Excel Services and GSE Solutions talk license renewal

The American Nuclear Society recently hosted a Supplier Showcase webinar, "License Renewal: Smarter, Faster, Better," featuring two industry experts from Excel Services Corporation, a regulatory and consulting services firm, and GSE Solutions, a nuclear engineering and software company, who both shared a variety of insights into how to go through the license renewal process efficiently.

The speakers: Keith Brinson and Annessa Lippincott led the discussion. Brinson, a senior project manager supporting global licensing initiatives at Excel, was previously a manager of special nuclear projects at the Department of Defense. Also a seasoned nuclear engineer, Lippincott is a senior consultant at GSE. Her career includes key roles at Callaway Energy Center, where she pioneered virtual inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Challenges today: Brinson highlighted some of the common difficulties he has frequently faced during the license renewal process. One of those challenges is the high rate of turnover at nuclear power plants, especially in the engineering and licensing departments, as employees either move on to new plants and opportunities or move up within a company.

Turnover presents an obvious continuity issue. Excel can be several years into an application or implementation process and then be forced to catch a new employee up to speed. Brinson explained that this problem can be managed if it's anticipated, so it's important to keep in mind throughout any long-term project.

Another common issue at plants that can affect the renewal process is what Brinson described as the loss of "tribal knowledge." Many nuclear power plants in the U.S. that are operating today first came on line in the 1980s. Four decades later, workers who spent their entire careers building a deep knowledge base of those plants are retiring, leading to knowledge loss.

Brinson explained that companies like Excel can also assist here by bringing on retired experts, many of whom have a deep love for the industry and still wish to contribute wherever they can, as consultants.

The goal: Lippincott began her presentation by correcting misconceptions and giving a concrete definition for the goal of a license renewal or subsequent license renewal application. The goal is not, as some might assume, absolute compliance with the NRC's Generic Aging Lessons Learned (GALL) report. The GALL contains the NRC's plant evaluation and recommendations on areas that should be improved for license renewals.

"The GALL is not regulation; it is guidance. You don't have to do everything the GALL says," Lippincott explained. Extending this idea further, she explained that plants shouldn't set the goal of receiving zero requests for additional information (RAIs). RAIs are used by the NRC to understand any issues not addressed in an initial application. "It's the NRC's job to ask questions," she added.

So, if the goal isn't perfect adherence to the GALL, and it isn't receiving zero RAIs, what is it? For Lippincott, a successful application is one that accurately describes to the NRC the way that your plant intends to manage aging during the period of extended operation.

Go deeper: To hear more from Brinson and Lippincott, watch the full webinar on ANS's YouTube channel.