Day Two – Friday, October 29, 2010

8:45 Chairperson’s Recap of Day One

Effective Construction and Project Management Tools

9:00 Addressing and Overcoming Construction Challenges Associated with New Nuclear Builds

• Assessing and evaluating contracting methods, strategies and potential pitfalls
• Quality assurance: What aspects do you need to consider?
• Cost reduction strategies
• Gaining an international perspective: Case studies from successful non-US nuclear build projects
• Cost recovery methodology: Unearthing novel approaches for savings from original projections
• Managing the risk profile for a new construction

Noah Fetherston
Executive Project Director, Nuclear New Build
Fluor

9:45 New Build Project Management: A Step by Step Guide from Licensing To Power Generation

• Examining the role of leadership on a new nuclear project
• Estimating the cost of new reactors – key factors
• Displaying models for project management organization
• Addressing commissioning challenges
•  Operation and maintenance cost optimization

Steven D. Scroggs
Senior Director, Project Development
Florida Power and Light Company

Chuck Pierce
AP1000 Licensing Manager
Southern Company

James Little
Senior Vice President, Nuclear Energy Programs
URS Corporation

James Carter
Director
Navigant Consulting

10:45 Morning Networking and Refreshment Break

11:00 Evaluating Next Generation Reactor Designs and their Impact on Capital Costs

• Status of licensing applications
• Challenges with the regulatory process
• Legal challenges to the license application
• Preparing for challenges within federal and stare permitting processes
• Aligning objectives with reviewing agencies
• Creating win-win opportunities
• Managing multiple public venues for application review
• Financing and procurement methodologies
• Negotiating and drafting agreements and contract terms
• Preparing for a public relations campaign supporting new nuclear projects
• Identifying resources
• Engaging stakeholders
• Engendering political and regulatory support
• Monitoring the economics of nuclear generation
• Moving forward in the face of uncertainty
• Cost comparisons and evolving information
• The cost of alternatives; fuel and emissions markets
• Developing a robust execution strategy
• Establishing the execution team
• Adapting old mindsets to new regulatory realities
• Project controls and active management
• Insurance options for plants under construction – leveraging builders risk insurance to protect against damages that occur during the construction of units or for any delays in their start up

Steven D. Scroggs
Senior Director for Project Development
Florida Power and Light Company

12:15-1:15
Networking Luncheon for Speakers and Delegates

1:15-2:15
Overcoming the Shortage of Qualified Labor – Demonstrating Industry Efforts to Develop the Next Generation of Nuclear Engineers

• Quantifying the impact of standardized plant designs on construction and operating costs
• Leveraging advanced plant designs to minimize risks in materials and equipment reliability
− Is there a market shift towards small modular and alternative reactor designs?
• Determining the impact of advanced safety and security features of next generation reactors
−What are the impending licensing impacts of new reactor designs?
− How will this impact cost and time of new build projects?
• An update on the NRC’s certification of advanced nuclear technology and new plant designs
• Discussing how certification of new designs affect COL applications

Richard Black
Director, Office of Advanced Reactor Concepts
Offi ce of Nuclear Energy
U.S. Department of Energy

Paul Lorenzini
Chief Executive Officer
NuScale Power

Risk Mitigation Tools and Plant Optimization Strategies

11:45 Identifying Risks and Mitigation for New Build Construction

• Understanding the risk in nuclear construction, and preparing for the challenges that development and construction will present
• Discovering practical solutions for working in complicated nuclear construction environments
• Learning about current new build activities and approaches
• Defining new ways to think about risk sharing between owners and EPCs
• Mitigating the key risks that are expected to emerge

James Little
Senior Vice President, Nuclear Energy Programs
URS Corporation

Thomas J. Flaherty
Senior Vice President
Booz & Company

12:30 Networking Luncheon

1:30 Understanding the Benefits of Selecting the Right Reactor Technology Prior to Commercial Operation

With over 40 years of commercial nuclear power operating experience, it is generally understood what products work in which applications, and which ones don’t. During the initial wave of construction, plants were being built at a very fast pace and being built for the first time. Some products were put in applications they weren’t well suited for, and over the years, these plants had to replace these poor performing products with more appropriate technology. Some of this technology wasn’t available at the time, others weren’t known, and still others were simply installed based on time or price constraints.

Today, we have the opportunity to apply these lessons learned to select the right product for the application to maximize plant performance and reduce O&M costs. This discussion will explore several cases at operating nuclear power plants where performance was improved and costs reduced by replacing originally installed products with better suited solutions.

Gary L. Wolski
Vice President, New Build
Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Company

2:15 Ensuring a Long-Term Safe and Reliable Operation: A Case Study of Southern Company’s Technical Vendor Oversight Program for New Nuclear Plants

This program is intended to ensure that equipment provided for Vogtle, Unites 3 and 4 fully meets the technical requirements necessary to support a long-term safe and reliable operation.

• Understanding the scope of responsibility
 − Fabrication through to transportation
• Component risk-ranking
− Nuclear safety and project schedule
• Evaluating vendor perspectives on third party inspections, audits, and surveys
• Discussing oversight plans
− Component-specific, W&H Points
• Discussing project interfaces
− Quality Assurance, ITAAC, engineering, project controls
• Resources needs such as qualified people, specialized technical skill sets, and planning tools

Brian H. Whitley
Nuclear Development Procurement Manager
Southern Nuclear Operating Company

3:00 Afternoon Networking and Refreshment Break

3:15 Lessons Learned from Canadian Refurbishment and New Build Procurement

• Bruce Power is currently undertaking the refurbishment and restart of 2 CANDU units (one of the largest infrastructure projects in North America)
− Units 1 and 2 at the Bruce A plant have been undergoing a major refurbishment to replace their fuel channels and steam generators
− Refurbishing two 769 MWe Candu reactors as a faster option than building new ones in the face of impending power shortages
− Upgrading ancillary systems to current standards enabling them to operate for a further 25 years
• Lessons learned from the restart project have been applied to New Build procurement and will be applied to the refurbishment program for Bruce Power’s remaining 6 units
− Uncovering the role of the client, overheads, fee, rewards and divisions of responsibility between major contractors for streamlining the refurbishment project
• These lessons have ultimately lead to the formation of an in-house best in class project management and construction organization
− Measuring performance and benchmarking project planning and execution

Brian Hilbers
Associate General Counsel and Business Manager
Bruce Power

4:00 Improving the Process of Preparing Design Certification Applications – A Case Study on B&W mPower Reactor

• Defining the appropriate content of a DCA to meet evolving NRC expectations
• Integrating design and analysis work with preparation of the DCD
• Integrating human factors and probabilistic risk assessment into design and DCD preparation activities
• Applying lessons learned from current NRC Design Certification reviews
• Pre-application interactions with the NRC to promote efficient, effective regulatory review

Bob Evans
Vice President
New Plant Services
Enercon

4:45 Chairperson’s Closing Remarks and End of Congress