Tetra Tech Advent is pleased to announce that Jim Kloosterman and Kirk Spradley have joined its engineering and consulting staff. "These additions not only further enhance our capabilities but add greater depth to Tetra Tech Advent's growing employee numbers and will allow us to better serve our clients in the future," commented Dave Horvath, Tetra Tech Advent's president.

Jim Kloosterman's areas of expertise include Licensing/Regulatory Affairs, Operations, Quality Assurance, and Design/Systems Engineering. He comes to Tetra Tech Advent from First Energy's Perry Nuclear Plant where he was most recently a licensed Senior Reactor Operator in the positions of shift engineer and control room supervisor. In prior assignments, Jim was Manager of Regulatory Affairs and Manager of Perry's Independent Safety Review and Engineering Quality Assurance Groups. Previously Jim was a manager for Carolina Power and Light, consulted for Saul Levy, Inc, and while at Bechtel Power Corporation, Jim performed engineering and consulting at five under construction and operating nuclear power plants.

Kirk Spradley joins Tetra Tech Advent from Siemens Building Technologies, where he was in a client advisory capacity in the areas of fire detection, security integration and building automation. Earlier he performed multiple roles within the commercial construction industry. Kirk's experience in contract negotiations, procurement, logistics, installation management, & project management formed a solid foundation with a wide breadth of experience. He currently holds two positions within the LES engineering group; Fire Safety, Fire Hazard Analysis & Lead IT Coordinator for Design Management.

Rebecca L. Steinman, Engineering Consultant, of Tetra Tech Advent contributed to a chapter on nuclear engineering included in Engineering the Future: Science, Technology, and the Design Process, a textbook that provides first-person accounts of what real-life engineering is all about. The textbook combines important science and technology skills with first-person accounts of what real engineers do every day.

The focus of Dr. Steinman's chapter, Good Chemistry, is that while engineers are often involved with designing or improving new technologies, that's not all they do. The chapter introduces the basis science of fission and how that is used to create electrical energy and then uses Dr. Steinman's real life experiences to describe the engineers role in ensuring that existing systems and equipment are safe, reliable, and well-maintained. The chapter also includes a section titled "Nuclear Power: Perceptions and Facts" which provides pros and cons of nuclear power. Prior to publication of the textbook Rebecca Pierik of the Museum of Science, Boston commented "Everyone on my team has read the chapter and we all think this is a fabulous addition to the book. We're very glad we found you!" Mike Wylie, Vice President of Tetra Tech Advent noted "We are in full agreement with and support the objectives of this book and are pleased that one of our exemplary employees is able to play such a pivotal role in assuring the book's success".

The textbook is published by Key Curriculum Press for the National Center for Technological Literacy (NCTL), Museum of Science, Boston.

Tetra Tech Advent is pleased to announce that three of its staff members have been named to key engineering positions within the LES Design Management Organization supporting the National Enrichment Facility (NEF) project in Eunice, New Mexico. The NEF is the first nuclear facility to be built under the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's new streamlined one-step Combined [Operating] License (COL) process. The prior approach required first a Construction Permit and then later an Operating License and often resulted in delays as the design was reviewed and contested multiple times in inefficient and time consuming ways.

Tetra Tech Advent's Dave Horvath will be the Building Design Manager, Mike Wylie will be the Security and Support Systems Manager, and Jackie Aeto will be the Design Lead responsible for the Central Utility Building and all Site Utilities.

"Tetra Tech Advent does not normally provide staff augmentation services unless there is some long term strategic value to the company as well as the industry. This opportunity to participate in this unique and historic first COL project of its kind in high level engineering positions providing face-to-face interface with Construction and day-today problem solving was too good to pass up. The expertise garnered from these roles will be unmatched in the nuclear industry for quite some time". [Quote by Dave Horvath, President of Tetra Tech Advent]

IEEE's Power Engineering Society provided Technical Committee Certificates of Commendation to Tetra Tech Advent's Dave Horvath and Rachel Gunnett for their efforts as part of Working Group 3.1, which recently revised and updated IEEE Std 338-2007, one of IEEE's key nuclear power plant standards. This standard provides guidance on how to acceptably test safety systems to assure a high level of availability in the case of need during postulated design basis accidents. As a result, this standard plays an important role in supporting Nuclear Power Plant Operating License Technical Specification requirements.

Dave Horvath stated "This revision was particularly important because it adopted risk-informed techniques and guidance to allow plant Owners the option of fine-tuning surveillance test intervals based on knowledge of the equipment's importance to reactor safety as well as other considerations such as manufacturer input. Prior approaches were more deterministic and less likely to allow the Owner to focus resources where more safety value could be realized". The risk-informed approaches (now located in the standard's annexes) were based on approaches pioneered and licensed acceptably at the South Texas Project near Bay City, TX under the working group leadership of George Ballassi (GD Electric Boat). Other key contributors included Glen Schinzel and Ted Riccio of South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company and Jim Liming (ABS Consulting). Rachel Gunnett (Advent Engineering) is the current Secretary of Working Group 3.1.