TITANS OF NUCLEAR

At this time we are still producing show notes for this episode. Please check back again at a future date.

At this time we are still producing show notes for this episode. Please check back again at a future date.

1 - 02:06

Q: How did you get interested in the nuclear space?

A: Mara Levy started out her nuclear engineering undergraduate program at Penn State after becoming self-interested in the energy industry, especially nuclear. The Breazeale Nuclear Reactor is on campus at Penn State, allowing students to complete labs on a real test reactor that has an open pool of water, allowing reactions to be visible. Mara Levy was also involved in the student chapter of the American Nuclear Society during her time at school.

2 - 06:29

Q: What kind of first hand experience did you have while at school?

A: While studying nuclear engineering at Penn State, Mara Levy participated in two industry internships. Her first internship with Exelon was at Three Mile Island, and her second was at the Exelon headquarters at Cantera outside of Chicago. While working at the home office, Levy focused on understanding the core design and fuel management. During her time at Three Mile Island, Levy worked on new fuel receipt , which is the process when new fuel assemblies are brought on-site in preparation for the refueling outage. The inspection procedures when fuel is brought to the site is essential for maintaining the integrity of the assemblies for use in the plant. The spent fuel pool is in a separate building from the core, and fuel is transported underwater through transfer canals that connect the buildings. Irradiated spent fuel is the hottest when it first comes out of the water. During refueling, the core is fully offloaded into the spent fuel pool, allowing maintenance within the reactor vessel by divers and submarines.

3 - 15:05

Q: What was your first full-time position at Exelon?

A: After graduation, Mara Levy hired on with Exelon full-time in reactor engineering and spent two years completing technical training in order to become a fully qualified reactor engineer. Experienced reactor engineers provided mentorship to Levy as she transitioned into the field. Since Exelon has a large network of nuclear plants, Exelon employees, such as engineers or maintenance technicians, are shared between plants during outages to provide support and experience. Once a reactor engineer is fully qualified, the engineer can support a shift independently by providing the operating crew with water plans, reactivity maneuver approval (REMA) forms, and other materials necessary for operation. REMA forms are required to descent power from 100%, which is the capacity the plant is ideally operating at, in order to perform maintenance and other operations.

4 - 19:34

Q: As a reactor engineer, are you planning out the maneuvers?

A: As a reactor engineer, Mara Levy understands the nuclear systems and how the components are integrated, but also collaborates with work management, operations, and maintenance to get input before maneuvers and also must notify the grid so they can divert power during the power descent. Operating Strategy Generator software is used widely in the industry to input power maneuvers and allow engineers to optimize the plan. Levy also serves as the special nuclear material custodian for Three Mile Island, which entails understanding and maintaining documentation for where all the special nuclear material is on-site. Before each fuel assemblies is moved, documentation must be reviewed and approved.

5 - 22:20

Q: Are you involved in other leadership roles in the nuclear industry?

A: Mara Levy is involved in external leadership roles, including serving as a site chair for North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NAYGN). One of NAYGN’s focal points is on community outreach and education by reaching out to schools and presenting on nuclear energy to students. A group of NAYGN members wrote a children’s book about nuclear energy and members volunteer their time to read it to classes and share it with the community. The general public does not know where their electricity comes from, so education is a premier focus. Levy also participates in Generation Nation, another group that focuses on sharing information with the public through the use of interactive apps teaching individuals about what different buildings are on a nuclear reactor site and what happens in each building.

6 - 30:01

Q: What do you aspire to do in the nuclear space in the future?

A: Mara Levy aspires to take on leadership roles within the nuclear industry in which she can focus on developing people. Levy would also like to continue her work with NAYGN and Generation Nation in educating the public on nuclear energy.

1 - 01:35

Q: How did you enter into the nuclear space?

A: Michael Gallagher was first exposed to the utility industry as a child when his father worked for Philadelphia Electric. Gallagher received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at Georgia Tech and returned to Philadelphia to work for Philadelphia Electric, which eventually became Exelon. Gallagher started his career at the Peach Bottom plant in York County, which had an experimental high temperature gas cooled reactor on-site. This reactor acted as more of a demonstration reactor instead of power generation, but had forty different utilities involved in its use. Gallagher worked on modifying the Peach Bottom reactor cooling systems following Three Mile Island, then transferred to the Limerick plant, which was under construction and beginning start-up testing at the time. Gallagher served as senior reactor operator at Limerick.

2 - 10:08

Q: How did your nuclear career progress?

A: After serving as senior reactor operator at Limerick, Michael Gallagher became the reactor engineering supervisor and then an engineering manager of the centralized design. Gallagher returned to Limerick as an operations support manager, then the plant engineering senior manager, and then the director. In the earlier days of nuclear, online maintenance was not common, due to the loss of redundant systems, but Gallagher developed ways to control the risk and limit outages and convinced the regulator to implement online maintenance. After serving as the director of engineering at Limerick, Gallagher returned to Peach Bottom to serve as the director of outage management, then back to Limerick as plant manager.

3 - 16:54

Q: Why is there extra contamination in boiling water reactors?

A: Michael Gallagher spent many years at the Limerick Generating Station, home to two boiling water reactors (BWR’s). Activated nitrogen, which comes from oxygen in the water, is in the volume of steam and quickly decays. Radiation must be properly controlled as it travels from the reactor to the turbine. In boiling water reactors, control rods are used to shape power and steam voids with recirculation pumps, which change core flow. This allows pumps to control the power generation very quickly. Changing the shape of power in the core is altering the shape of the neutron flux, such that different parts of the fuel are burning differently.

4 - 23:45

Q: Do changes related to consumption and design of fuel lead to an overall operational change between boiling water reactors and pressurized water reactors in terms of a fueling period?

A: Michael Gallagher’s experience is mainly centered around boiling water reactors, including design and engineering management. Most pressurized water reactors are on 18 month cycles and most boiling water reactors are on 24 month cycles. This reflects a difference in fuel design and efficiency of core design. Outage management requires planning and preparedness of labor, material, and engineering. Outage planning takes place for a couple years, usually to implement newly regulated modifications or safety features.

5 - 29:30

Q: What led you into your current role as Vice President of License Renewal and Decommissioning of Exelon?

A: Exelon formed as a result of a merger between Unicom and PECO; Michael Gallagher then became involved in the corporate organization of Exelon as the licensing director for Exelon East. Gallagher was also involved during plans for a merger between PSEG and Exelon, but the merger did not take place. Gallagher then took on a role of managing the license renewal for the fleet, first Peach Bottom and then Unicom plants. A renewal strategy for the fleet needed to be developed, as many of the plants were now eligible for 20 year renewals. The renewal process reviews the existing materials and environment and requires an aging plan for how to control degradation and other concerns of components of the plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) publishes a safety evaluation and environmental impact statement for the plant, proving the renewal, which is followed by presentations in front of an independent review committee. The NRC director eventually issues the renewal license.

6 - 39:56

Q: With all the maintenance plans in place, what don’t continuous reactor licenses exist?

A: Michael Gallagher currently serves as the Vice President of License Renewal and Decommissioning at Exelon. The Atomic Energy Act limits reactor life to forty years, and also allows a process for license renewal, as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has done. The license renewal process recognizes the current licensing basis, eliminating the need to re-review the planning that is constantly maintained, such as emergency planning. The lifetime rule is in place for aging management of long-life passive equipment, which was not included in the original licensing process, which is needed to maintain a safe shutdown condition, not for everyday plant operation. Decommissioning is usually required due to economics, since the market does not value the resiliency, reliability, and carbon-free emissions that nuclear provides compared to other sources of energy. There is currently no process to bring back a plant after decommissioning.

7 - 49:29

Q: After thirty-eight years in the nuclear power generation and your experience in global construction, what do you see regarding the global need for energy and nuclear technology?

A: Michael Gallagher participates in a mission trip each year and has experienced how normal power outages are to people in other countries. The quality of life could be more improved and more productive with affordable energy sources, which impacts water quality and other impacts to society.

1 - 01:25

Q: Why did you enter the field of chemical engineering?

A: Marilyn Kray grew up in Pittsburgh and received her bachelor’s degree of chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Kray originally thought she would enter the oil and gas industry, but the oil crisis happened while she was in school. After graduation in 1983, she joined the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which was in the post-Three Mile Island accident recovery phase. Exelon’s biggest representation of technical experience is in mechanical and electrical engineering, following by chemical engineering, then nuclear engineering. All systems must work together in the plant to provide power generation.

2 - 06:00

Q: What were some of your first jobs at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)?

A: Marilyn Kray’s first project at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was Beaver Valley, located outside of Pittsburgh, which was originally owned and operated by Duquesne Light. Kray started out working at the NRC headquarters out of Washington, D.C. and reviewed design, calculations, and supporting analyses. Kray then moved to NRC’s Region 1 Northeast office to inspect the physical construction to verify it is being built according to the approved design. As a region-based inspection, Kray traveled to all different plants within the region and performed specialty inspections, as opposed to a resident inspector which reports to one specific power plant. After five years at the NRC, Kray joined Philadelphia Electric (PECO), a predecessor company to Exelon, during the Peach Bottom outage.

3 - 11:34

Q: What kind of power plant is Peach Bottom?

A: Marilyn Kray joined the recovery team at Peach Bottom, a boiling water reactor that came online in the mid-1970’s. The role of the recovery team was to determine what was needed to get the plant started up again, by overcoming physical and cultural issues. Today’s industry has more of a respectful appreciation of the regulators, as they share common goals, but at the time that Kray joined, the industry had a more negative view of the regulator. Kray became involved in the refueling outage approach, when efficient refueling outages did not exist. Outage duration must be minimized due to lost income from power generation and increased cost of additional personnel and organization on-site. Kray was able to improve outage duration from 60 days down to 30 days. PECO had a joint venture with British Energy, at a time in which plants were decommissioning and some plants had many more years of life left than the NRC would allow. The joint venture purchased Three Mile Island Unit 1, the non-accident unit, Clinton Power Station, and Oyster Creek.

4 - 22:43

Q: As the markets and businesses changed around nuclear, what roles did you take on?

A: As the nuclear markets and businesses changed, Marilyn Kray took part in non-traditional nuclear roles. Kray took part in AmerGen; if the nuclear plants had not been purchased at the right price, they would have been shut down. Kray also worked with Entergy and started a joint venture called New Start Energy Development, which was a consortium of plants looking to license the existing fleet. A new process with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) changed the way plants were licensed. Part 50, original licensing procedure, requires information about plant to be built provided to the NRC, which approves building to start but allows changes to be made during the construction process. This optimizes the balance between flexibility and certainty, however one risk is getting an approved design to build, but not being able to provide an approved emergency plan to receive the license, which happened at Shoreham Nuclear Plant. Part 52, a combined construction and operational license, requires a lot more information submitted to NRC before allowed to start construction, which expedities construction if what was requested is built, but changes coming from the design team are more difficult and time consuming to get approved through NRC.

5 - 33:33

Q: How do nuclear education efforts go towards other utilities?

A: Marilyn Kray sees opportunities with smaller-scale nuclear plants to be run by utilities that do not have existing experience with nuclear plants. Small modular reactors (SMR’s) can be sited at many different places and operators trained more quickly. Some customers look for Exelon to operate these nuclear plants temporarily or indefinitely or to bridge the gap for the customer to ultimately operate on their own by embedding teams and completing additional cultural training focused on safety and decision-making. This provides a holistic view to plant operation. Exelon is able to provide subject matter experts and an atmosphere in which information and lessons learned are shared.

6 - 40:20

Q: What is your matrix of evaluation for new nuclear designs and how do you rate them internally?

A: Technology readiness and maintainability are two main factors that Marilyn Kray and her team at Exelon when considering and evaluating new nuclear designs. Access within the plant for refueling and replacing equipment can have a significant impact on maintainability. Most vendors have advisory boards that actively seek feedback from Exelon and other utilities during the design phase to integrate lessons learned. NuScale, Holtec, and General Electric Hitachi are among some of the projects pursuing light water small modular reactors (SMR’s). The main competition for this technology is combined-cycle power, not other nuclear plants. Funding for SMR’s could open possibilities for single investors to buy the output power from the plant, as opposed to traditionally entering a regulated market in which a public utility purchases the output power. Marilyn Kray is preparing to serve as President for the American Nuclear Society (ANS).

7 - 50:43

Q: Why is nuclear technology so important?

A: Marilyn Kray sees a global need for electricity, and nuclear is a resource that can be used in a safe manner in a way that is complementary to other utilities. Nuclear takes the lead with respect to reliability and environmental benefits, while other utilities may take the lead with respect to cost and other factors.

7-10 Bullets
- How different engineering disciplines collaborate to make a nuclear plant operate - Role of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during design and construction of nuclear plants - How the culture between utilities and regulators in the nuclear industry has evolved over time - What it takes to prepare and execute a nuclear plant refueling outage plan - Licensing options for existing and newly designed nuclear plants during design, construction, and operation - How traditional utilities and investors are getting involved with new nuclear technology - Education efforts supported and funded by the American Nuclear Society

At this time we are still producing show notes for this episode. Please check back again at a future date.

At this time we are still producing show notes for this episode. Please check back again at a future date.

At this time we are still producing show notes for this episode. Please check back again at a future date.