Secure your nuclear facility with efficient operation and maintenance.

Nuclear plants are designed to last for decades, and often end up in operation for years past their designed lifetime. Your top priority is ensuring its safe and reliable operation. Competent and well-planned maintenance based on international and local standards, and the demands of the safety case, is the foundation for keeping the public, workers, and the environment safe.

On the part of the operator, this requires a high level of commitment and investment in ongoing maintenance and modernization activities. Keeping your plant in good working condition involves preventive and corrective measures, which are subject to tests, calibration, and in-service inspections to ensure their structures, systems, and components are able to fulfill their various functions. Typical activities here include the in-service inspection, overhaul, repair, and replacement of system components.

Operators need to ensure that their plants comply with the latest nuclear technology and continue to comply with all requirements around Functional Safety as well as Operational Technology (OT) / Information Technology (IT) security and that risks are identified and mitigated early. The importance of OT/IT security in particular should not be underestimated, since nuclear plants increasingly rely on digital systems, comprising both systems specifically designed for the plant as well as commercial of the shelf (COTS) systems. As well as investing in the latest nuclear technology and equipment, operators must be prepared to spend money on well-trained, experienced workers.

In addition to internal self-assessments and external ones conducted by third parties such as TÜV Rheinland, local, independent regulatory bodies also provide oversight, e.g. through regular inspections, and enforcement action where necessary.

Nuclear facilities require a high level of investment in ongoing maintenance activities. We are experienced in equipment reliability assessment as well as supporting and leading activities such as:

• Maintenance strategy reviews
• Maintenance activity optimization
• Enhanced plant monitoring
• Data analysis
• Maintenance technique reviews
• Single point vulnerability identification

Keeping plant in good working condition involves preventive and corrective measures, which are subject to testing, calibration, and in-service inspections to ensure their structures, systems, and components are able to fulfill their various functions. Typical activities here include the in-service inspection, overhaul, repair, and replacement of system components.

Nuclear facilities must undergo regular safety inspections and assessments to keep them running safely and smoothly. We support you during this phase of the plant life cycle, especially with regular inspections, or additional checks/inspections if something changes in the design of your plant.

Furthermore, our expertise in radiation protection means we support you with radiological assessments, during regular operation and when evaluating atmospheric dispersion.

As a member of the Equipment Qualification Services Alliance (EQSA), our experts are up to date on the very latest technological requirements and developments, and they apply this knowledge in their daily work with plant operators. Our expertise goes far beyond traditional safety inspections and assessments. Given the digital transformation currently underway, we know that cybersecurity is more important than ever. In nuclear plants, functional safety and cybersecurity are increasingly merging together. Our cybersecurity specialists help you implement appropriate measures that protect you against attacks on both your IT and OT infrastructures.

Our services include:

• Design change assessment
• Repeating inspections supervision
• Operational radiation protection
• Atmospheric dispersion
• Radiation protection planning
• Equipment qualification (EQSA)
• OT security
• Functional safety assessment / Functional Safety Management Certification (FSM)

Operational nuclear facilities require regular safety case reviews, plant enhancements and management of obsolescence issues. We are experienced in supporting all of these areas to ensure safety standards are maintained:

Safety Case Reviews

Review of the adequacy of nuclear safety cases is an essential ongoing process for operational nuclear facilities. Our consultants are experienced in the completion of safety case reviews against plant performance, global operational experience and changes to safety standards.

Plant Enhancements

As a result of safety case reviews it can be necessary to make modifications to existing plant systems, for example, making enhancements to ensure cyber security requirements are met or addition of diverse plant protections systems. We are experienced in the completion of optioneering, functional and technical requirement setting, design justification and safety case production.

Obsolescence Management

Nuclear power plants are large and complex facilities with long operating lives. As a consequence, obsolescence of plant systems and components is a significant ongoing issue. In particular, as plants age the replacement of components with modern equivalents requires additional safety case justification. We are experienced in the review of obsolete system/component functionality, the identification of equivalent components and the production of plant modification safety cases.

Qualified personnel are not easy to find, so we offer various nuclear training courses for education and training. In the area of operation and maintenance of a nuclear facility, you can choose from the following training courses:

• Implementation of a Regulatory Regime
• Nuclear Lifecycle Hazards and Risks
• Nuclear Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA)
• Nuclear Reactor Basics
• Principles of Regulatory Systems
• Radiological Protection

You are interested in further nuclear trainings? Have a look at our Training and Education Area. You will find there all training along the entire life cycle of a nuclear facility.