July 29, 2024: Stephen Fleshman (pictured here during his operational nuclear career), a Cohesive nuclear industry lead, explains why the nuclear sector must keep pushing forward into the digital age.
IN 2017, The Economist, relayed how one of the world’s oldest products – glass – had been enhanced and updated for the digital age.
One of the biggest glass makers was approached by Steve Jobs with a challenge – to produce a clear, tough and scratch-resistant glass for the screen of the iPhone.
That was 2006. Today, the glass that was produced by Corning, in a laboratory in upstate New York – Gorilla Glass – is protecting phone screens around the globe.
From the oldest products (glass dates back more than 4,000 years), to the services that are a common part of our everyday lives – all are facing the digital future and adapting and re-inventing themselves for it.
The nuclear sector is no exception. Spurred on by both the evidence that the early adopters are presenting and by loud encouragement from industry leaders, nuclear organisations are grasping the digital opportunity.
As the NEA Director-General William D. Magwood, IV noted in 2021: “It’s time for the nuclear industry to come into the 21st century (and), to bring digital technologies along.”
So where is the evidence? It generates from organisations like Ameren, where, the implementation of Bentley’s AssetWise Asset Lifecyle Information Management (ALIM) system has vastly improved visibility and access to all critical plant information, documents and records.
Its digital journey began many years ago when its Callaway nuclear plant, in Callaway County, Missouri, was facing challenges including:
- A competitive market that required maximum output at minimum cost, without compromise to safety
- Lowered regulatory ratings
- A critical need for fast, concise and accurate plant information
After extensive market research, it identified ALIM as the best-suited platform for document and records management. It automatically captured and managed records in electronic format from multiple applications, and, at that time, 900 people working at the plant used it every day to capture, retrieve and view one or more of over six million documents, drawings, records and other information.
It severely curtailed the need to process paper based records and the associated labor intensive activities of scanning, manual indexing and storage and its permissions feature meant it could define who had access to which records, while prohibiting access by unauthorised persons.
Costs, accuracy, accountability and access were all improved, with information identified in context to what it related to to ensure rapid decision making and improved efficiency.
Rigour in record-keeping
Next month, myself, and my colleagues, Eli Maftoum and Derick Stone, will be sharing success stories like this from Ameren, Entergy and others, when I join professionals from across the sector at the Nuclear Information & Records Management Association (NIRMA) symposium.
We will be talking about connected data environments and the technologies that are enabling nuclear professionals to improve the accessibility, quality and integrity of their information, embed change and configuration management best practices and improve safety and compliance.
NIRMA is a standards and educational organization with members in the United States and internationally. Its mission is to educate nuclear and associated industries, agencies, and regulators in the development, implementation, and administration of information and process management best practices and technologies.
As an experienced nuclear professional – I spent 31 years in various roles in the nuclear industry – I am passionate about how our industry is advancing and the benefits digital has to offer us. I know too that we must not risk getting left behind.
The NIRMA symposium, sponsored by Cohesive, will take place on August 5-7. Stephen will be presenting on August 6. More details on the symposium can be found here: Annual Symposium | NIRMA
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