Institution news
The challenge for operators is to operate and upgrade generating equipment beyond its original lifespan while ensuring continued asset integrity to meet the high levels of safety demanded by industry regulators. With this in mind, we spoke with Doug Styles at the Office for Nuclear Regulation, who will be providing attendees at the Institution’s upcoming Managing Ageing Nuclear Assets conference with the ONR’s guidance on balancing safety, cost and performance.
Q: Please provide us with a brief overview of your current role and involvement in the nuclear sector:
Doug Styles (DS): I’m a Nuclear Safety Inspector at ONR – my primary role is to enforce the law and influence improvements in nuclear safety. At the moment I’m focussed on work at Sellafield, but there are obviously challenges we address which are common across the sector.
Q: What is the number one challenge facing nuclear engineers in today’s current market?
DS: The top challenges are around funding and decision making. Nuclear engineers are constantly having to grapple with decisions around when to invest in life extension vs. when to replace assets. Understanding when and how to make those decisions is critical.
Q: What is the most exciting development in this field at the moment, either within your organisation or in the industry in general?
DS: We’re encouraged by the opportunities for new technologies to improve understanding of the condition of ageing assets. Drones and other robotic solutions are very exciting and the ONR is keen to have positive conversations with operators to enable their development.
Q: What key areas are you covering in your presentation this year?
DS: My presentation is split between two broad themes: the first is communicating the ONR’s expectations for licensees regarding management of ageing assets. The second discusses the results of research commissioned by the ONR into ageing assets and performance beyond design life.
Q: What other topics are you most looking forward to discussing at this year’s conference?
DS: I’m looking forward to getting a view from across the industry – it is often easy to look inward but sharing good practice and getting a range of views is important.
I have been involved in Barry Lennox’s robotics research so it will be exciting to get an update on this work. Additionally, the ongoing changes within the NDA are obviously critical to this topic, so it will be great for delegates to hear from John Chappell who is the incoming Director of Asset Management and Continuous Improvement.
Q: Why is it important for engineers to join the Managing Ageing Nuclear Assets conference?
DS: This is a timely event because ageing assets are a challenge across industry. Many facilities are operating at or beyond their design life, so everyone is affected by these topics. The ONR wants to be transparent about what is and is not required from duty holders, and this conference is a great opportunity for these sorts of discussions.
Managing Ageing Nuclear Assets takes place on 16-17 October 2019 in Manchester. This two-day conference will address the key engineering and regulatory challenges arising from the management of late and end of life nuclear installations and their associated infrastructure. Learn about how to maximise the reliability, performance and lifetime of your nuclear fleet while achieving high levels of safety, with input from industry regulators, operators, contractors and service providers.
To find out more and book you place please visit www.imeche.org/mana.