Overview of the Exelon Nuclear Risk Management Team Model. Annex III

In 2003, Exelon Nuclear decided to outsource the corporate Risk Management (Probabilistic Risk Assessment, PRA) function to a single, sole source specialty services contractor. Exelon at the time was a recently established merger of two major nuclear power plant operators with fleet operations on the east coast of the United States (Pennsylvania's Philadelphia Electric Company – PECO) and in the Midwest (Illinois' Commonwealth Edison Company - ComEd). Exelon, and innovator in consistent and cost effective operations and centralized corporate management models, was actively challenging all operational and organizational aspects of operating their nuclear fleet. Since the risk management organization was a relatively distinct part of the organization, it was considered a good candidate for exploring the benefits of a new centralized team approach via outsourcing. Also at that time, increasing U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulatory requirements for consideration of risk in plant operations, and perceived benefit of utilizing risk-informed methods for cost savings, posed a significant challenge for staffing an adequate organization and maintaining optimal operating costs for a larger fleet. Given the increasing requirements and operational impacts, and the diverse set of skills needed to develop and maintain plant risk models, Exelon determined that having an industry leading PRA and risk management (RM) function would need to be an integral part of the company's fleet strategy. The highly specialized nature of PRA and the relatively limited number of industry resources available to support PRA and RM functions led to the realization that it would be increasingly difficult and costly to internally develop a sufficient capability in this discipline. Having the depth of support offered by the contractor allows for the availability of multiple speciality support engineers qualified and capable of providing support at all times to respond to any emergent condition, as opposed to a solely in-house structure where there may be only a single individual capable of provided the necessary specialized support. Further, the RM organization provides around-the-clock support to address emergent conditions requiring risk analyses, and having multiple qualified individuals from the contractor ensures availability of preparers and reviewers of time critical risk information. To meet this challenge, Exelon outsourced all PRA functions to a specialty RM contractor (JENSEN HUGHES, formerly ERIN Engineering and Research Inc.) that had been a long time provider of these services to both PECO and ComEd. That arrangement has evolved over time, as experience was gained in maintaining an effective and manageable RM function and as Exelon's fleet has grown and risk-informed applications have expanded. The evolution of the corporate risk management function and the associated knowledge management and other technical, operational, and financial considerations that are the subject of this paper are examined in the sections that follow.