Plenary 2

Monday, April 9, 10:30 am-12:00 pm

Leveraging Innovations in Construction Technologies to Reduce New NPP Cost and Schedule

Organized and chaired by: Jacopo Buongiorno (MIT)

The capital cost of new nuclear is not dominated by the NSSS and BOP technologies, but rather by the indirect costs, i.e. how the plants are built (including labor costs), engineering costs (including licensing) and owner’s costs (especially interest during construction). Therefore, cross-cutting technologies that can reduce the indirect costs and construction schedule for any NSSS design warrant careful consideration. Examples of such technologies include ultra-high performance concrete (allowing for elimination of formwork and drastic reduction of rebar), advanced seismic isolation (allowing for site-independent design of NSSS structures, systems and components), below-grade embedment using modern giant drilling machines (potentially eliminating the need for the shield building), design-for-fabrication approaches (embedding design with manufacturing, thus reducing the probability of redesign and rework), modular construction (including the use of super-modules that are barge-transported), and advanced site workforce management software. This plenary session will highlight a promising subset of these innovations in the hope that will be considered for adoption by the nuclear industry in the next wave of NPP builds.

Speakers:

ADVANCED CONCRETE FOR NPPs
Andrew Pinneke
Ductal® Architecture Business Development Manager
(Lafarge-Holcim)

USING SEISMIC ISOLATION TO SIMPLIFY AND STANDARDIZE NSSS DESIGNS
Ben Kosbab
Principal Engineer
(SC SOLUTIONS)

DESIGN FOR FABRICATION
Bradley Dunkin
Vice President (ret.),
Nuclear Products Division
(Oregon Iron Works, Inc. / Vigor.)

IMPLEMENTING ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION SOLUTIONS IN THE DESIGN OF A NEW NPP

(GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy)