By Kris Fauske, President, Fauske & Associates, LLC
Increasingly, in the course of providing solutions to the prevention of severe accidents worldwide, we are finding crossover. We tended to have two distinct sides in our 35 year safety testing and engineering solutions lab; our nuclear and non-nuclear. In fact, many of our customers on one side may not even be aware that we have another side at all.
We thought it would be interesting to share information and invite discussion regarding some of our nuclear focused activities, particularly the following five areas, as each has cross-over application in industrial process industries.
MAAP5
Developed by Fauske & Associates, LLC (FAI) as part of the Industry Degraded Core Rulemaking (IDCOR) program, the Modular Accident Analysis Program (MAAP), which is an Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) owned and licensed computer software, is a fast-running computer code that simulates the response of light water and heavy water moderated nuclear power plants for both current and Advanced Light Water Reactor (ALWR) designs. It has been used by the nuclear industry throughout the world for more than two decades as an engineering tool to support Probability Risk Analysis (PRA) and severe accident analysis.
Thermal Hydraulics
Many plant processes involve fluid flow combined with heat transfer that can include phenomena such as phase change, condensation, two-phase fluid flow, critical flows, gas transport resulting in a need for analysis of conditions following pipe break events, waterhammer evaluation and severe accident analysis or characterizing localized phenomena such as tank and sump vortex behavior to name a few. Using a combination of experiments and analytical modeling, we provide thermal hydraulic testing and analysis in our state-of-the-art laboratories to help customers solve problems in existing processes, or facilitate the design of new ones.
Structural Services and Vibration
In plants, there are often structural challenges related to pressure, temperature and dynamic forces. An example is the seismic adequacy of piping or components under power operation. FAI performs several services to address seismic concerns found in industrial facilities and power plants – including analytical assessments, experiments, and walkdowns (see photo of seismic vibration gauge above). We follow industry guidelines such as EPRI 1019199 as well as our own seismic screening methodology which provides an even more cost effective and conservative assessment approach. Several of our engineers and contractors have undergone professional seismic training which also allows us to assess safety-related electrical components such as instrumentation and control components, etc.
Equipment Qualification (EQ)
We provide Equipment Qualification (EQ) solutions for the nuclear and industrial sectors, using our state-of-the-art laboratories and facilities, including a Design Basis Accident (DBA) test facility that supports current generation nuclear power plants along with the Generation III+ plants. We provide the overall project management and Quality Assurance (QA) requirements for each project.
Cable Health Aging Management Program (CHAMP)
The CHAMP program provides support for the evaluation, testing, qualification and replacement of all types of cables at power plants and facilities. The types and sizes of cables we support range from very small (e.g., sensor and network cables) to large cables (e.g., transmission and distribution). We test both shielded and unshielded cables.
Key testing and services included in the CHAMP program include cable walkdowns, cable testing, cable evaluation to address performance and forensic issues, cable replacement, cable management, and cable qualification. In addition to our traditional EQ facilities, we have recently incorporated a cable vertical flame test facility for performing IEEE-1202, 383 and other cable flame testing standards.
Solutions to customer problems are what drive innovation in our labs. We invite others to discuss their crossover applications and ideas in the effort to share knowledge.
For more information, please visit our website at www.Fauske.com, or contact me at (630) 887-5224 or kfauske@fauske.com.
