Fire Protection
ARS is a leader in the commercial nuclear power fire protection industry. Our staff has over 100 years of combined experience as fire protection program owners at various nuclear plants and nuclear fleets. This background, combined with over 150 years of operations experience, allows ARS to draw from a diversified set of skills to address our clients’ unique needs, addressing every aspect of the fire protection and safety process.
Operations
The uniquely qualified staff at ARS has a range of skills and experience to perform every aspect of fire protection and safety. When working with a client to bring a plant into NUREG compliance, ARS uses a variety of methods to determine the best way to prevent and control hazardous situations, including fire risk analysis, fire protection separation, electrical separation, code compliance, and compartment analysis.
Electrical
In the event of a fire at a nuclear power plant, the ability to shut down a plant safely is paramount. Task 3 of NUREG/CR-6850 describes how to accomplish this task through a safe shutdown analysis of all electrical cables in a plant. The ARS electrical engineering team has the skills and experience to perform detailed analyses of plant diagrams to determine how electrical circuits controlling safe shutdown equipment may be affected. Through studying plant drawings, cable routing diagrams, and circuit diagrams, ARS electrical engineers are able to create a plan in which equipment necessary to shut the plant down safely remains usable, even in the event of a fire.
Licensing
In the commercial nuclear power industry, licensing refers to the process of gaining government approval for operation of a plant. Part of this process includes demonstrating the ability to contain a fire and shut down the station safely. This ensures that risks due to fires in nuclear plants, such as the Brown’s Ferry disaster in 1976, are greatly reduced. Under current NRC licensing guidelines, all plants must include measures to detect, contain, mitigate, and suppress any fire in the plant. The experienced fire protection engineers and licensing engineers at ARS have the skills and the knowledge to assist any plant with the expertise necessary to comply with government regulations.
Audits / Assessment
ARS provides qualified fire protection engineers when clients need to perform audits and assessments for annual and triennial self-assessments. The experienced staff at ARS has a thorough understanding of all aspects of plant operations and regulatory standards. Based on information provided by nuclear governing bodies, ARS advises clients on what to include in NFPA 805 documentation or similar documentation to local governing bodies.
ARS is a global company with operations throughout the world. The company is adept at working within regulations and coordinating with various national regulatory agencies.
Project Management
ARS employs highly experienced engineers and staff to provide premier consultants to the commercial nuclear fire protection sector. In addition to over 100 years of combined staff experience in the commercial power industry, the staff at ARS contains numerous previous project managers and process owners. ARS offers clients the assurance that comes from expertly managed projects, operating within budgetary guidelines and delivering quick and efficient solutions to suit the client's requirements.