Nuclear Commissioning Excellence Forum (NCEF)
About the Nuclear Commissioning Excellence Forum
The Nuclear Commissioning Excellence Forum (NCEF) is a group of individuals and companies who are interested in developing best practice in Commissioning for Nuclear projects in the UK. The forum includes most of the companies holding a UK nuclear site licence and is expanding to include many companies from the supply chain who support nuclear commissioning. It was set up after recognising that, as with many technical areas, the UK needed to strengthen its understanding of how to commission nuclear projects as well as develop the next generation of commissioning engineers & managers.
Creating the Benchmark for Nuclear Commissioning
Nuclear commissioning has much in common with commissioning in the process industries but has an additional level of rigour required. It is subject to the common problems of time and cost, as well as the more distinct challenges concerning handover/turnover, configuration management, the alignment of culture and expectations between client and contractor, and the UK context. The intention of the NCEF is to address these problems as well as improve the current commissioning capabilities of the member companies. We believe this can be achieved through improving the expertise of our current personnel, sharing lessons learned and increasing the number of engineers moving into commissioning roles.
Objective
The core objective of the group is to find best practice within the field of nuclear commissioning, and ways to roll-out best practice through internal and external education. We aim to obtain a generic answer to the challenges in the form of a toolbox. This includes the “Nuclear Commissioning Excellence Manual” which was launched in February 2020 at the NCEF Industry Liaison Day and can be download below.
Benefits of the NCEF
The advantage of meeting as a forum is the collective experience and expertise of individuals in their commissioning fields, meaning that the end value exceeds the input of individuals. The NCEF benefits from the support of the Nuclear Institute (NI) in the form of sponsorship to promote the work and outcomes of the forum, obtain a wider reach, peer review and help to create an enduring legacy. We are investigating an alliance with the Sector Skills Councils/ National Skills Academy, Universities and Nuclear Skills Strategy Group (NSSG).
Sharing Best Practice across the Nuclear Commissioning Industry
Members
The core NCEF membership consists of the license owners AWE, EDF Energy, Urenco, Sellafield, Magnox, Rolls Royce and BAE Submarines. The forum is open to other members interested in Nuclear Commissioning and already includes Fennovoima (a Nuclear new build project in Finland). The forum is expanding to include supply chain companies, designers and other interested organisations.
For more information regarding the Nuclear Commissioning Excellence Forum, please contact one of those listed below.
Chair: Simon Block
Deputy Chairs: Andy Waring, Sam Billington and Dave Brophy
Secretary: Marjorie Smith
Terms of reference