Duke Energy’s Catawba Nuclear Plant was replacing their service water piping components with a specialized alloy, AL-6XN, which was rapidly increasing in price. Installed over 30 years prior, the deteriorating water lines connecting the plant to Lake Wylie were originally built with carbon steel pipe and were experiencing leaks, MIC, and wall thinning.
Tioga Nuclear Products® leaned on its extensive power generation industry experience and worked closely with Duke Energy to learn more about the project’s parameters—including the multi-year build schedule of the project, the special technical requirements of the bill of materials, and the problems inherent to purchasing such high-cost material over the course of multiple years in a substantially rising nickel price environment.
The challenge was to provide Duke with cost and delivery certainty for this multi-year initiative. Tioga worked closely with its subcontractors to devise a special program that substantially hedged the material and production costs of AL-6XN pipe and flanges, and provided delivery certainty.
Over the four-year project, Duke Energy estimated their material cost savings to be over $1,000,000.
Learn more about Tioga’s legacy of performance in the nuclear power industry.
