Adolfo Repáraz

adreparaz@nuclearfueladvisor.com 

Summary

Extensive experience in the commercial nuclear industry in the areas of fuel mechanical design and manufacturing, irradiated fuel inspection, fuel performance assessment, failed fuel diagnostics, irradiated fuel inspection tooling, manufacturing surveillances, project management, hot cell inspections, and interaction with licensing authorities. Highly experienced in quality assurance/quality control management. Provided independent consulting services to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the development of advanced fuel designs competing for DOE funding. Certified QA Auditor by AQS (American Quality Society) and a Lead Auditor by DOE OCRWM (Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management).

As Manager of Product Performance Engineering with Westinghouse Electric Company, responsible for conducting irradiated fuel inspection campaigns of Westinghouse fuel in the US, Taiwan and some European plants and for providing customer support during refueling outages.   Defined training requirements for the technical development of irradiated fuel lead inspectors.

As the Director of Product Mechanical Engineering at Siemens Power Corporation (now AREVA), responsible for the mechanical design of fuel and core components for PWR and BWR reactors. Managed large projects to implement unique solutions to nuclear power plant operational problems including the development of the High Thermal Performance (HTP) grid, the debris filter FUELGUARD nozzle, the fuel rod clip to address the problem of baffle jetting and the implementation in the US of the BWR ATRIUM fuel design developed in Germany. Numerous interactions with the USNRC and the licensing authorities of other countries to obtain approval of new designs and design methods.

 

Experience:

Westinghouse Electric Corporation • Columbia, South Carolina • 2006-2016
Manager of Product Performance Engineering

  • Developed and maintained internal, customer and external contacts such as EPRI to implement fuel inspection services product line strategies to ensure achievement of quality, customer needs, strategic R&D and financial objectives.
  • Provided leadership in the development of employees under my supervision.
  • Ensured continuous and consistent implementation of the Westinghouse Quality Manual.
  • Provided leadership for continuous improvement activities.
  • Developed new Engineering Procedures for the causal analysis of fuel leakers.
  • Managed capital projects for the implementation of improved fuel inspection tooling.
  • Provided direction to other Westinghouse groups to achieve irradiated product inspection objectives.
  • Directed the resolution of complex problem arising during execution of irradiated fuel inspection campaigns by working with customers and other Westinghouse stakeholders.
  • Established and implemented metrics to report performance of nuclear fuel.
  • Participated in industry groups for the development of fuel surveillance inspection guidelines.
  • Product Manager for commercial irradiated fuel inspections.
  • Managed the fuel warranty fund to insure warranty campaigns are executed with maximum quality and minimum cost.

Ariadne Engineering• Richland, Washington • 2001-2005
Independent Consultant

  • Performed numerous QA surveillances and audits on behalf of the US Department of Energy of contractors working in the high level waste vitrification project in Hanford, WA.
  • Contracted by MIT to provide consulting on mechanical design of advanced nuclear fuel designs.
  • Contracted by Thorium Power to provide strategic guidance to the licensing of innovative fuel designs developed by that company.
  • Evaluated fuel performance experience and fuel manufacturing techniques in Russia to identify areas with potential commercial value in western PWR fuels.

Siemens Power Corporation/AREVA • Richland, Washington • 1979-2001

Numerous positions of increased technical and managerial responsibility in the engineering, manufacturing, fuel performance/fuel inspection, reactor services and business development areas including:
Director of Product Mechanical Engineering.

  • Reporting to the VP of Engineering. Responsible for fuel design definition and manufacturing process development. Developed designs and methods that were approved by the NRC and other regulatory authorities.

Director of Reactor Services and Systems

  • Reporting to the VP of marketing. Business development of plant services such as water chemistry monitoring, reactor decommissioning including primary system decontamination and irradiated fuel inspections and repairs. Developed new QA Procedures and training programs applicable to the Services organization.

Program Manager

  • Responsible for the development of the High Thermal Performance (HTP) grid, FUELGUARD bottom nozzle, anti-vibration clips for baffle jetting protection, advanced BWR fuel channel and other innovative products. Developed strategy for implementation of IPQV (in process quality verification) in the manufacturing plant.

Project Engineer

  • Project Engineer for the design and manufacturing campaigns of reload fuel for customers in the US, Belgium, Germany and Taiwan. Planned and conducted work requiring new approaches to problems encountered. Participated in numerous fuel inspection campaigns.

ENUSA • San Jose, California • 1978-1979
Senior Engineer

  • Liaison engineer in transfer of nuclear fuel design and manufacturing technology contract between General Electric and ENUSA. Performed licensing analysis of fuels, participated in the evaluation of the GSTAR computer code.
  • Reviewed manufacturing drawings. Conducted safety analyses. Evaluated disposition of non-conformance reports generated during manufacturing campaign. Supported manufacturing campaigns.

Nuclear Services Corporation• Campbell, California • 1976-1978
Project Manager

  • Project engineer for re-racking projects in the US, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan. Project manager in high density spent fuel rack projects.
  • Performed design and analysis of high density spent fuel racks.
  • Prepared structural analyses including dynamic loadings such as SSE, OBE, SRV discharge in the suppression pool and airplane impact on the reactor building. Evaluated the capabilities of the ECCS to cool a full core discharge in the spent fuel pool. Calculated dose rates assuming 1% of fuel rods failed.
  • Performed natural convection cooling analyses in the spent fuel pool and calculated the time to pool boiling after a full core discharge.

Gibbs & Hill Española • Madrid, Spain • 1973-1976
Engineer

  • Internship and subsequent engineering position in the design and construction of nuclear power plants in Spain. Performed piping support analyses under seismic conditions using the NUPIPE computer code. Carried out linear and non-linear structural analyses of structures and equipment using STRUDL and ANSYS finite element codes

Education:

  • MS Aeronautical Engineering, University of Madrid, Spain. Majored in Fluid Mechanics and Structural Analysis (1974)
  • Completed postgraduate academic requirements towards PhD in the study and development of advanced composite aerospace materials, University of Madrid, Spain (1976)

Professional Training and Certifications:

  • Michigan University Business School: Management of Managers.
  • University of California at Los Angeles: Interpersonal Relationships.
  • Siemens: Project Management and Contract Administration.
  • Washington State University: Leadership: Building a Supportive Work Environment.
  • Zenger-Miller: Leadership and Team Dynamics.
  • Covey Institute: Principle Centered Leadership.
  • Covey Institute: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
  • Bill Corcoran: Effective Problem Resolution.
  • Tenera: Self-Assessment Techniques
  • Tenera: Root Cause Analysis.
  • Keki Bhote: Design of Experiments for World Class Quality.
  • Metals Engineering Institute: Stainless Steels.
  • EIT Certification: State of California 1977.
  • Columbia Basin College: MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point, Access).
  • Siemens: Conflict Resolution Techniques, Coaching and Counseling.
  • Siemens: Statistical Process Control.
  • Siemens: Quality Deployment: Concurrent Engineering.
  • Siemens: German Language Levels I, II and III.
  • Advanced Nuclear Fuels: Persuasive Negotiation Techniques.
  • Exxon Nuclear: Level II NDT Certification.
  • DOE Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management: Lead Auditor.
  • American Quality Society (AQS): Quality Auditor Certification.
  • American Quality Society (AQS): Six-Sigma.
  • American Quality Society (AQS): Root Cause Analysis.

Professional memberships:

American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
American Nuclear Society (ANS)
American Quality Society (AQS)
National Management Association (NMA)

Other:

Authored and presented several technical papers in ANS topical meetings.
Authored several articles published in trade magazines.
Holder of four US Patents.
Recipient of the State of Washington Governor’s award for Best Invention for the fuel rod clips.
Certified quality auditor by the American Society for Quality.
Foreign Languages: French (reading only) and Spanish (native speaker). Technical German (reading)

References provided upon request.