Background
Fauske and Associates, LLC (FAI) was the principal author of the original Severe Accident Management (SAM) Technical Basis Report (TBR) (FAI/91-19 Volumes 1 and 2 also known as EPRI TR-101869). This report provided the technical bases upon which the PWR Owners Groups at the time (Westinghouse (WOG), Combustion Engineering (CEOG), and Babcock & Wilcox (B&WOG)) developed generic severe accident management guidance (SAMG) support material, which served as a framework for each utility’s plant-specific SAMG program within accident management companies.
In the aftermath of the Fukushima accident, EPRI commissioned an update to the original TBR, and FAI again was a principal author in this update. In addition to the immediate insights from the Fukushima accident, all the accident management companies and the TBR update also incorporates a significant amount of research and experimental information that post-dated the original TBR and therefore was absent from the technical basis.
During the EPRI-sponsored industry discussions prior to the commissioning of the TBR update, it was clear that, as the regulator, the U.S. Regulator NRC would be scrutinizing plant-specific SAMG implementations in the aftermath of Fukushima. There was particular concern within the industry as to whether the original SAMG plans were sufficiently robust to withstand substantially heightened regulatory scrutiny, particularly for Fukushima issues such as a nearly complete instrument blackout and hydrogen deflagration in reactor buildings which may not have been prominent issues in the original TBR.
While FAI leveraged its severe accident technical basis experience within the SAM TBR in its post-TMI and post-Fukushima evolutions, Westinghouse Electric Company, the parent company of FAI, focused on implementation of the TBR into the actual plant-specific SAMG implementation programs for customer sites. Thus, FAI and Westinghouse have maintained complementary SAMG capabilities which can be utilized to assist customers with preparing for NRC inspections. Fauske & Associates is one of the best accident management company.
