isar NPP – of the activities of ANT International. As ANT International is specialised in providing expert training and knowledge in the areas of nuclear fuel, reactor materials, and water chemistry I became interested in the one-day-seminars in particular. Based on the information provided by ANT International, we organized an in-house training on BWR reactor water chemistry. The agenda of this seminar was co-ordinated between ANT International and KGG and finally about 50 persons attended the seminar. During the seminar ANT International provided an overview on the background of reactor water chemistry practices in the US and Europe as well as about the interaction between materials and chemistry. Due to the experience with ANT International I am convinced that LCC and in particular the one-day seminars are very meaningful products. Moreover, the content of the training is very useful for our daily business

ANT International provides with the ZIRAT program a unique product. The expert network does not only cover the subjects like cladding tube and fuel during reactor operation but also during storage thus taking into account e.g. the water chemistry in case of wet storage or the stress and temperature effects of spent fuel during cask loading and dry storage. As the latest research results are compiled in the Annual Reports it is a great way to get informed on what topics are currently under discussion.

The holistic approach, the knowledge of the latest internationally published results in the nuclear field combined with the specialist knowledge and experience of the ZIRAT team members who have worked on the nuclear field for several years is the basis for the conduction of tailored seminars. This approach is beneficial for beginners as well as for those who want to deepen their knowledge on a certain aspect.

Since 2009 onwards Peter Rudling and Friedrich Garzarolli conducted 1-day seminars at GNS which covered processes during dry storage thereby dealing with the mechanical behavior of fuel assemblies, corrosion and hydrogen pickup mechanisms, oxide thickness at discharge burnup and potential failure mechanisms of fuel rods. Providing information on the issue of interest to our organization guarantees the seminar success. Finally, the direct dialogue with the experts is of great importance for the effectiveness of the progress of knowledge. Again, participants from 2011 recommended to continue this series of tailored seminars. The next seminar is scheduled for September 2012.

In June of 2008, Peter Rudling and Ron Adamson gave a one-day seminar at GNF’s Wilmington, North Carolina site. The Seminar was attended by members of GNF’s Materials Technology and Fuel Reliability team as well as researchers interested in Zircaloy corrosion at GE’s Global Research Center. The seminar covered a range of topics selected from the IZNA7 Annual Report and Special Topical Reports. The seminar agenda was developed with input from GNF to address specific interests of attendees. As one of the STR was on corrosion mechanism, a significant portion of the seminar was devoted to various aspects of Zircaloy corrosion and mechanisms for corrosion failures. Ron and Peter took turns to present materials. The seminar was conducted with an open manner with plenty of audience interaction, a feature that was well appreciated by all attendees.

Overall, the expertise of Peter and Ron and the candid nature of their comments were well appreciated. Comments on the seminar included “It covers many different topics in a short time. May need to extend it as a two-day schedule” and “I think level of expertise brought to seminar is key”.

The Idaho National Laboratory hosted a 1.5-day long seminar titled “Environmentally-Assisted Degradation of Structural Alloys in Light Water Reactors” on June 8th and 9th, 2010. Dr. Todd Allen, the Scientific Director of the Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility, organized the seminar. The goal of this seminar was to educate a number of junior INL staff and junior faculty from around the country on the key environmental degradation issues facing both pressurized water reactors and boiling water reactors. With the number of researchers in the U.S. studying issues relevant to light water reactors dwindling, the goal of this seminar was to reinvigorate interest and help kick start a new generation of researchers targeting better material performance in nuclear systems.

The instructors for the seminar, supplied by ANT International, were Peter Ford, Peter Scott, and Pierre Combrade who covered an introduction to stress corrosion cracking, the general phenomenology and mechanistic hypotheses of stress corrosion cracking, stress corrosion cracking of stainless steels in low temperature environments, stress corrosion cracking in boiling water reactors, corrosion fatigue issues, stress corrosion cracking in pressurized water reactors, and irradiation effects on stress corrosion cracking. The participants had backgrounds in material science, mechanical engineering, and water chemistry but in general, did not have any extensive knowledge of environmental effects in nuclear systems. Across the board, the attendees were extremely enthusiastic about the seminar. One stated “A rare and exceptional workshop. These two days bought together true deep expertise, representing over 100 years of industry experience, and an enthusiastic group of young scientists eager to bring state of the art tools to bear on cutting edge problems. Such a workshop is enormously more efficient than simply letting university researchers try to ferret out the real issues and problems on their own. These two days may have saved months of work on the part of the participants. Workshops of this type and caliber should be the standard for how new research areas are launched and promoted.”

The Idaho National Laboratory is planning a similar seminar in 2011 on zirconium alloy performance in nuclear systems.

On December 17th, 2008 Peter Ford gave a very well prepared one-day lecture on corrosion phenomena that lead to the degradation of structural materials in water-cooled nuclear reactors. In the audience physicists, chemists and materials scientists of Borssele NPP were represented. The presentation is based on the ANT report of the same title. The report had been purchased by us, but no one had found time yet to carefully read it.

The lecture by Peter was an excellent introduction to the report and it helps us in using the information from the report in an efficient way. The presentation started with the introduction of the thermodynamics that is necessary to understand the mechanism of the various corrosion phenomena. Subsequently, a wide range of different types of corrosion in the various important construction materials of the NPP has been discussed. The mechanism that leads to degradation of the material have been elaborated and discussed with the audience.

Peter has such a broad knowledge on the subject that he is an excellent teacher both for them who already have a lot of knowledge in the field themselves and for those for whom the subject of the lecture is quite new. The lecture brought us what we hoped it would bring and it made the Structural Material Degradation Report much more valuable for us.

Following the highly successful workshop held at the Idaho National Laboratory in June 2010 titled “Environmentally-Assisted Degradation of Structural Alloys in Light Water Reactors”, ANT International was invited back to Idaho Falls to lead a seminar on “Zirconium-based Alloys in Nuclear Systems”.

This second seminar, also covering a day-and-a-half was held on 10–11 May 2011. The goal of this seminar was to educate a number of INL staff and junior faculty from around the country on the key degradation issues experience by zirconium alloys used primarily as cladding in nuclear systems. And also to reinvigorate interest and help kick start a new generation of researchers targeting better fuel performance in nuclear systems. Dr. Todd Allen, the Scientific Director of the Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility, organized the seminar, which was presented by Mr. Peter Rudling and Dr. Ron Adamson (Go Badgers) of ANT International.

The topics covered included zirconium alloys used in nuclear systems, radiation damage, mechanical properties, and response to accident conditions, corrosion, dimensional stability, and performance limitations. The seminar finished with Mr. Rudling and Dr. Adamson presenting a list of key research challenges for the group to commence understanding and the participants vowed to get working. “It was a great workshop. The teachers were excellent and very knowledgeable. I appreciated the basic introductions to the reactor concepts and materials issues. I was familiar with many of them but for those that I wasn’t, it was extremely helpful to be given the background. Thank you!” “Excellent intro to the world of Zr, the passion/excitements of speakers were great. I’m happy I was able to attend.” The Idaho National Laboratory is planning a similar seminar in 2012 on uranium dioxide performance in nuclear systems. Participants from the May 2011 seminar have already asked for places in the 2012 course.

I performed my first surveillance of our fuel vendor approximately 20 years ago. It was essentially on-the-job training. My mentor had performed audits/surveillances for many years. After about a 10-year hiatus I was thrust back into performing audits, serving as a “technical specialist”. I always felt strange being called a technical specialist on a fuel fabrication audit because my background was not in fabrication, but rather operating. The on-the-job training I had helped. I could pretty much tell if someone was following a procedure but I didn’t have the background to really understand all the activities involved in the fabrication of fuel.

When we began preparing for the INPO Fuel Integrity Review Visit (FIRV) I began to seriously consider seeking out training on the Fuel Fabrication Process. I had met Peter Rudling about 10 years prior and remembered him mentioning their seminar and handbook. I sought out Peter and we put together the plan to acquire the handbook and to put on the seminar. Peter and Al Strasser are experts in this field. Their book is superb and the seminar was outstanding. I liked the seminar because it gave a quick insight into the whole fabrication process in a day and a half. That’s a lot faster than I could get through the book. The book will be a valuable resource to reinforce the seminar with greater insight into all the different processes.

Another reason I liked the seminar is that I was able to get other, newer engineers exposed to the process. I was even able to get some QA auditors involved. We are planning to make this seminar a requirement to serve as a technical specialist for our fuel fabrication surveillances.”

I attended the training course for the Fuel Design Review Handbook during the Summer of 2012 at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. As a Safety Analysis Engineer in the process of cross training into Core Design, this handbook is a must have. It covers all of the critical aspects of nuclear fuel design and does an incredible job of comparing the different design variations used all over the globe. But the most useful part of the Fuel Design Review Handbook is all of the recommended parameters that are to be considered during fuel audits and in the core design process. They cover, in detail, what an audit should focus on, procedural guidance, audit structure and timing and all of the details in the various fuel design and fabrication process at the end of each section. Cladding, pellets, spacer grids, materials, etc are also covered and explained in detail. It is a very impressive and useful document.

As for the training, ANT International brought in the lead writers of the Fuel Design Review Handbook and gave a two day course which detailed out the various sections of the handbook and allowed for input from all of the attendees. The course participants came in from the Fuelco plants (Callaway, Comanche Peak, and Diablo Canyon) and provided enlightening insights to the process of core design, fuel fabrication inspection, fuel failures and other issues that they have encountered over the years. For me, it was a very useful class and I would recommend it for any utility engineers that are currently involved in core design or are considering it. My thanks to all the folks at ANT International that set up this training and especially to Mr. Peter Rudling and Mr. Alfred Strasser for their input and course discussions. As a Core Designer in training, it was a useful course and a reference I will be using a lot.