Accenture and UniStar to build ‘Galaxy’ nuclear energy IT platform
18 Aug 2009
Accenture and UniStar Nuclear Energy (UNE) have announced having extended their agreement to design, build, operate, and maintain the 'Galaxy' IT platform, capable of supporting the data needs of nuclear energy facilities.
The new agreement, which adds to the original contract signed in April 2008, covers additional work necessary for Accenture to support business processes, including configuration management of detailed design data and management of data associated with required inspections; testing, and analyses; and use of acceptance criteria involved with the construction of nuclear energy facilities.
The agreement also calls for Accenture to market and distribute Galaxy in collaboration with UNE to companies engaged in the design, construction and operation of nuclear energy facilities.
UNE, a strategic joint venture of Constellation Energy and EDF Group, Europe's largest electric energy producer, has proposed building a fleet of 1,600-megawatt US EPR reactors known for their advanced design and safety features. The concept of the Galaxy platform has been an integral part of the planning and and potential development of the first of UNE's proposed nuclear energy facilities, Calvert Cliffs 3, in southern Maryland.
Accenture and UNE have already completed the Galaxy enterprise architecture and overall software design. Galaxy's initial phases, delivered in September 2008, addressed business needs in the areas of regulatory requirements, facility licensing, and document and records management.
''UniStar is committed to developing and deploying a fleet of advanced, new nuclear energy facilities to help meet our nation's need for clean, efficient, nvironmentally-friendly electricity generation that is available 24 hours a day seven day a week,'' said George Vanderheyden, president and chief executive officer of UNE. ''Galaxy's innovative architecture will be a key factor in helping us to achieve that goal by providing UNE and our customer-partners with greater certainty and finer control of costs and schedules associated with new nuclear energy development.''
Daniel P Krueger, managing director of Accenture's Power Generation practice, said, ''We believe Galaxy's standardised and interoperable approach delivers the most effective capabilities to support the licensing, design, construction and operation of new nuclear energy facilities. Our work with UniStar continues to position Accenture at the leading edge of the new nuclear energy renaissance.''
UNE and Accenture believe Galaxy will transform the manner in which nuclear energy facilities create, modify, share, and store information during all phases of their 60-year-plus lifecycles, from licensing through construction and decommissioning. Galaxy is unique in that it is the only information and knowledge-management platform that provides nuclear energy operators and their suppliers with collaborative toolsets to help improve accuracy, reliability and efficiency during every stage of a nuclear energy facility's lifecycle.
