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Provided by ASME Logo The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
POWER 2020
Virtual Conference, Online

Virtual Conference:
August 4 – 5, 2020

Panels

Panelists:
Dr. Dragan Komljenovic, Senior Research Scientist, Research Institute (IREQ), Hydro-Quebec, Canada
Emeka Okafor, Director of Distribution Engineering, AEP Ohio
Bethany Schunn, Plant Manager, Cardinal Power Plant

Organizers:
Shripad Revankar
Frank Michell
Jovica Riznic

Panel Description: Modern electrical power utilities are capital-intensive organizations that are fairly complex in terms of their internal structure, operations and deployed technologies. They also function in an increasingly complex business and operational environment characterized by significant uncertainties such as current COVID-19 pandemic. COVID -19 is affecting not only electrical utilities, but all sectors of life and businesses worldwide. It convincingly shows that we need to think, plan and act globally in order to deal with such situations that will also take place in the future.

Panelists:
Dwayne McDaniel, Florida International University (Crawlers)
Dave Kahan, Gecko Robotics (Boiler Tube NDE Robots)
Cory Knittel, Skydio (Drones)
Lou Nash, Measutronics Corporation (ROV's)

Organizers:
Navid Goudarzi
Frank Michell

Panel Description: Robotics and drone technologies can benefit the inspection and maintenance practices of the growing power industry. This Seminar is designed to provide a unique and interdisciplinary opportunity to share and discuss the following domains:

  • The latest in drone and mobile robot technologies for the field of non-destructive testing
  • The case studies and demonstrations of drone and robotics that benefit the power generation community
  • The evaluation of inspection metrics, namely the accuracy, cost, and safety, by using drones and mobile robot technologies
  • The best practices in data collection, post-processing, and design of experiments

These technical domains benefit a broad range of power industry communities including engineers, researchers, NDT managers, plant managers, asset managers, inspectors, purchasing managers, outage planners, and turnaround planners.

Panelists:
Shannon Bragg-Sitton, Integrated energy systems
Jake Gentle, Wind energy flexibility and Cybersecurity
Thomas Mosier, Boosting Hydropower Flexibility
Kurt Myers, Building Resilient Microgrids
Tanvir Tanim, Energy storage systems

Organizer: George Mesina

Panel Description: Many forms of power generation supply our electrical grid. This panel focuses on how we have arrived at the current state, current efforts to improve it, and a view of things to come. Shannon Bragg-Sitton will lead off with a discussion of integrated energy systems. Jake Gentle will cover wind energy and cybersecurity. Thomas Mosier will present ways to boost hydropower flexibility. Kurt Meyers discuss the building of resilient microgrids, and Tanvir Tanim will finish with systems for storing the energy generated.

Panelists:
Tony Licata, Partner at Licata Energy
Mike Smiarowski, Senior Manager, Steam Product Line at Siemens
Keith Kirkpatrick, VP of Operations at McHale

Organizers:
Brian Wodka, Division Manager at RMF Engineering, Inc.
Tina Toburen, President at T2E3, Inc.

Panel Description: The US Environmental Protection Agency has issued their Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule that is applicable to coal-fired electric generating plants over 25MW. At the present time, States that have coal-fired plants are required to develop specific plans to reduce CO2 emission by implementing heat rate improvements on a long-term basis.

One of the major concerns of some ASME divisions and committees is that there is no consensus standard to measure and report on improvements in long-term or annual heat rates. This panel will discuss the status of the ACE rule and key features to improve heat rates in advance of the implementation of the final rules by each state.

Representative of Codes & Standards will provide an status report on ASME’s activities to develop a PTC for long-term heat rate

Summarize current activities some utilities are investigating, which have been cited by the EPA as six candidate technologies:

  • Neural Network/Intelligent Sootblowers
  • Boiler Feed Pumps
  • Air Heater and Duct Leakage Control
  • Variable Frequency Drives
  • Blade Path Upgrade (Steam Turbine)
  • Redesign/Replace Economize

Organizer: Guoqiang Wang

Panel Description: The development of Robust or Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) has become an international area of interest and effort in the last few years. Conceptually ATF would provide leap-ahead improvement in Light Water Reactor (LWR) fuel safety during beyond design basis accidents and commercial benefit to nuclear utilities. Accelerated by the severe accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, a variety of research, development and commercial analysis of ATF is presently underway globally. The insertion of ATF lead test rods (LTR) into a commercial PWR has been underway since 2019.

This panel will present and discuss the state-of-art knowledge of ATF from the point of view of industry, government, non-profit research agencies, and academic representatives currently leading global ATF development. The significant challenges in development and implementation of ATF, such as large scale ATF fabrication, acceptance by nuclear utilities, the role of government and inter-government agencies in ATF research oversight, and the engineering and scientific challenges to develop ATF will be presented. The goal of this panel is to communicate the current understanding of the commercial and technical challenges faced in ATF development.

Panelists:
Matthew Swartz, Westinghouse
Masayoshi Matsuura, Hitachi
Song Danrong, NPIC

Organizers:
Mohamed El-Genk, University of New Mexico
Shripad Revankar, Purdue University

Panel Description: Panel Description: The small modular reactor and advanced reactors have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by displacing fossil fuels in the generation of electricity and in the application of process heat for number of energy intensive industrial products. These reactors have inherent safety and that offer simplified operation and maintenance for distributed power and load-following applications, and increased proliferation resistance and security. This panel will discuss about technology development progress and status on small modular reactors and advanced reactors.

Panelists
Clint Armstrong
Kota Otsuki
Mingyue Sun

Organizer: Robert Stakenborghs

Description:

  • Westinghouse Advanced Manufacturing Technologies for Nuclear Applications
  • Advanced Electron Beam Welding Technology for Manufacturing Nuclear Power Plant Components
  • A Novel Technology of Manufacturing Pressure Vessels Used in PWRs

Panel Description: This panel focuses on the future of Nuclear Power with an emphasis on research and innovations underway at INL and around the USA. Bruce Halbert will lead off with our ongoing efforts to sustain the current fleet of nuclear power plants. Ashley Finan will cover Advanced Reactor Demonstrations via NRIC, the National Reactor Innovation Center. Mike Narato will present on new solutions for the nuclear fuel cycle. Christine King will discuss ways to accelerate nuclear energy innovation through GAIN, the Gateway for Accelerating Innovation in Nuclear. Jess Gehin will present big opportunities for nuclear power via microreactors. Finally, Kemal Pasamehmetoglu will address the global need for fast spectrum irradiation testing and the Versatile Test Reactor.

Moderator: John Wagner

Panelists:

  • Sustaining the Current Fleet, Bruce Hallbert
  • Delivering Advanced Reactor Demonstrations via NRIC, Ashley Finan
  • Nuclear Fuel Cycle Solutions, Mike Narato
  • Accelerating Nuclear Energy Innovation via GAIN, Christine King
  • Microreactors: A Big Opportunity for Nuclear, Jess Gehin
  • VTR: Addressing the Global Need for Fast Spectrum Irradiation Testing, Kemal Pasamehmetoglu

Panel Description:

  • How policy decisions can have a positive impact on new technology development and how they are being used now to bring about rapid deployment of new advanced reactors.
  • How some policy decisions, such as non-proliferation, can have a negative impact on technology development and the ability of US companies to compete in the international market.
  • What can industry do to influence the policy decision makers to allow expansion of this important industry.

Panelists:
Suzie Jaworowski
Alyse Huffman
Spencer Nelson
Niko McMurray
Jackie Kempfer

Panel Description: This Panel Session will be chaired by Dr Tadashi Narabayashi, he was an advisory meeting member of NISA with regard to technical lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi NPP accidents, and he was the member of Fukushima Daiichi Accident Investigation Team in NRA (Nuclear Regulatory Authority). He is the chairman of the new committee to learn Black out of Hokkaido earthquake, a lot of Typhoons and heavy rain in PESD/JSME. The session will show the progress of decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi NPS, technology development, research projects for that purpose, and support for Fukushima reconstruction activities, such as cut off the stack, spent fuel removal and robotics technology.

Organizer: Tadashi Narabayashi

Panelists:
Tadashi Narabayashi
Toshihiko Fukuda
Mariko Chuman
Masaki Murakoshi
Koji Okamoto
Hiroshige Kikura
Hideharu Takahashi