Group sought insights into River Bend’s successful online maintenance program.

St. Francisville, La. — A group of Japanese utility experts interested in improving the performance of their country’s nuclear power fleet recently visited River Bend Station to learn about the plant’s online maintenance program.

An online maintenance program allows work to be done safely on various plant components while it is operating which alleviates the need to shut down the reactor as often and leads to better performance.

Sponsored by the Japanese Society of Mechanical Engineers, the two-day visit in January included a plant tour and meetings with the River Bend management team.

“One of the hallmarks of the nuclear industry is our willingness to share information and best practices,” said Mike Perito, vice president of operations at River Bend. “Our industry is truly an international community, and we were honored to host the Japanese visitors and discuss issues of mutual interest that will help all of us improve performance.”

“The visit was a tribute to the operational excellence of River Bend, an important resource in Louisiana that provides reliable, economic electricity to our customers,” said Renae Conley, president and chief executive officer of Entergy Gulf States Louisiana.

The Japanese group sought insights into River Bend’s success in performing a wide variety of online maintenance, a common practice in the U.S. nuclear industry that has not been implemented to the same degree in Japan. On average, U.S. nuclear plants have shorter refueling outages and higher generation capacity than Japanese plants largely because of their ability to perform work online.

The Japanese visitors met with staff from engineering, maintenance, radiation protection and senior management to discuss River Bend’s online maintenance program and associated practices to reduce radiation exposure to workers.

The group included representatives from various Japanese utility companies and Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station, Shika Nuclear Power Station, Shimane Nuclear Power Station, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, GE- Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Toshiba Corporation Power Systems.

“We are pleased that the Japanese consider our online maintenance program to be an industry best practice,” Perito said. “Being able to positively influence the performance of their country’s nuclear plants by sharing information is a responsibility that we take very seriously, and we look forward to more international exchanges like this in the future.”

Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $10 billion and approximately 15,000 employees.

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