Overview //
Throughout the nuclear life cycle changes are continually required. The changes can be triggered by different events—from regulation change to deficiencies in nuclear facility operation. Within any industry there is significant business value to why change should be managed, communicated, audited and recorded. In the nuclear industry practitioners have invested considerable time and costs to define guidelines for the proper management of change. The predominant process is based on the fundamental concepts and processes of configuration management, and embedded in this process is the ANSI/NIRMA CM 1.0 standard, a configuration standard for the nuclear industry.
eB for Nuclear provides applications that have been jointly developed with customers to meet the guidelines and best practices of industry organizations and guidance from practitioners. eB Nuclear Design Engineering is built upon nuclear industry guidelines and supports fleet or plant-wide Configuration Management on facility System, Structures, Components (SSC’s), the fitted equipment assets and their relationships to other enterprise objects. Associated documents are managed according to the guidelines through adequate Identification, Classification, Structure and Control.
For Nuclear facilities, Configuration Management (CM) encompasses all “fit, form, function” data (often referred to as Master Equipment List (MEL) data) for SSCs, as well as structural design, documentation of modifications, control of critical-use plant drawings, operating manuals, maintenance procedures, limits and set-points for systems, vendor manuals, and training materials for replacement staff. An effectively established CM system will provide a cost-effective method of configuration control at any nuclear site. This means less need for operators, planners, engineers, and maintenance personnel to recreate information, and the potential to improve worker safety, reduce costs, increase asset protection and improve compliance with best practice and industry reviews.
INPO is a registered trademark of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. References to INPO and its guidelines do not represent endorsement of Enterprise Informatics' products.
Design Engineering Management and Cable/Raceway Management
Automate critical business processes throughout the nuclear life cycle.
Business Values
"With eB we’ve been able to improve the rigor of our engineering design change process in accordance with INPO® AP-929 and can ensure that we are compliant with our licensed design basis requirements."
— Janice Hoerber, IT supervisor, AmerenUE/Callaway Plant
eB Nuclear Design Engineering is used by engineering organizations to manage change and modifications to the nuclear facility while complying with design standards and licensing commitments. Facilities using eB improve integrity of information, enable proper assessment and impact of change, steamline auditing of all affected objects, and increase visibility to the current status of all entities in the nuclear facility at anytime. These process improvements lower cost of plant operations through worker efficiency and minimize costly rework, increase ratings during industry reviews and capture knowledge that can be reused by knowledge workers. eB Nuclear Design Engineering offers these additional benefits:
- Single facility-wide change control system—Changes may vary from items and components to documents and even processes and plant programs
- Quality of data is maintained during the complete data life cycle
- Visibility to similar motivated initiatives to provide a single access point for Structure, System and Component (SSC) research
- Support for history of change and effect for all hosted SSC’s and documents
- Contextual mapping methodology to build relationships between SSC’s data and “what” they are about, e.g. requirements, projects, functions and processes
- Visibility of current business processes for improvement of productivity efficiencies
- Integration with other line of business systems, including Performance Improvement, Work Management, EQ Programs and Equipment Reliability applications
- Exposure to business intelligence information in a facility dashboard, which is customizable by users of the system
- Standardized change and configuration control
- Central point for component registration, to ensure unique and standardized component identification for all components
- Status and location accounting, i.e. where is it now and is it maintainable, scrapped, etc.
- Support for segmented data ownership, e.g. Engineering may own as-built configuration data, while other departments will own as-maintained data
- Supports for the management of functional equipment groups so they are visible, managed and appear integral to the data structures presented in the system
- Intelligent component breakdown structures provide information on where items are used, where they are located, etc.for example system, classification and location structures shown as trees
- Management of information on product equivalents, manufacturers, recent change history, etc.
- Management of equivalent manufacturer/model and serial number information can be configured, rather than carried as auxiliary data, allowing the information to have context and meaning, and thus ensure its continued accuracy
Next Tab: Applications
Applications
"eB’s greatest strength is its ability to identify all other required changes when a change is initiated. It’s the only application available today that fully meets the requirements of ANSI/NIRMA CM1.0 and allows nuclear organizations to easily conform to the processes recommended by INPO® AP-929 and AP-907."
— Michael D. Stout, Founder & Former Chairman, CMBG
eB requirements modeling, classification and relationships
eB’s predefined, ready-to-use information objects provide a rich model for classifying information and establishing relationships between relevant enterprise objects, ensuring the integrity of controlled information by uniquely managing its connectivity to all other relevant information. Design Basis management intensive processes, like linking ‘as-built’ facility configuration MEL data to licensing and other regulatory requirements can be streamlined through these features.
eB Controlled Documents and Records Management
eB creates a rich environment for collaboration, ensuring the integrity and visibility of information. It effectively, efficiently, and accurately captures, manages, controls, retrieves, distributes, and archives all document format types across the enterprise. Structured and unstructured data can be managed across multiple locations throughout the enterprise and the lifecycle of the documents and records.
Comprehensive access controls restrict access to information using various security mechanisms. Responsibility-based access control may also be applied where required, for example, allowing only Engineering access to Design Basis information, ensuring that enterprise information is available only to authorized personnel.
eB Facility Design Engineering and Modification Management Application
This user interface exposes all eB functions needed by facility engineering groups to manage their Master Equipment List (MEL) data while having access to define relationships with enterprise objects defined in other eB for Nuclear applications.
In support of the NEI Nuclear Performance Model and according to the nuclear industry guidelines, eB Design Engineering application exposes the following functions:
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eB's fully configurable built-in workflow capability allows automation of all actions on MEL and related eB object data. Pre-defined workflow templates ensure consistency and conformance to site-specific process needs to improve business overall process efficiencies.
eB Nuclear Design Engineering Cable/Raceway Management application
eB Nuclear Cable Manager is a proven state-of-the-art electrical engineering module used to track, analyze, and quantify all nuclear and fossil fuel facility electrical components.
Features:
- Oracle 10g and MS SQL Server Database Manager
- Installed at Existing US Nuclear Facilities
- User Access based on extensive security model
- Menu Driven and intuitive - Minimal User Training
- On-Line Help Screens
- Historical Database via component/document revisions as well as component snapshots, which produces a baseline used for quality records.
- Web based Reports; fully extensible
Next Tab: Technology
Technology
Built upon an advanced Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), eB uses the latest Microsoft technologies. Developed with the same technologies as SharePoint, eB embraces Microsoft's .NET framework to form the foundation of its application server tier, web services and user interfaces. This architecture allows eB to easily be integrated to other business critical applications.
eB is compatible with Windows 7 and certified for Windows Server 2008. Enterprise Informatics is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.
The eB architecture is proven to be enterprise scalable and highly reliable, and offers the flexibility to adapt to the unique business requirements of a diverse customer base. eB is a highly effective solution for building bridges between SharePoint sites across the enterprise (eB for SharePoint) and other information repositories that are required to realize an effective EIM strategy.
eB for Enterprise is certified by the Institute of Configuration Management (ICM) as a four star Configuration Management software platform.
For more information visit the Technology page.
Next Tab: Resources
Resources
eB for Nuclear Solution Brief
Nuclear Information Life Cycle Solution Brief
White Paper: Striving to Maintain the Nuclear Design Basis — What you need in an electronic design engineering solution
AmerenUE: Callaway Nuclear Plant Case Study
Nuclear Knowledge Management White Paper
Further information is also available by following these links:
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)
United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
Institute for Nuclear Power Operations (INPO)
The following standards and guidelines are used as a guideline to ensure that these requirements are satisfied by the implementation of appropriate data and document management processes:
- ANSI/NIRMA CM 1.0 – 2000 – Guidelines for Configuration Management of Nuclear Facilities
- DOE-STD-1073-2003 – DOE Standard for Configuration Management
- CFR Part 54 (Safety) and 10 CFR Part 51 (Environmental)
- GL 88-18 – Plant Record Storage on Optical Disks
- RIS 2000 - Guidance on Managing Quality Assurance Records in Electronic Media
Next Tab: Customers
Customers
Energy Customers // Nuclear Design Engineering
AmerenUE (Callaway Plant)
Uses eB to manage their complete Design Basis requirements consisting of the licensing documents and Master Equipment List (MEL).
Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Station
Uses eB to manage their complete Design Basis requirements and Master Equipment List (MEL).
Constellation Energy (Calvert Cliffs 1 & 2, Ginna, Nine Mile Point 1&2)
Uses eB to manage their complete Design Basis requirements consisting of the licensing documents and Master Equipment List (MEL).
Nuclear Fuel Services
Uses eB to manage their complete Design Basis requirements consisting of the licensing documents and Master Equipment List (MEL).For more information about our customers and our nuclear products, visit the Download Center.
First Tab: Business Values
