moving beyond time, distance and shielding: developing the concept of organizational alara

Moving Beyond Time, Distance and Shielding:Developing the Concept of Organizational ALARA

Kenneth OhrQuad Cities Generating Station – Exelon

2008 ISOE International Symposium13 November 2008

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What is THIS?

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Discussion Points

• Background• Defining the Concepts• Impact of Each Concept• Applying the Concepts: Quad Cities• Assess Yourself• Closing Comments and Questions

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Background on“Organizational ALARA”

• What is it?• Google Results

– +Organizational +ALARA yields ~41,200 hits• Most are documents/manuals with a focus on the two distinct

topics independent of each other– +“Organizational ALARA” yields 4 hits

• Best document covers basic structure of an ALARA program

• INPO 05-008– No direct definition– Hits upon several of the main concepts, but these

concepts are not collected into a unified vision

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A New Definition

• Organizational ALARA – – A collection of principles supporting the long-

term performance of plant operations in a manner that maintains Collective Radiation Exposure (CRE) ALARA

– Higher level focus areas of plant performance and accountability that have the over-riding effect on CRE

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What It Is Not

• Organizational ALARA is not the traditional “Big 3” (or four)– Time, Distance, Shielding, and Planning

• These concepts of Practical ALARA application exist to support individual projects/tasks to achieve ALARA performance

• These concepts do not (or only narrowly) define the playing field for overall CRE

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Clichés

• “Cannot see the forest for the trees”• “Winning the battles but losing the war”

ALARA Analog:• “Beat every RWP/ALARA Plan estimate,

but exceeded the outage dose goal”– We frequently achieve success in application of

Practical ALARA techniques, but…

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Organizational ALARA versus Practical ALARA

• Practical ALARA Techniques:– Time– Distance– Shielding– Planning

• Impacts:– A Job, Task, Evolution

• Organizational ALARA Focus Areas:– Source Term Reduction– Equipment Reliability– Worker Engagement – Strategic Planning

• Impacts:– Site collective performance

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Organizational ALARA versus Practical ALARA

Practical ALARA

• Ownership:– The Radiological Engineer– ALARA Coordinator– Radiation Protection Mgr– Station ALARA Committee

(SAC)

Organizational ALARA

• Ownership:– Station ALARA Committee– Plant Health Committee– Project Review Committee– Chemistry Department– Engineering Organization– Maintenance Organization– Operations– Corporate ALARA Council– Radiation Protection– And the list goes on…

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Organizational ALARA Concepts

• Source Term Reduction• Equipment Reliability• Worker Engagement• Strategic Planning

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Source Term Reduction (STR)

• Establishes the playing field in which all plant activities take place

• In its fundamental form, Source Term is one-half of the equation for dose manifesting itself as the Dose Rate in the working area

Dose = Time x Dose Rate• Source Term (and activities to reduce its impact)

affects every job taking place in the Radiologically Controlled Area (RCA)

• Source Term Reduction must be the primary focus

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Principal Owners

• Chemistry– Identifies, tracks, and trends isotopes of interest– Manages injection/addition of chemicals to achieve

chemistry regimes that favor continued reduction in source term

• Depleted Zinc Oxide (DZO), Hydrogen Addition, even Noble Metals

– Optimizes resin recipes and use in Demineralizers for effective source term removal

– Manages Chemical Decontamination applications

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Principal Owners

• Operations– Operates the plant in a manner that maintains stable

chemistry parameters– Focuses on Reactor Water Clean-Up (RWCU)

availability, Hydrogen Addition availability and trips– Manages unit down-powers and is cognizant of

equipment/systems that support Chemistry– Effectively processes RadWaste streams for removal

of source term

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Principal Owners

• Engineering– Ensures that introduction of new Source Term-

generating materials to the plant are minimized or eliminated (Stellite, Inconel)

– Ensures that plant modifications / alterations are developed with Source Term removal mechanisms incorporated

– Designs and approves shielding remedies for localized areas where source term resides

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Contributing OwnersOther Groups of Interest:• Nuclear Fuels

– Fuel Reliability (or the converse, Fuel Failure) can trump other STR efforts without effective mitigation

• Maintenance– Post-maintenance cleanliness issues on internal valve/pump

work where Stellite (Cobalt-59) is present can result in more introduction of Source Term than would otherwise be seen through normal erosion/corrosion

• Procurement– Materials received for installation into the plant must be verified

to be Cobalt-Free

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Equipment Reliability (ER)• Equipment Reliability drives the scope of work that is

performed at a plant and the conditions in which the work takes place– Material Condition is another term that may be used in

conjunction with this focus area• Effective ER monitors plant equipment and results in

smaller work scopes performed in a preventive manner and reduces the impact of Emergent work

• The reliability of plant equipment (its Material Condition) governs the amount of work required in a work week, a fuel cycle, or (most acutely) an outage

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Equipment Reliability (ER)

Dose1 = Time1 x Dose Rate1

Dose2 = Time2 x Dose Rate2

DosePM = TimePM x Dose RatePM

DoseMod = TimeMod x Dose RateMod

DoseRework = TimeRework x Dose RateRework

DoseEmergent = TimeEmergent x Dose RateEmergent

CRE = Dose1 + Dose2 + …+ DoseRework + DoseEmergent

• ER Determines the scope that drives CRE

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Principal Owners

• Engineering– Generally, the owners of a site Plant Health Committee

(PHC) or equivalent, which includes:• System Monitoring and Health Reporting• Program Engineering (ISI, FAC, IVVI, MOV)• Site equipment repair/modification priority list (such as Focus

Areas, Top Ten Tactical Lists, etc.)

– Design (or Modification) Engineering sets the stage for future installations and has a key role in minimizing future installation and maintenance dose impacts

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Principal Owners

• Maintenance– A customer and stakeholder in the Plant Health

Committee that has the ability to impact priorities– Provides direct input in PM frequency– May include a Component Maintenance Optimization

(CMO) branch with a specific function of establishing the optimal preventive maintenance scope and periodicity

– Most importantly, Maintenance craftsmanship directly affects rework rates and efficiency of in-field work activities

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Additional Owners

• Equipment Reliability touches many other groups, some of which are called out directly in models such as INPO’s “Bubble Chart”

• They include:– Chemistry (again)– Stores and Procurement– Operations

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Worker Engagement (WE)

• Every site has it to some extent, but Engagement that achieves a state of free-flowing communication and worker ownership of the plant and their activities results in performance job-by-job that can smash dose estimates and achieve Dose Goals

• Worker Engagement can be seen as directly impacting the other half of the dose equation being the Time required to complete work in the RCA

Dose = Time x Dose Rate

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Worker Engagement (WE)

• Healthy engagement is characterized by:– A healthy feedback system (ALARA Suggestions)– Habitual use of Post Job Reviews to improve performance– Ownership of dose at the personal/crew/departmental level– Effective role of ALARA/Radiological Engineering as

stewards of dose versus sole estimator, assignor, and accountant

• Worker engagement continues up to the senior management levels with departmental dose accountability and a continual understanding of current performance versus goals

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Principal Owners

• Radiation Protection– RP must truly own and foster Engagement through

multiple, open communication channels– RP (and better, the SAC) must have and share a vision of

both the behaviors expected and the goals to be achieved– Even if dose accountability is achieved down to the

individual worker, RP still must maintain an ownership that exceeds the best department and knowledge that is at least one additional level deep

– RP must foster an environment of Continuous Improvement

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Principal Owners

• Plant Management– Crossing into every department, desired Engagement has

roles for every level of the organization– Individual Worker– First Line Supervisor– Superintendent– Department Head or Senior Manager– Plant (General) Manager and Site Vice President

• Do they know their role? How do you know?

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Strategic Planning (SP)

• Strategic Planning (or Business Planning or Long-Term Planning) serves to sustain performance

• Effectively utilized, SP acts as a radiological “Shock Absorber”, dampening the peaks and valleys of work scope and Modification activities as developed by ER– Some best-performing ALARA plants have effective

plans out 10 years or more• Plants can achieve a Top Quartile outage without

it, but how about 4 or 5 consecutively?

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Strategic Planning (SP)

Long Term CRE =

CREOutage1 + CREOn-Line1 + CREOutage2 + CREOn-Line2 + CREOutage3 + CREOn-Line3 +

and so on...

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Principal Owners

• Site Senior Management– Must provide an effective integration of required PM

work, programmatic inspections, corrective maintenance, and capital modifications

– Dose must be evaluated, even if only by order of magnitude

• The Corporation– Where there exist multi-site corporations, this long-

view of each site must be effectively weighed and balanced

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Organizational ALARA Defined

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Radiological Hierarchy of Needs• Akin to Maslow’s Hierarchy of

Needs, CRE is affected in this basic order:

• Source Term Reduction–Fundamentally underlies all CRE

performance• Equipment Reliability

–Defines the amount of work and challenges to effective planning

• Worker Engagement–Can improve the Time required to

complete work• Strategic Planning

–Can sustain performance and shave off the CRE peaks

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“Do I Need All Four?”

• It Depends - How far do you want to go? • Source Term Reduction is a must

– Good performing Source Term, intentionally or by accident, can mask the impact of the other three

• Equipment Reliability (Material Condition) determines your shots on goal– The most engaged organization can excel in an event-

free Steam Dryer repair, but it is still a Steam Dryer repair (or an Emergent MSIV, or LSIV, etc…)

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Insights

• None of these concepts are new• Recognition of their combined impact unlocks the

potential for dramatically different CRE performance• Critical to this end is achieving a conscious

understanding of the import of each area on site dose performance

• Target: Gain non-RP departments as true allies and stakeholders in CRE reduction

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Case Study: Quad Cities

• 2 Unit BWR-3 Mark I containment• Commercial operation commenced in 1973• Following application of Noble Metals on each unit

in 1999, a source term transient occurred that increased dose rates in the Drywell and communicating systems by 3x to 5x

• High source term loading in-vessel was transported ex-vessel after Zinc response to Noble Metals chemistry regime was incorrectly diagnosed and managed

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• Dose rates increase on the secondary side (Turbine side) by 8x to 10x due to Design Capacity deficiencies in the Steam Dryer (Moisture Carry-Over)

• Extended Power Uprates were conducted on both units in 2002 to increase capacity by 17%– Resulted in failures of both Steam Dryers, increases in

Vibration levels that affected reliability of ERVs, SRVs, MSIVs, and other Turbine-side components

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• Source Term Reduction:– Recovery effort commenced with development of the

Exposure Reduction Charter establishing 6 teams lead by RP, Chemistry, Engineering, Nuclear Fuels, and Corporate organizations

– Results were achieved that halted the Source Term increases, reversed the trend, and jump-started the recovery

– This has been discussed in various forums over the past 4 years

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• Equipment Reliability:– EPU Recovery matured from actions treating

symptoms (adding a thicker plate to the Steam Dryers and hardening ERV actuators) to more effective diagnosis of the underlying cause

– Implementation of the Acoustic Side Branch modification on the Steam Lines resolved a 30+ year old issue

– Steam Dryer replacement increased capacity in concert with the uprated power

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Current State: Quad Cities

• Source Term Reduction– Exposure Reduction Charter adapted into living 5-Year

Plan with SVP ultimate signature approval– Chemistry parameters are in the site management

common vocabulary and are discussed daily– Operational focus on Hydrogen Water Chemistry, Zinc

Injection, RWCU Availability– Measures such as Cobalt-to-Zinc ratio are driven to beat

minimum industry guidance (2e-5) and drive for best identified performance (<5e-6)

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• Equipment Reliability– Plant vibrations at EPU now less than 50% of those at

old full power– Technical Human Performance philosophy and

principles developed that govern engineering activities– Component Maintenance Optimization (CMO)

organization formed– Dose is a required value utilized in Plant Health

Committee discussions of mod prioritization– Dose integrated into Tactical ER Lists

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• Worker Engagement– Individual dose accountability established including a

structure for assigning dose goals to individual level daily

– RWP Trip Tickets implemented that force determination and accounting of dose individually

– FLS ownership of crew estimating, performance, and feedback established

– Management accountable to 10 micro-Sv (1 mrem) overages in Plan of the Day (POD) meetings

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• Strategic Planning– Fleet dose now monitored with aggregate over/under

performance accounted for– Corporate ALARA Committee (CAC) established with

site ownership for dose at the Plant Manager level– Long-term Planning includes population of dose impact

of future jobs (out 5 years) as part of decision-making process

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Red line represents 160 rem (1.6 Sv) – our path to Top Quartile dose performance

Impact: Quad Cities-1 (Outage)

8.6

7.0

6.2

0 Sv

1 Sv

2 Sv

3 Sv

4 Sv

5 Sv

6 Sv

7 Sv

8 Sv

9 Sv

10 Sv

Dos

e (p

erso

n-Si

ever

t)

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8.6

7.0

2.5

2.0

6.2

0 Sv

1 Sv

2 Sv

3 Sv

4 Sv

5 Sv

6 Sv

7 Sv

8 Sv

9 Sv

10 Sv

Dos

e (p

erso

n-Si

ever

t)


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8.6

7.0

2.51.9

1.6

6.2

0 Sv

1 Sv

2 Sv

3 Sv

4 Sv

5 Sv

6 Sv

7 Sv

8 Sv

9 Sv

10 Sv

Dos

e (p

erso

n-Si

ever

t)


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Impact: Quad Cities (On-Line)Quad Cities On-Line Dose Performance

(Dose per Month - in person-rem)

15.1

9.9

9.0

7.4

5.6

4.6

0 rem

2 rem

4 rem

6 rem

8 rem

10 rem

12 rem

14 rem

16 rem

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Dos

e (p

erso

n-re

m)

Median Value: 7.0 rem/2 unit BWRTop Quartile: 5.2 rem/2 unit BWRTop Decile: 3.0 rem/2 unit BWR

(Source: INPO July 2006)

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Assess Yourself

• Where do you stand on each of the topics?• Have you successfully made true believers of your

peer departments?• Are you that good or that lucky?• What do the low level indicators tell you?• Are you listening?

• Each fundamental area of Organizational ALARA has its measurements, indicators and anecdotes of performance

Thank You.

Questions?Comments?

moving beyond time, distance and shielding: developing the concept of organizational alara

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