Shaping the future!
Valve World at the 2009 AOV/MOV Joint Conference
Always in the first few weeks of the new year, the annual AOV/MOV Join Conference in the United States takes place and so also in 2009. The conference is accompanied by a dedicated and highly informative exhibition, where companies can present their products and services to the conference attendees. Valve World had a booth at the exhibition and also attended the important conference sessions where we learned that there is a future for the nuclear industry.
By Christian Borrmann and Christian Verhey
Motor-operated valves
As usual the joint conferences were split into two parts each lasting for three days. On Monday 5 January the conference started off with its MOV (motor-operated valves) section. During the morning hours several advisory group meetings took place and after the lunch break the official opening ceremony took place. Following Mr Morris’ opening speech, Mr Kevin Dewall from the Idaho National Laboratory, took the podium and set the tone for the conference, by presenting the New Appendix III of the ASME code.
The afternoon continued with two more presentations and the day was concluded by a welcome reception in the expo hall, so that the attendees could join the exhibitors for discussions and to acquaint themselves with the latest nuclear valve product developments and services of the external repair and maintenance companies.
On the second and third day, the conference was dedicated to case studies and exchange of experiences. The MOV concluding sessions on Wednesday morning were devoted to two company updates coming from Teledyne and Crane, who are both strongly involved in the nuclear business.
Air-operated valves
Also on Wednesday morning, the AOV sessions started. AOV Chairman Mr Tim Scoggins from USA-STARS welcomed roughly 300 attendees and then went on to start the open discussion sessions by presenting a paper about INPO/WANO, which seemed an ideal starting point, as numerous questions were raised. After the morning break, where AOV and MOV attendees met with the exhibitors in the expo hall, the conferences were joined in five “Users Groups” sessions.
With the MOV conference ending around noon time on Wednesday the focus was now entirely on AOV presentations and case studies. The afternoon was concluded by a welcome reception for the AOV attendees in the expo hall.
On the following day, the AOV sessions continued with the Engineering & Maintenance Open Topics. The topics are usually submitted by the attendees and make up the main core of the second day of the AOV conference. On the third and final day, the focus was again on solving valve challenges before they are actually applied.
Conclusions
Perhaps the most interesting fact learned from attending this year’s AOV/MOV Joint Conference is that there is generally a very positive mood about the coming years in the nuclear industry. It didn’t matter to which valve company or to whom of the conference attendees you spoke to; all expressed their very positive views about the nuclear renaissance and the increasing popular status which the nuclear industry has gained among the population of the United States over the past two years: namely that at the moment there is no safer and cleaner way to produce energy than nuclear power. And in order to satisfy the increasing demand of energy, at least for the time being, nuclear power is probably the best alternative to fossil fuels.
Next AOV/MOV Joint Conference
In 2010, the AOV/MOV Joint Conference will take place at the Marriott Rivercenter San Antonio,Texas from 11 – 15 January.