License Renewal Program for Entergy’s Fleet of Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

License renewal of operating nuclear power plants in the United States has become one of the most successful nuclear industry activities in the past few years. Entergy, the second largest nuclear plant operator in the U.S., was one of the pioneers in this new process. In 2000, Entergy submitted a license renewal application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for Arkansas Nuclear One, Unit 1. By June 2001, less than 17 months later, the NRC issued a renewed license. Due in part to the efficiency and success of this first Entergy license renewal project, a dedicated team of Entergy and Areva (formerly known as Framatome-ANP) personnel was established using virtual office concepts to work on license renewal for the remaining nine Entergy nuclear units over the next decade. Since each license renewal project takes 4 to 5 years and costs $10 to $15 million to complete [1], the dedicated team has focused on improving the schedule and economics of the license renewal process. By early 2004, the dedicated team has worked on five license renewal projects and expects to begin work on at least two additional projects by 2005. The virtual team organization has established standardized processes for managing data and for performing aging management reviews, environmental reviews, and time limited aging analyses evaluations. In addition, the team has worked with the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and the NRC to further improve the efficiency of the license renewal process. This paper discusses the standardized processes established, the virtual team techniques used to manage multiple license renewal projects, and the plans for further process improvements. The ultimate goal of Entergy’s license renewal work is to achieve a highly efficient and effective license renewal process that ensures the safe continued operation of its fleet of nuclear power plants for decades to come.