Innovation drives nuclear energy. It’s easy to think of the next generation of nuclear reactors first, but the men and women at our nuclear plants work hard every day to improve the reliability and efficiency of our plants, so they can keep generating clean energy 24/7.
NEI presents Top Innovative Practice (TIP) Awards each year at the Nuclear Energy Assembly to recognize the most remarkable efforts aimed at making the current fleet more efficient, reliable and cost-competitive. The TIP Awards highlight new solutions that teams at nuclear energy companies are using to drive the industry forward.
Dominion Energy received the Best-of-the-Best TIP Award from among the other award winners for an innovative pipe upgrade at its Surry Power Station in Virginia, which is expected to reduce maintenance costs and improve long-term reliability with an anticipated 50-year service life.
The team at Dominion Energy walked away with top honors from a field of 10 TIP award winners at the annual conference, held this year in Washington, D.C. Check out the other award winners:
Southern Nuclear won an award for its introduction of a new boiling water reactor fuel design during the first reload of the evolutionary GNF3 fuel from GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy.
The Tennessee Valley Authority used a pair of remote-controlled, low-profile crawler vehicles to transport heavy loads at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant.
Dominion, who also took home the Best-of-the-Best Award, won an award for the repair of critical buried pipelines with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer.
PSEG Nuclear’s Hope Creek Generating Station won an award for HawkEye, a first-of-a-kind, high-definition visual examination and cleaning tool developed by Framatome.
South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Co. won an award for its unique ultrasonic testing technology to assess its circulating water pipelines.
Talen Energy won an award for the novel approach of using 3D-printing technology to create its own prototypes in house.
Exelon Corp. won an award for its Generation Nation, a program to train and engage employees to advocate on behalf of nuclear energy.
Arizona Public Service Co. won an award for a new eddy current analysis that made inspecting heat exchangers more effective at Palo Verde Generating Station.
Southern Nuclear was also recognized for its successful installation of enhanced accident tolerant fuel supplied by Framatome at Vogtle 2 in Georgia.
Two teams from Southern Nuclear won TIP Awards this year.
Duke Energy Corp. won an award for its use of a compressible thermal sleeve to complete a flange repair in hours that used to take weeks.
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