Park Nuclear
Supporting Long-Term Nuclear Reliability in an Aging Infrastructure Environment

Inside plants, the challenges are immediate and operational. Replacement parts are becoming harder to secure while lead times continue to stretch. Engineers are working around systems installed decades ago, often with limited vendor support and incomplete historical documentation. Procurement teams are balancing outage schedules, regulatory expectations and supply-chain uncertainty at the same time, leaving very little room for delay when critical equipment fails.

That environment is where Park Nuclear built its business. Founded in 1988, the company focuses on obsolete components, unsupported systems and nuclear sourcing problems that emerge after conventional procurement channels stop producing viable answers. Utilities often contact Park Nuclear when OEM support disappears, outage windows tighten or a failed component begins threatening operational continuity.

In nuclear operations, however, finding a replacement part is only one part of the challenge. Qualification history, traceability, testing records and regulatory documentation matter just as much as the component itself. A technically compatible part without defensible documentation can still create engineering exposure, compliance complications and additional outage risk.

From its 125,000-square-foot facility in Pasco, Washington, Park Nuclear maintains more than 350,000 parts connected to legacy nuclear infrastructure across North America, including original unused equipment no longer available through standard commercial channels. During outages, access to that inventory can determine whether utilities maintain schedules or absorb costly delays across plant operations.

The company also supports repair work, reverse engineering, testing, commercial-grade dedication and engineering evaluations performed under its NQA-1 compliant quality assurance program. In more complex situations, Park Nuclear works with utilities evaluating whether aging systems can continue operating safely without major redesign work.

Beyond Inventory Support

Most projects do not stay limited to procurement for very long. A utility may initially contact Park Nuclear for a replacement component, but engineering teams are usually focused on a larger question of whether the system can continue operating safely and reliably without introducing new compliance exposure or creating redesign work later.

Over several decades, Park Nuclear accumulated a large volume of equivalency evaluations, repair histories, qualification records, reverse-engineering files, vendor intelligence and legacy drawings tied to systems many plants no longer maintain internally. It organizes much of that information through its B.R.A.I.N. obsolescence-management platform, which continues expanding as additional projects move through engineering review and field support.

“Utilities regain access to the ‘why’ behind legacy systems, not just the ‘what,’” says Michael Christianson, President.

Park Nuclear’s staffing reflects that same emphasis on continuity. Many employees come from utility or OEM backgrounds and bring firsthand nuclear operations experience into the organization. Engineering evaluations, testing results and lessons learned are documented so the information remains usable long after experienced personnel retire. The objective is preserving practical context around how older systems were originally designed, qualified and maintained over decades of operation.

The expansion of the company’s Oak Ridge operation significantly increased Park Nuclear’s engineering and qualification capabilities at a time when utilities were facing growing lifecycle-extension pressure.

At the Oak Ridge facility, teams perform functional testing, seismic evaluation, material analysis, safety-related repairs and commercial-grade dedication under Appendix B and NQA-1 quality controls. The operation also strengthened the company’s ability to support rapid-turn engineering evaluations, qualification reviews and defensible recovery pathways during outage-driven scenarios.

Reverse-engineered components are tested against original equipment to verify form, fit and function before returning to service. Documentation packages are structured to support utility engineering review, NRC expectations and long-term traceability requirements tied to safety-related systems.

The company supports a broad mix of infrastructure including instrumentation assemblies, power supplies, emergency lighting boards and discontinued OEM systems that plants still depend on operationally despite shrinking manufacturer support. Some projects involve relatively straightforward replacements. Others require engineering review, testing protocols and qualification pathways that extend well beyond traditional procurement work.

Solving Problems Under Outage Pressure

Outage environments change the tempo completely.

Outage pressure changes timelines. It does not change QA requirements. Utilities still need traceability, testing records, configuration control and engineering defensibility regardless of how urgent the situation becomes. That creates pressure not only on procurement teams, but also on engineering, QA and operations personnel trying to keep outage schedules intact.

Park Nuclear structured its operations around that reality.

The Pasco facility supports immediate access to safety-related and ASME-code inventory, often allowing same-day shipment during outage-driven procurement scenarios. The Oak Ridge operation handles engineering evaluation, repair work, material verification, seismic testing and commercial-grade dedication inside the broader QA framework governing the project.

During major outage events, the Pasco and Oak Ridge teams often work in parallel so sourcing, testing, engineering review and qualification activities move inside the same controlled recovery process.

The objective is not emergency improvisation. It is engineered recovery under nuclear QA controls where urgency is managed without compromising traceability, documentation integrity or regulatory defensibility.

Even accelerated projects still move through Appendix B controls, calibrated testing procedures and detailed documentation requirements because utilities cannot trade quality for speed in nuclear environments. Every stage still requires traceability, controlled processes and supporting records capable of surviving future audits and engineering review.

Extended burn-in testing, failure analysis and as-found/as-left reporting also help utilities determine why components failed instead of simply returning equipment to service. In many situations, utilities are trying not only to resolve an immediate outage issue, but also to reduce the likelihood of recurring failures later.

One recent project involved a utility facing a potential outage extension after a critical component failure left no replacement available within the required timeframe. Park Nuclear evaluated inventory already inside its system, repaired and tested the component, completed the supporting QA documentation and helped support the plant’s engineering review process quickly enough to avoid major schedule and cost impacts.

“When systems are designed with intention, speed and quality are no longer competing priorities. They become outcomes of the same system,” says Christianson.

From Emergency Support to Long-Term Reliability Planning

Utilities are now involving Park Nuclear much earlier in the planning cycle than they did in the past.

As plants pursue 60- and 80-year operating horizons, obsolescence management has shifted from a maintenance issue into a long-term operational discipline. Many utilities are starting those conversations years before replacement timelines become critical.

Even newer reactor programs are beginning to face some of the same long-term planning realities.

Across the industry, utilities are now managing two pressures simultaneously: extending the operational life of aging infrastructure while also preparing qualification, supply-chain and reliability strategies for next-generation reactor deployments and SMR programs. That overlap is increasing the importance of long-term engineering continuity, traceable qualification pathways and institutional knowledge preservation much earlier in the reactor lifecycle.

Park Nuclear works with utilities on longer-range initiatives such as SPARES and utility-focused obsolescence road mapping, helping plants identify vulnerabilities before failures begin affecting outage schedules or operational continuity. Utilities also use those programs to establish pre-qualified replacement pathways and reduce future procurement exposure tied to aging infrastructure.

“The role has evolved from ‘call us when it breaks’ to ‘partner with us so it never does,’” says Christianson.

The company also participates in organizations and technical forums including NBIC, USA Winter Conference, AUG MUG, WM Symposia, Utilities Service Alliance and ETEBA, where discussions increasingly center on lifecycle extension, workforce transition and supply-chain resilience across the nuclear sector.

For Park Nuclear, the work increasingly centers on helping utilities preserve engineering continuity across infrastructure expected to operate decades beyond original assumptions.

That requires more than locating hard-to-find components. It requires maintaining qualification history, preserving institutional knowledge, supporting defensible engineering decisions and helping utilities navigate outage pressure without compromising regulatory rigor.

As nuclear operators continue extending reactor lifecycles while preparing for next-generation deployment programs, the operational demands surrounding traceability, obsolescence management and engineering defensibility will only become more complex. Park Nuclear’s role inside that environment has steadily evolved from specialized sourcing support into a longer-term reliability and continuity partner for utilities managing some of the industry’s most difficult infrastructure realities.