5 days ago
Nuclear engineering excellence: How Sagarkumar Soni is pioneering safety solutions relevant to India's energy future
India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has just confirmed the government's commitment to expand the country's nuclear fleet to 100 GW by 2047. This is an especially ambitious commitment marking the growth of the sector over the next decades. As the ambitious development of the sector continues, innovative nuclear safety developments will be as necessary as ever.
This expansion coincides with developments in nuclear engineering from Indian diaspora professionals at global utilities. Sagarkumar Soni, 33, is an innovative nuclear engineer whose work with major North American energy companies saved millions in operational costs while improving safety through advanced risk assessment methodologies.
Sagarkumar Soni has had over 10 years of experience in the nuclear industry highlighting his position as a problem solver and responding to operational issues previously identified by the industry. Transitioning through various technical roles at Bruce Power in Canada, and now Duke Energy in the United States is one way to demonstrate how one type of engineering knowledge and training can contribute to prominent changes in the technical world.
'The nuclear industry requires both a vast amount of technical knowledge, and the ability to practically solve problems,' said Soni. 'Each facility has a unique operational set of challenges and needs tailored solutions.'
Risk assessment is pivotal in ensuring the safety and efficiency of nuclear power operations, particularly in countries like India that are rapidly expanding their nuclear energy programs. . Implementing comprehensive risk assessment methodologies is essential to maintain public confidence and address safety concerns associated with such expansion.
Soni's capabilities are not limited to mechanical technology. From 2022 until 2024, he implemented processes that allowed the plant to continue to operate despite the electrical bus maintenance that would last longer than planned.
The challenge arose during Bruce Power's Major Component Refurbishment project when electrical bus maintenance threatened to exceed planned timeframes. Traditional approaches would require complete unit shutdown, incurring revenue losses of approximately $1.2 million per day.
Using an advanced methodology based on Probabilistic Risk Assessment, Soni developed a process that challenged the traditional normal practice of shutting the unit down. 'We analyzed design requirements against safety assumptions and found manipulable nearby unit operations configurations that allowed temporary power routing within safety margins,' said Soni. 'Using Level 1 PRA Fault Tree modeling with approved software simulations, we demonstrated that temporary changes to neighboring units could maintain all safety margins.'
This allowed Bruce Power to extend an electrical bus outage by 5 days safely, without a unit shutdown; saving millions, where the safety approach guided by CNSC required Bruce Power to continue to safety principles regardless of revenue considerations. The approach is now used as an example for other nuclear facilities with similar conditions.
Soni's innovations represent part of a larger change in nuclear engineering practice, relevant to developing nuclear programs worldwide. Soni's position as a Senior Nuclear Engineer at Duke Energy builds on his previous experience and applies it to optimizing fuel performance.
The fuel cycle extension techniques Soni is exploring generally would facilitate the extension of operational cycles from approximately 18 months up to 24 months before refueling, potentially reducing downtime. For a nuclear expansion think tank such as India, extending the cycle would mean the operational impact would improve the economic performance of new nuclear projects.
India's nuclear expansion requires developing specialized engineering talent across multiple technical disciplines. Soni advises that multidisciplinary expertise is essential for meaningful scale-up. The most effective nuclear engineers combine specialized knowledge in reactor physics, materials science, probabilistic risk assessment, and fuel performance analysis.
As India proceeds with its nuclear expansion plan, the technical challenges will develop similarly to what other established nuclear programs have experienced. Questions of operational efficiency, maintenance optimization, and safety margin calculation become increasingly important.
Achieving the 100 GW commitment announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, which involves operating only eight reactors, will require more than building new plants.
Developing advanced risk assessment capabilities will enable improved safety while maximizing operational uptime. Similarly, innovative maintenance strategies can significantly improve outage durations and plant economics.
Expanding India's nuclear industry also provides avenues for knowledge sharing with existing nuclear operations. Collaboration through international partnerships has also been shown to advance domestic training for countries procuring nuclear capability.
India's nuclear development requires coordinated development of both physical infrastructure and human expertise. Success depends on building a sustainable pipeline of technical talent with specialized nuclear engineering skills. This foundation will enable long-term energy security while addressing the technical complexities of operating a large nuclear fleet.
