plant maintenance organizations: Topics by WorldWideScience.org

Sample records for plant maintenance organizations

Nuclear power plants maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1988-01-01

Nuclear power plants maintenance now appears as an important factor contributing to the competitivity of nuclea energy. The articles published in this issue describe the way maintenance has been organized in France and how it led to an actual industrial activity developing and providing products and services. An information note about Georges Besse uranium enrichment plant (Eurodif) recalls that maintenance has become a main data not only for power plants but for all nuclear industry installations. (The second part of this dossier will be published in the next issue: vol. 1 January-February 1989) [fr
Overview of maintenance principles and regulatory supervision of maintenance activities at nuclear power plants in Slovakia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rohar, S.; Cepcek, S.

1997-01-01

The maintenance represents one of the most important tools to ensure safe and reliable operation of nuclear power plants. The emphasis of Nuclear Regulatory Authority of the Slovak Republic to the maintenance issue is expressed by requirements in the regulations. The current practice of maintenance management in operated nuclear power plants in Slovak Republic is presented. Main aspects of maintenance, as maintenance programme, organization of maintenance, responsibilities for maintenance are described. Activities of nuclear regulatory authority in maintenance process are presented too. (author)
Safety culture in the maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

Safety culture is the complexity of beliefs, shared values and behaviour reflected in making decisions and performing work in a nuclear power plant or nuclear facility. The definition of safety culture and the related concepts presented in the IAEA literature are widely known to experts. Since the publication of Safety Culture, issued by the IAEA as INSAG-4 in 1991, the IAEA has produced a number of publications on strengthening the safety culture in organizations that operate nuclear power plants and nuclear facilities. However, until now the focus has been primarily on the area of operations. Apart from operations, maintenance in plants and nuclear facilities is an aspect that deserves special attention, as maintenance activities can have both a direct and an indirect effect on equipment reliability. Adverse safety effects can arise, depending upon the level of skill of the personnel involved, safety awareness and the complexity of the work process. Any delayed effects resulting from challenges to maintenance can cause interruptions in operation, and hence affect the safety of a plant or facility. Building upon earlier IAEA publications on this topic, this Safety Report reviews how challenges to the maintenance of nuclear power plants can affect safety culture. It also highlights indications of a weakening safety culture. The challenges described are in areas such as maintenance management; human resources management; plant condition assessment and the business environment. The steps that some Member States have taken to address safety culture aspects are detailed and singled out as good practices, with a view to disseminating and exchanging experiences and lessons learned. Although this report is primarily directed at plant maintenance organizations, the subject matter is applicable to a wider audience, including plant contracting organizations and regulatory authorities
Maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Migaud, D.; Hutin, J.P.; Jouette, I.; Eymond, P.; Devie, P.; Cudelou, C.; Magnier, S.; Frydman, M.

2016-01-01

This document gathers different articles concerning the maintenance of the French nuclear power plants. The first article analyses the impact of the recent law on the energetic transition that sets the share of nuclear power at 50% of the electricity produced by 2025. A consequence may be the decommissioning of 17 to 20 reactors by 2025 and the huge maintenance program called 'Grand Carenage' whose aim is to extend operating life over 40 years will have to be re-considered in order to avoid useless expenses. The second article shows that in 2015 the French nuclear reactor fleet got very good results in terms of availability and safety. There were 49 scheduled outages and among them some ended ahead of time. The third article describes the specificities of the maintenance of a nuclear power plant, for instance the redundancy of some systems implies that maintenance has to deal with systems that have never functioned but must be ready to operate at any moment. Another specificity is the complexity of a nuclear power plant that implies an essential phase of preparation for maintenance operations. Because of safety requirements any maintenance operation has to be controlled, checked and may provide feedback. The fourth article presents the 'Grand Carenage' maintenance program that involves the following operations: the replacement of steam generators, the re-tubing of condensers, the replacement of the filtering drums used for cooling water, the testing of the reactor building, the hydraulic test of the primary circuit and the inspection of the reactor vessel. The fifth article focuses on the organization of the work-site for maintenance operations and the example of the Belleville-sur-Loire is described in the sixth article. Important maintenance operations like 'Grand Carenage' requires a strong collaboration with a network of specialized enterprises and as no reactor (except Flamanville EPR) is being built in France, maintenance
Managed maintenance, the next step in power plant maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Butterworth, G.; Anderson, T.M.

1984-01-01

The Westinghouse Nuclear Services Integration Division managed maintenance services are described. Essential to the management and control of a total plant maintenance programme is the development of a comprehensive maintenance specification. During recent years Westinghouse has jointly developed total plant engineering-based maintenance specifications with a number of utilities. The process employed and the experience to date are described. To efficiently implement the maintenance programme Westinghouse has developed a computer software program specifically designed for day to day use at the power plant by maintenance personnel. This program retains an equipment maintenance history, schedules maintenance activities, issues work orders and performs a number of sophisticated analyses of the maintenance backlog and forecast, equipment failure rates, etc. The functions of this software program are described and details of Westinghouse efforts to support the utilities in reducing outage times through development of predefined outage plans for critical report maintenance activities are given. Also described is the experience gained in the training of specialized maintenance personnel, employing competency-based training techniques and equipment mock-ups, and the benefits experienced, in terms of improved quality and productivity of maintenance performed. The success experienced with these methods has caused Westinghouse to expand the use of these training techniques to the more routine skill areas of power plant maintenance. A significant reduction in the operating costs of nuclear power plants will only be brought about by a significant improvement in the quality of maintenance. Westinghouse intends to effect this change by expanding its international service capabilities and to make major investments in order to promote technological developments in the area of power plant maintenance. (author)
Development of plant maintenance systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tomita, Jinji; Ike, Masae; Nakayama, Kenji; Kato, Hisatomo

1989-01-01

Toshiba is making active efforts for the continuing improvement of reliability and maintainability of operating nuclear power plants. As a part of these efforts, the company has developed new maintenance administration systems, diagnostic monitoring facilities for plant equipments, computer-aided expert systems, and remote-controlled machines for maintenance work. The maintenance administration systems provide efficient work plans and data acquisition capabilities for the management of personnel and equipments involved in nuclear power plant maintenance. The plant diagnostic facilities monitor and diagnose plant conditions for preventive maintenance, as well as enabling rapid countermeasures to be carried out should they be required. Expert systems utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) technology are also employed. The newly developed remote-controlled machines are useful tools for the maintenance inspection of equipment which can not be easily accessed. (author)
Assessing organizational culture in complex sociotechnical systems. Methodological evidence from studies in nuclear power plant maintenance organizations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reiman, T.

2007-03-01

Failures in industrial organizations dealing with hazardous technologies can have widespread consequences for the safety of the workers and the general population. Psychology can have a major role in contributing to the safe and reliable operation of these technologies. Most current models of safety management in complex sociotechnical systems such as nuclear power plant maintenance are either non-contextual or based on an overly-rational image of an organization. Thus, they fail to grasp either the actual requirements of the work or the socially-constructed nature of the work in question. The general aim of the present study is to develop and test a methodology for contextual assessment of organizational culture in complex sociotechnical systems. This is done by demonstrating the findings that the application of the emerging methodology produces in the domain of maintenance of a nuclear power plant (NPP). The concepts of organizational culture and organizational core task (OCT) are operationalized and tested in the case studies
Assessing organizational culture in complex sociotechnical systems. Methodological evidence from studies in nuclear power plant maintenance organizations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reiman, T.

2007-03-15

Failures in industrial organizations dealing with hazardous technologies can have widespread consequences for the safety of the workers and the general population. Psychology can have a major role in contributing to the safe and reliable operation of these technologies. Most current models of safety management in complex sociotechnical systems such as nuclear power plant maintenance are either non-contextual or based on an overly-rational image of an organization. Thus, they fail to grasp either the actual requirements of the work or the socially-constructed nature of the work in question. The general aim of the present study is to develop and test a methodology for contextual assessment of organizational culture in complex sociotechnical systems. This is done by demonstrating the findings that the application of the emerging methodology produces in the domain of maintenance of a nuclear power plant (NPP). The concepts of organizational culture and organizational core task (OCT) are operationalized and tested in the case studies
Maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1982-01-01

This Guide covers the organizational and procedural aspects of maintenance but does not give detailed technical advice on the maintenance of particular plant items. It gives guidance on preventive and remedial measures necessary to ensure that all structures, systems and components important to safety are capable of performing as intended. The Guide covers the organizational and administrative requirements for establishing and implementing preventive maintenance schedules, repairing defective plant items, providing maintenance facilities and equipment, procuring stores and spare parts, selecting and training maintenance personnel, reviewing and controlling plant modifications arising from maintenance, and for generating, collecting and retaining maintenance records. Maintenance shall be subject to quality assurance in all aspects important to safety. Because quality assurance has been dealt with in detail in other Safety Guides, it is only included here in specific instances where emphasis is required. Maintenance is considered to include functional and performance testing of plant, surveillance and in-service inspection, where these are necessary either to support other maintenance activities or to ensure continuing capability of structures, systems and components important to safety to perform their intended functions
Improving nuclear power plant reliability through predictive maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geilhausen, R.; Kunze, U.

1996-01-01

Maintenance strategies can be assigned to one of three categories: failure maintenance, periodic maintenance or condition-oriented maintenance. The optimum maintenance scheme can be selected on the basis of a cost-benefit analysis but the safety of life and limb or the political climate for NPP can hardly expressed in numbers. The implementation of preventive maintenance needs two preconditions: high-performance instrumentation in the form of stationary and mobile monitoring systems for the determination of the condition of the nuclear power plant components and provision of a tool that can handle both the organization of the work and the evaluation of the results obtained. (authors)
Good practices for cost effective maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-02-01

This publication is organized around five areas that were identified by the utilities and government organizations who contributed to this report as most important to them. They are: Increasing production through maintenance activities related to improved plant material condition, reduced duration of planned outages, use of on-line maintenance and reduced frequency of forced outages; reducing workload through avoiding unnecessary regulatory burden and using reliability centered maintenance and condition monitoring; improving maintenance processes through better planning and scheduling, use of information management systems, graduated work controls, and appropriate post-maintenance testing; improving productivity through better teamwork, greater sharing of resources, and better radiation management associated with maintenance; measuring performance of maintenance activities through such tools as performance measures and benchmarking. Figs, tabs
Maintenance management for nuclear power plant 'Integrated valve maintenance'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gerner, P.; Zanner, G.

2001-01-01

The deregulation of Europe's power market does force many utilities, and especially nuclear power plant operators, to introduce extensive cost-cutting measures in order to be able to compete within this new environment. The optimization of plant outages provides considerable potential for raising plant availability but can also lower operating costs by reducing e.g. expenditure on maintenance. Siemens Nuclear Power GmbH, in cooperation with plant operators, is currently implementing new and improved service concepts which can have a major effect on the way in which maintenance will be performed in the future. Innovative service packages for maintenance in nuclear power plants are available which can be used to perform a time- and cost-effective maintenance. The concepts encompass optimization of the overall sequence from planning in advance to the individual measures including reduction of the scope of maintenance activities, identification of cost cutting potential and bundling of maintenance activities. The main features of these maintenance activities are illustrated here using the examples of outage planning and integrated valve maintenance. In nuclear power plants approx. 5000 valves are periodically preventively, condition-based or breakdown-based maintained. Because of this large number of valves to be maintained a high potential of improvements and cost reductions can be achieved by performing an optimized, cost-effective maintenance based on innovative methods and tools. Siemens Nuclear Power GmbH has developed and qualified such tools which allow to reduce service costs while maintaining high standards of safety and availability. By changing from preventive to predictive (condition-based) maintenance - the number of valves to be maintained may be reduced considerably. The predictive maintenance is based on the Siemens Nuclear Power GmbH diagnostic and evaluation method (ADAM). ADAM is used to monitor the operability of valves by analytical verification of
Quality assurance for the maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Modemann, G.

1985-01-01

In order to maintain the quality of a nuclear power plant, it is essential that the numerous participants involved in maintenance work consistently fulfil their specified tasks, and that the quality control circuit is closed and functions smoothly. First of all, the report briefly explains the significance of the operational organization of a nuclear power plant and the role of the supervisory authority with the consulted experts. The quality control circuit for maintenance illustrates the tasks and cooperation of the participants. An idea is given of the testing and monitoring criteria which are implemented to assure the quality of the different types of maintenance and the procurement of supplies. (orig.) [de
Advanced maintenance strategies for power plant operators--introducing inter-plant life cycle management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Graeber, Ulrich

2004-01-01

One of the most important goals of competing power plant operators is to ensure safe operation of their plants, characterized by maximum availability throughout the entire life cycle and minimized specific generating costs. One parameter crucial to the total price of electricity--and one that can be actively influenced by the power plant operators--is maintenance. Up to 30% of all electricity generating costs accrue from maintenance. In the past years maintenance measures have been optimized particularly by the application and continuing development of testing and diagnostic techniques, by the increased level of system and component automation as well as more efficient organization structures. Despite the considerable success of these efforts, the potential for further cost reductions is still far from exhausted. But the risks connected to reliability, availability and safety need to be analyzed in greater detail in order to ensure the sustainability of the savings already achieved as well as those yet to be realized. The systematic application of condition-based maintenance and the implementation of structured life cycle management are essential requirements. An inter-plant approach is recommended to make a quick implementation of maintenance optimization potentials possible. Plant-specific improvement potentials can be established with the help of a best-practice comparison, and measures and priorities can be defined for realizing them. Creating an inter-plant database will allow experience and findings to be analyzed quickly and efficiently by experts and made available to all participants on a neutral platform. Despite--or maybe owing to--the increasingly competitive marketplace, a sustained reduction in the maintenance costs of power plant operators can only be achieved through a structured, inter-plant exchange of experience. The ZES offers the industry a suitable platform for cooperation with its 'Condition-Based Maintenance' research focus. The introduction
Plant Maintenance. The Licensee's Viewpoint

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ungi, T. [Heysham 2 Power Station, Nuclear Electric LTD (United Kingdom)

1997-07-01

Plant maintenance is a very complex process which requires considerable effort from both within the maintenance process and also many support activities. It is important that the plant maintenance policy is translated into a maintenance programme which will define all relevant aspects of the maintenance. An aspect of this maintenance programme will be a maintenance catalogue which will define the maintenance activities to be carried out and at what frequencies. This paper is aimed at discussing the maintenance philosophy and resulting maintenance catalogues currently adopted in Nuclear Electric Ltd, and in particular at Heysham 2 Power Station. It goes on to consider whether these maintenance catalogues contain the optimum maintenance and if not should they be changed. If change is required, the process by which this change will be brought about is also discussed. (author)
Human factor analysis and preventive countermeasures of maintenance in nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Li; Hu Chao

2008-01-01

Based on the human error analysis theory and the characteristics of maintenance in a nuclear power plant, human factors of maintenance in NPP are divided into three different areas: human, technology, and organization, in which human refers to the individual factors, mainly including psychological quality, physiological characteristic, state of health, knowledge, skill level, and interpersonal relationship. Technology includes the maintenance technology, maintenance strategy, maintenance tool, maintenance interface, maintenance regulation, and work environment. Organization includes task arrangement, information communication, training, personnel external environment, team construction, and leadership. The analysis also reveals that the organization factors, which can indirectly influence personnel performance, are the primary initiators of human error. Based on these, some countermeasures are brought forward in order to reduce human errors. (authors)
Maintenance planning for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mattu, R.K.; Cooper, S.E.; Lauderdale, J.R.

2004-01-01

Maintenance planning for nuclear power plants is similar to that in other industrial plants but it is heavily influenced by regulatory rules, with consequent costs of compliance. Steps by the nuclear industry and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to address that problem include development of guidelines for maintenance of risk-critical equipment, using PRA-based techniques to select a set of equipment that requires maintenance and reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) approaches for determining what maintenance is required. The result of the process is a program designed to ensure effective maintenance of the equipment most critical to plant safety. (author)
CANDU plant maintenance: Recent developments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Charlebois, P.

2000-01-01

CANDU units have long been recognized for their exceptional safety and reliability. Continuing development in the maintenance area has played a key role in achieving this performance level. For over two decades, safety system availability has been monitored closely and system maintenance programs adjusted accordingly to maintain high levels of performance. But as the plants approach mid life in a more competitive environment and component aging becomes a concern, new methods and techniques are necessary. As a result, recent developments are moving the maintenance program largely from a corrective and preventive approach to predictive and condition based maintenance. The application of these techniques is also being extended to safety related systems. These recent developments include use of reliability centred methods to define system maintenance requirements and strategies. This approach has been implemented on a number of systems at Canadian CANDU plants with positive results. The pilot projects demonstrated that the overall maintenance effort remained relatively constant while the system performance improved. It was also possible to schedule some of the redundant component maintenance during plant operation without adverse impact on system availability. The probabilistic safety assessment was found to be useful in determining the safety implications of component outages. These new maintenance strategies are now making use of predictive and condition based maintenance techniques to anticipate equipment breakdown and schedule preventive maintenance as the need arises rather than time based. Some of these techniques include valve diagnostics, vibration monitoring, oil analysis, thermography. Of course, these tools and techniques must form part of an overall maintenance management system to ensure that maintenance becomes a living program. To facilitate this process and contain costs, new information technology tools are being introduced to provide system engineers
Intelligent control system Cellular Robotics Approach to Nuclear Plant control and maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fukuda, Toshio; Sekiyama, Kousuke; Xue Guoqing; Ueyama, Tsuyoshi.

1994-01-01

This paper presents the concept of Cellular Robotic System (CEBOT) and describe the strategy of a distributed sensing, control and planning as a Cellular Robotics Approach to the Nuclear Plant control and maintenance. Decentralized System is effective in large plant and The CEBOT possesses desirable features for realization of Nuclear Plant control and maintenance because of its flexibility and adaptability. Also, as related on going research work, self-organizing manipulator and communication issues are mentioned. (author)
Fire protection maintenance at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kern, J.R.

1989-01-01

This paper describes two approaches to staffing and organizing a fire protection maintenance group. Both have been used at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant. One takes traditional craft functions and relocates them from the plant maintenance department to the fire protection section. The other expands the role to include response to fire, medical, and hazardous material emergencies. Both approaches remove the fire protection supervisor from a purely staff role, and involve him/her in direct-line management functions. This results in improved technical direction to the craftsmen, improved quality of the work performed, and improved craft morale. It also assures the fire protection supervisor of much more detailed knowledge of the overall status of the fire protection systems

Tele-maintenance 'intelligent' system for technical plants result management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Concetti, Massimo; Cuccioletta, Roberto; Fedele, Lorenzo; Mercuri, Giampiero

2009-01-01

The management of technical plant for productivity and safety is generally a complex activity, particularly when many plants distributed in the territory are considered (i.e. the more and more frequent case of outsourced plants maintenance by specialized companies), granted quality and cost results are required (i.e. the case of some rather innovative contract solutions) and the technology involved is heterogeneous and innovative (i.e. electro-mechanical plants). In order to efficiently achieve the above aims an 'intelligent' maintenance-management system for the distant monitoring and controlling by a remote control center has been developed. The so-called GrAMS (granted availability management system) system is conceived to give to organizations involved in technical-industrial plants management the possibility to tend to a 'well-known availability' and 'zero-failures' management. In particular, this study deals with the diagnostic aspects and safety level of technical plants (such as elevators, thermo-technical plants, etc.), and with the involvement of ad hoc designed software analysis tools based on neural networks and reliability indicators. Part of the research dealing with the tele-maintenance intelligent system has been financed by the Italian High Institute for Safety (ISPESL) and led to the development of a pre-industrial prototype whose realization and testing is here described
Sensor/signal monitoring and plant maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ciftcioglu, Oe.; Tuerkcan, E.

1994-02-01

Nuclear Power Plant (NPO) availability is determined by the intended functionality of safety related system and components. Therefore, maintenance is an important issue in a power plant connected to the plant's reliability and safety. The traditional maintenance policies proved to be rather costly and even not effectively addressing NPP requirements. Referring to these drawbacks, in the last decade, in the nuclear reliability centered maintenance (RCM) gained substantial interest due to its merits. In the formal implementation of RCM, apparently, predictive maintenance is not considered. However, with the impact of modern real-time and on-line surveillance and monitoring methodologies, the predictive maintenance procedures like sensor/signal verification and validation are to be included into RCM. (orig.)
Lean Maintenance Applied to Improve Maintenance Efficiency in Thermoelectric Power Plants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Orlando Duran

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Thermoelectric power plants consist of a set of critical equipment that require high levels of availability and reliability. Due to this, maintenance of these physical assets is gaining momentum in industry. Maintenance is considered as an activity that contributes to improving the availability, efficiency and productivity of each piece of equipment. Several techniques have been used to achieve greater efficiencies in maintenance, among which we can find the lean maintenance philosophy. Despite the wide diffusion of lean maintenance, there is no structured method that supports the prescription of lean tools applied to the maintenance function. This paper presents the experience gathered in two lean maintenance projects in thermoelectric power plants. The application of lean techniques was based on using a previously developed multicriterial decision making process that uses the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP methodology to carry out a diagnosis and prescription tasks. That methodology allowed the prescription of the appropriated lean techniques to resolve the main deficiencies in maintenance function. The results of applying such lean tools show that important results can be obtained, making the maintenance function in thermoelectric power plants more efficient and lean.
Probabilistic approach to rationalization of plants maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kasai, Masao; Notoya, Junichi; Uchimoto, Tetsuya; Miya, Kenzo

2001-01-01

Since there are a lot of equipments in large plants, their safety and reliability cannot be kept as high level as designed without maintenance activities. Then preventive maintenance is intensively executed in some large plants. However, it will be inefficient to perform the preventive maintenance blindly. To make maintenance activities effective, it is essential to identify the critical equipments influencing plant safety and/or reliability and carry out the maintenance by focusing attentions on these equipments. It needs quantitative analyses to identify the critical equipments based on the data of failure rates. However, complete data set of failure rates cannot necessarily be available for some plants such as nuclear power plants. In this study, we carry out the reliability analysis for generic LNG plant and calculate various quantitative risk importance measures for each equipment. We propose rather qualitative representations for some quantitative measures, considering the situation without complete data set and conclude that it is possible to rationalize maintenance procedure by using these rather qualitative measures, though the level of rationalization is of course limited. (author)
Plant life management and maintenance technologies for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ikegami, Tsukasa; Aoki, Masataka; Shimura, Takao; Kaimori, Kimihiro; Koike, Masahiro

2001-01-01

Nuclear power generation occupying an important position for energy source in Japan and supplying about one third of total electric power usage is now required for further upgrading of its economics under regulation relaxation of electric power business. And, under execution retardation of its new planning plant, it becomes important to operate the already established plants for longer term and to secure their stability. Therefore, technical development in response to the plant life elongation is promoted under cooperation of the Ministry of Economics and Industries, electric power companies, literate, and plant manufacturers. Under such conditions, the Hitachi, Ltd. has progressed some technical developments on check inspection, repairs and maintenance for succession of the already established nuclear power plants for longer term under securing of their safety and reliability. And in future, by proposing the check inspection and maintenance program combined with these technologies, it is planned to exert promotion of maintenance program with minimum total cost from a viewpoint of its plant life. Here were described on technologies exerted in the Hitachi, Ltd. such as construction of plant maintenance program in response to plant life elongation agreeing with actual condition of each plant, yearly change mechanism grasping, life evaluation on instruments and materials necessary for maintenance, adequate check inspection, repairs and exchange, and so forth. (G.K.)
Plant Maintenance. The Licensee's Viewpoint

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ungi, T.

1997-01-01

Plant maintenance is a very complex process which requires considerable effort from both within the maintenance process and also many support activities. It is important that the plant maintenance policy is translated into a maintenance programme which will define all relevant aspects of the maintenance. An aspect of this maintenance programme will be a maintenance catalogue which will define the maintenance activities to be carried out and at what frequencies. This paper is aimed at discussing the maintenance philosophy and resulting maintenance catalogues currently adopted in Nuclear Electric Ltd, and in particular at Heysham 2 Power Station. It goes on to consider whether these maintenance catalogues contain the optimum maintenance and if not should they be changed. If change is required, the process by which this change will be brought about is also discussed. (author)
Empirical analysis of selected nuclear power plant maintenance factors and plant safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Olson, J.; Osborn, R.N.; Thurber, J.A.; Sommers, P.E.; Jackson, D.H.

1985-07-01

This report contains a statistical analysis of the relationship between selected aspects of nuclear power plant maintenance programs and safety related performance. The report identifies a large number of maintenance resources which can be expected to influence maintenance performance and subsequent plant safety performance. The resources for which data were readily available were related statistically to two sets of performance indicators: maintenance intermediate safety indicators and final safety performance indicators. The results show that the administrative structure of the plant maintenance program is a significant predictor of performance on both sets of indicators
Valves maintenance management in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trost, J.

2001-01-01

The deregulation of Europe's power market will force nuclear power plant operators to introduce extensive cost-cutting measures in order to be able to compete within this new environment. The optimization of plant outages provides considerable potential for raising plant availability but can also lower operating costs by reducing expenditure on maintenance. Framatome ANP GmbH, in cooperation with plant operators is currently developing new and improved service concepts which can have a major effect on the way in which maintenance will be performed in the future. The concepts encompass optimization of the overall sequence from planning in advance to the individual measures including reduction of the scope of maintenance activities, identification of cost cutting potential and bundling of maintenance activities. (Author)
Expert system for maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ito, Tetsuo; Kasahara, Takayasu; Watanabe, Takao; Matsuki, Tsutomu.

1989-01-01

The basic function of the expert system which supports the maintenance works such as the diagnosis of nuclear power plants and the planning of maintenance works was developed. For the maintenance of large scale plants like nuclear power plants, much manpower is required. Consequently, it has been desired to develop the system for improving the maintainability by utilizing the expertise and empirical knowledge of skilled engineers. This system comprises the subsystems for aiding plant diagnosis and maintenance work planning. The former diagnoses the contents of out of order based on the knowledge base, and thereafter, guides the method of taking measures using simulator. The latter establishes the plan by using the method of limiting branching together so that the maintenance works do not interfere mutually or do not affect the operation. Hereafter, it is intended to improve the man-machine condition and expand knowledge aiming at the practical use. The outline of the system, the constitution of subsystems, the example of plant diagnosis, the support of plant maintenance work planning and so on are reported. (K.I.)
Knowledge representation for integrated plant operation and maintenance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lind, Morten

2010-01-01

Integrated operation and maintenance of process plants has many advantages. One advantage is the improved economy obtained by reducing the number of plant shutdowns. Another is to increase reliability of operation by monitoring of risk levels during on-line maintenance. Integrated plant operation...... and maintenance require knowledge bases which can capture the interactions between the two plant activities. As an example, taking out a component or a subsystem for maintenance during operation will require a knowledge base representing the interactions between plant structure, functions, operating states...... and goals and incorporate knowledge about redundancy and reliability data. Multilevel Flow Modeling can be used build knowledge bases representing plant goals and functions and has been applied for fault diagnosis and supervisory control but currently it does not take into account structural information...
Plant inspection and maintenance technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyahara, Masatoshi; Kanazawa, Masafumi

1995-01-01

The article reports on information systems and related tools that support routine inspection and preventive maintenance activities, which contribute to safer plant operation and increase plant operating duty. Tools include the Mitsubishi Electric Reliability and Availability Upgrade Program-Nuclear (MELRAP-N), which supports the general evolution of industry operating experiences, periodic component replacement management, management of discontinued and modified components, periodic inspection item management, and periodic inspection workplace management. The article also introduces a comprehensive preventive maintenance management system currently under development. (author)
Thermoeconomic studies applied to maintenance of power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carvalho, F.R.; Horta Nogueira, L.A.

1996-01-01

The thermoeconomic method is an important tool aiming to improve maintenance activities in steam power plants, becoming possible to share the irreversibilities costs to each equipment, as boilers, turbines and heat exchangers. Furthermore, the effects related to changes in operational and design parameters can be studied in a detailed way, evaluating the local and distributed effects. In this work, after a brief review of power plant maintenance costs concepts and values, one address a methodology for maintenance costs estimation and develops a case study of thermoeconomics of a hypothetical plant, presenting the exergy flows, exergy losses and maintenance costs distribution. Also is presented an evaluation of exergoeconomic maintenance cost, evaluating their significance, at equipment level, related to overall maintenance cost, aiming to help the maintenance activities planning. 10 refs, 3 figs, 12 tabs
Reverse osmosis plant maintenance and efficacy in chronic kidney disease endemic region in Sri Lanka.

Science.gov (United States)

Jayasumana, Channa; Ranasinghe, Omesh; Ranasinghe, Sachini; Siriwardhana, Imalka; Gunatilake, Sarath; Siribaddana, Sisira

2016-11-01

Chronic Interstitial Nephritis in Agricultural Communities (CINAC) causes major morbidity and mortality for farmers in North-Central province (NCP) of Sri Lanka. To prevent the CINAC, reverse osmosis (RO) plants are established to purify the water and reduce the exposure to possible nephrotoxins through drinking water. We assessed RO plant maintenance and efficacy in NCP. We have interviewed 10 RO plant operators on plant establishment, maintenance, usage and funding. We also measured total dissolved solids (TDS in ppm) to assess the efficacy of the RO process. Most RO plants were operated by community-based organizations. They provide clean and sustainable water source for many in the NCP for a nominal fee, which tends to be variable. The RO plant operators carry out RO plant maintenance. However, maintenance procedures and quality management practices tend to vary from an operator to another. RO process itself has the ability to lower the TDS of the water. On average, RO process reduces the TDS to 29 ppm. The RO process reduces the impurities in water available to many individuals within CINAC endemic regions. However, there variation in maintenance, quality management, and day-to-day care between operators can be a cause for concern. This variability can affect the quality of water produced by RO plant, its maintenance cost and lifespan. Thus, uniform regulation and training is needed to reduce cost of maintenance and increase the efficacy of RO plants.
Preventive maintenance-A countermeasure to plant aging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hlubek, W.

1985-01-01

The aging of power plants is caused by manifold and different influences. For instance, mechanical and thermal stress, radiation exposure, denting or wastage can considerably affect the aging of plant components and thus cause premature failures of components. In this presentation, the term 'Plant Aging' in nuclear power plants is to be understood more comprehensively than wear on components and material fatigue. In addition, nuclear power plants are to be adjusted to the advancing state of the science and technology (state-of-the-art) in order to guarantee safe operation at all times. The preventive maintenance - as a countermeasure to plant aging - comprises the systematic checks and servicing of the plant systems in operation and follows aging by inspection and tests. Experience with Rheinisch-Westfaelisches Elektrizitaetswerk AG (RWE) preventive maintenance program at the Biblis NNP (1300 MW, PWR) is discussed. The concept of an 'Integrated Maintenance System' as a means to avoid 'Plant Aging' is presented
Operation and maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ackermann, G.

1987-01-01

This textbook gives a systematic introduction into the operational and maintenance activities in nuclear power plants with pressurized water reactors. Subjects: (1) Setup and operational behaviour of power reactors, (2) setup of nuclear power plants, (3) radiation protection and nuclear safety, (4) nuclear fuel, (5) constructional layout of nuclear power plants, (6) management, and (7) maintenance. 158 figs., 56 tabs
Feasibility study of component risk ranking for plant maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ushijima, Koji; Yonebayashi, Kenji; Narumiya, Yoshiyuki; Sakata, Kaoru; Kumano, Tetsuji

1999-01-01

Nuclear power is the base load electricity source in Japan, and reduction of operation and maintenance cost maintaining or improving plant safety is one of the major issues. Recently, Risk Informed Management (RIM) is focused as a solution. In this paper, the outline regarding feasibility study of component risk ranking for plant maintenance for a typical Japanese PWR plant is described. A feasibility study of component risk raking for plant maintenance optimization is performed on check valves and motor-operated valves. Risk ranking is performed in two steps using probabilistic analysis (quantitative method) for risk ranking of components, and deterministic examination (qualitative method) for component review. In this study, plant components are ranked from the viewpoint of plant safety / reliability, and the applicability for maintenance is assessed. As a result, distribution of maintenance resources using risk ranking is considered effective. (author)
A reliability centered maintenance model applied to the auxiliary feedwater system of a nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Araujo, Jefferson Borges

1998-01-01

The main objective of maintenance in a nuclear power plant is to assure that structures, systems and components will perform their design functions with reliability and availability in order to obtain a safety and economic electric power generation. Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a method of systematic review to develop or optimize Preventive Maintenance Programs. This study presents the objectives, concepts, organization and methods used in the development of RCM application to nuclear power plants. Some examples of this application are included, considering the Auxiliary Feedwater System of a generic two loops PWR nuclear power plant of Westinghouse design. (author)
Technology Trend in the Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoon, Kyungsup; Lee, Unjang

2014-01-01

In this paper, overall technology evolution is reviewed and the improvements in the plant safety, reliability and productivity are described. And the issue and some recommendation for better maintenance of Korean nuclear power plants are presented as the interim study results on the 'Management and Regulatory Policy for the Nuclear Power Plant Maintenance and Equipment Reliability' under the agreement with the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission. The future trend in the maintenance technologies is also covered. Maintenance is the essential element for the enhancement of plant safety, reliability and economics and also for public safety. Therefore the regulator's involvements and the utility's active participation is inevitable for the better maintenance. For the better sustainability of our nuclear power plants the followings are recommended. ·Establishment of the good maintenance program and continuous improvement. ·Application of OLM on the safety related and non-safety related components by step-by-step approach. ·Improvement PRA technology for the accurate and reliable risk analysis. ·Continuous training and cultivation for the qualified maintenance personnel
Technology Trend in the Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yoon, Kyungsup; Lee, Unjang [CTO and CEO, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2014-05-15

In this paper, overall technology evolution is reviewed and the improvements in the plant safety, reliability and productivity are described. And the issue and some recommendation for better maintenance of Korean nuclear power plants are presented as the interim study results on the 'Management and Regulatory Policy for the Nuclear Power Plant Maintenance and Equipment Reliability' under the agreement with the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission. The future trend in the maintenance technologies is also covered. Maintenance is the essential element for the enhancement of plant safety, reliability and economics and also for public safety. Therefore the regulator's involvements and the utility's active participation is inevitable for the better maintenance. For the better sustainability of our nuclear power plants the followings are recommended. ·Establishment of the good maintenance program and continuous improvement. ·Application of OLM on the safety related and non-safety related components by step-by-step approach. ·Improvement PRA technology for the accurate and reliable risk analysis. ·Continuous training and cultivation for the qualified maintenance personnel.
Lean Maintenance Applied to Improve Maintenance Efficiency in Thermoelectric Power Plants

OpenAIRE

Orlando Duran; Andrea Capaldo; Paulo Andrés Duran Acevedo

2017-01-01

Thermoelectric power plants consist of a set of critical equipment that require high levels of availability and reliability. Due to this, maintenance of these physical assets is gaining momentum in industry. Maintenance is considered as an activity that contributes to improving the availability, efficiency and productivity of each piece of equipment. Several techniques have been used to achieve greater efficiencies in maintenance, among which we can find the lean maintenance philosophy. Despi...

Application of reliability centred maintenance to optimize operation and maintenance in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-05-01

In order to increase Member States capabilities in utilizing good engineering and management practices the Agency has developed a series of Technical Documents (TECDOCs) to describe best practices and members experience in the application of them. This TECDOC describes the concept of Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) which is the term used to describe a systematic approach to the evaluation, design and development of cost effective maintenance programmes for plant and equipment. The concept has been in existence for over 25 years originating in the civil aviation sector. This TECDOC supplements previous IAEA publications on the subject and seeks to reflect members experience in the application of the principles involved. The process focuses on the functionality of the plant and equipment and the critical failure mechanisms that could result in the loss of functionality. When employed effectively the process can result in the elimination of unnecessary maintenance activities and the identification and introduction of measures to address deficiencies in the maintenance programme. Overall the process can result in higher levels of reliability for the plant and equipment at reduced cost and demands on finite maintenance resources. The application of the process requires interaction between the operators and the maintenance practitioners which is often lacking in traditional maintenance programmes. The imposition of this discipline produces the added benefit of improved information flows between the key players in plant and equipment management with the result that maintenance activities and operational practices are better informed. This publication was produced within IAEA programme on nuclear power plants operating performance and life cycle management
Basic study of the plant maintenance model considering plant improvement/modification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsumaya, Akira; Inoue, Kazuya; Mochizuki, Masahito; Wakamatsu, Hidefumi; Arai, Eiji

2007-01-01

This paper proposes a maintenance activity model that considers not only routine maintenance activity but also functional maintenance including improvement/modification. Required maintenance types are categorized, and limitation of Activity Domain Integration Diagram (ADID) proposed by ISO18435 are discussed based on framework for life cycle maintenance management of manufacturing assets. Then, we proposed extension ADID model for plant maintenance activity model considering functional improvement/modification. (author)
School Plant Management: Organizing the Maintenance Program. Bulletin, 1960, No. 15. OE-21002

Science.gov (United States)

Finchum, R. N.

1960-01-01

Present capital outlay investments in elementary and secondary school buildings, sites, and equipment in the United States are being increased at the rate of about $3 billion annually. Maintenance and operational services, important aspects of property protection, educational progress, pupil safety, and plant efficiency, are being provided in…
Nuclear Power Plant Preventive Maintenance Scheduling Problem with Fuzziness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abass, S.A.; Abdallah, A.S.

2013-01-01

Maintenance activity is regarded as the most important key factor for the safety, reliability and economy of a nuclear power plant. Preventive maintenance refers to set of planned activities which include nondestructive testing and periodic inspection as well as maintenance. In this paper, we address the problem of nuclear power plant preventive maintenance scheduling with uncertainty. The uncertainty will be represented by fuzzy parameters. The problem is how to determine the period for which generating units of an electric system should be taken off line for planned preventive maintenance over specific time horizon. Preventive maintenance activity of a nuclear power plant is an important issue as it designed to extend the plant life . It is more required to review the maintenance not only from the view point of safety and reliability but also economy. Preventive maintenance program exists to ensure that nuclear safety significant equipment will function when it is supposed to. Also this problem is extremely important because a failure in a power plant may cause a general breakdown in an electric network. In this paper a mixed integer programming model is used to express this problem. In proposed model power demand is taken as fuzzy parameters. A case study is provided to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed model.
Basic factors to forecast maintenance cost and failure processes for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Popova, Elmira; Yu, Wei; Kee, Ernie; Sun, Alice; Richards, Drew; Grantom, Rick

2006-01-01

Two types of maintenance interventions are usually administered at nuclear power plants: planned and corrective. The cost incurred includes the labor (manpower) cost, cost for new parts, or emergency order of expensive items. At the plant management level there is a budgeted amount of money to be spent every year for such operations. It is very important to have a good forecast for this cost since unexpected events can trigger it to a very high level. In this research we present a statistical factor model to forecast the maintenance cost for the incoming month. One of the factors is the expected number of unplanned (due to failure) maintenance interventions. We introduce a Bayesian model for the failure rate of the equipment, which is input to the cost forecasting model. The importance of equipment reliability and prediction in the commercial nuclear power plant is presented along with applicable governmental and industry organization requirements. A detailed statistical analysis is performed on a set of maintenance cost and failure data gathered at the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company (STPNOC) in Bay City, Texas, USA
Technology success: Integration of power plant reliability and effective maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ferguson, K.

2008-01-01

effective application of technology in this manner will be addressed including: (a) Effective focus of responsive work management and maintenance (b) Positive manpower utilization implications (c) Establishment of a single source of information for all plant organizations (d) Knowledge transfer to new personnel (e) Efficient management of large inventories of information (f) Best implementation of work processes structures (g) Time savings in development of condition assessments and conclusions (h) Maximum payback related to investments in computerized maintenance management systems. (authors)
Using systematic aging assessments to improve effectiveness of plant maintenance programs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Watson, P.; Yang, J.X.; Dam, R.F.; Nickerson, J.H.

2003-01-01

Nuclear plant equipment aging assessment studies provided by AECL include life assessments, condition assessments or systematic assessments of maintenance. AECL has developed several tools to apply the results of aging assessment studies to improve the effectiveness of actual plant maintenance programs. The Systematic Assessment of Maintenance and the SYSTMS tool generate maintenance tasks for a system. The System Maintenance Datastore tool assesses the maintenance resources on a system basis, and can thus quantify the savings realized by optimizing the maintenance program. Long term trends in condition-based maintenance due to component aging can be predicted, and resource savings due to optimum timing of component replacement or general plant refurbishment can be quantified. The System based Adaptive Maintenance Process ensures the maintenance program is continually updated to reflect the latest plant equipment condition and maintenance strategy information. (author)
Integrated approach to optimize operation and maintenance costs for operating nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-06-01

In the context of increasingly open electricity markets and the 'unbundling' of generating companies from former utility monopolies, an area of major concern is the economic performance of the existing fleet of nuclear power plants. Nuclear power, inevitably, must compete directly with other electricity generation sources. Coping with this competitive pressure is a challenge that the nuclear industry should meet if the nuclear option is to remain a viable one. This competitive environment has significant implications for nuclear plant operations, including, among others, the need for the more cost effective management of plant activities, and the greater use of analytical tools to balance the costs and benefits of proposed activities, in order to optimize operation and maintenance costs, and thus insure the economic competitiveness of existing nuclear power plants. In the framework of the activities on Nuclear Economic Performance Information System (NEPIS), the IAEA embarked in developing guidance on optimization of operation and maintenance costs for nuclear power plants. The report was prepared building on the fundamental that optimization of operation and maintenance costs of a nuclear power plant is a key component of a broader integrated business strategic planning process, having as overall result achievement of organization's business objectives. It provides advice on optimization of O and M costs in the framework of strategic business planning, with additional details on operational planning and controlling. This TECDOC was elaborated in 2004-2005 in the framework of the IAEA's programme on Nuclear Power Plant Operating Performance and Life Cycle Management, with the support of two consultants meetings and one technical meeting and based on contributions provided by participants. It can serve as a useful reference for the management and operation staff within utilities, nuclear power plant operators and regulators and other organizations involved in
Corrective maintenance support system for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kakiuchi, Tetsuo

1996-01-01

With increase of share of nuclear power generation in electric power supply in Japan, requirement for further safe operation and improvement of economics for the nuclear power plants is promoting. The pressed water type (PWR) nuclear power plant in operation in Japan reaches to 22 sets, application rate of the instruments is 74% as mean value for 7 years since 1989 and in high level, which is due to a result of preventive maintenance in ordinary and periodical inspections. The present state of maintenance at the nuclear power plant is mainly preventive maintenance, which is mainly conducted in a shape of time planning maintenance but partially in a shape of state monitoring maintenance for partial rotating appliances. Concretely speaking, the periodical inspection was planned on a base of daily inspection and a long term program on maintenance, and executed on a base of feedback function to think of the long term program again by evaluating the periodical inspection results. Here were introduced on the monitoring diagnosis and periodical inspection regionalization equipment, fatigue monitoring system, automatic supersonic wave damage inspection equipment for reactor, steam evaporator heat conductive tube inspection equipment, automatic testing equipment for measuring controller, air working valve property testing equipment, as maintaining support system in the PW generation plant. (G.K.)
Organization and management of maintenance in the NPP's Asco and Vandellos II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Folguera, M.; Corral, A.

2014-01-01

The article starts with a description of the international framework that, using technical instructions, guides and guidelines, regulates the maintenance of nuclear power plants. It also outlines the characteristics of the organization and management of maintenance in the NPP's operated by ANAV. Such management is supported in a variety of processes and programs among which are: work management, training and qualification, operational experience, supervision, foreign material exclusion, work management in RP areas and outage preparation. (Author)
Predictive maintenance: A new approach in maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benvenuto, F.; Ferrari, L.

2005-01-01

The maintenance services for a Nuclear Power Plant are in general aimed at reaching the following goals: - Increase component availability and consequently decrease intervention frequency; - Reduce unexpected costs from unexpected repairs; - Progressively decrease the time of each intervention; - Improve the spare parts supply efficiency; - Improve spare parts and consumable warehouse managing; - Decrease maintenance costs. Most of the currently used maintenance activities refer to run-to-failure or preventive approaches: - Run-to-failure or Corrective Maintenance means that work is only carried out when a component or system is faulty and unable to perform its critical function. Non critical components such as filters or components with spare may be maintained in this way; - Preventive or Scheduled Maintenance involves a regular pre-set schedule programme of maintenance work. Programme outlined by the manufacturer of the component in question based on the design life of the component and based on past experience by operation. One step further than Preventive Maintenance is represented by Predictive Maintenance. Whereas Preventive Maintenance bases its schedules on past performance data, a predictive system acquires condition data from the machine to be maintained whilst the machine is in operation. The information obtained from this analysis indicates the condition in real time, provides a diagnosis of wear and shows any trend towards critical conditions. Predictive maintenance mainly consists of the following interventions: - Lubricant analysis; - Collection / analysis of functional parameters, such as motor absorption, flow rate, pressure, temperature, noise, vibration of rotating equipment, thermal efficiency, etc; - Periodical test of lifting systems; - Other operations to acquire sensitive equipment parameters. Predictive Maintenance can reduce the accidental intervention and extend the components life, and, in the end, is increasing the global availability
Maintenance risk management in Dayabay nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

He Xuhong; Tong Jiejuan

2005-01-01

The importance of proper maintenance to safe and reliable nuclear plant operation has long been recognized by the nuclear utility and regulatory body. This paper presents a process of maintenance risk management developed for a Chinese Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). The process includes three phases: (I) long term maintenance plan risk management, (II) monthly maintenance plan risk management, and (III) detailed risk management for high risk configuration. A risk matrix is developed for phase I whose purpose is to provide a rough guide for risk management in the making of the annual maintenance plan. For Phase II and Phase III, a software tool named Maintenance- Risk-Monitor is developed based on the internal initiating event, level 1 PSA model. The results of Phase II are the risk information of the all plant configurations caused by the unavailability of the components included the monthly maintenance plan. When the increase of core damage frequency (CDF) or the incremental core damage probability (ICDP) of a configuration is higher than the corresponding thresholds, Phase III is needed for this high risk configuration to get the useful information such as risk-importance components, human actions and initial events, from which appropriate preventive measurements could be derived. It is hoped that the provided process of maintenance risk management, together with the developed software tool, could facilitate the maintenance activities in the NPPs of China. (authors)
Development of Tokai reprocessing plant maintenance support system (TORMASS) in the Tokai reprocessing plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimizu, Kazuyuki; Tomita, Tsuneo; Sakai, Katsumi

2008-01-01

The maintenance work of many equipments such as mechanical, electrical and instrumentations installed in Tokai reprocessing plant has been performed more then 10,000 times per year and about 90% of maintenances were preventive work. For the maintenance management, optimization of maintenance information is required. Therefore, Tokai Reprocessing Plant Maintenance Support System (TORMASS) was developed from 1985 to 1992 as the aim of construction for suitable maintenance management system. About 24,000 equipments of specifications and about 261,000 maintenance detail were registered in this system. TORMASS has been used for the repair, inspection and replacement of equipment since 1992. (author)
Maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lashgari, Farbod.

1995-01-01

This paper is about maintenance of nuclear power plants. In part one, the outage management of nuclear power plants has described. Meaning of the outage and objectives of outage management is given in introduction. The necessity of a long-term outage strategy is shown in chapter one. The main parts of an outage are as follows: Planning; Preparation; Execution, Each of them and also post-outage review have been explained in the followed chapters. Part two deals with technical details of main primary components of nuclear power plant type WWER. After an introduction about WWER reactors, in each chapter first the general and detailed description of main primary components has given and then their maintenance schedules and procedures. Chapter about reactor and steam generator is related to both types of WWER-440 and WWER-1000, but chapter about reactor coolant pump has specified to WWER-1000 to be more in details.(author)
Reliability Centered Maintenance as a tool for plant life extension

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Elliott, J.O.; Mulay, J.N.; Nakahara, Y.

1991-01-01

Currently in the nuclear industry there is a growing interest in lowering the cost and complexity of maintenance activities while at the same time improving plant reliability and safety in an effort to prepare for the technical and regulatory challenges of life extension. This seemingly difficult task is being aided by the introduction of a maintenance philosophy developed originally by the airline industry and subsequently applied with great success both in that industry and the U.S. military services. Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), in its basic form, may be described as a consideration of reliability and maintenance problems from a systems level approach, allowing a focus on preservation of system function as the aim of a maintenance program optimized for both safety and economics. It is this systematic view of plant maintenance, with the emphasis on overall functions rather than individual parts and components which sets RCM apart from past nuclear plant maintenance philosophies. It is also the factor which makes application of RCM an ideal first step in development of strategies for life extension, both for aging plants, and for plants just beginning their first license term. (J.P.N.)
Development of a knowledge-based information management system for plant maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yim, Hyung Sang; Park, Young Jae; Lee, Sang Min; Choi, Jae Boong; Kim, Young Jin; Roh, Eun Chul; Lee, Byung Ine

2003-01-01

Recently, the importance of Plant Maintenance(PM) was highly raised to provide efficient plant operation which highly affects the productivity. For this reason, a number of engineering methodologies, such as Risk-Based Inspection(RBI), Fitness For Service guidelines(FFS), Plant Lifecycle Management(PLM), have been applied to improve the plant operation efficiency. Also, a network-based business operation system, which is called ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning), has been introduced in the field of plant maintenance. However, there was no attempt to connect engineering methodologies to the ERP PM system. In this paper, a knowledge-based information system for the plant operation of steel making company has been proposed. This system, which is named as K-VRS(Knowledge-based Virtual Reality System), provides a connection between ERP plant maintenance module and knowledge-based engineering methodologies, and thus, enables network-based highly effective plant maintenance process. The developed system is expected to play a great role for more efficient and safer plant maintenance
Development of a knowledge-based information management system for plant maintenance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yim, Hyung Sang; Park, Young Jae; Lee, Sang Min; Choi, Jae Boong; Kim, Young Jin [Sungkyunkwan Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Roh, Eun Chul; Lee, Byung Ine [Pohang Iron and Steel Company, Pohang (Korea, Republic of)

2003-07-01

Recently, the importance of Plant Maintenance(PM) was highly raised to provide efficient plant operation which highly affects the productivity. For this reason, a number of engineering methodologies, such as Risk-Based Inspection(RBI), Fitness For Service guidelines(FFS), Plant Lifecycle Management(PLM), have been applied to improve the plant operation efficiency. Also, a network-based business operation system, which is called ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning), has been introduced in the field of plant maintenance. However, there was no attempt to connect engineering methodologies to the ERP PM system. In this paper, a knowledge-based information system for the plant operation of steel making company has been proposed. This system, which is named as K-VRS(Knowledge-based Virtual Reality System), provides a connection between ERP plant maintenance module and knowledge-based engineering methodologies, and thus, enables network-based highly effective plant maintenance process. The developed system is expected to play a great role for more efficient and safer plant maintenance.
The Design of Management Practices To Improve the Physical Plant Maintenance of Southwest Texas Junior College.

Science.gov (United States)

Box, Wilford Winston

A study was conducted of the physical plant maintenance department (PPMD) of Southwest Texas Junior College (SWTJC), in order to determine if the department was structured as a functional organization, if maintenance control procedures were in place, and if efficient management practices were being used. Consultations with the director of the PPMD…
Maintenance implementation plan for T Plant. Revision 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ayers, W.S.

1995-05-01

This document is a Maintenance Implementation Plan (MIP) for the T Plant Facility complex located in the 200 West Area of the Hanford Reservation in Washington state. This plan has been developed to provide a disciplined approach to maintenance functions and to describe how the T Plant facility will implement and comply with the regulations according to US DOE order 4330.4B, entitled Maintenance Management Program, Chapter 2.0 open-quotes Nuclear Facilitiesclose quotes. Physical structures, systems, processes, as well as all associated equipment specifically assigned to these groups are included in the MIP
Automatic scheduling of maintenance work in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kasahara, T.; Nishizawa, Y.; Kato, K.; Kiguchi, T.

1987-01-01

An automatic scheduling method for maintenance work in nuclear power plants has been developed using an AI technique. The purpose of this method is to help plant operators by adjusting the time schedule of various kinds of maintenance work so that incorrect ordering or timing of plant manipulations does not cause undersirable results, such as a plant trip. The functions of the method were tested by off-line simulations. The results show that the method can produce a satisfactory schedule of plant component manipulations without interference between the tasks and plant conditions

Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) Plan

Science.gov (United States)

... Find & compare doctors, hospitals, & other providers Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) Plan In most HMO Plans, you generally ... certain service when needed. Related Resources Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) Private Fee-for-Service (PFFS) Special Needs ...
Applications of RFID into Nuclear Power Plant Maintenance System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Min; Seong, Poong Hyun

2008-01-01

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) system, one of the most anticipated ubiquitous technologies is an automatic identification method using devices called RFID tags. RFID antenna detects each approach of RFID tags and recognizes the tags' ID and transfer to reader to do information processing. Since first introduced in the logistics industry, production management and maintenance organization in various fields of domestic and foreign enterprises introduce the RFID. Nuclear power plants are also using RFID to manage materials lately. However, the current status on the use of RFID is just a little more advanced on the use of bar code. Therefore, it seems that the important characteristic of RFID is not enough actualized to keep seeing. In point of Maintenance Information Field based on ubiquitous technology, the most important concept is real-time information processing. And RFID is quite proper to develop this information field system because it satisfies for the matter of that concept. The leading content in ubiquitous maintenance system is that maintenance personnel can get information what he needs and he can also transfer information what he gets whenever and wherever he is. In this paper, some examples of applying RFID in development of ubiquitous maintenance system are suggested
Plant services (maintenance) foreman training. Inception to implementation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dunlap, M.S.

1991-01-01

Training content and time allocated for training have become essential and auditable commodities. This additional awareness, by upper management, has increased the pressure on training organizations to demonstrate effective and efficient programs. Structured program design and administration can assist training organizations in meeting these requirements and assuring a quality program. Sequential development of the job analysis, qualification standard, associated lesson plans, and a methodology for tracking program changes which affect the system, are all required components in a systematic approach to training. This paper addresses these facets in establishing a training program. It describes the methods utilized, problems identified and resolved as they occurred in the development of the Westinghouse Idaho Nuclear Company (WINCO) Plant Services (Maintenance) Foreman Training Program
Development of maintenance knowledge management system for power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohi, Tadashi; Hirai, Kenji

2004-01-01

This paper describes the knowledge management framework to systematize maintenance knowledge in power plant. The features of the framework are (1) to construct a decision tree of trouble cases incrementally based on Ripple Down Rules (RDR) method and (2) to decide the timing of installing new knowledge based on several metrics obtained by evaluating a structure of a decision tree. We are developing the experimental prototype of maintenance knowledge management system. The system is integrated with plant database (ex. the operation journals and maintenance records). The management of trouble cases is based on the format of XML. For practical purpose, each trouble case is linked with related data (ex. maintenance manuals, equipment configuration, records). Plant workers can easily search for maintenance knowledge and relevant data by specifying observed status. On the other hand, knowledge engineers can monitor occurrence counts of exceptional cases to each node. The metrics calculation gives a cue to locate the effective node for improving the efficiency of retrieval. We are evaluating the functionality and the effectiveness of the system through the application to maintenance work of controller systems. We believe that this framework will be helpful to share common knowledge among plant sites as well as to manage site-specific knowledge. (author)
Maintenance viewpoint of a successful reactor program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moffitt, W.C.; Grygiel, M.L.

1984-05-01

As the Operating and Support staffs of the FFTF organization have gained experience, the plant reliability and capacity factors have shown a steadily improving trend. The plant capacity factor for Cycle 4 was 99.5%. It is the purpose of this report to describe the evolution of the maintenance organization at the FFTF site from a general support organization to a technically proficient organization playing a major role in planning and performance of plant maintenance evolutions
Application of plant Technology Knowledge Infrastructure to plant engineering and maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawanaka, Tsutomu; Tamaki, Yuji; Ota, Yoshimi; Yoshinaga, Toshiaki

2006-01-01

Management and maintenance tools are now greatly available for contributing reduction of maintenance cost and time. These tools surely give us much benefit, but are only for maintaining reliabilities of the equipment. Reliability of the plant depends on the design and actual operating conditions. Accordingly, the matter to do first is to consider facilities in the range of the plant life cycle. This brings the result that 'process property' and 'functional property' are required besides 'equipment property' which has been used for the evaluation index. Because these properties are formed at the designing stage, the beginning of the life cycle, and by applying the equipment function to them, maintenance cost can be reduced without risk increasing. To execute this subject, it is strongly required to accumulate information and data, to build up the Technology Knowledge Infrastructure. This paper reports the system and the way of applying the method to the actual plants. (author)
Regulatory control of maintenance activities in Argentine nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Calvo, J.C.; Caruso, G.

2000-01-01

The main maintenance objective is to assure that the safety features of structures, components and systems of nuclear power plants are kept as designed. Therefore, there is a direct relationship between safety and maintenance. Owing to the above mentioned, maintenance activities are considered a relevant regulatory issue for the Argentine Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ARN). This paper describes the regulatory control to maintenance activities of Argentine nuclear power plants. It also addresses essential elements for maintenance control, routine inspections, special inspections during planned outages, audits and license conditions and requirements. (author)
Design of comprehensive plant information system considering maintenance indicators in nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takata, Takashi; Yamaguchi, Akira; Yamamoto, Akio

2013-01-01

A safety of a nuclear power plant must be ensured and maintained through its entire plant life. For this plant life cycle safety (PLCS), a comprehensive plant information system, in which an each maintenance record of the plant is taken into consideration, is of importance. In this paper, a development of a plant chart, which is a part of the information system, has been developed based on a defense-in-depth concept that is one of the most important concept to ensure the plant safety. In the chart, an updated probability of loss of a component or function is used as a maintenance indicator and a probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) method is applied to quantify the plant status in the chart. (author)
Analysis of the options - rationale for servomanipulator maintenance in future reprocessing plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Herndon, J.N.; Hamel, W.R.

1984-04-01

The currently available maintenance systems which can be applied, in various combinations, to large-volume in-cell maintenance operations are: (1) contact, (2) overhead cranes, (3) power manipulators, (4) mechanical master/slave manipulators, and (5) servomanipulators. The requirements for reprocessing plant maintenance are reviewed, and the capabilities of remote maintenance systems are described. A basic trade-off analysis of these remote maintenance systems considering reprocessing plant requirements is given. Justification is given for selecting the overhead crane/servomanipulator-based maintenance concept as the option most desirable for future large reprocessing plant maintenance. 23 references, 6 tables
Maintenance of nuclear chemical and fuel fabrication plants [Invited talk no. IT-3

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prasad, A.M.

1981-01-01

Though the objective of the maintenance practices followed in nuclear facilities is to optimise production as in other conventional production plants, the radioactivity associated with nuclear materials is a major constraint in all maintenance jobs on equipment of the nuclear facility. Often non-routine maintenance have to be adopted. Maintenance aspect has to be taken into consideration at the design stage of the nuclear facility. The maintenance concept adopted in a nuclear facility depends on the type of plant and varies from full indirect remote maintenance to direct contact maintenance. This is illustrated by discussing maintenance practices followed in a fuel reprocessing plant, a high level radioactive waste management facility, a fuel fabrication plant, and a heavy water plant. Exposure of maintenance staff to radiation has to be kept within limits governed by safety regulations. Along with planning and scheduling of maintenance, training of manpower with mock-up facilities assumes importance and the maintenance jobs must be carried out under strict supervision. (M.G.B.)
BALTICA IV. Plant maintenance for managing life and performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hietanen, S; Auerkari, P [eds.; VTT Manufacturing Technology, Espoo (Finland). Operational Reliability

1999-12-31

BALTICA IV International Conference on Plant Maintenance Managing Life and performance held on September 7-9, 1998 on board M/S Silja Symphony on its cruise between Helsinki-Stockholm and at Aavaranta in Kirkkonummi. The BALTICA IV conference provides a forum for the transfer of technology from applied research to practice. This is one of the two volumes of the proceedings of the BALTICA IV International Conference on Plant Maintenance Managing Life and Performance. The BALTICA IV conference focuses on new technology, recent experience and applications of condition and life management, and on improvements in maintenance strategies for safe and economical operation of power plants. (orig.)
BALTICA IV. Plant maintenance for managing life and performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hietanen, S.; Auerkari, P. [eds.] [VTT Manufacturing Technology, Espoo (Finland). Operational Reliability

1998-12-31

BALTICA IV International Conference on Plant Maintenance Managing Life and performance held on September 7-9, 1998 on board M/S Silja Symphony on its cruise between Helsinki-Stockholm and at Aavaranta in Kirkkonummi. The BALTICA IV conference provides a forum for the transfer of technology from applied research to practice. This is one of the two volumes of the proceedings of the BALTICA IV International Conference on Plant Maintenance Managing Life and Performance. The BALTICA IV conference focuses on new technology, recent experience and applications of condition and life management, and on improvements in maintenance strategies for safe and economical operation of power plants. (orig.)
Study on a quantitative evaluation method of equipment maintenance level and plant safety level for giant complex plant system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aoki, Takayuki

2010-01-01

In this study, a quantitative method on maintenance level which is determined by the two factors, maintenance plan and field work implementation ability by maintenance crew is discussed. And also a quantitative evaluation method on safety level for giant complex plant system is discussed. As a result of consideration, the following results were obtained. (1) It was considered that equipment condition after maintenance work was determined by the two factors, maintenance plan and field work implementation ability possessed by maintenance crew. The equipment condition determined by the two factors was named as 'equipment maintenance level' and its quantitative evaluation method was clarified. (2) It was considered that CDF in a nuclear power plant, evaluated by using a failure rate counting the above maintenance level was quite different from CDF evaluated by using existing failure rates including a safety margin. Then, the former CDF was named as 'plant safety level' of plant system and its quantitative evaluation method was clarified. (3) Enhancing equipment maintenance level means an improvement of maintenance quality. That results in the enhancement of plant safety level. Therefore, plant safety level should be always watched as a plant performance indicator. (author)
Maintenance implementation plan for the B Plant/WESF. Revision 4

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tritt, S.E.; Lueck, B.H.

1996-01-01

This Maintenance Implementation Plan (MIP) has been developed for maintenance functions associated with the B Plant/WESF (Waste Encapsulation Storage Facility) complex. The objective of this plan is to provide baseline information for establishing and identifying WHC conformance programs and policies applicable to implementation of DOE order 4330.4B guidelines. In addition, this maintenance plan identifies the actions necessary to develop a cost-effective and efficient maintenance program at B Plant/WESF. The B Plant WESF facility complex consists of three main facilities and several support structures located in the 200 East Area of the Hanford site. B Plant is a transition facility that is required to ensure safe storage and management of WESF (operating facility) cesium and strontium capsules. B Plant/WESF also contains substantial radiological inventory from previous campaigns. There are no production activities at B Plant, but several of its operating systems are required to accomplish the current B Plant/WESF mission. B Plant/WESF are each considered a nuclear facility due to the storage of cesium and strontium capsules at WESF and the large radiological inventory from past processing
Maintenance Implementation Plan for B Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tritt, S.E.

1993-04-01

The objective of the Maintenance Implementation Plan (MIP) is to describe how the B Plant will implement the requirements established by US Department of Energy (DOE) Order 4330.4A, Maintenance Management Program, Chapter II, ''Nuclear Facilities'' (DOE 1990). The plan provides a blueprint for a disciplined approach to implementation and compliance. Each element of the order is prioritized, categorized, and then placed into one of three phases for implementation
Nuclear power plant maintenance optimisation SENUF network activity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahlstrand, R.; Bieth, M.; Pla, P.; Rieg, C.; Trampus, P.

2004-01-01

During providing scientific and technical support to TACIS and PHARE nuclear safety programs a large amount of knowledge related to Russian design reactor systems has accumulated and led to creation of a new Network concerning Nuclear Safety in Central and Eastern Europe called ''Safety of Eastern European type Nuclear Facilities'' (SENUF). SENUF contributes to bring together all stakeholders of TACIS and PHARE: beneficiaries, end users, Eastern und Western nuclear industries, and thus, to favour fruitful technical exchanges and feedback of experience. At present the main focus of SENUF is the nuclear power plant maintenance as substantial element of plant operational safety as well as life management. A Working Group has been established on plant maintenance. One of its major tasks in 2004 is to prepare a status report on advanced strategies to optimise maintenance. Optimisation projects have an interface with the plant's overall life management program. Today, almost all plants involved in SENUF network have an explicit policy to extend their service life, thus, component ageing management, modernization and refurbishment actions became much more important. A database is also under development, which intends to help sharing the available knowledge and specific equipment and tools. (orig.)
Just In-Time Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

DR. Alexander G. Parlos

2002-01-22

The goal of this project has been to develop and demonstrate the feasibility of a new technology for maintenance engineering: a Just-In-Time Maintenance (JITM) system for rotating machines. The JITM system is based on several key developments at Texas A and M over the past ten years in emerging intelligent information technologies, which if integrated into a single system could provide a revolutionary approach in the way maintenance is performed. Rotating machines, such as induction motors, range from a few horse power (hp) to several thousand hp in size, and they are widely used in nuclear power plants and in other industries. Forced outages caused by induction motor failures are the reason for as much as 15% - 40% of production costs to be attributable to maintenance, whereas plant shutdowns caused by induction motor failures result in daily financial losses to the utility and process industries of $1 M or more. The basic components of the JITM system are the available machine sensors, that is electric current sensors and accelerometers, and the computational algorithms used in the analysis and interpretation of the occurring incipient failures. The JITM system can reduce the costs attributable to maintenance by about 40% and it can lower the maintenance budgets of power and process plants by about 35%, while requiring no additional sensor installation. As a result, the JITM system can improve the competitiveness of US nuclear utilities at minimal additional cost.
Just In-Time Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parlos, Alexander G.

2002-01-01

The goal of this project has been to develop and demonstrate the feasibility of a new technology for maintenance engineering: a Just-In-Time Maintenance (JITM) system for rotating machines. The JITM system is based on several key developments at Texas A and M over the past ten years in emerging intelligent information technologies, which if integrated into a single system could provide a revolutionary approach in the way maintenance is performed. Rotating machines, such as induction motors, range from a few horse power (hp) to several thousand hp in size, and they are widely used in nuclear power plants and in other industries. Forced outages caused by induction motor failures are the reason for as much as 15% - 40% of production costs to be attributable to maintenance, whereas plant shutdowns caused by induction motor failures result in daily financial losses to the utility and process industries of $1 M or more. The basic components of the JITM system are the available machine sensors, that is electric current sensors and accelerometers, and the computational algorithms used in the analysis and interpretation of the occurring incipient failures. The JITM system can reduce the costs attributable to maintenance by about 40% and it can lower the maintenance budgets of power and process plants by about 35%, while requiring no additional sensor installation. As a result, the JITM system can improve the competitiveness of US nuclear utilities at minimal additional cost
Plant maintenance and plant life extension issue, 2008

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Agnihotri, Newal

2008-01-01

The focus of the March-April issue is on plant maintenance and plant life extension. Major articles include the following: Exciting time to be at the U.S. NRC, by Dale Klein, Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Extraordinary steps to ensure a minimal environmental impact, by George Vanderheyden, UniStar Nuclear Energy, LLC.; Focused on consistent reduction of outages, by Kevin Walsh, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy; On the path towards operational excellence, by Ricardo Perez, Westinghouse Electric Company; Ability to be refuelled on-line, by Ian Trotman, CANDU Services, Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd.; ASCA Application for maintenance of SG secondary side, by Patrick Wagner, Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation, Phillip Battaglia and David Selfridge, Westinghouse Electric Company; and, An integral part of the landscape and lives, by Tyler Lamberts, Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. The Industry Innovation article is titled Steam generator bowl drain repairs, by John Makar and Richard Gimple, Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation
Aging management and preventive maintenance for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bessho, Toichi; Sagawa, Wataru; Oyamada, Osamu; Uchida, Shunsuke

1995-01-01

It is expected that nuclear power generation will bear main electric power supply for long term. For this purpose, by applying proper preventive maintenance to the nuclear power plants in operation, the maintenance of high reliability and the rate of plant operation is extremely important. Especially it has been strongly demanded to execute efficiently the periodic inspection which is carried out every year to shorten its period and increase the rate of operation, and to maintain the reliability by the proper maintenance for the aged plants with long operation years. As to efficient and short periodic inspection, the preparation is advanced by the guidance of electric power companies aiming at realizing it in nearest fiscal year, and further, effort is exerted for the development of technology in long term to optimize periodic inspection. For securing the reliability of aged plants, it is important to do proper inspection and diagnosis and to take the countermeasures by repair and replacement, based on the grasp of secular change mechanism and the evaluation of life of machinery, equipment and materials. In particular, effort is exerted for the development of maintenance technology for reactor pressure vessels and in-core equipment which are hard to access. The confirmation of the function of remote operation equipment and the establishment of execution condition are carried out by uisng the full scale mock-up of BWR plant. The problems in maintenance service and the activities and results of reliability improvement are reported. (K.I.)

Job analysis of the maintenance supervisor and instrument and control supervisor positions for the nuclear power plant maintenance personnel reliability model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bartter, W.D.; Siegel, A.I.; Federman, P.J.

1982-11-01

The present report presents the results of an analysis of the jobs of maintenance mechanic supervisors and instrument and control technician supervisors in nuclear power plants. Such an analysis was considered to be a necessary step in defining the scope and focus of a model for predicting and analyzing nuclear power maintenance reliability. The model will focus upon tasks and subtasks performed by various job positions. The results of this job analysis, along with the results of a survey of user needs vis-a-vis such a model and the results of parallel analyses of the job of maintenance mechanics and of instrument and control technicians provide the sound foundation on which such a model may be built. Job analysis possesses implications for a number of purposes. It provides insight into selection standards, job structuring and organization, performance analysis, training objective establishment, and training content derivation. Accordingly, the results of the present work possess implications for a variety of interest areas relative to safe and efficient operation of nuclear power plants
Reliability study: maintenance facilities Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Post, B.E.; Sikorski, P.A.; Fankell, R.; Johnson, O.; Ferryman, D.S.; Miller, R.L.; Gearhart, E.C.; Rafferty, M.J.

1981-08-01

A reliability study of the maintenance facilities at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant has been completed. The reliability study team analyzed test data and made visual inspections of each component contributing to the overall operation of the facilities. The impacts of facilities and equipment failures were given consideration with regard to personnel safety, protection of government property, health physics, and environmental control. This study revealed that the maintenance facilities are generally in good condition. After evaluating the physical condition and technology status of the major components, the study team made several basic recommendations. Implementation of the recommendations proposed in this report will help assure reliable maintenance of the plant through the year 2000
Computerization of operation and maintenance for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-07-01

This report provides a resource for computerization of activities in plant operation and maintenance. Experience gained from design and implementation of various computer systems around the world is described. The material may be useful as a guide to modification and upgrading of existing plants as well as design and engineering of new plants. It should be particularly of interest to managers and engineers who are engaged in planning, bidding, specifying or designing computer systems for operation and maintenance applications. Refs, figs and tabs
Computerization of operation and maintenance for nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1995-07-01

This report provides a resource for computerization of activities in plant operation and maintenance. Experience gained from design and implementation of various computer systems around the world is described. The material may be useful as a guide to modification and upgrading of existing plants as well as design and engineering of new plants. It should be particularly of interest to managers and engineers who are engaged in planning, bidding, specifying or designing computer systems for operation and maintenance applications. Refs, figs and tabs.
Upgrade of maintenance technologies of Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamada, Kazuaki

2005-01-01

In order to enhance long-term safe and stable operation of Ikata Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) in more efficient way, maintenance technology upgrade project was started aiming at establishment of simplified and efficient self-maintenance system with affiliated companies. Maintenance technique and supervisor qualification system was introduced after improvement and reinforcement of personnel education and training. Reflecting investigation of maintenance activities of US NPPs and productivity improvement in other industries, preventive maintenance optimization project had been performed such as introduction of key performance indicator (KPI), new system incorporating reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) and condition-based maintenance (CBM), and on-line monitoring and maintenance (OLM) based on risk assessment. Enterprise asset management (EAM) to establish information data base and total productive maintenance (TPM) action for every personnel to participate in self-maintenance was also introduced. (T. Tanaka)
Maintenance Issues in Long Term Operation of Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Contri, P.; Bieth, M.; Rieg, C.

2006-01-01

Due to current social and economical framework, in last years many nuclear power plant owners started a program for the Long Term Operation (LTO)/PLEX (Plant Life Extension) of their older nuclear facilities. This process has many nuclear safety implications, other than strategic and political ones. The need for tailoring the available safety assessment tools to such applications has become urgent in recent years and triggered many research actions. The review of regular maintenance and ageing management programs are tools widely used in LTO/PLEX context in many Countries. However, most of these tools are rather general and in many cases they need reshaping in an LTO/PLEX framework before application, with focus to the safety implications of the LTO/PLEX. Many Countries and plants radically modified their maintenance rules towards a condition based approach as a precondition for the implementation of LTO/PLEX programs. In 2004 a network of European Organisations operating Nuclear Power Plants, SENUF, under the coordination of the JRC-IE, carried out an extensive questionnaire on maintenance practice in their facilities aiming at capturing the aspects of the maintenance programs where research is mostly needed. This paper uses some results of the questionnaire, which was not oriented to LTO/PLEX, to draw some conclusions on how the current maintenance programs could support a potential LTO/PLEX, among the other programs running at NPPs. In this sense, it is spin-off of the SENUF WG on maintenance. The paper aims at identifying the technical attributes of the maintenance programs more directly affecting the decision for a long-term safe operation of a nuclear facility, the issues related to their implementation and safety review. The paper includes an analysis of the questionnaire circulated among the SENUF participants and a discussion on the implications of optimised maintenance programs in existing plants. Some examples at WWER plants taken by sources other than
The maintenance management for lean organization

OpenAIRE

Daniel D. GEORGESCU

2010-01-01

The goal of lean maintenance approach is to maintain organization international competitiveness. In the spirit of continuously improvement, in the paper it is shown how by adjusting some Lean manufacturing specific techniques for Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) system, was born new maintenance system named Lean TPM. This is a systemic approach with three techniques, which don’t exclude specific techniques of TPM pillars, but complete them: the 7Ss as a critical first step in any improvemen...
The impact of reliability centered maintenance on plant prospects for license renewal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Elliott, J.O.; Nakahara, Y.

1991-01-01

Much attention has been directed in recent years to means of extending nuclear power plant life. As many plants enter their third decade of service, the questions loom large of how to keep aging plants reliable, as well as how to assure reliability and safety to an extent sufficient to warrant license renewal at the end of the current licensing term. Concurrently the nuclear industry has seen a growing interest in reducing the cost and complexity of maintenance activities while at the same time improving plant reliability and availability. Attainment of these seemingly contradictory aims is being aided by the introduction of a maintenance philosophy developed originally by the airline industry and subsequently applied with great success both in that industry and the U.S. military services. Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), in its basic form, may be described as a consideration of reliability and maintenance problems from a systems level approach, allowing a focus on preservation of system functions as the aim of a maintenance program optimized for both safety and economics. It is this systematic view of plant maintenance, with the emphasis on preservation of overall functions rather than individual parts and components which sets RCM apart from past nuclear plant maintenance philosophies. It is also the factor which makes application of RCM an ideal first step in development of strategies for life extension and license renewal, both for aging plants, and for plants just beginning their first license term
Research of nuclear power plant in-service maintenance based on virtual reality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Yong; Kuang Weijun

2015-01-01

This paper presents a method of constructing nuclear power plant in-service maintenance virtual simulation scene and virtual maintenance process. Taking air baffles dismantling process of CAP1400(China Advanced Passive 1400) nuclear power plant as an instance, this paper discusses ergonomics, space analysis, time assessment based on virtual reality in the process of in-service maintenance. It demonstrates the advantage of using VR technology to design and verify in-service maintenance process of nuclear power plant compared to the conventional way. (author)
Nuclear power plant maintenance scheduling dilemma: a genetic algorithm approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahdavi, M.H.; Modarres, M.

2004-01-01

There are huge numbers of components scheduled for maintenance when a nuclear power plant is shut down. Among these components, a number of them are safety related which their operability as well as reliability when plant becomes up is main concerns. Not performing proper maintenance on this class of components/system would impose substantial risk on operating the NPP. In this paper a new approach based on genetic algorithms is presented to optimize the NPP maintenance schedule during shutdown. following this approach the cost incurred by maintenance activities for each schedule is balanced with the risk imposed by the maintenance scheduling plan to the plant operation status when it is up. The risk model implemented in the GA scheduler as its evaluation function is developed on the basis of the probabilistic risk assessment methodology. the Ga optimizers itself is shown to be superior compared to other optimization methods such as the monte carlo technique
Nuclear power plant maintenance optimisation SENUF network activity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ahlstrand, R.; Bieth, M.; Pla, P.; Rieg, C.; Trampus, P. [Inst. for Energy, EC DG Joint Research Centre, Petten (Netherlands)

2004-07-01

During providing scientific and technical support to TACIS and PHARE nuclear safety programs a large amount of knowledge related to Russian design reactor systems has accumulated and led to creation of a new Network concerning Nuclear Safety in Central and Eastern Europe called ''Safety of Eastern European type Nuclear Facilities'' (SENUF). SENUF contributes to bring together all stakeholders of TACIS and PHARE: beneficiaries, end users, Eastern und Western nuclear industries, and thus, to favour fruitful technical exchanges and feedback of experience. At present the main focus of SENUF is the nuclear power plant maintenance as substantial element of plant operational safety as well as life management. A Working Group has been established on plant maintenance. One of its major tasks in 2004 is to prepare a status report on advanced strategies to optimise maintenance. Optimisation projects have an interface with the plant's overall life management program. Today, almost all plants involved in SENUF network have an explicit policy to extend their service life, thus, component ageing management, modernization and refurbishment actions became much more important. A database is also under development, which intends to help sharing the available knowledge and specific equipment and tools. (orig.)
Optimisation of maintenance and inspection work in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meyer, V.

1996-01-01

The long-term planning and comparative evaluation of inspection and maintenance intervals as well as results of electric components and machinery have to be intensified in order to shorten maintenance shut-down periods, e.g. of the Grohnde reactor station, thus improving the availability of the plant and the specific electricity generation cost. Economically efficient maintenance has to be based on an efficient organisational structure. Outsourcing of less plant-specific work and tasks offers the possibility for in-house personnel to concentrate on their core competences. All the measures discussed contribute to improving the economic efficiency of the nuclear power plants. (orig./DG) [de
Reliability centred maintenance of nuclear power plant facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kovacs, Zoltan; Novakova, Helena; Hlavac, Pavol; Janicek, Frantisek

2011-01-01

A method for the optimization of preventive maintenance nuclear power plant equipment, i.e. reliability centred maintenance, is described. The method enables procedures and procedure schedules to be defined such as allow the maintenance cost to be minimized without compromising operational safety or reliability. Also, combinations of facilities which remain available and ensure reliable operation of the reactor unit during the maintenance of other pieces of equipment are identified. The condition-based maintenance concept is used in this process, thereby preventing unnecessary operator interventions into the equipment, which are often associated with human errors. Where probabilistic safety assessment is available, the most important structures, systems and components with the highest maintenance priority can be identified. (orig.)
Characteristics of organizational culture at the maintenance units of two Nordic nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reiman, Teemu; Oedewald, Pia; Rollenhagen, Carl

2005-01-01

This study aims to characterize and assess the organizational cultures of two Nordic nuclear power plant (NPP) maintenance units. The research consisted of NPP maintenance units of Forsmark (Sweden) and Olkiluoto (Finland). The study strives to anticipate the consequences of the current practices, conceptions and assumptions in the given organizations to their ability and willingness to fulfill the organizational core task. The methods utilized in the study were organizational culture and core task questionnaire (CULTURE02) and semi-structured interviews. Similarities and differences in the perceived organizational values, conceptions of one's own work, conceptions of the demands of the maintenance task and organizational practices at the maintenance units were explored. The maintenance units at Olkiluoto and Forsmark had quite different organizational cultures, but they also shared a set of dimensions such as strong personal emphasis placed on safety. The authors propose that different cultural features and organizational practices may be equally effective from the perspective of the core task. The results show that due to the complexity of the maintenance work, the case organizations tend to emphasize some aspects of the maintenance task more than others. The reliability consequences of these cultural solutions to the maintenance task are discussed. The authors propose that the organizational core task, in this case the maintenance task, should be clear for all the workers. The results give implications that this has been a challenge recently as the maintenance work has been changing. The concepts of organizational core task and organizational culture could be useful as management tools to anticipate the consequences of organizational changes
Operation and maintenance support expert systems for BWR nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyazawa, Tatsuo; Hayakawa, Hiroyasu; Fukutomi, Shigeki

1990-01-01

Toshiba has been developing expert systems for operation and maintenance support in BWRs. These expert systems are designed to be integrated with conventional plant monitoring systems, and maintenance management systems to provide both comprehensive and powerful support capabilities. Some of these expert systems are already being used on a trial basis both within Toshiba and in electric power utility companies. This paper describes expert systems for the support of plant and equipment monitoring, maintenance scheduling, and maintenance work procedure planning. (author)
Maintenance Support System Development for Maintenance Personnel in Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yim, Ho Bin; Kim, In; Lee, Seung Min; Seong, Poong Hyun

2009-01-01

As plants or factories get old, the number of maintenance activities increases, and so does the necessity of maintenance itself. Industries have adopted the latest technologies such as RFID, wireless sensor networking, and augmented reality to develop systems which increase human performances as well as productivity. Due to safety related concerns, nuclear power industries have been reluctant to use these fancy technologies. However, from the economics point of view, it is necessary to take advantages of novel technologies. This empirical study considers not only ergonomics view, but also the economics view when building maintenance support systems. This paper introduces brief features of five subsystems which were built to reduce human errors and advantages when each system successfully reduces those human errors
Maintenance Support System Development for Maintenance Personnel in Nuclear Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yim, Ho Bin; Kim, In; Lee, Seung Min; Seong, Poong Hyun [Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2009-05-15

As plants or factories get old, the number of maintenance activities increases, and so does the necessity of maintenance itself. Industries have adopted the latest technologies such as RFID, wireless sensor networking, and augmented reality to develop systems which increase human performances as well as productivity. Due to safety related concerns, nuclear power industries have been reluctant to use these fancy technologies. However, from the economics point of view, it is necessary to take advantages of novel technologies. This empirical study considers not only ergonomics view, but also the economics view when building maintenance support systems. This paper introduces brief features of five subsystems which were built to reduce human errors and advantages when each system successfully reduces those human errors.
Who's doing coal plant maintenance?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oldani, R.

2008-02-15

POWER has reported on several EUCG bench marking studies over the past several years. This paper examines the maintenance staffing of 45 coal plants reported by 13 EUCG member utilities. If you benchmark your plants or fleet, as you should, some of the study's results challenge what is considered conventional wisdom.
77 FR 30030 - Monitoring the Effectiveness of Maintenance at Nuclear Power Plants

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-21

... Nuclear Power Plants AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Regulatory guide; issuance. SUMMARY... (RG) 1.160, ``Monitoring the Effectiveness of Maintenance at Nuclear Power Plants.'' This guide... Monitoring the Effectiveness of Maintenance at Nuclear Power Plants,'' which provides methods that are...
Ecological Interface Design of Augmented Reality Display for Nuclear Power Plant Maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, In; Seong, Poong Hyun

2008-01-01

The importance of maintenance in nuclear power plants (NPPs) has been emphasized through many researches. The goals of maintenance in nuclear power plants are not only to reduce the number of shutdowns which directly affects to the profit, but also to prevent accidents or incidents hence improves nuclear safety. It is known that reduction of the rate of human error in maintenance tasks can be achieved if maintenance personnel are properly supported by maintenance support systems. Among many proposed maintenance support system, the use of augmented reality (AR) has been proposed

Scheduling the maintenance of gaseous diffusion and electric power distribution plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chauvet, D.

1990-01-01

A computer aided scheduling applied to the maintenance of a uranium enrichment plant is presented. The plant exploits gaseous diffusion and electric power distribution plants, for which the operating conditions must be satisfied. The management and the execution of the maintenance actions are computer aided. Concerning the techniques, the cost, the safety and the scheduling actions were optimized [fr
Review of maintenance personnel practices at nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chockie, A.D.; Badalamente, R.V.; Hostick, C.J.; Vickroy, S.C.; Bryant, J.L.; Imhoff, C.H.

1984-05-01

As part of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) sponsored Maintenance Qualifications and Staffing Project, the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) has conducted a preliminary assessment of nuclear power plant (NPP) maintenance practices. As requested by the NRC, the following areas within the maintenance function were examined: personnel qualifications, maintenance training, overtime, shiftwork and staffing levels. The purpose of the assessment was to identify the primary safety-related problems that required further analysis before specific recommendations can be made on the regulations affecting NPP maintenance operations
76 FR 65753 - Monitoring the Effectiveness of Maintenance at Nuclear Power Plants

Science.gov (United States)

2011-10-24

... Nuclear Power Plants AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Draft regulatory guide; extension of... the Effectiveness of Maintenance at Nuclear Power Plants,'' which provides methods that are acceptable... the Effectiveness of Maintenance at Nuclear Power Plants,'' of Title 10 of the Code of Federal...
A predictive maintenance approach for improved nuclear plant availability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Verma, R.M.P.; Pandya, M.B.; Kini, M.P.

1979-01-01

Predictive maintenance programme as against preventive maintenance programme aims at diagnosing, inspecting, monitoring, and objective condition-checking of equipment. It helps in forecasting failures, and scheduling the optimal frequencies for overhauls, replacements, lubrication etc. It also helps in establishing work load, manpower, resource planning and inventory control. Various stages of predictive maintenance programme for a nuclear power plant are outlined. A partial list of instruments for predictive maintenance is given. (M.G.B.)
Construction, Maintenance and Demolition of Nuclear Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smet, Camiel de [Hilti Corporation, P.O. Box 333, FL-9494 Schaan (Liechtenstein)

2008-07-01

Hilti is your reliable partner in nuclear power plant construction, maintenance and demolition worldwide. Professional advice and innovative solutions for virtually every phase of construction and supply technologically leading products and systems to increase your productivity and help to create and maintain safe and lasting plants is offered. The solutions for nuclear power plants construction, maintenance and demolition have been employed with great success in many different countries on a wide variety of projects due in no small way to their worldwide availability. An unbroken, international exchange of experience upholds a permanent innovation process. This assures our customers that they always receive products on the very latest technological standard. This paper is not intended to cover all topics related to nuclear power plants. The idea is more to give a kind of an overview. The paper covers briefly the following topics: safety (corrosion and fire), fastenings, measuring and finally decommissioning of nuclear power plants. (author)
Construction, Maintenance and Demolition of Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smet, Camiel de

2008-01-01

Hilti is your reliable partner in nuclear power plant construction, maintenance and demolition worldwide. Professional advice and innovative solutions for virtually every phase of construction and supply technologically leading products and systems to increase your productivity and help to create and maintain safe and lasting plants is offered. The solutions for nuclear power plants construction, maintenance and demolition have been employed with great success in many different countries on a wide variety of projects due in no small way to their worldwide availability. An unbroken, international exchange of experience upholds a permanent innovation process. This assures our customers that they always receive products on the very latest technological standard. This paper is not intended to cover all topics related to nuclear power plants. The idea is more to give a kind of an overview. The paper covers briefly the following topics: safety (corrosion and fire), fastenings, measuring and finally decommissioning of nuclear power plants. (author)
SAP R/3 plant maintenance making it work for your business

CERN Document Server

Stengl, Britta

2001-01-01

SAP R/3 Plant Maintenance offers a clear introduction to this small but sophisticated component and provides a highly practical guide to implementing PM. Beginning with a examination of the key business processes underlying PM functionality, the book goes on to cover all the crucial aspects of maintenance planning and execution in R/3. Particular attention is given to integrating plant maintenance with a company's natural process flow.
Laser application maintenance technologies for nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shima, Seishi; Sato, Kenji; Kobayashi, Masahiro; Sano, Yuji; Kimura, Seiichiro

2000-01-01

Several plants that were the first to be constructed in Japan have been operating for more than 20 years now, and preventive maintenance is therefore a matter of great importance. This paper summarizes the status of applied laser maintenance technologies both preventive and repair. Especially for the laser peening and laser de-sensitization treatment technology, field applications were also described in detail. In future, expansion of field application area on the preventive maintenance, repair and inspection technologies will be developed. (author)
Advancements in nuclear plant maintenance programs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meligi, A.E.; Maras, M.C.

1993-01-01

The viability of the nuclear option as a technology choice for present and future electricity generation will be decided primarily on the basis of operating cost to achieve plant performance objectives. In a nuclear plant, performance is judged not only on availability and output rate but also on safety risk and radiation exposure. Operating, cost is essentially made up of the fuel cost and operation and maintenance (O and M) cost. Over the past decade, the industry average nuclear plant performance has improved significantly; however, this improvement was accompanied by rising O and M cost. The net result was that the nuclear option lost its long-standing economic advantage over the coal option, based on the industry average comparison, around 1987 - with the gap narrowing slightly in the last 2 years. In recent times, gas-fired plants have also become a basis for comparison. The electric generation cost comparisons of various fuel options has led to even greater scrutiny of nuclear plant performance, with the poorer performing plants facing the risk of shutdown. While effective O and M programs improve plant performance, present industry data show that there is no direct correlation between the cost of a plant O and M program and its associated performance. There is a significant number of existing tools and techniques in the O and M area that have proved to be successful and have resulted in significant benefits and payback. This paper presents an overview of the nuclear industry efforts to improve the conduct of O and M activities, describes the basic elements of an effective O and M program, and addresses some of the state-of-the-art tools and techniques to enhance maintenance work planning, training, and procedures
Human errors in test and maintenance of nuclear power plants. Nordic project work

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andersson, H.; Liwaang, B.

1985-08-01

The present report is a summary of the NKA/LIT-1 project performed for the period 1981-1985. The report summarizes work on human error influence in test and calibration activities in nuclear power plants, reviews problems regarding optimization of the test intervals, organization of test and maintenance activities, and the analysis of human error contribution to the overall risk in test and mainenace tasks. (author)
The maintenance management for lean organization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel D. GEORGESCU

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The goal of lean maintenance approach is to maintain organization international competitiveness. In the spirit of continuously improvement, in the paper it is shown how by adjusting some Lean manufacturing specific techniques for Total Productive Maintenance (TPM system, was born new maintenance system named Lean TPM. This is a systemic approach with three techniques, which don’t exclude specific techniques of TPM pillars, but complete them: the 7Ss as a critical first step in any improvement program; instantaneous maintenance; improvement setup operations. In the spirit of Lean principle, Lean TPM adjusts overall equipment effectiveness concept for all supply-chain from supplier to customer. Maintaining equipment in its optimal state and continually improving its productivity is the whole strategy behind Lean TPM.
Enhanced design, operation and maintenance practices for a longer plant service life

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Raimondo, E.; Courcoux, A.

2004-01-01

Plant service life problems have been under detailed investigation in France and the experience acquired by our company over the past 25 years in the design, construction and maintenance of Pressurized Water Reactors has contributed to develop skills, equipment and capabilities available for efficient plant aging management and component service life extension. The service life of a nuclear power plant is deeply dependant of the provisions made during the design stage, directly linked to good operating conditions and adequate maintenance practices. This paper presents the importance of these three steps (design, operation and maintenance) for plant service life concern. (author)
Industrial Maintenance Strategies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sajjad Akbar

2006-01-01

Industrial plants have become more complex due to technological advancement. This has made the task of maintenance more difficult. The maintenance costs in terms of resources and downtime loss are so high that maintenance function has become a critical factor in a plant's profitability. Industry should devote as much forethought to the management of maintenance function as to production. Maintenance has grown from an art to a precise, technical engineering science. Planning, organizing scheduling and control of maintenance using modern techniques pays dividends in the form of reduced costs and increased reliability. The magnitude and the dimension of maintenance have multiplied due to development in the engineering technologies. Production cost and capacities are directly affected by the breakdown time. Total operating cost including the maintenance cost plays an important role in replacement dimension. The integrated system approach would bring forth the desired results of high maintenance standards. The standards once achieved and sustained, would add to the reliability of the plan and relieve heavy stresses and strains on the engineering logistic support. (author)
An analysis of human maintenance failures of a nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pyy, P.

2000-01-01

In the report, a study of faults caused by maintenance activities is presented. The objective of the study was to draw conclusions on the unplanned effects of maintenance on nuclear power plant safety and system availability. More than 4400 maintenance history reports from the years 1992-1994 of Olkiluoto BWR nuclear power plant (NPP) were analysed together with the maintenance personnel. The human action induced faults were classified, e.g., according to their multiplicity and effects. This paper presents and discusses the results of a statistical analysis of the data. Instrumentation and electrical components appeared to be especially prone to human failures. Many human failures were found in safety related systems. Several failures also remained latent from outages to power operation. However, the safety significance of failures was generally small. Modifications were an important source of multiple human failures. Plant maintenance data is a good source of human reliability data and it should be used more in the future. (orig.)
Statistical analysis of human maintenance failures of a nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pyy, P.

2000-01-01

In this paper, a statistical study of faults caused by maintenance activities is presented. The objective of the study was to draw conclusions on the unplanned effects of maintenance on nuclear power plant safety and system availability. More than 4400 maintenance history reports from the years 1992-1994 of Olkiluoto BWR nuclear power plant (NPP) were analysed together with the maintenance personnel. The human action induced faults were classified, e.g., according to their multiplicity and effects. This paper presents and discusses the results of a statistical analysis of the data. Instrumentation and electrical components are especially prone to human failures. Many human failures were found in safety related systems. Similarly, several failures remained latent from outages to power operation. The safety significance was generally small. Modifications are an important source of multiple human failures. Plant maintenance data is a good source of human reliability data and it should be used more, in future. (orig.)
Maintenance, surveillance and in-service inspection in nuclear power plants. Safety guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-01-01

Effective maintenance, surveillance and in-service inspection (MS and I) are essential for the safe operation of a nuclear power plant. The objective of this Safety Guide is to provide recommendations and guidance for MS and I activities to ensure that SSCs important to safety are available to perform their functions in accordance with the assumptions and intent of the design. This Safety Guide covers the organizational and procedural aspects of MS and I. However, it does not give detailed technical advice in relation to particular items of plant equipment, nor does it cover inspections made for and/or by the regulatory body. This Safety Guide provides recommendations and guidance for preventive and remedial measures, including testing, surveillance and in-service inspection, that are necessary to ensure that all plant structures, systems and components (SSCs) important to safety are capable of performing as intended. This Safety Guide covers measures for fulfilling the organizational and administrative requirements for: establishing and implementing schedules for preventive and predictive maintenance, repairing defective plant items, selecting and training personnel, providing related facilities and equipment, procuring stores and spare parts, and generating, collecting and retaining maintenance records for establishing and implementing an adequate feedback system for information on maintenance. MS and I should be subject to quality assurance in relation to all aspects important to safety. Quality assurance has been dealt with in detail in other IAEA safety standards and is covered here only in specific instances, for emphasis. In Section 2, a concept of MS and I is presented and the interrelationship between maintenance, surveillance and inspection is discussed. Section 3 concerns the functions and responsibilities of different organizations involved in MS and I activities. Section 4 provides recommendations and guidance on such organizational aspects as
Maintenance, surveillance and in-service inspection in nuclear power plants. Safety guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

Effective maintenance, surveillance and in-service inspection (MS and I) are essential for the safe operation of a nuclear power plant. The objective of this Safety Guide is to provide recommendations and guidance for MS and I activities to ensure that SSCs important to safety are available to perform their functions in accordance with the assumptions and intent of the design. This Safety Guide covers the organizational and procedural aspects of MS and I. However, it does not give detailed technical advice in relation to particular items of plant equipment, nor does it cover inspections made for and/or by the regulatory body. This Safety Guide provides recommendations and guidance for preventive and remedial measures, including testing, surveillance and in-service inspection, that are necessary to ensure that all plant structures, systems and components (SSCs) important to safety are capable of performing as intended. This Safety Guide covers measures for fulfilling the organizational and administrative requirements for: establishing and implementing schedules for preventive and predictive maintenance, repairing defective plant items, selecting and training personnel, providing related facilities and equipment, procuring stores and spare parts, and generating, collecting and retaining maintenance records for establishing and implementing an adequate feedback system for information on maintenance. MS and I should be subject to quality assurance in relation to all aspects important to safety. Quality assurance has been dealt with in detail in other IAEA safety standards and is covered here only in specific instances, for emphasis. In Section 2, a concept of MS and I is presented and the interrelationship between maintenance, surveillance and inspection is discussed. Section 3 concerns the functions and responsibilities of different organizations involved in MS and I activities. Section 4 provides recommendations and guidance on such organizational aspects as
Application of condition based maintenance to nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sonoda, Yukio; Nakano, Tomohito; Shimizu, Shunichi; Iida, Jun; Atomura, Masakazu; Abe, Masahiro

2002-01-01

Device Karte management system which supports application of condition based maintenance to nuclear power plants has been developed. The purpose of this system is to support maintenance personnel in device inspection scheduling based on operating condition monitoring and maintenance histories. There are four functions: field database, degradation estimation, inspection time decision and maintenance planning. The authors have been applying this system to dozens of devices of Onagawa Nuclear Power Station Unit No. 1 for one year. This paper represents the system concept and its application experiences. (author)
Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Quintana, J. M.; Sanchez, J. T.

2002-01-01

With this article about the Maintenance in nuclear power plants we will try to give to see the importance of this kind of installations but the problems found by the clients and contractors to face it, and some possible solutions to improve it. It is necessary to understand this problem like something inner to the installation and must be considerate like a benefit for the same. Of course, there must be adequate Sevices Companies in direct relation with the installation that take the responsibility of assuming and understanding the correct fulfillment of the fixed milestones to get the optimal working of the whole plant systems. (Author)
On maintenance management of wind and nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nilsson, Julia

2009-11-01

Electrical production in Sweden today is mainly from nuclear and hydro power. However, there is large increase in renewable energy like wind power and the installed new capacity goals are large. Several electrical production sources are important for the sustainability of the energy system. Maintenance is an approach for keeping a system sustainable. The importance of structured maintenance for reliable electrical production systems triggers the development of qualitative and quantitative maintenance management methods. Examples of these methods are Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) which is a structured qualitative approach that focuses on reliability when planning maintenance, and Reliability Centered Asset Management (RCAM) which is a development of RCM into a quantitative approach with the aim to relate preventive maintenance to total maintenance cost and system reliability. This thesis presents models, as applications of RCAM, based on the methods of Life Cycle Cost (LCC) and mathematical optimization, applied to wind and nuclear power plants. Both deterministic and stochastic approaches have been used and the proposed models are based on the Total Cost model, which summarizes costs for maintenance and production loss, and the Aircraft model, which is an opportunistic maintenance optimization model. Opportunistic maintenance is preventive maintenance performed at opportunities. The wind power applications in this study show on different ways to cover costs of condition monitoring systems (CMS) and further on economic benefits of these when uncertainties of times to failure are included in the model. The nuclear power applications show on that the optimization model is dependent on the discount rate and that a high discount rate gives more motivation for opportunistic replacements. When put into a stochastic framework and compared to other maintenance strategies it is shown that an extended opportunistic maintenance optimization model has a good overall

The application of manipulator robot for nuclear plant maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kohata, Yukifumi; Fujita, Jun; Onishi, Ken; Tsuhari, Hiroyuki; Hosoe, Fumihiro

2010-01-01

In the maintenance works at nuclear power plant, robots are used because of high radiation, narrow space and underwater work. Various robots are needed because there is various maintenance works. This is inefficiency. As the solutions, we developed manipulator robots for the access of specialized tools. This study shows manipulator robots developed by MHI, application example to maintenance works and effectiveness of manipulator robots. When robotization of maintenance works are considered, manipulator technology is very effective solution means. We achieved efficiency improvement and the reliability improvement by developing a high generality manipulator. (author)
Managing aging in nuclear power plants: Insights from NRC maintenance team inspection reports

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fresco, A.; Subudhi, M.; Gunther, W.; Grove, E.; Taylor, J. [Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)

1993-12-01

A plant`s maintenance program is the principal vehicle through which age-related degradation is managed. From 1988 to 1991, the NRC evaluated the maintenance program of every nuclear power plant in the United States. Forty-four out of a total of 67 of the reports issued on these in-depth team inspections were reviewed for insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the programs as related to the need to understand and manage the effects of aging on nuclear plant systems, structures, and components. Relevant information was extracted from these inspection reports and sorted into several categories, including Specific Aging Insights, Preventive Maintenance, Predictive Maintenance and Condition Monitoring, Post Maintenance Testing, Failure Trending, Root Cause Analysis and Usage of Probabilistic Risk Assessment in the Maintenance Process. Specific examples of inspection and monitoring techniques successfully used by utilities to detect degradation due to aging have been identified. The information also was sorted according to systems and components, including: Auxiliary Feedwater, Main Feedwater, High Pressure Injection for both BWRs and PWRs, Service Water, Instrument Air, and Emergency Diesel Generator Air Start Systems, and Emergency Diesel Generators Air Start Systems, emergency diesel generators, electrical components such as switchgear, breakers, relays, and motor control centers, motor operated valves and check valves. This information was compared to insights gained from the Nuclear Plant Aging Research (NPAR) Program. Attributes of plant maintenance programs where the NRC inspectors felt that improvement was needed to properly address the aging issue also are discussed.
Quality assurance/quality control training for plant operation and maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bergbauer, A.K.

1986-01-01

One of the most important tasks during the period of plant operation is to ensure the effectiveness of the information links inside the utility and the nuclear industry. To make use of all information, experience and knowledge as well as to make sure that instructions are followed, it is necessary to provide rules, instructions and training for all people involved. QA/QC-training for plant operation and maintenance must deliver a consciousness of men in a way that e.g. instructions or procedures are followed strictly, the management is informed about deviations and mistakes, alterations are carried out with approval only, safety systems are kept integer all the time and interfaces are linked together properly. By means of examples about staff organization, control room and shift rules, work permit procedures and use of an information feedback system QA measures shall be demonstrated. (orig.)
Optimal maintenance work organization and technical education

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toshiro Kitamura

2005-01-01

Under Japanese multi-layered maintenance routines, almost 100% of work is delegated to outside contractors. For taking such form, there are several reasons unique to Japan. U.S. maintenance work organization makes a contrast, reducing the volume of subcontract in these past ten years. On the other hand, France has a trend of increasing the volume of subcontract for cost reduction that is expected in liberalization and privatization. In Japan, since the subcontract went too far, there is a trend that the multi-layered subcontract structure will be relieved. The Japan Atomic Power, Inc., has organized a team that performs a part of maintenance work by employees themselves since three years before. Direct work is effective to greatly supporting the employees' technical ability. It is expected that the quality of subcontract management will be markedly improved from now on. (author)
Proceedings of the workshop on better nuclear plant maintenance: improving human and organisational performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2007-04-05

A significant proportion of nuclear plant events is attributable to failures that take place during maintenance and periodic testing. Human and organisational factors are frequently identified as making a major contribution to these events. Despite this recognition, licensee and regulatory oversight in the human and organisational area has tended to focus more on operational matters than maintenance. Owing to the importance of human and organisational performance on nuclear plant maintenance, the CSNI Special Experts' Group on Human and Organisational Factors (SEGHOF) hosted a workshop entitled 'Better nuclear plant maintenance: improving human and organisational performance'. The workshop provided an international forum for staff from nuclear plants, research bodies, and regulators to discuss human and organisational challenges to maintenance, and initiatives to support effective performance. Over 60 participants from about 20 countries participated. The workshop was divided into five sessions: 1) International guidance to improve maintenance performance; 2) Lessons learned through maintenance operating experience; 3) Licensee initiatives to support reliable maintenance; 4) Regulatory approaches to assuring effective licensee maintenance; and 5) Recent trends and their impact on maintenance. Sessions commenced with oral presentations of papers followed by break-out and plenary discussions. Session 4 on regulatory approaches included short presentations from ten regulatory bodies and was followed by discussion comparing these approaches. The main findings of the workshop concern: the retirements of experienced staff; the increasing use of contractors to perform maintenance activities; the use of skill-broadening in maintenance; the role of supervisors at the plant level; the organisational changes that are used to optimise the use of plant staff resources; the effective planning of maintenance tasks; the time allowed to complete maintenance tasks; the development
An overview of a knowledge based system for preventive maintenance support of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Terano, Takao; Nishiyama, Takuya; Yokoo, Takeshi

1984-01-01

In recent years, much interest has been paid to knowledge engineering techniques for new vehicles of advanced information processing. As a practical application in electric power industry, this report discusses a knowledge based system for supporting preventive maintenance of nuclear power plants. To support preventive maintenance tasks, the system must have facilities to reason failures and accidents of the plants, to evaluate their significance, to predict any possible troubles, and to indentify appropriate preventive countermeasures for them. This report describes the overview of the prototype system from a viewpoint of knowledge engineering. The results of the study are as follows: (1) The knowledge base of the prototype system consists of a data-base on plants and a rule-base derived from experts' knowledge. Using the information in the knowledge base, the system diagnoses the plant without real-time interaction with operational plants. (2) Expert's knowledge in the rule-base is represented in the non-procedural declarative forms. These rules are organized in some hierarchical structure so as to be used efficiently and used in conjunction with the corresponding set of plant information in the data-base. (3) The prototype system is incrementally developed with the rapid prototyping techniques, that is, the processes of design, implementation and evaluation are repeated several times. (author)
The review of online maintenance in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamamoto, Tetsuya

2009-01-01

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) has begun the review of online maintenance in nuclear power plants in its advisory committee. The experts in the committee study the necessary actions in the regulation and safe and secure measure to implement the online maintenance. This paper explains the current progress of the review. (author)
Managing aging in nuclear power plants: Insights from NRC's Maintenance Team Inspection reports

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fresco, A.; Subudhi, M.

1992-01-01

A plant's maintenance program is the principal vehicle through which age-related degradation is managed. From 1988 to 1991, the NRC evaluated the maintenance program of every nuclear power plant in the United States. Forty-four out of a total of sixty-seven of the reports issued on these in-depth team inspections have been reviewed for insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the programs as related to the need to understand and manage the effects of aging on nuclear plant structures, systems, and components (SSCs). Relevant information has been extracted from these inspection reports sorted into several categories; including Specific Aging Insights, Preventive Maintenance, Predictive Maintenance and Condition Monitoring, Post Maintenance Testing, Failure Trending, Root Cause Analysis and Usage of Probabilistic Risk Assessment in the Maintenance Process. Specific examples of inspection and monitoring techniques successfully used by utilities to detect degradation due to aging have been identified
Maintenance Cycle Extension in the IRIS Advanced Light Water Reactor Plant Design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Galvin, Mark R.; Todreas, Neil E.; Conway, Larry E.

2003-01-01

New nuclear power generation in the United States will be realized only if the economic performance can be made competitive with other methods of electrical power generation. The economic performance of a nuclear power plant can be significantly improved by increasing the time spent on-line generating electricity relative to the time spent off-line conducting maintenance and refueling. Maintenance includes planned actions (surveillances) and unplanned actions (corrective maintenance) to respond to component degradation or failure. A methodology is described that can be used to resolve, in the design phase, maintenance-related operating cycle length barriers. A primary goal was to demonstrate the applicability and utility of the methodology in the context of the International Reactor, Innovative and Secure (IRIS) design. IRIS is an advanced light water nuclear power plant that is being designed to maximize this on-line generating time by increasing the operating cycle length. This is consequently a maintenance strategy paper using the IRIS plant as the example.Potential IRIS operating cycle length maintenance-related barriers, determined by modification of an earlier operating pressurized water reactor (PWR) plant cycle length analysis to account for differences between the design of IRIS and this operating PWR, are presented. The proposed methodology to resolve these maintenance-related barriers by the design process is described. The results of applying the methodology to two potential IRIS cycle length barriers, relief valve testing and emergency heat removal system testing, are presented
Condition monitoring and maintenance of nuclear power plant concrete structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Orr, R.; Prasad, N.

1988-01-01

Nuclear power plant concrete structures are potentially subject to deterioration due to several environmental conditions, including weather exposure, ground water exposure, and sustained high temperature and radiation levels. The nuclear power plant are generally licensed for a term of 40 years. In order to maximize the return from the existing plants, feasibility studies are in progress for continued operation of many of these plants beyond the original licensed life span. This paper describes a study that was performed with an objective to define appropriate condition monitoring and maintenance procedures. A timely implementation of a condition monitoring and maintenance program would provide a valuable database and would provide justification for extension of the plant's design life. The study included concrete structures such as the containment buildings, interior structures, basemats, intake structures and cooling towers. Age-related deterioration at several operating power plants was surveyed and the potential degradation mechanisms have been identified
Operation and maintenance results from ISFOC CPV plants

Science.gov (United States)

Gil, Eduardo; Martinez, María; de la Rubia, Oscar

2017-09-01

The analysis of field operation and maintenance data collected during a period of over eight years, from CPV installations consisting of three different CPV technologies (including second generation of one of these technologies), has allowed us to get valuable information about the long-term degradation of the CPV systems. Through the study of the maintenance control ratio previously defined and by applying the root cause analysis methodology, the components responsible for the most unplanned interventions for each technology were identified. Focusing maintenance efforts on these components, a reduction of the unplanned interventions and the total cost of maintenance has been achieved over the years. Therefore, the deployment of an effective maintenance plan, identifying critical components, is essential to minimize the risk for investors and maximize the CPV power plants lifetime and energy output, increasing the availability of CPV installations, boosting market confidence in CPV systems.
Accounting for maintenance in the design of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meuwisse, C.; Martin-Mattei, C.; Hamon, L.

1997-01-01

The objective of the CIDEM project (French acronym for Design Integrating Availability, Operating Experience and Maintenance) is to control the per-kW production cost of future Electricite de France REP 2000 nuclear plants. In particular, such cost control requires accounting for maintenance and logistic support from the time of design of the future installations. This technical and economic optimization is based on assessment and comparison of possible choices in terms of materials and maintenance, and on the search for potential improvements. In the Basic Design phase, the method involves identifying reference components which are supposed highly similar to the components to be designed. In the Construction phase, it culminates in the early definition of a detailed maintenance and support plant. To be effective, the approach requires realistic tailoring of the studies to be undertaken, and the participation of multidisciplinary teams working in the framework of concurrent engineering. (author)
Track 6: safety and risk management. Plant operational risk management. Plant Configuration Risk Assessment Methodology Development for Periodic Maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Huichang; Chung, Chang Hyun; Sung, Key Yong

2001-01-01

As the operation experiences of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Korea accumulate and NPP safety functions become enhanced, the role of stable and optimal NPP operation within acceptable safety criteria becomes important at present. To accomplish the goal of safe and optimal operation, maintenance and its related activities should be regarded as the issues of most concern. Studies of methodologies for maintenance improvement and optimization have focused on system performance rather than on the hardware itself. From this point of view, the probabilistic methods are most useful. In terms of risk including core damage frequency and unavailability, the cause that might impact plant safety during normal maintenance activities can be identified and evaluated effectively. The results from these probabilistic analyses can provide insightful information for the reallocation of risk-contributing maintenance activity. This information can be utilized in a way that separates the significant risk-contributing maintenance activities from each other unless they are timely related. In Korea, the risk-monitoring program for operating NPPs is under development and will be implemented in 2003. To accomplish the risk-monitoring program objectives, suitable risk evaluation methods should be developed before the implementation of the risk-monitoring program. The plant configuration assessment methodology was developed for these reasons, and this method is to incorporate the field experiences into the risk calculation exactly within the limit of probabilistic methods. During normal plant operation, the plant operational risk changes frequently depending on the status of the plant system and the arrangement of the components. Specific plant systems or components are typically removed from service because of random equipment failure, planned preventive/predictive maintenance, corrective maintenance, surveillance testing, and operational bypass activities, and such events usually impact the
Predictive Maintenance: One key to improved power plant availability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mobley; Allen, J.W.

1986-01-01

Recent developments in microprocessor technology has provided the ability to routinely monitor the actual mechanical condition of all rotating and reciprocating machinery and process variables (i.e. pressure, temperature, flow, etc.) of other process equipment within an operating electric power generating plant. This direct correlation between frequency domain vibration and actual mechanical condition of machinery and trending process variables of non-rotating equipment can provide the ''key'' to improving the availability and reliability, thermal efficiency and provide the baseline information necessary for developing a realistic plan for extending the useful life of power plants. The premise of utilizing microprocessor-based Predictive Maintenance to improve power plant operation has been proven by a number of utilities. This paper provides a comprehensive discussion of the TEC approach to Predictive Maintenance and examples of successful programs
Structured interview approach to the development of plant maintenance unavailabilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fragola, J.R.; Jacobs, M.

1986-01-01

In a nuclear generating facility, the overall plant economics and safety suffer when a component is not available when needed. Maintenance unavailabilities provide a mechanism to predict the probability that a specific component is not available to function on demand due to maintenance. The development of these maintenance unavailabilities required a visit to an operational pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear facility to conduct an interview process with the plant operators who provided their insights into availability histories of the components of interest. A structured approach was developed for the extraction of downtime information from the plant operators, which was essential to ensure that the data gathered were relevant to the study and, most important, consistent within a specific component type. This process provided traceability so that it could be understood where the data originated from some years hence. In addition, it had to be reproducible providing the same steps were followed by another interviewer where the results would be consistent
Reliability centered maintenance as an optimization tool for electrical power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jacquot, J.P.; Bryla, P.; Martin-Mattei, C.; Meuwisse, C.

1997-08-01

Seven years ago, Electricite de France launched a Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) pilot project to optimize preventive maintenance for its nuclear power plants. After a feasibility study, a RCM method was standardized. It is now applied on a large scale to the 50 EDF nuclear units. A RCM workstation based on this standardized method has been developed and is now used in each plant. In the next step, it is considered whether a Risk based Approach can be included in this RCM process in order to analyze critical passive components such as pipes and supports. Considering the potential advantages of these optimization techniques, a dedicated process has been also developed for maintenance of future plants, gas turbines, or nuclear units. A survey of these different developments of methods and tools is presented. (author)
How and when will self-assessment improve maintenance of CANDU plants - evaluator's view

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mika, K.

1997-01-01

Learning organizations use self-evaluation programs to compare their actual performance with their management's expectations and industry standards. In general, self-evaluations identify areas needing improvement. Self-evaluation activities in maintenance departments include self-assessments, management monitoring observations, root cause analyses, event investigations, benchmarking, use of operating experience, self-checking, and problem reporting systems. In Ontario Hydro Nuclear (OHN) we have used almost all forms of self-evaluation with mixed success. However, we did not use self-assessments. With emphasis on excellent maintenance this powerful form of self-evaluation is being introduced to all our plants. Because of its recency and relative inexperience with it, this paper is focused on self-assessment. The paper provides the author's perspective on how a self-assessment program would be evaluated by an independent internal evaluation and what attributes should be in place in order for maintenance departments to succeed in the implementation and successful continuation of the program. (author)
Development of a daily maintenance work management system for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoshimura, Sadanori; Maita, Keikichi; Ogawa, Koutaro; Tabata, Nobuyuki; Shibuya, Shinya

1999-01-01

Maintenance work plays an important role in keeping the safety and reliability of nuclear power plants. Especially, with the recent trends of reducing the outage length, safe and reliable execution of maintenance work is more earnestly required than ever. Taking this situation into account, a daily maintenance work management system has been developed to support the execution of maintenance work for nuclear power plants. This system supports maintenance personnel in writing and approving the daily work instruction sheet and reduces their workload by providing predetermined lists of items necessary for filling up the sheet and by applying an electronic approval procedure. It also provides information through a computer network to improve the communication among maintenance personnel. For work steps to be treated in the daily work instruction sheet, an analysis was made to identify potential human errors and related counter measures, which were then linked to safety and quality assurance instructions of the sheet. Based on this information, the system automatically presents the safety and quality assurance instructions related to the work content listed in the sheet to improve the appropriateness of the instructions. A prototype of the daily maintenance work management system was developed and a trial use was made for actual periodic maintenance work at a nuclear power plant. This experience shows the usefulness of the system in reducing the workload of maintenance personnel and in providing safer work instructions. (author)
Operation and Maintenance Manual for the Central Facilities Area Sewage Treatment Plant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Norm Stanley

2011-02-01

This Operation and Maintenance Manual lists operator and management responsibilities, permit standards, general operating procedures, maintenance requirements and monitoring methods for the Sewage Treatment Plant at the Central Facilities Area at the Idaho National Laboratory. The manual is required by the Municipal Wastewater Reuse Permit (LA-000141-03) the sewage treatment plant.
Preventive Maintenance Scheduling for Multicogeneration Plants with Production Constraints Using Genetic Algorithms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khaled Alhamad

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This paper describes a method developed to schedule the preventive maintenance tasks of the generation and desalination units in separate and linked cogeneration plants provided that all the necessary maintenance and production constraints are satisfied. The proposed methodology is used to generate two preventing maintenance schedules, one for electricity and the other for distiller. Two types of crossover operators were adopted, 2-point and 4-point. The objective function of the model is to maximize the available number of operational units in each plant. The results obtained were satisfying the problem parameters. However, 4-point slightly produce better solution than 2-point ones for both electricity and water distiller. The performance as well as the effectiveness of the genetic algorithm in solving preventive maintenance scheduling is applied and tested on a real system of 21 units for electricity and 21 units for water. The results presented here show a great potential for utility applications for effective energy management over a time horizon of 52 weeks. The model presented is an effective decision tool that optimizes the solution of the maintenance scheduling problem for cogeneration plants under maintenance and production constraints.

Lessons learned from the Maintenance Rule implementation at Northeast Utilities operating plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hastings, K.B.; Khalil, Y.F.; Johnson, W.

1996-01-01

The Maintenance Rule as described in 10CFR50.65 requires holders of all operating nuclear power plants to monitor the performance of structures, systems, and components (SSCs) against licensee-established performance criteria. The Industry with the assistance of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) developed a guideline, which includes all parts of the Maintenance Rule, to establish these performance criteria while incorporating safety and reliability of the operating plants. The NUMARC 93-01 Guideline introduced the term ''Risk Significant'' to categorize subsets of the SSCs which would require increased focus, from a Maintenance Rule perspective, in setting their performance criteria. Northeast Utilities Company (NU) operates five nuclear plants three at Millstone Station in Waterford, Connecticut; the Connecticut Yankee plant in Haddam Neck, Connecticut; and the Seabrook Station in Seabrook, New Hampshire. NU started the implementation process of the Maintenance Rule program at its five operating plants since early 1994, and have identified a population of risk significant SSCs at each plant. Recently, Northeast Utilities' Maintenance Rule Team re-examined the initial risk significant determinations to further refine these populations, and to establish consistencies among its operating units. As a result of the re-examination process, a number of inconsistencies and areas for improvement have been identified. The lessons learned provide valuable insights to consider in the future as one implements more risk based initiatives such as Graded QA and Risk-Based ISI and IST. This paper discusses the risk significance criteria, how Northeast Utilities utilized NUMARC 93-01 Guideline to determine the risk significant SSCs for its operating plants, and lessons learned. The results provided here do not include the Seabrook Station
Diagnostic aid and maintenance at the La Hague reprocessing plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bern, J.B.; Chabert, J.

1989-01-01

The Cogema plant at La Hague is the world's leading nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. A major extension program was initiated in 1980. It includes the construction of a new 800 t/year capacity plant (UP3), to be commissioned in 1989, and the doubling of the capacity of the present plant (UP2 800) scheduled to go on stream in 1992. On the occasion of this huge capital investment, an overall assessment was made of the operating and maintenance systems of the site. The general objective was to achieve maximum productivity and availability, in view of: - the extreme importance of safety for the protection of workers and the environment, - the high level of automation required by the complexity of the process, - the inaccessibility of the nuclear equipment, the scale of the investment. To achieve this goal, a set of diagnostic and maintenance aid systems were developed and installed. A general site data network serves to link these systems and to distribute the corresponding data to the different users. This paper describes these different systems, presents the functionalities of the network and demonstrates the sequencing of the operations in a typical maintenance application
3D digital dynamic management of maintenance projects for nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Baizhong; Luo Yalin; Fang Hao; Ma Li; Zhang Jie; Wang Ruobing; Xie Min

2005-01-01

The whole process for the application of digital plant technique in the equipment transport in reactor building and the dynamic management of the spatial arrangement in Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station was introduced in the paper. The establishment of 3D digital Daya Bay plant, and the method and procedure to apply it in the nuclear power plant maintenance project have been discussed. This project utilizes the outer database to preserve the maintenance status of equipments, and avoids the damage or changing of the original 3D final model. Based on the maintenance procedure, the spatial arrangement and schedule for the maintenance of nuclear power station have been simulated and optimized for the whole process. This technique can simulate and optimize the arrangement and spatial arrangement for maintenance in limited space. It has been applied successfully in the reactor vessel head replacement for Unit 2 of Daya Bay NPP to shorten the time for key routes and the total time of this project by 16 hours and 92.5 hours, respectively. (author)
Planning of maintenance of electrical equipment in nuclear plants/laboratories [Paper No.: VB-3

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Narasinga Rao, S.N.; Bhattacharyya, A.K.

1981-01-01

Satisfactory operating performance of electrical systems ensures continuous availability of power to the various plants and machinery in nuclear plant and laboratories. For effective optimal functioning of the electrical equipment and to reduce their down time, scheduled planning of maintenance to the equipment is essential. Maintenance of power plant, nuclear or fossil, and industrial plant and research laboratories demands essential ingredients such as right type of trained and motivated technical personnel, adoption of standard procedures for maintenance, adequate safety and protection for equipment, safety procedures adopted in the installation to prevent hazards to the workers, provision of adequate stores and inventories, facilities for quick repairs and testing of equipment and effective planning of procedures for their maintenance. While breakdown maintenance allows equipment to operate before it is repaired or replaced, preventive maintenance makes use of scheduled inspection and periodical equipment overhaul and has little value for predicting future continuous performances of equipment. The engineered maintenance is most advantageous and offers maximum operating time to reduce down time of the equipment while adding predictive testing technique to aid in determining the frequency of overhaul of equipment. The important checks to be conducted and preventive maintenance programme to be scheduled are discussed in this paper. The safety and reliable functioning of the electrical equipment depend on proper optimal design, selection of equipment, their installation, subsequent maintenance and strict compliance with safety regulations. (author)
Fleet Aviation Maintenance Organic Support (FAMOS) Laboratory

Data.gov (United States)

Federal Laboratory Consortium — Purpose:The Fleet Aviation Maintenance Organic Support (FAMOS) Laboratory at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, NJ provides rapid engineering...
Study on how to evaluate the effectiveness of maintenance activities for giant complex plant system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aoki, Takayuki

2010-01-01

If we try to check the effectiveness of maintenance activities in nuclear power plant, it is necessary to evaluate plant performance from the viewpoint of nuclear safety and economy. So, in this paper, after the relation among maintenance optimization, maintenance performance targets, maintenance effectiveness indicator and maintenance key parameters important to nuclear safety and economy was made clear, a method to evaluate the effectiveness of maintenance activities was discussed. As a result of consideration, it was concluded that the maintenance effectiveness indicator proposed in this paper can evaluate maintenance effectiveness and can show the direction of improving existing maintenance program because the relation with maintenance performance target and maintenance key parameters is clear. (author)
Monitoring well inspection and maintenance plan Y-12 Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee (revised)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-09-01

Inspection and maintenance of groundwater monitoring wells is a primary element of the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant Groundwater Protection Program (GWPP). This document is the revised groundwater monitoring well inspection and maintenance plan for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The plan provides a systematic program for: (1) inspecting the physical condition of monitoring wells at the Y-12 Plant and (2) identifying maintenance needs that will extend the life of each well and ensure that representative groundwater quality samples and hydrologic data are collected from the wells. Original documentation for the Y-12 Plant GWPP monitoring well inspection and maintenance program was provided in HSW, Inc. 1991a. The original revision of the plan specified that only a Monitoring Well Inspection/Maintenance Summary need be updated and reissued each year. Rapid growth of the monitoring well network and changing regulatory requirements have resulted in constant changes to the status of wells (active or inactive) listed on the Monitoring Well Inspection/Maintenance Summary. As a result, a new mechanism to track the status of monitoring wells has been developed and the plan revised to formalize the new business practices. These changes are detailed in Sections 2.4 and 2.5
Plant maintenance and advanced reactors, 2006

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Agnihotri, Newal (ed.)

2006-09-15

The focus of the September-October issue is on plant maintenance and advanced reactors. Major articles/reports in this issue include: Advanced plants to meet rising expectations, by John Cleveland, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna; A flexible and economic small reactor, by Mario D. Carelli and Bojan Petrovic, Westinghouse Electric Company; A simple and passively safe reactor, by Yury N. Kuznetsov, Research and Development Institute of Power Engineering (NIKIET), Russia; Gas-cooled reactors, by Jeffrey S. Merrifield, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; ISI project managment in the PRC, by Chen Chanbing, RINPO, China; and, Fort Calhoun refurbishment, by Sudesh Cambhir, Omaha Public Power District.
A survey of research projects in maintenance optimization for Electricite de France power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jacquot, J.P.

1996-01-01

Six years ago, Electricite de France launched a Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) pilot project to optimize preventive maintenance for its nuclear power plants. After a feasibility study, a Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) method was standardized. It is now applied on a large scale to the 50 EDF nuclear units. A RCM workstation based on this standardized method has been developed and is now used in each plant. In the next step, the author will consider whether a risk based approach can be included in this RCM process in order to analyze critical passive components such as pipes and supports. Considering the potential advantages of these optimization techniques, a dedicated process has been also developed for maintenance of future plants, gas turbines, or nuclear units. For these future plants, a Logistic Support Analysis (LSA) will be added to the RCM process to globally evaluate availability, safety and maintenance costs. This paper will present a survey of these different developments of methods and tools
Survey on maintenance skills required for nuclear power plant periodic inspections

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hamasaki, Kenichi

2008-01-01

In this study, we conducted a trend survey regarding the problem of passing on senior workers' skills and knowledge to young employees in industries in general, and an interview survey of skilled workers engaged in maintenance work during periodic inspections at a nuclear power plant. These surveys aimed to obtain useful information for maintaining and improving the quality of future maintenance work during nuclear power plant periodic inspections. The trend survey of industries found that the 'Year 2007 Problem (difficulties associated with the start of mass retirements of baby-boomers)' was often takenup in various fields and that many companies were concerned about losing their accumulated skills and know-how. To ensure that skills are smoothly passed on to the younger generation, companies have taken various measures, such as development of plans for passing on skills and knowledge, introduction of the Meister system and implementation of workshops by skilled workers. The interview survey of skilled workers engaged in maintenance work of mechanical equipment during periodic inspections at Nuclear Power Plant A found that various skills were required in maintenance work. Regarding perceived differences between skilled and unskilled maintenance workers, many respondents believed that the largest difference was in terms of time taken to carry out specific procedures. Some maintenance companies have increasingly fewer skilled workers than before or face aging of skilled personnel. As future concerns, respondents cited the loss of skills that have been acquired through experience in construction and in handling of troubles and failures. Differences were observed among companies in the degree to which skills have been passed on to the younger generation. As a reason why skills are not successfully passed on, respondents cited communication problems due to age differences between senior and young workers and other problems that were also observed in other industries
A computerized event and maintenance data system at Loviisa nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jankala, K.E.; Saarelainen, P.; Vaurio, J.K.

1993-01-01

An on-line failure and maintenance event data system (which is a part of the Loviisa power plant information system) is described as developed and implemented at the Loviisa power plant. The system has been in operation since 1989, and the data base now covers more than 10 years of operation. The system contains a complete unavailability history, i.e. failures, repairs, replacements, scheduled or unscheduled preventive maintenance and periodic testing or service actions for any component that is relevant to plant safety, risk or economic production. The data base provides useful feedback from operating experience and can support e.g. studies on optimal maintenance and testing, planning of spare parts inventory and repair resources, updating of reliability parameters for risk studies, etc. (Z.S.) 4 refs
Remote systems and remote maintenance of a reprocessing plant in Japan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Funaya, T.

1977-01-01

The design concept and overall maintenance philosophy applied in the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation Reprocessing Plant at Tokai-mura, Japan, are briefly introduced. Details on remote systems and remote maintenance in mechanical processing areas are described
Mechanistic Framework for Establishment, Maintenance, and Alteration of Cell Polarity in Plants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pankaj Dhonukshe

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Cell polarity establishment, maintenance, and alteration are central to the developmental and response programs of nearly all organisms and are often implicated in abnormalities ranging from patterning defects to cancer. By residing at the distinct plasma membrane domains polar cargoes mark the identities of those domains, and execute localized functions. Polar cargoes are recruited to the specialized membrane domains by directional secretion and/or directional endocytic recycling. In plants, auxin efflux carrier PIN proteins display polar localizations in various cell types and play major roles in directional cell-to-cell transport of signaling molecule auxin that is vital for plant patterning and response programs. Recent advanced microscopy studies applied to single cells in intact plants reveal subcellular PIN dynamics. They uncover the PIN polarity generation mechanism and identified important roles of AGC kinases for polar PIN localization. AGC kinase family members PINOID, WAG1, and WAG2, belonging to the AGC-3 subclass predominantly influence the polar localization of PINs. The emerging mechanism for AGC-3 kinases action suggests that kinases phosphorylate PINs mainly at the plasma membrane after initial symmetric PIN secretion for eventual PIN internalization and PIN sorting into distinct ARF-GEF-regulated polar recycling pathways. Thus phosphorylation status directs PIN translocation to different cell sides. Based on these findings a mechanistic framework evolves that suggests existence of cell side-specific recycling pathways in plants and implicates AGC3 kinases for differential PIN recruitment among them for eventual PIN polarity establishment, maintenance, and alteration.
The Report of Maintenance and Management Optimization for the Korean Fossil Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ha, J.S.; Yoo, K.B.; Chung, H.; Chang, S.H. [Korea Electric Power Research Institute, Taejon (Korea)

2002-07-01

For the Korean fossil power plants, the main component and facillities were classified by maintainability, reliability, production, cost model to assess the cost effective performance of a power plant's maintenance. Maintenance program interacts with the generation process and estimates the leverage provided by expenditures on preventive maintenance. This optimization method is an engineering tool for tracking each asset's production and cost performance under appropriate engineering approximations. Thus, it provides useful insights into where maintenance resources can be expended most effectively to increase generation and reduce operating costs. (author). 7 refs., 3 tabs.
The application of manipulator robot for nuclear power plant maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujita, Jun; Onishi, Ken

2009-01-01

In the maintenance works at nuclear power plant, robots are used because of high radiation, narrow space and underwater work. In light of manufacture period, cost and reliability, various maintenance works are requested to be done by one robot. As one of the solutions, we developed manipulator robots for the access of specialized tools. This study shows manipulator robots developed by MHI, application example to maintenance works and effectiveness of manipulator robots. When robotization of maintenance works are considered, manipulator technology is very effective solution means. The manipulator technologies in this study are able to apply to robotization needed under radiation environment. (author)
Study on risk indicator for appropriate plant maintenance considering aging effect

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mano, Akihiro; Yamaguchi, Akira; Takata, Takashi

2014-01-01

Since, nuclear power plants run for a long term and plant component may deteriorate due to aging, plant safety must be maintained through maintenance activities of components. The maintenance will become more important as the number of aged plant increases. In the planning of maintenance, one must select appropriate components and interval. In general, Fussell-Vesely importance (FV) and Risk Achievement Worth (RAW) are used as a risk indicator for the maintenance. A priority order of each component can be evaluated using those risk indicators at a certain condition. However, the influence of aging (time history) on the order cannot be estimated directly. In the paper, a change of conditional core damage probability (ΔCCDP) and a change of conditional containment failure probability (ΔCCFP) are proposed as additional indicators in which the aging effect is evaluated directly so as to determine the priority order. A simplified level one probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) has been carried out in order to investigate the change of the risk indicators by considering the change of a component failure probability due to aging. In the analyses, three conditions are assumed; base (original) state, aging state and further aging state without maintenance activities. It is demonstrated that the proposed indicator (ΔCCDP and ΔCCFP) reveals the aging effect of each component, while the change of the FV and RAW represent unrealistic behavior through the states. As a result, it is found that the ΔCCDP and ΔCCFP are superior to the others in terms of the ability to evaluate components appropriately in deteriorated (aging) states and take account of differences of deterioration behavior. It is also found that the priority order of the multiple-components maintenance at the same time can also be evaluated using the ΔCCDP and ΔCCFP. Additionally, a risk informed decision making based on the risk acceptance criteria can be discussed for the maintenance procedure using the
Procedure for estimating nonfuel operation and maintenance costs for large steam-electric power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Myers, M.L.; Fuller, L.C.

1979-01-01

Revised guidelines are presented for estimating annual nonfuel operation and maintenance costs for large steam-electric power plants, specifically light-water-reactor plants and coal-fired plants. Previous guidelines were published in October 1975 in ERDA 76-37, a Procedure for Estimating Nonfuel Operating and Maintenance Costs for Large Steam-Electric Power Plants. Estimates for coal-fired plants include the option of limestone slurry scrubbing for flue gas desulfurization. A computer program, OMCOST, is also presented which covers all plant options
Achievement report for fiscal 1998. Research and development of a multi-plant maintenance system (the first year); 1998 nendo seika hokokusho. Odanteki maintenance gijutsu no kenkyu kaihatsu (dai 1 nendo)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1999-03-01

This research and development is intended to structure a network centering around a center having systematized high-level maintenance technology, by utilizing the technological infrastructure having been built in local areas, together with element technologies possessed by national and private research institutes, universities and colleges. It is also purposed to establish a new industrial system for maintenance to realize high reliability, high operation rate and low cost in plants in certain areas. The present fiscal year had the following achievements: research and development of a maintenance system, a maintenance model, a maintenance vehicle, damage estimating technology for stationary parts such as piping, an anomaly diagnostic system using acoustic emission, an anomaly diagnostic system using wear particles in lubricant, an anti-wear material using surface modification, a lubrication control system, and an anomaly diagnostic system using ultrasonic waves. The research and development executing organization was divided into four groups for the maintenance system, maintenance model, maintenance vehicle, and maintenance tool. All groups have achieved the initial plans satisfactorily. (NEDO)
Maintenance implementation plan for the Plutonium Finishing Plant. Revision 3

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meldrom, C.A.

1996-03-01

This document outlines the Maintenance Implementation Plan (MIP) for the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) located at the Hanford site at Richland, Washington. This MIP describes the PFP maintenance program relative to DOE order 4330.4B. The MIP defines the key actions needed to meet the guidelines of the Order to produce a cost-effective and efficient maintenance program. A previous report identified the presence of significant quantities of Pu-bearing materials within PFP that pose risks to workers. PFP's current mission is to develop, install and operate processes which will mitigate these risks. The PFP Maintenance strategy is to equip the facility with systems and equipment able to sustain scheduled PFP operations. The current operating run is scheduled to last seven years. Activities following the stabilization operation will involve an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to determine future plant activities. This strategy includes long-term maintenance of the facility for safe occupancy and material storage. The PFP maintenance staff used the graded approach to dictate the priorities of the improvement and upgrade actions identified in Chapter 2 of this document. The MIP documents PFP compliance to the DOE 4330.4B Order. Chapter 2 of the MIP follows the format of the Order in addressing the eighteen elements. As this revision is a total rewrite, no sidebars are included to highlight changes
Remote operation and maintenance support services for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamamoto, Hiroki; Higuma, Koji; Shimizu, Shunichi; Sakuma, Masatake; Sonoda, Yukio; Kanemoto, Shigeru

2004-01-01

Toshiba Corporation constructed e-Toshiba Operating Plant Service (e-TOPS TM ) system and began remote operation and maintenance support service for nuclear power plants. The service put into practice remote operation and maintenance by harmony of information technologies such as internet and mobile, and nuclear power measurement/diagnostic technologies and security techniques. Outline of e-TOPS TM , remote-control service, -inspection system, -diagnostic service and technologies support service are explained. Construction, objects and application effects of e-TOPS TM , remote diagnostic system using image treatment techniques, construction of device record card control system are illustrated. (S.Y.)

Preventive maintenance instrumentation results in Spanish nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Curiel, M.; Palomo, M. J.; Verdu, G.; Arnaldos, A.

2010-10-01

This paper is a recompilation of the most significance results in relation to the researching in preventive and predictive maintenance in critical nuclear instrumentation for power plant operation, which it is being developed by Logistica y Acondicionamientos Industriales and the Isirym Institute of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Instrumentation verification and test, it is a priority of the power plants control and instrumentation department's technicians. These procedures are necessary information for the daily power plant work. It is performed according to different procedures and in different moments of the fuel cycle depending on the instrumentation critical state and the monitoring process. Normally, this study is developed taking into account the instantaneous values of the instrumentation measures and, after their conversion to physical magnitude, they are analyzed according to the power plant operation point. Moreover, redundant sensors measurements are taken into consideration to the equipment and/or power plant monitoring. This work goes forward and it is in advanced to the instrument analysis as it is, independently of the operation point, using specific signal analysis techniques for preventive and predictive maintenance, with the object to obtain not only information about possible malfunctions, but the degradation scale presented in the instrument or in the system measured. We present seven real case studies of Spanish nuclear power plants each of them shall give a significant contribution to problem resolution and power plant performance. (Author)
PROMSYS, Plant Equipment Maintenance and Inspection Scheduling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morgan, D.L.; Srite, B.E.

1986-01-01

1 - Description of problem or function: PROMSYS is a computer system designed to automate the scheduling of routine maintenance and inspection of plant equipment. This 'programmed maintenance' provides the detailed planning and accomplishment of lubrication, inspection, and similar repetitive maintenance activities which can be scheduled at specified predetermined intervals throughout the year. The equipment items included are the typical pumps, blowers, motors, compressors, automotive equipment, refrigeration units, filtering systems, machine shop equipment, cranes, elevators, motor-generator sets, and electrical switchgear found throughout industry, as well as cell ventilation, shielding, containment, and material handling equipment unique to nuclear research and development facilities. Four related programs are used to produce sorted schedule lists, delinquent work lists, and optional master lists. Five additional programs are used to create and maintain records of all scheduled and unscheduled maintenance history. 2 - Method of solution: Service specifications and frequency are established and stored. The computer program reviews schedules weekly and prints, on schedule cards, instructions for service that is due the following week. The basic output from the computer program comes in two forms: programmed-maintenance schedule cards and programmed-maintenance data sheets. The data sheets can be issued in numerical building, route, and location number sequence as equipment lists, grouped for work assigned to a particular foreman as the foreman's equipment list, or grouped by work charged to a particular work order as the work-order list. Data sheets grouped by equipment classification are called the equipment classification list
Presenting a model of repair and preventing maintenance of Bushehr nuclear power plants analyzing the data of similar nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parikhan, Hammidreza

1997-01-01

Due to the increase application of nuclear energy for producing electricity, special attention must be paid to their maintenance activities in general and preventive maintenance in particular. It has been shown that a well established preventive maintenance programme will enhance the reliability and availability of nuclear power plants. A model of preventive maintenance for Buhehr nuclear power plant which is due to be completed by 2001 is developed. The prescribed model is based on past experiences of VVER nuclear power plants around the world. The utilized data is provided by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria. The data and past experiences reveal such important information as availability, energy loss, types of failures, duration of failure, etc. A strategy for designing a database is established. These data are then analyzed by statistical methods such as Pareto analysis, t-test, K-S test, analysis of variance, etc. The results of our analysis reveal important information in regard to establishment of a well-defined preventive maintenance programme in Buhshehr nuclear power plant. The results show that certain equipment such turbo-generator and control-rods play an important role in the maintenance of a VVER nuclear power plant. Other findings are discussed in great detail
Program strategies for maintenance management, organization and planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Czegeny, J.I.

2003-01-01

In this paper we look respectively at three specific examples showing program strategies for maintenance management, organization and planning. Starting with preventive maintenance optimization, we will look at one Bruce B Predefined task on the Reactor Regulating System to illustrate reduced maintenance requirement, a maintenance management strategy. Next discussed is the organizational strategy at Darlington to have an engineering program meet the jurisdictional requirements for maintaining certification for TSSA registered pressure vessels. The last look-see will show the earned value of the planning for the first Pickering A unit to be returned to service. Finally all the above is tied together in a compare and contrast of what works and what could be improved upon. (author)
The System 80+ standard plant design reduces operations and maintenance costs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chari, D.R.; Robertson, J.E.

1998-01-01

To be cost-competitive, nuclear power plants must maximize plant availability and minimize operations and maintenance (O and M) costs. A plant whose design supports these goals will generate more power at less cost and thereby have a lower unit generating cost. The ABB Combustion Engineering Nuclear Systems (ABB-CE) System 80+ Standard Nuclear Power Plant, rated at 1400 megawatts electric (MWe), is designed for high availability at reduced cost. To demonstrate that the duration of refueling outages, the major contributor to plant unavailability, can be shortened, ABB-CE developed a detailed plan that shows a System 80+ plant can safely perform a refueling and maintenance outage in 18 days. This is a significant reduction from the average current U.S. plant outages of 45 days, and is possible due to a two-part outage strategy: use System 80+ advanced system design features and relaxed technical specification (TS) time limits to shift some maintenance from outages to operating periods: and, use System 80+ structural, system, and component features, such as the larger operating floor, permanent pool seal, integral reactor head area cable tray system and missile shield, and longer life reactor coolant pump seals, to reduce the scope and duration of outage maintenance activities. Plant staffing level is the major variable, or controllable contributor to operations costs. ABB-CE worked with the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) to perform detailed staffing analyses that show a System 80+ plant can be operated reliably with 30 percent less staff than currently operating nuclear plants of similar size. Safety was not sacrificed when ABB-CE developed the System 80+ refueling outage plan and staffing level. The outage plan was developed utilizing a defense-in-depth concept for shutdown safety. The defense in-depth concept is implemented via systematic control of outage risk evaluation (SCORE) cards. The SCORE cards identify primary and alternate means of
Development of preventive maintenance technology and advanced service equipment for operating nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abe, Kazuhiro; Sumikawa, Masaharu; Hirakawa, Hiromasa; Arakawa, Tadao; Hasegawa, Kunio; Kato, Kanji.

1990-01-01

Hitachi Ltd. as a manufacturer of nuclear power plants has carried out the consistent general preventive maintenance activities from the planning of the plants and the design of maintainability in the construction phase to the planning and working of preventive maintenance in the operation and maintenance phase, and exerted efforts to heighten the capacity ratio and reliability of the plants. For the purpose, the steady activities of reliability improvement have been carried out throughout the whole company, and the rationalization of the planning and management of the preventive maintenance with a computer and the development of the robots to which Al is applied have been promoted. As the technology of upgrading the facilities, boron racks, the control rods having long life and so on were developed, and their practical use is advanced. Moreover for the future, the development of the diagnostic technology on material deterioration using superconductive quantum interference devices (SQUID) is in progress. The preventive maintenance activities in Hitachi Ltd., the technical development for the purpose and the upgrading of the plant facilities are reported. (K.I.)
Improving CANDU plant operation and maintenance through retrofit information technology systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lupton, L.R.; Judd, R.A.; MacBeth, M.J.

1998-01-01

CANDU plant owners are facing an increasingly competitive environment for the generation of electricity. To meet this challenge, all owners have identified that information technology offers opportunities for significant improvements in CANDU operation, maintenance and administration (OM and A) costs. Targeted information technology application areas include instrumentation and control, engineering, construction, operations and plant information management. These opportunities also pose challenges and issues that must be addressed if the full benefits of the advances in information technology are to be achieved. Key among these are system hardware and software maintenance, and obsolescence protection; AECL has been supporting CANDU stations with the initial development and evaluation of systems to improve plant performance and cost. Key initiatives that have been implemented or are in the process of being implemented in some CANDU plants to achieve operational benefits include: critical safety parameter monitor system; advanced computerized annunciation system; plant historical data system; and plant display system. Each system will be described in terms of its role in enhancing current CANDU plant performance and how they will contribute to future CANDU plant performance
Practical Maintenance of Digital Systems: Guidance to Maximize the Benefits of Digital Technology for the Maintenance of Digital Systems and Plant Equipment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hill, D; Scarola, K

2004-10-30

This report presents detailed guidance for the maintenance and testing of modern digital systems. The guidance provides practical means for plants to take advantage of the increased diagnostic and self-test capabilities of these systems. It helps plants avoid mistakes in design and installation that could lead to increased maintenance burden and decreased system reliability and availability.
Practical Maintenance of Digital Systems. Guidance to Maximize the Benefits of Digital Technology for the Maintenance of Digital Systems and Plant Equipment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hill, D.; Scarola, K.

2004-01-01

This report presents detailed guidance for the maintenance and testing of modern digital systems. The guidance provides practical means for plants to take advantage of the increased diagnostic and self-test capabilities of these systems. It helps plants avoid mistakes in design and installation that could lead to increased maintenance burden and decreased system reliability and availability
New conceptual method in maintenance with application in cryogenics pilot plant (CPP)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anghel, Vasile

2006-01-01

Full text: This study concluded with a series of suggestions concerning the methodology of maintaining a Cryogenics Nuclear Plant where the maintenance is either fundamental or only of importance. The implementation of this methodology can be achieved in two main steps. The first step concerns the conception of the scientific basis for maintenance, while the second step regards the implementation. The first step describes the management of maintenance in conditions of quality, risk and cost constraints. The conditions are established on the basis of a project of research in maintenance. The second step notifies the aspects of design and technology in maintenance of nuclear industrial units. The nuclear complex technical systems of the Cryogenics Pilot Plant at ICSI - Rm Valcea implies the development of some dedicated software, to ensure the designing, realization and operation of the plant, and prototypes of integrated software modules, to ensure the systems operation during of the life cycle. The implementation method is based on vibration analyses and mechanical studies while a flexible data acquisition system for monitoring, and control must be developed as a platform to ensure a more precise diagnosis and prediction of machinery malfunction. With a flexible data acquisition and analysis system in operation it is possible to easily increase the number of input channels. (author)
The Development of Plant Maintenance Scheduling Via lnventory System for Sustainable Plant Operation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masripan Roslizan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Industrial sector becomes the main concern for developing country. By the time, it was increased rapidly. However, there are many problems observed such as maintenance scheduling, stock inventory and supply chain. Therefore, this research develops new inventory system to develop sustainable plant operation with a high capability to plant operation especially to stock inventory of machine component. In also required green application with minimised used on paper. This system is developed using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID for inventory control which integrated with web-based system. This system consists of several modules such as station module, item module and item request module and report of critical stock in the store. This system can be controlled from a hand-phone with internet connection or automatic alert such as Short Massage Send (SMS and email. The developed system is very effective in monitoring the stock material through the barcode, supply chain and worker performance as well as to reduce the lead time for maintenance activities of the company through sustainable plant operation.
Remote maintenance system technology development for nuclear fuel cycle plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kashihara, Hidechiyo

1984-01-01

The necessity of establishing the technology of remote maintenance, the kinds of maintenance techniques and the change, the image of a facility adopting remote maintenance canyon process, and the outline of the R and D plan to put remote maintenance canyon process in practical use are described. As the objects of development, there are twin arm type servo manipulator system, rack system, remote tube connectors, solution sampling system, inspection system for in-cell equipment, and large plugs for wall penetration. The outline of those are also reported. The development of new remote maintenance technology has been forwarded in the Tokai Works aiming at the application to a glass solidification pilot plant and a FBR fuel recycling test facility. The lowering of the rate of utilization of cells due to poor accessibility and the increase of radiation exposure of workers must be overcome to realize nuclear fuel cycle technology. The maintenance technology is classified into crane canyon method, direct maintenance cell method, remote maintenance cell method and remote maintenance canyon method, and those are described briefly. The development plan of remote maintenance technology is outlined. (Kako, I.)
Development of maintenance tools based on tribology for nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iwai, Yoshiro; Honda, Tomomi; Yoshinaga, Shigeki

2007-01-01

Many tribological problems occur in the maintenance of nuclear power plants. In this paper, we introduced our developed maintenance tools based on tribology such as a particle counter and wear sensors. Their principals were shown briefly and their usefulness was clarified by the experiments on monitoring of wear. (author)
Preventive maintenance instrumentation results in Spanish nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Curiel, M. [Logistica y Acondicionamientos Industriales SAU, Sorolla Center, local 10, Av. de las Cortes Valencianas No. 58, 46015 Valencia (Spain); Palomo, M. J.; Verdu, G. [ISIRYM, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, Valencia (Spain); Arnaldos, A., E-mail: m.curiel@lainsa.co [TITANIA Servicios Tecnologicos SL, Sorolla Center, local 10, Av. de las Cortes Valencianas No. 58, 46015 Valencia (Spain)

2010-10-15

This paper is a recompilation of the most significance results in relation to the researching in preventive and predictive maintenance in critical nuclear instrumentation for power plant operation, which it is being developed by Logistica y Acondicionamientos Industriales and the Isirym Institute of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Instrumentation verification and test, it is a priority of the power plants control and instrumentation department's technicians. These procedures are necessary information for the daily power plant work. It is performed according to different procedures and in different moments of the fuel cycle depending on the instrumentation critical state and the monitoring process. Normally, this study is developed taking into account the instantaneous values of the instrumentation measures and, after their conversion to physical magnitude, they are analyzed according to the power plant operation point. Moreover, redundant sensors measurements are taken into consideration to the equipment and/or power plant monitoring. This work goes forward and it is in advanced to the instrument analysis as it is, independently of the operation point, using specific signal analysis techniques for preventive and predictive maintenance, with the object to obtain not only information about possible malfunctions, but the degradation scale presented in the instrument or in the system measured. We present seven real case studies of Spanish nuclear power plants each of them shall give a significant contribution to problem resolution and power plant performance. (Author)
Evaluation on maintenance technology developed in Tokai Reprocessing Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamamura, Osamu

2008-01-01

Tokai reprocessing plant (TRP) has been processing 1,140 tons of spent fuels, including 29tons of Fugen MOX fuels, since the beginning of its active operation in Sept.1977. For 30 years operation of TRP, many technological problems have been overcome to obtain the stable and reliable operation. This knowledge of maintenance technology could contribute to the safety and stable operation of Rokkasho reprocessing plant (RRP), as well as to the design and construction of the next reprocessing plant. (author)
Stakeholders responses on health maintenance organizations ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

National Health Insurance Scheme uses the services of Health Maintenance Organizations to run the scheme. This model of administering a national health insurance scheme is different from how so many other national health insurance programs are run in other parts of the world. The designing of the NHIS to include the ...
Remote maintenance demonstration tests at a pilot plant for high level waste vitrification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Selig, M.

1984-01-01

The remote maintenance and replacement technique designed for a radioactive vitrification plant have been developed and tested in a full scale handling mockup and in an inactive pilot plants by the Central Engineering Department of the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center. As a result of the development work and the tests it has been proved that the remote maintenance technique and remote handling equipment can be used without any technical problems and are suited for application in a radioactive waste vitrification plant
An evaluation of the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant preventive maintenance program based on reliability centered maintenance analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McCullough, C.L.; McCullough, C.A.

1989-01-01

Reliability centered maintenance (RCM) techniques were used to support a preventative maintenance (PM) upgrade program (PMUP) performed at TVA Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant (BFNP). The purpose of the RCM analysis was to identify critical equipment based on risk and economic importance and to evaluate the PM activities applicable to that equipment. The analysis may be conveniently divided into three steps, which will be outlined in the Approach section of this paper. The net benefit of the RCM approach was a prioritization of the focus of the PM upgrade program so that plant components receive attention proportional to their importance, and assurance that PM activities properly address the most likely component failure causes
Cost of transporting irradiated fuels and maintenance costs of a chemical treatment plant for irradiated fuels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sousselier, Y.

1964-01-01

Numerous studies have been made of the cost of a fuel cycle, but many of them are based on a priori studies and are therefore to be treated with reserve. Thus, in the part dealing with the treatment of irradiated fuels, some important factors in the cost have only rarely been given on the basis of practical experience: the cost of transporting the fuels themselves and the plant maintenance costs. Investigations relating to transport costs are generally based on calculations made from somewhat arbitrary data. The studies carried out in France on the transport of irradiated uranium between the EDF reactors at Chinon and the retreatment plant at La Hague of the irradiated uranium from research reactors to foreign retreatment plants, are reported; they show that by a suitable choice of transport containers and details of expedition it has been possible to reduce the costs very considerably. This has been achieved either by combining rail and road transport or by increasing the writ capacities of the transport containers: an example is given of a container for swimming-pool pile elements which can transport a complete pile core at one time, thus substantially reducing the cost. Studies concerning the maintenance costs of retreatment plants are rarer still, although in direct maintenance plants these figures represent an appreciable fraction of the total treatment cost. An attempt has been made, on the basis of operational experience of a plant, to obtain some idea of these costs. Only maintenance proper has been considered, excluding subsidiary operations such as the final decontamination of apparatus, the burial of contaminated material and radioprotection operations Maintenance has been divided into three sections: mechanical maintenance, maintenance of electrical equipment and maintenance of control and adjustment apparatus. In each of these sections the distinction has been made between manpower and the material side. In order to allow comparisons to be made with
Maintenance management of gas turbine power plant systems ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Given the abundant availability of gas and the significant installed capacity of the electricity from Gas Turbine Power Systems; effective maintenance of Gas Turbine Power Plants in Nigeria could be the panacea for achieving regular power generation and supply. The study identified environmental impact on the machines, ...

Developing Predictive Maintenance Expertise to Improve Plant Equipment Reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wurzbach, Richard N.

2002-01-01

On-line equipment condition monitoring is a critical component of the world-class production and safety histories of many successful nuclear plant operators. From addressing availability and operability concerns of nuclear safety-related equipment to increasing profitability through support system reliability and reduced maintenance costs, Predictive Maintenance programs have increasingly become a vital contribution to the maintenance and operation decisions of nuclear facilities. In recent years, significant advancements have been made in the quality and portability of many of the instruments being used, and software improvements have been made as well. However, the single most influential component of the success of these programs is the impact of a trained and experienced team of personnel putting this technology to work. Changes in the nature of the power generation industry brought on by competition, mergers, and acquisitions, has taken the historically stable personnel environment of power generation and created a very dynamic situation. As a result, many facilities have seen a significant turnover in personnel in key positions, including predictive maintenance personnel. It has become the challenge for many nuclear operators to maintain the consistent contribution of quality data and information from predictive maintenance that has become important in the overall equipment decision process. These challenges can be met through the implementation of quality training to predictive maintenance personnel and regular updating and re-certification of key technology holders. The use of data management tools and services aid in the sharing of information across sites within an operating company, and with experts who can contribute value-added data management and analysis. The overall effectiveness of predictive maintenance programs can be improved through the incorporation of newly developed comprehensive technology training courses. These courses address the use of
Improving CANDU plant operation and maintenance through retrofit information technology systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lupton, L. R.; Judd, R. A.

1998-01-01

CANDU plant owners are facing an increasingly competitive environment for the generation of electricity. To meet this challenge, all owners have identified that information technology offers opportunities for significant improvements in CANDU operation, maintenance and administration (OM and A) costs. Targeted information technology application areas include instrumentation and control, engineering, construction, operations and plant information management. These opportunities also pose challenges and issues that must be addressed if the full benefits of the advances in information technology are to be achieved. Key among these are system hardware and software maintenance, and obsolescence protection. AECL has been supporting CANDU stations with the initial development and evaluation of systems to improve plant performance and cost. Five key initiatives that have been implemented or are in the process of being implemented in some CANDU plants to achieve cooperational benefits include: critical safety parameter monitor system; advanced computerized annunciation system; plant historical data system; plant display system; and digital protection system. Each system will be described in terms of its role in enhancing current CANDU plant performance and how they will contribute to future CANDU plant performance. (author). 8 refs., 3 figs
How and when will self-assessment improve maintenance of CANDU plants - evaluator's view

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mika, K. [Ontario Hydro. Bruce Nuclear Station. Tiverton, ON (Canada)

1997-07-01

Learning organizations use self-evaluation programs to compare their actual performance with their management's expectations and industry standards. In general, self-evaluations identify areas needing improvement. Self-evaluation activities in maintenance departments include self-assessments, management monitoring observations, root cause analyses, event investigations, benchmarking, use of operating experience, self-checking, and problem reporting systems. In Ontario Hydro Nuclear (OHN) we have used almost all forms of self-evaluation with mixed success. However, we did not use self-assessments. With emphasis on excellent maintenance this powerful form of self-evaluation is being introduced to all our plants. Because of its recency and relative inexperience with it, this paper is focused on self-assessment. The paper provides the author's perspective on how a self-assessment program would be evaluated by an independent internal evaluation and what attributes should be in place in order for maintenance departments to succeed in the implementation and successful continuation of the program. (author)
The right maintenance on the right components, at the right time, with the right parts: maintaining high plant reliability through an effective maintenance program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Von Hatten, P.

2008-01-01

The objective of the maintenance program at a Nuclear Power Plant is to be proactive and prevent unexpected failures of equipment that can impact on Nuclear or Conventional Safety and Plant Production. This does not mean that all equipment failures will be prevented; in a number of cases the most cost effective solution is to allow equipment to run to failure. Deciding what components are critical to the plant is the first step. The industry uses guidance from INPO Advanced Process, AP913, to classify components as Critical, Non Critical or Run to Failure based on the consequence of the failure. Once this is complete, then the right maintenance program needs to be specified. This is done through utilization of experience from the industry based on the type of component. Maintenance strategies and templates have been produced for most power plant components. Each station or fleet needs then to apply the criteria, with exceptions as required, to determine the maintenance requirements and frequency for their components. This includes predictive and preventative maintenance. The more critical the component is the more rigorous the maintenance requirements. Once the maintenance program is defined it can be implemented. This requires that the Preventative Maintenance (PM's) are updated to ensure the correct tasks are in place and the frequency is correct. Work Management will group the PM's so they can scheduled efficiently and to minimize equipment down time. The last element is to ensure that the required parts are specified and are stocked or readily available for the maintenance when it is scheduled. This is an ongoing effort since components become obsolete or suppliers go out of business or change hands. (author)
Toward autonomous operation and maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kitamura, M.

1994-01-01

Issues toward realization of autonomous operation as well as maintenance of nuclear power plants are reviewed in this paper. First, the necessity and significance of the technical program aiming at the establishment of autonomous nuclear plant are discussed through reviewing the history and current status computerized operation of complex artifacts. Then, key technologies currently studied to meet the need within the framework of artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced robotics are described. Among such AI-technologies are distributed multi-agent system, operator thinking model, and advanced man-machine interface design. Advances in robot technology attained include active sensing technique and multi-unit autonomous maintenance robot systems. Techniques for simulation of human action have been pursued as basic issues for understanding mechanisms behind human behavior. In addition to the individual developments, methodological topics relevant to the autonomy of nuclear facilities are briefly addressed. The concepts called methodology diversity and dynamic functionality restoration (realization) are introduced and discussed as the underlining principles to be considered in the development of the autonomous nuclear power plants. (author)
The development of web based power plant maintenance management system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Bum Shin; Kim, Eui Hyun; Jang, Dong Sik; Cho, Jae Min; Chae, Gil Seok; Jung, Gyu Chol

2004-01-01

Most power plants have operated many independent computerize systems for maintenance. Independence of systems have caused complexity of business process and inconvenience of computer system management. Because the equipment and material master data is not standardize and structurize, it is difficult to manage equipment maintenance history and material delivery. Especially equipment classification criterion is important for standardization of every maintenance information. It is necessary to integrate function of independent systems for business process simplification and rapid work flow. This paper provides equipment classification criterion design and system integration method with the case of live system development
Virtual reality technology in nuclear power plant operation and maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Sen

2005-01-01

In this paper a generic virtual reality comprehensive system focusing on the operation and maintenance in Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is proposed. Under this layout, some key topics and means of the system are discussed. As example 'Virtual Nuclear Island' comprehensive system and its typical applications in NPP are set up. In the end, it prospects the applications of virtual reality technology in NPP operation, training and maintenance. (author)
Operation and maintenance of nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1990-04-01

The proceedings contain 34 papers, almost all discussing specific problems or the Dukovany nuclear power plant. The major part is devoted to the matters of maintenance, regular and unplanned repairs, decontamination of the steam generator for inspection and repair purposes, various methods of in-service diagnostics. Some papers discuss reactor start-up, safety assurance, unit control and economic aspects. Environmental impacts of the power plant are also tackled. Some special contributions concern corrosion, chemical analysis of the coolant and the diagnostics of electrical equipment. The possibility is discussed of switching WWER reactors to improved fuel cycles with increased fuel burnup. (M.D.). 37 figs., 23 tabs., 47 refs
Inertial Fusion Power Plant Concept of Operations and Maintenance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anklam, T. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Knutson, B. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Dunne, A. M. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Kasper, J. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Sheehan, T. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Lang, D. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Roberts, V. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Mau, D. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2015-01-15

Parsons and LLNL scientists and engineers performed design and engineering work for power plant pre-conceptual designs based on the anticipated laser fusion demonstrations at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Work included identifying concepts of operations and maintenance (O&M) and associated requirements relevant to fusion power plant systems analysis. A laser fusion power plant would incorporate a large process and power conversion facility with a laser system and fusion engine serving as the heat source, based in part on some of the systems and technologies advanced at NIF. Process operations would be similar in scope to those used in chemical, oil refinery, and nuclear waste processing facilities, while power conversion operations would be similar to those used in commercial thermal power plants. While some aspects of the tritium fuel cycle can be based on existing technologies, many aspects of a laser fusion power plant presents several important and unique O&M requirements that demand new solutions. For example, onsite recovery of tritium; unique remote material handling systems for use in areas with high radiation, radioactive materials, or high temperatures; a five-year fusion engine target chamber replacement cycle with other annual and multi-year cycles anticipated for major maintenance of other systems, structures, and components (SSC); and unique SSC for fusion target waste recycling streams. This paper describes fusion power plant O&M concepts and requirements, how O&M requirements could be met in design, and how basic organizational and planning issues can be addressed for a safe, reliable, economic, and feasible fusion power plant.
Job analysis of maintenance-mechanic position for the nuclear power plant maintenance personnel reliability model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siegel, A.I.; Bartter, W.D.; Kopstein, F.F.

1982-06-01

The task list method of job survey was used. In collaboration with BWR and PWR personnel, a list of 107 tasks performed by maintenance mechanics was developed, grouped into: remove and install, test and repair, inspect and perform preventive maintenance, miscellaneous, communication, and report preparation. For each listed task, the questionnaire form inquired into: frequency of performance, task completion time, safety consequences of improper performance, and the amount of training required to perform the task proficiently. Scaled information was requested about seven abilities: (1) visual speed, accuracy, and recognition; (2) gross motor coordination; (3) fine manual dexterity; (4) strength and stamina; (5) cognition; (6) memory; and (7) problem solving required for function completion. Survey forms were distributed to 27 nuclear power plants. Thirty-one maintenance mechanics representing 17 plants returned the completed forms. Frequency of performing tasks was bimodally distributed: (1) between once a year and once every six months, and (2) about once a week. More than half of the tasks have potential risk consequences if improperly performed. The five tasks with the greatest risk implications in the case of inadequate performance were: (1) remove and install reactor and dry-well heads, (2) test and repair reactor system components, (3) remove and install pressurizer mechanical relief valves, (4) test and repair pressurizer relief valves, (5) remove and install core spray pumps, seals, and valves. Hierarchically, the public risk associated with the various functions was: (1) remove and install, (2) test and repair, (3) preventive maintenance, (4) miscellaneous tasks, (5) communication, and (6) report preparation
Application and issues of online maintenance for equipment of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Higasa, Hisakazu

2011-01-01

The maintenance systems for long-term safety and repair costs reduction of equipment of nuclear power plants are stated. Planned maintenance contained the breakdown maintenance (BM) and the preventive maintenance, which consists of the time based maintenance (MBM) and the condition based maintenance (CBM). Explained are the characteristics of equipments, maintenance methods, maintenance solutions and the self-evaluation maintenance power, damage mechanism and solutions, and monitoring tools and application. Stated are the maintenance system and application of monitoring technology, periodical maintenance, application of diagnosis, vibration monitoring techniques, decision of vibration monitoring, and application of monitoring techniques for improvement of maintenance. Illustrated are realization of planned maintenance by reorganization of maintenance, a trend of maintenance of equipments, table of classified maintenance systems, change of maintenance program, maintenance data and investigation of damage mechanism, examples of self-evaluation maintenance power, examples of analysis of damage of parts of equipments, evaluation of rotating machines by vibration method, examples of results of diagnosis of bearing of rotating machines, online maintenance system of Asahi Kasei Engineering Corporation, degradation pattern of pomp, estimation of lifetime by total vibration and vibration on acceleration, and improvement of equipments. (S.Y.)
Operation and maintenance in Genkai PWR Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohta, Shojiro

1984-01-01

The No.1 PWR plant with 559 MW capacity in the Genkai Nuclear Power Station, Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc., required about 115 days for the regular inspection in fiscal 1982 and thereafter, although more maintenance work was done. But No.2 plant of the same type required not more than 80 days. In most cases, the period of one operation cycle was from 10 to 12 months, but in the third operation cycle of No.2 plant, it is expected to be 13 months. The capacity ratio of the whole power station was 75.2% at the end of fiscal 1983. These operational records all exceeded the Japanese average. The plants are two-loop Westinghouse type PWRs, and No.1 plant started the commercial operation of anti h and the increment of P 0 + . (author) apacity ratio of No.1 plant was 71.6%, and that of No.2 plant was 85.5%. The intergranular attack on steam generator tubes was found first in the fifth regular inspection, and also in the sixth and seventh inspections, and the faulty tubes were plugged. The prevention of its spread is the largest problem. The in-service quality assurance activity, the personnel training program and the effort of upgrading the plant availability are reported. (Kako, I.)
Preventive maintenance and reliability-centered maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, J.G.

1989-01-01

In the recent past, the primary function of the preventive maintenance program at a nuclear power plant was to maintain the operability and reliability of the plant. Reducing overall maintenance costs by performing effective preventive maintenance, instead of more costly and disruptive corrective maintenance, instead of more costly and disruptive corrective maintenance, was a secondary consideration. In today's operating environment, the preventive maintenance program must meet the test of cost-effectiveness as well as many new standards for performance that are being required by rate regulators. The preventive maintenance program must be able to withstand the challenge of independent audit to a new standard of technical adequacy and compliance with recommendations from component vendors. In this new environment, the standard that is being applied at the San Onofre nuclear generating station (SONGS) is that the preventive maintenance program must meet the test of cost-effectiveness, improve equipment performance, support increased plant availability, and (a) literally implement the recommendations of the vendor, (b) provide other compensation for the vendor recommendation, or (c) provide technical justification for the deviation. The subject of this paper is the way that reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) is helping SONGS meet these challenges
Computerization of operation and maintenance for nuclear power plants. Working material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-01-01

This report provides a resource for computerization of activities in plant operation and maintenance. Experience gained from design and implementation of various computer systems around the world is described. The material may be useful as a guide to modification and upgrading of existing plants as well as design and engineering of new plants. It should be particularly of interest to managers and engineers who are engaged in planning, bidding, specifying or designing computer systems for operation and maintenance applications. The technical document is the result of a series of advisory and consultant meetings held by the IAEA in Vienna in 1991 - 1994. The document was prepared with the participation of experts from Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Russia, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States. Refs, figs and tabs
Open system architecture for condition based maintenance applied to a hydroelectric power plant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Amaya, E.J.; Alvares, A.J. [University of Brasilia (UnB), DF (Brazil). Mechanical and Mechatronic Dept.], Emails: eamaya@unb.br, alvares@AlvaresTech.com; Gudwin, R.R. [State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), SP (Brazil). Computer Engineering and Industrial Automation Dept.], E-mail: gudwin@dca.fee.unicamp.br

2009-07-01

The hydroelectric power plant of Balbina is implementing a condition based maintenance system applying an open, modular and scalable integrated architecture to provide comprehensive solutions and support to the end users like operational and maintenance team. The system called SIMPREBAL (Predictive Maintenance System of Balbina) is advocate of open standards, in particular through collaborative research programmers. In the developing is clearly understands the need for both, industry standards and a simple to use software development tool chain, supporting the development of complex condition based maintenance systems with multiple partners. The Open System Architecture for Condition Based Maintenance (OSA-CBM) is a standard that consider seven hierarchic layers that represent a logic transition or performed data flow from the data acquisition layer, through the intermediates layers as signal processing, condition monitor, health assessment, prognostics and decision support, to arrive to the presentation layer. SIMPREBAL is being implementing as an OSA-CBM software framework and tool set that allows the creation of truly integrated, comprehensive maintenance solutions through the internet. This paper identifies specific benefits of the application of the OSA-CBM in comprehensive solutions of condition based maintenance for a hydroelectric power plant. (author)
A multicriteria decision making approach applied to improving maintenance policies in healthcare organizations.

Science.gov (United States)

Carnero, María Carmen; Gómez, Andrés

2016-04-23

Healthcare organizations have far greater maintenance needs for their medical equipment than other organization, as many are used directly with patients. However, the literature on asset management in healthcare organizations is very limited. The aim of this research is to provide more rational application of maintenance policies, leading to an increase in quality of care. This article describes a multicriteria decision-making approach which integrates Markov chains with the multicriteria Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation Technique (MACBETH), to facilitate the best choice of combination of maintenance policies by using the judgements of a multi-disciplinary decision group. The proposed approach takes into account the level of acceptance that a given alternative would have among professionals. It also takes into account criteria related to cost, quality of care and impact of care cover. This multicriteria approach is applied to four dialysis subsystems: patients infected with hepatitis C, infected with hepatitis B, acute and chronic; in all cases, the maintenance strategy obtained consists of applying corrective and preventive maintenance plus two reserve machines. The added value in decision-making practices from this research comes from: (i) integrating the use of Markov chains to obtain the alternatives to be assessed by a multicriteria methodology; (ii) proposing the use of MACBETH to make rational decisions on asset management in healthcare organizations; (iii) applying the multicriteria approach to select a set or combination of maintenance policies in four dialysis subsystems of a health care organization. In the multicriteria decision making approach proposed, economic criteria have been used, related to the quality of care which is desired for patients (availability), and the acceptance that each alternative would have considering the maintenance and healthcare resources which exist in the organization, with the inclusion of a
Development of support system for maintenance and administration of reprocessing plant equipment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iwasaki, Syogo; Taniguchi, Takayuki; Shiraishi, Yoshihiko; Isaka, Kazuo

1998-01-01

Each year, maintenance work is carried out for about 10,000 pieces of equipment, including mechanical devices, electric equipment and instruments, at the Tokai Reprocessing Plant. Ninety percent of such maintenance work is preventive maintenance. In order to manage the information about the maintenance work, a computer support system was developed between 1985 and 1992. Twenty-seven thousand pieces of equipment and 180,000 maintenance histories have already been registered in the system. The system has been used for planning inspections and replacement of equipment as well as checking their maintenance histories. Actual usage of the system has shown that some auxiliary functions need to be added. The system will therefore be improved and extended. (author)
Feedback of operation and maintenance experience into evolutionary plant design (HWRs)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hedges, K.R.; Sanatkumar, A.; Kwon, Oh-Cheol

1999-01-01

The process of feeding back operation and maintenance information into the CANDU plant design process has been in constant evolution since the beginning of the CANDU program. The commissioning and operation experience from the first commercial reactors at Pickering A and Bruce A was used extensively in the design of the first generation CANDU 6 Plants. These units have been in operation for 15 years, producing electricity at an average lifetime capacity factor of about 85%. In further advancing the CANDU 6 and 9 design, greater emphasis is placed on enhancements that can reduce operational costs and further improve plant performance by reducing the planned outage time. The plant design has been improved to facilitate maintenance scheduling, equipment isolation, maintenance and post maintenance testing. Individual tasks have been analyzed as well as the interaction between tasks during outages to reduce the down time required and simplify the execution of the work. This results in shorter outages, reduced radioactive dose and reduced costs. The Utilities have continued to play an important role in CANDU 6 Evolution. Specifically; the Korea Utility KEPCO has one of the original four CANDU 6 Plants and three of the most modem. Their feedback to the designers has been very helpful. One of the most important feedback processes is through the CANDU Owners Group, which provides information exchange between members. In India eight PHWRs of 220 MWe capacity are in operation. Four reactors, also of 220 MWe capacity are in advanced stages of construction. Site construction work of two units of 500 MWe PHWRs at Tarapur will be taken up shortly. Over the years, during construction and operation of these power stations, a large amount of experience has been accumulated. Operation and maintenance experience is shared with operating stations by intensive participation of design engineers in Station Operation Review meetings, trouble shooting and root cause analysis of problems
Electrical predictive maintenance at Trillo I Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vicente, L. R.; Fernandez de la Mata, R.; Cano Gonzalez, J. C.

1998-01-01

An electrical predictive maintenance plan is currently being put into effect at Trillo I Nuclear Power Plant which is initially being applied to three types of equipment: motors, transformers and motor-driven valves. This paper describes the different phases considered in the implementation of the Predictive Maintenance Plan: study of existing techniques for such equipment (tangoδ, spectral analysis of stator current, chromatographic analysis of gases, spectral analysis of the axial stray magnetic flux, etc), study of the special characteristics of the electrical equipment at Trillo NPP, analysis of applicable techniques (characteristic parameters, alert-alarm values, experience with such techniques, etc), analysis of machine history records, study of the optimum preventive-predictive case, study of applicable frequencies and definition of the computerised predictive maintenance management tool. With the exception of the computerised predictive maintenance management applications which are presently being implemented, all the activities described above have been carried out on the three types of equipment mentioned. (Author)
Research on operation and maintenance support system adaptive to human recognition and understanding in human-centered plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Numano, Masayoshi; Matsuoka, Takeshi; Mitomo, N.

2004-01-01

As a human-centered plant, advanced nuclear power plant needs appropriate role sharing between human and mobile intelligent agents. Human-machine cooperation for plant operation and maintenance activities is also required with an advanced interface. Plant's maintenance is programmed using mobile robots working under the radiation environments instead of human beings. Operation and maintenance support system adaptive to human recognition and understanding should be developed to establish adequate human and machine interface so as to induce human capabilities to the full and enable human to take responsibility for plan's operation. Plant's operation and maintenance can be cooperative activities between human and intelligent automonous agents having surveillance and control functions. Infrastructure of multi-agent simulation system for the support system has been investigated and developed based on work plans derived from the scheduler. (T. Tanaka)

Expert system for maintenance management of a boiling water reactor power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hong Shen; Liou, L.W.; Levine, S.; Ray, A.; Detamore, M.

1992-01-01

An expert system code has been developed for the maintenance of two boiling water reactor units in Berwick, Pennsylvania, that are operated by the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company (PP and L). The objective of this expert system code, where the knowledge of experienced operators and engineers is captured and implemented, is to support the decisions regarding which components can be safely and reliably removed from service for maintenance. It can also serve as a query-answering facility for checking the plant system status and for training purposes. The operating and maintenance information of a large number of support systems, which must be available for emergencies and/or in the event of an accident, is stored in the data base of the code. It identifies the relevant technical specifications and management rules for shutting down any one of the systems or removing a component from service to support maintenance. Because of the complexity and time needed to incorporate a large number of systems and their components, the first phase of the expert system develops a prototype code, which includes only the reactor core isolation coolant system, the high-pressure core injection system, the instrument air system, the service water system, and the plant electrical system. The next phase is scheduled to expand the code to include all other systems. This paper summarizes the prototype code and the design concept of the complete expert system code for maintenance management of all plant systems and components
Development of advanced human-machine system for plant operation and maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Wei; Ohi, Tadashi; Yoshikawa, Hidekazu; Sawaragi, Tetsuo; Kitamura, Masaharu; Furuta, Kazuo; Gofuku, Akio; Ito, Koji

2004-01-01

With the worldwide deregulation of the power industry, and the aging of the nuclear power plants (NPPs), concerns are growing over the reliability and safety of the NPPs, because the regulation of man power may lower the current high level of reliability and safety. In this paper, a concept of overall integrated plant management mechanism is proposed, in order to meet the requirements of cutting costs of NPPs and the requirements of maintaining or increasing safety and reliability. The concept is called as satellite operation maintenance center (SOMC). SOMC integrates the operation and maintenance activities of several NPP units by utilizing advanced information technologies to support cooperation activities between workers allocated at SOMC and the field workers. As for the operation activities, a framework called as Advanced Operation System (AOS) is proposed in this paper. AOS consists of three support sub-systems: dynamic operation permission system(DyOPS), supervisor information presentation system using interface agent, and crew performance evaluation system. As for the maintenance activities, a framework called as Ubiquitous-Computing-based Maintenance support System (UCMS) is proposed next. Two case studies are described, in order to show the way of how UCMS support field workers to do maintenance tasks efficiently, safely, and infallibly as well. Finally, a prospect of SOMC is shown in order to explain the way of how the technology elements developed in this project could be integrated as a whole one system to support maintenance activities of NPPs in the future. (author)
Applying artificial intelligence to safety and maintenance (in nuclear plants)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1987-01-01

Under contract from the US DoE, Odetics Inc. is developing a prototype advisory expert system which may eventually be used for the maintenance and safety of a nuclear plant. The objective of the system will be to determine off-normal conditions and to help operations personnel through a course of action which would lead to a stable plant. (UK)
Preventive maintenance instrumentation results in Spanish nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Palomo Anaya, M. Jose; Verdu Martin, Gumersindo; Arnaldos Gonzalvez, Adoracion; Nieva, Marcelino Curiel

2011-01-01

This paper is a recompilation of the most significant results in relation to the researching in Preventive and Predictive Maintenance in critical nuclear instrumentation for power plant operation, which it is being developed by Logistica y Acondicionamientos Industriales and The Isirym Institute of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Instrumentation verification and test, it is a priority of the Power Plants Control and Instrumentation Department technicians. These procedures are necessary information for the daily power plant work. It is performed according to different procedures and in different moments of the fuel cycle depending on the instrumentation critical state and the monitoring process. Normally, this study is developed taking into account the instantaneous values of the instrumentation measures and, after their conversion to physical magnitude, they are analyzed according to the power plant operation point. Moreover, redundant sensors measurements are taken into consideration to the equipment and/or power plant monitoring. This work goes forward and it is in advanced to the instrument analysis as it is, independently of the operation point, using specific signal analysis techniques for preventive and predictive maintenance, with the aim to obtain not only information about possible malfunctions, but the degradation scale presented in the instrument or in the system measured. We present seven real case studies of Spanish Nuclear Power Plants each of them shall give a significant contribution to problem resolution and power plant performance: Fluctuations in sensor lines (case 1), Air presence in feed water lines (case 2), Root valve partially closed (case 3), Sensor malfunctions (case 4), Electrical source malfunctions (case 5), RTD malfunctions (case 6) and LPRM malfunctions (case 7). (author)
Preventive maintenance instrumentation results in Spanish nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Palomo Anaya, M. Jose; Verdu Martin, Gumersindo, E-mail: mpalomo@iqn.upv.es, E-mail: gverdu@iqn.upv.es [ISIRYM Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia (Spain); Arnaldos Gonzalvez, Adoracion, E-mail: a.arnaldos@titaniast.com [TITANIA Servicios Tecnologicos SL, Valencia (Spain); Nieva, Marcelino Curiel, E-mail: m.curiel@lainsa.com [Logistica y Acondicionamientos Industriales SAU (LAINSA), Valencia (Spain)

2011-07-01

This paper is a recompilation of the most significant results in relation to the researching in Preventive and Predictive Maintenance in critical nuclear instrumentation for power plant operation, which it is being developed by Logistica y Acondicionamientos Industriales and The Isirym Institute of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Instrumentation verification and test, it is a priority of the Power Plants Control and Instrumentation Department technicians. These procedures are necessary information for the daily power plant work. It is performed according to different procedures and in different moments of the fuel cycle depending on the instrumentation critical state and the monitoring process. Normally, this study is developed taking into account the instantaneous values of the instrumentation measures and, after their conversion to physical magnitude, they are analyzed according to the power plant operation point. Moreover, redundant sensors measurements are taken into consideration to the equipment and/or power plant monitoring. This work goes forward and it is in advanced to the instrument analysis as it is, independently of the operation point, using specific signal analysis techniques for preventive and predictive maintenance, with the aim to obtain not only information about possible malfunctions, but the degradation scale presented in the instrument or in the system measured. We present seven real case studies of Spanish Nuclear Power Plants each of them shall give a significant contribution to problem resolution and power plant performance: Fluctuations in sensor lines (case 1), Air presence in feed water lines (case 2), Root valve partially closed (case 3), Sensor malfunctions (case 4), Electrical source malfunctions (case 5), RTD malfunctions (case 6) and LPRM malfunctions (case 7). (author)
Managing aging in nuclear power plants: Insights from NRC's maintenance team inspection reports

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fresco, A.; Subudhi, M.

1994-01-01

Age-related degradation is managed through the maintenance program of a nuclear plant. From 1988 to 1991, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) evaluated the maintenance program of every nuclear power plant in the United States. The authors reviewed 44 out of a total of 67 of the reports issued by the NRC on these in-depth team inspections. The reports were reviewed for insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the programs as related to the need to understand and manage the effects of aging on nuclear plant structures, systems, and components. The authors' conclusions are presented. 6 refs
Evaluation of mental workload on digital maintenance systems in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hwang, S. L.; Huang, F. H.; Lin, J. C.; Liang, G. F.; Yenn, T. C.; Hsu, C. C.

2006-01-01

The purpose of this study is to evaluate operators' mental workload dealing with digital maintenance systems in Nuclear Power Plants. First of all, according to the factors affected the mental workload, a questionnaire was designed to evaluate the mental workload of maintenance operators at the second Nuclear Power (NPP) in Taiwan. Then, sixteen maintenance engineers of the Second NPP participated in the questionnaire survey. The results indicated that the mental workload was lower in digital systems than that in analog systems. Finally, a mental workload model based on Neural Network technique was developed to predict the workload of maintenance operators in digital maintenance systems. (authors)
Experimental study on the plant state estimation for the condition-based maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harada, J. I.; Takahashi, M.; Kitamura, M.; Wakabayashi, T.

2006-01-01

A framework of maintenance support system based on the plant state estimation using diverse methods has been proposed and the validity of the plant state estimation methods has been experimentally evaluated. The focus has been set on the construction of the BN for the objective system with the scale and complexity as same as real world systems. Another focus has been set on the other functions for maintenance support system such as signal processing tool and similarity matching. The validity of the proposed inference method has been confirmed through numerical experiments. (authors)
Modelling maintenance practice of production plant using the delay-time concept

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Christer, A.H.; Wang, Wenbin; Baker, R.D.; Sharp, J.

1995-01-01

In this paper we present a study carried out for a copper products manufacturing company, developing and applying the delay-time modelling technique to model and thus optimize preventive maintenance (PM) of the plant. A key machine in the plant is used to illustrate the modelling process and
Utilizing reliability concepts in the development of IEEE recommended good practices for nuclear plant maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gradin, L.P.

1986-01-01

This paper presents information describing the concern for nuclear power plant electrical equipment maintenance and the IEEE Nuclear Power Engineering Committee's method to address that concern. That method includes the creation of Working Group 3.3, ''Maintenance Good Practices'' which is developing specific maintenance good practice documents, supporting technical information exchange, and providing a vehicle to promote practices which can reduce cost and enhance plant safety. The foundation for that effort is the utilization of Reliability concepts
Maintenance optimization in nuclear power plants through genetic algorithms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Munoz, A.; Martorell, S.; Serradell, V.

1999-01-01

Establishing suitable scheduled maintenance tasks leads to optimizing the reliability of nuclear power plant safety systems. The articles addresses this subject, whilst endeavoring to tackle an overall optimization process for component availability and safety systems through the use of genetic algorithms. (Author) 20 refs
Development of an evaluation method for optimization of maintenance strategy in commercial plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ito, Satoshi; Shiraishi, Natsuki; Yuki, Kazuhisa; Hashizume, Hidetoshi

2006-01-01

In this study, a new simulation method is developed for optimization of maintenance strategy in NPP as a multiple-objective optimization problem (MOP). The result of operation is evaluated as the average of the following three measures in 3,000 trials: Cost of Electricity (COE) as economic risk, Frequency of unplanned shutdown as plant reliability, and Unavailability of Regular Service System (RSS) and Engineering Safety Features (ESF) as safety measures. The following maintenance parameters are considered to evaluate several risk in plant operation by changing maintenance strategy: planned outage cycle, surveillance cycle, major inspection cycle, and surveillance cycle depending on the value of Fussel-Vesely importance measure. By using the Decision-Making method based on AHP, there are individual tendencies depending on individual decision-maker. Therefore this study could be useful for resolving the problem of maintenance optimization as a MOP. (author)
Procedures for maintenance and repairs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pickel, E.

1981-01-01

After a general review of the operation experience in the history of more than 12 operating years, the organization in the plant will be shown with special aspect to quality assurance, capacity of the workshops and connected groups as radiation protection, chemical laboratories etc. The number, time intervals and manpower effort for the repeating tests will be discussed. Reasons and examples for back-fitting activities in the plant are given. Besides special repair and maintenance procedures as repair of the steam generators, in-service inspection of the reactor pressure vessel, repair of a feed-water pipe and repair of the core structure in the pressure vessel, the general system to handle maintenance and repair-work in the KWO-plant will be shown. This includes also the detailed planning of the annual refueling and revision of the plant. (orig./RW)
Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor plant maintenance and equipment design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Swannack, D.L.

1982-01-01

This paper provides a summary of maintenance equipment considerations and actual plant handling experiences from operation of a sodium-cooled reactor, the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF). Equipment areas relating to design, repair techniques, in-cell handling, logistics and facility services are discussed. Plant design must make provisions for handling and replacement of components within containment or allow for transport to an ex-containment area for repair. The modular cask assemblies and transporter systems developed for FFTF can service major plant components as well as smaller units. The plant and equipment designs for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor (CRBR) plant have been patterned after successful FFTF equipment
Regulatory issues in the maintenance of Argentine nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Castro, E.; Caruso, G.

1997-01-01

The influence of maintenance activities upon nuclear safety and their relevance as means to detect and prevent aging make them play an outstanding role among the fields of interest of the Argentine nuclear regulatory body (ENREN). Such interest is reinforced by the fact that the data obtained during maintenance are used - among other - as inputs in the Probabilistic Safety Analyses required for those nuclear power plants. This paper provides a brief description of the original requirements by the regulatory body concerning maintenance, of the factors that led to review the criteria involved in such requirements and of the key items identified during the reviewing process. The latter shall be taken into account in the maintenance regulatory policy, for the consequent issue of new requirements from the utilities and for the eventual publication of a specific regulatory standard. (author)
Maintenance of electromechanical equipment in quality organization under operating conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mercier, J.P.

1984-01-01

The paper outlines the principles adopted by the Thermal Production Service of Electricite de France on the basis of the experience of the first years of operation of its 900 MW(e)PWR units for the purpose of improving quality organization in operating conditions in respect of the maintenance of electromechanical safety equipment. This organization is based on application of the usual principles for quality assurance, adapted in accordance with current French regulations. The paper first recalls the now traditional methods of applying the principles of quality organization in the area of equipment maintenance. It then defines particular so-called ''delicate'' activities which, in accordance with the above regulations, are subjected to additional quality organizational procedures; this applies in particular to the area of pre-maintenance preparation and studies and to the control exercised by the French safety authorities over the execution of those activities. The paper explains how the application of the regulations improves maintenance practices compared with standard quality organization. It describes how the attempt to establish a frontier between these two types of activity (current and ''delicate'') has led to the definition of a classification criterion which is technically correct and simple to use and is based on the professional skills of those performing each activity. The paper then describes in greater detail the principal rules for the performance of those tasks which come under the standard organization and those to which more stringent criteria apply. Lastly, it explains the thinking behind equipment surveillance programmes and the analysis of anomalies discovered through surveillance measures or brought to light by operating incidents, the aim of these being to benefit from the experience gained
Program integration of predictive maintenance with reliability centered maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strong, D.K. Jr; Wray, D.M.

1990-01-01

This paper addresses improving the safety and reliability of power plants in a cost-effective manner by integrating the recently developed reliability centered maintenance techniques with the traditional predictive maintenance techniques of nuclear power plants. The topics of the paper include a description of reliability centered maintenance (RCM), enhancing RCM with predictive maintenance, predictive maintenance programs, condition monitoring techniques, performance test techniques, the mid-Atlantic Reliability Centered Maintenance Users Group, test guides and the benefits of shared guide development
Maintenance of the Photovolatic Plants Using UAV Equipped with Low-cost GNSS RTK Receiver

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bilal, Muhammad; Prasad, Ramjee; Nisi, Marco

2017-01-01

of low-cost GNSS RTK receiver, is the maintenance of photovoltaic (PV) plants using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). This paper proposes a solution that aims at automating the maintenance of PV plant with enhanced reliability in a time and cost effective manner, which otherwise requires intermediate human...... intervention. The paper presents the architectural concept, system design, and end-to-end algorithm that plays a pivotal role in enabling the automatic report generation of PV plant status. Preliminary results of the proof-of-concept shows the feasibility of the proposed solution....
Maintenance of French 900 MW PWR plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1985-01-01

This paper presents the doctrine and the aims of maintenance of EDF in the next few years. With an average age of 3.5 years, France's 900 MW PWRs, which now total 31, have overcome their growing pains. During the next few years EDF is aiming for a sharp increase in the availability factor of these plants which make up most of its nuclear thermal capacity, a reduction in the number of emergency outages, as great a cut back as possible in the period of programmed outages and the bringing down of the doses received by staff to the lowest possible level. Eventually the idea is to extend the operating life of plants as much as possible, perhaps to 40 or 50 years [fr
Program plan for future regulatory activity in nuclear-power-plant maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Badalamente, R.V.

1982-10-01

The intent of this paper is to describe the results of a study of nuclear power plant (NPP) maintenance conducted by Battelle's Pacific Northwest Laboratories (PNL) for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The purpose of the study for the NRC was to determine problems affecting human performance in NPP maintenance, pinpoint those which adversely affect public health and safety, review strategies for overcoming the problems, and suggest the direction that regulatory activities should take. Results of the study were presented to the NRC (Division of Human Factors Safety) in the form of a recommended program plan for future regulatory activity in NPP maintenance

A genetic algorithm solution for a nuclear power plant risk-cost maintenance model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tong Jiejuan; Mao Dingyuan; Xue Dazhi

2004-01-01

Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is one of the popular maintenance optimization methods according to certain kinds of priorities. Traditional RCM usually analyzes and optimizes the maintenance strategy from the viewpoint of component instead of the whole maintenance program impact. Research presented in this paper is a pilot study using PSA techniques in RCM. How to reflect the effect on component unavailability by the maintenance activities such as surveillance testing and preventive maintenance in PSA model is discussed firstly. Based on the discussion, a maintenance risk-cost model is established for global maintenance optimization in a nuclear power plant, and a genetic algorithm (GA) is applied to solve such a model to get the global optimized maintenance strategy. Finally, the result got from a simple test case based on a risk-cost model consisting of 10 components is presented
A Study on Human Factors in Maintenance of a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Young Ho; Seong, Poong Hyun

2006-01-01

In human factors research, more attention has been devoted to the operation of a nuclear power plant (NPP) than to their maintenance. However, more NPP incidents are caused by inadequate maintenance rather than by faulty operation. There is a trend in NPP toward introducing digital technology into safety and non-safety systems. This lead to changes of maintenance, and support systems such as diagnosis system, augmentation system and handy terminal will be developed. In this context, it is important to identify tasks of human related to each phase of maintenance and their relation in order to apply those to maintenance. However, there are few researches of human factors in maintenance. This paper studies on framework of cognitive task analysis for developing maintenance support systems
Knowledge engineering thinking of maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

Maintenance optimization problem could not always settled mathematically and was obliged to use quasi-optimum solution with omitting non-formulated limiting condition or neglecting part of optimization object. In such a case knowledge engineering thinking was encouraged. Maintenance of complicated plant and artificial system should be considered from artificial object (equipment/facility hardware and system), technical information and knowledge base, and organizational and human aspect or society and institution. Comprehensive management system in organization and society was necessary not only for assuring integrity of equipment but also for attaining higher performance, reliability and economics of system. For better judgment it was important to share mechanism to make use of more information with organization or whole society. It was required to create database and data mining for knowledge base management system of maintenance. Maintenance was called 'last fortress' to assure quality such as reliability and safety of required function of equipment. Strategic approach to develop maintenance technology under cooperation was considered. Life extension R and D road map was launched in 2005. (T. Tanaka)
A decision support system for maintenance management of a boiling-water reactor power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shen, J.H.; Ray, A.; Levin, S.

1996-01-01

This article reports the concept and development of a prototype expert system to serve as a decision support tool for maintenance of boiling-water reactor (BWR) nuclear power plants. The code of the expert system makes use of the database derived from the two BWR units operated by the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company in Berwick, Pennsylvania. The operations and maintenance information from a large number of plant equipment and sub-systems that must be available for emergency conditions and in the event of an accident is stored in the database of the expert system. The ultimate goal of this decision support tool is to identify the relevant Technical Specifications and management rules for shutting down any one of the plant sub-systems or removing a component from service to support maintenance. 6 refs., 7 figs
Study on the improvement of working environment at night in maintenance works at nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hiramoto, Mitsuru; Kotani, Fumio [Institute of Nuclear Safety System Inc., Seika, Kyoto (Japan)

2000-09-01

At the maintenance work site in nuclear power plants, due to the shortening (reduction of a regular inspection period) of the regular inspection period, the tendency toward working on around-the-clock basis has increased; thus, nighttime work is on the rise. Based upon research both locally and internationally, as well as examples of measures against such a tendency and the results of on-site surveys of the environment surrounding maintenance works at nuclear power plants, the author comprehensively studied the effects of nighttime work on workers, the measures to cope with the situation, and how a working environment for nighttime work should be. Based on the results, the authors made a guidebook for nighttime maintenance work at nuclear power plants. This guidebook, which deals with the subject of nighttime maintenance work at nuclear power plants, is quite unique in the world. It is expected that by using this guidebook, the quality of nighttime maintenance work and the levels of techniques/skills would be enhanced and maintained, and the safety of workers would be ensured, promoting considerably thus the establishment of a comfortable workplace. (author)
Study on the improvement of working environment at night in maintenance works at nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hiramoto, Mitsuru; Kotani, Fumio

2000-01-01

At the maintenance work site in nuclear power plants, due to the shortening (reduction of a regular inspection period) of the regular inspection period, the tendency toward working on around-the-clock basis has increased; thus, nighttime work is on the rise. Based upon research both locally and internationally, as well as examples of measures against such a tendency and the results of on-site surveys of the environment surrounding maintenance works at nuclear power plants, the author comprehensively studied the effects of nighttime work on workers, the measures to cope with the situation, and how a working environment for nighttime work should be. Based on the results, the authors made a guidebook for nighttime maintenance work at nuclear power plants. This guidebook, which deals with the subject of nighttime maintenance work at nuclear power plants, is quite unique in the world. It is expected that by using this guidebook, the quality of nighttime maintenance work and the levels of techniques/skills would be enhanced and maintained, and the safety of workers would be ensured, promoting considerably thus the establishment of a comfortable workplace. (author)
Maintenance Management Support Systems for component aging estimation at nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimizu, Shunichi; Ando, Yasumasa; Morioka, Toshihiko; Okuzumi, Naoaki

1991-01-01

Maintenance Management Support Systems (MMSSs) for nuclear power plants have been developed using component aging estimation methods and decision tree analysis for maintenance planning. The former evaluates actual component reliability through statistical analysis on field maintenance data. The latter provides preventive maintenance (PM) planning guidance using heuristic expert knowledge and estimated reliability parameters. The following aspects have been investigated: (1) A systematic and effective method of managing components/parts design information and field maintenance data (2) A method for estimating component aging based on a statistical analysis of field maintenance data (3) A method for providing PM planning guidance using estimated component reliability/performance parameters and decision tree analysis. Based on these investigations, two MMSSs were developed. One deals with 'general maintenance data', which are common to all component types and are amenable to common data handling. The other system deals with 'specific maintenance data', which are specific to an individual component type. Both systems provide PM planning guidance for PM cycles propriety and the PM work priority. The function of these systems were verified using simulated maintenance data. (author)
Plant maintenance and aging management: Are they the same?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lofaro, R.J.

1995-01-01

As part of the NRC's Nuclear Plant Aging Research Program, a number of aging studies were performed on safety-related systems and components which found that, even with current maintenance and monitoring practices in place, a large number of the reported failures are related to aging. This suggests that current practices are not sufficient to completely manage aging degradation, and other factors need to be considered. This paper examines the aging management process and the degree to which maintenance plays a part in it. Component failures and degradation mechanisms identified in aging studies of several different safety systems are summarized and evaluated, then con-elated with the components most frequently failed. This information, along with an analysis of failure causes, is then used to determine the extent to which aging is managed by current maintenance practices. Conclusions and recommendations for proper aging management arc also presented
Use of passive systems to improve plant operation and maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shah, D.

2000-01-01

In a deregulated future, a utility's strength will depend on its ability to be cost competitive in the marketplace. However, the competitive advantage of nuclear power will depend on each owner's ability to reduce Operating and Maintenance (O and M) costs without sacrificing nuclear safety. The use of passive systems (i.e., systems without any moving parts) can reduce plant O and M costs while increasing safety in nuclear power plants. (author)
Improving the turnaround maintenance of the Escravos gas plant / Ishekwene, I.V.

OpenAIRE

Ishekwene, Isaac Victor

2011-01-01

According to Oliver (2002) the success of turnaround maintenances is measured in terms of the cost of completion, time, safety performance and the performance of the plant afterwards. The Escravos gas plant (EGP) is a gas processing plant that converts associated gas from Chevron owned crude oil wells to liquefied petroleum gas, natural gas and gas condensate (Chevron intranet. Website assessed on September 14, 2007). According to the EGP plant operations coordinator (See inter...
Integration of plant life management in operation and maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hutin, Jean-Pierre

2002-01-01

Full text: 1 - INTRODUCTION. Electricite de France is now operating 58 PWR nuclear power plants which produce 75% of french electricity. Besides maintaining safety and availability on a routine basis, it is outmost important to protect the investment. Indeed, such an asset is a tremendous advantage just as the company is going to face the new european electricity market. That is the reason why EDF is devoting important effort to implement ageing management as an integral part of operation and maintenance programs. But it must be recognized that NPP lifetime is not threatened only by component-related problems: other less technical issues must be seriously considered like industrial support, information system, skilled people, public acceptance, etc. 2 - LIFE MANAGEMENT POLICY. In France, there is no limited licensing period for NPPs. The life management policy of nuclear power plants is based on three principles: - safe and cost-effective operation, looking for excellence in daily activities, with an effective experience feedback organisation taking advantage of the high level of standardization of the units, - every ten years, a new set of safety standards, a complete review of each facility and an upgrading of its safety level through appropriate modifications while maintaining unit standardization in all the fleet, - a Life Management Program, at corporate level, which permanently scrutinizes operation and maintenance activities to identify decisions which could impair plant lifetime and which surveys research and development programs related to ageing phenomenon understanding. 3 - INTEGRATION OF LIFETIME CONCERN IN O and M ACTIVITIES. It is outmost important to take in account lifetime concern in daily operation and maintenance activities and this must be done as early as possible in plant life. Even though sophisticated assessments require engineering capacity, many good ideas may arise from plant staff. For that reason, increasing lifetime awareness of plant
Maintenance of wind power plants 2011. Abstracts; Instandhaltung von Windenergieanlagen 2011. Vortraege

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2011-07-01

Within this meeting of the VGB Powertech e.V. (Essen, Federal Republic of Germany) at 23rd to 24th April, 2011 in Hamburg (Federal Republic of Germany) the following lectures were held: (1) Wind Energy in 2020 - Requirements of the Operators (Christoph Kraft); (2) Legal Issues of Maintenance Contracts (Christian Kessel); (3) Service by Whom and to Which Extent - Impact to Project Insurance (Dieter Schimana, Ralf Skowronnek); (4) Maintenance-appropriate Documentation in Conventional Power Plants (Ralf Goers); (5) Fire Protection - Experiences of an Operator (Alfred Kriener); (6) How Fire Fighting in Wind Power Plants Works (Axel Woerner); (7) Comprehensive Fire Protections Systems - a Safety Philosophy to protect Wind Turbines and Substations (Thomas Blum); (8) Online Wear Monitoring (Edwin Becker); (9) Vibration Monitoring on Wind Turbines - Experiences and Results (Michael Wika); (10) SKF Blade Monitoring System (Joerg Lange); (11) Independent, and All-round Carefree with Full Service Concepts (Ulrich Schomakers); (12) Proactive Maintenance Concepts (Axel Schweighardt); (13) Centralized Lubrication for Modern Wind Power Plants (Michael Slembeck); (14) Requirements to inspections and maintenance of WTG from the operators point of view (Konrad Iffarth); (15) O and M-conception for the Offshore-windfarm EnBW Baltic I (Michael Boll); (16) DONG Energy Approach to Offshore O and M (Soeren Dale Padersen); (17) Productivity focused Operations of Offshore Wind Farms (Florian Wuertz); (18) New Momac Offshore Access System (MOTS) - Results of the First Sea Trails (Stefan Leske).
A reliability centered maintenance model applied to the auxiliary feedwater system of a nuclear power plant; Um modelo de manutencao centrada em confiabilidade aplicada ao sistema de agua de alimentacaco auxiliar de uma usina nuclear

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Araujo, Jefferson Borges

1998-01-15

The main objective of maintenance in a nuclear power plant is to assure that structures, systems and components will perform their design functions with reliability and availability in order to obtain a safety and economic electric power generation. Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a method of systematic review to develop or optimize Preventive Maintenance Programs. This study presents the objectives, concepts, organization and methods used in the development of RCM application to nuclear power plants. Some examples of this application are included, considering the Auxiliary Feedwater System of a generic two loops PWR nuclear power plant of Westinghouse design. (author)
Development and Implementation of a Condition Based Maintenance Program for Geothermal Power Plants; FINAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Steve Miller; Jim Eddy; Murray Grande; Shawn Bratt; Manuchehr Shirmohamadi

2002-01-01

This report describes the development of the RCM team, identifying plant assets and developing an asset hierarchy, the development of sample Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEAs), identifying and prioritizing plant systems and components for RCM analysis, and identifying RCM/CBM software/hardware vendors. It also includes the Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) for all Class I Systems, Maintenance Task Assignments, use of Conditioned Based Maintenance (CBM) Tools and Displays of the RCM software System Development to date
Demonstration of reliability centered maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schwan, C.A.; Morgan, T.A.

1991-04-01

Reliability centered maintenance (RCM) is an approach to preventive maintenance planning and evaluation that has been used successfully by other industries, most notably the airlines and military. Now EPRI is demonstrating RCM in the commercial nuclear power industry. Just completed are large-scale, two-year demonstrations at Rochester Gas ampersand Electric (Ginna Nuclear Power Station) and Southern California Edison (San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station). Both demonstrations were begun in the spring of 1988. At each plant, RCM was performed on 12 to 21 major systems. Both demonstrations determined that RCM is an appropriate means to optimize a PM program and improve nuclear plant preventive maintenance on a large scale. Such favorable results had been suggested by three earlier EPRI pilot studies at Florida Power ampersand Light, Duke Power, and Southern California Edison. EPRI selected the Ginna and San Onofre sites because, together, they represent a broad range of utility and plant size, plant organization, plant age, and histories of availability and reliability. Significant steps in each demonstration included: selecting and prioritizing plant systems for RCM evaluation; performing the RCM evaluation steps on selected systems; evaluating the RCM recommendations by a multi-disciplinary task force; implementing the RCM recommendations; establishing a system to track and verify the RCM benefits; and establishing procedures to update the RCM bases and recommendations with time (a living program). 7 refs., 1 tab
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on Planting and Maintenance of Orchid at Malaysian Nuclear Agency

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Othman Abu Sari; Suhaimi Musa; Affrida Abu Hassan

2015-01-01

Research on orchid mutation breeding has been carried out at Malaysian Nuclear Agency since 1990s. In this study, a large number of irradiated orchid seedlings were planted for screening and the mutants obtained were propagated from time to time. Care should be taken to make sure plants are healthy, hence resulted in reliable and accurate data. For this purpose, SOP for orchid cultivation and maintenance need to be developed. A short attachment on training was carried at Hexagon Green Sdn. Bhd orchid farm, Bukit Changgang, Banting. Besides learning the cultivation, maintenance and management of orchids, consequently the experience obtained from this attachment helped in preparing SOP at Malaysian Nuclear Agency. This paper will discuss the SOP on cultivation and maintenance of orchid from the hardening until maturation stage in the glass house to ensure plants are healthy, produce of high quality flowers and disease free. (author)
Safety related maintenance in the framework of the reliability centered maintenance concept

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-07-01

Elevated safety requirements and ever increasing costs of maintenance of nuclear power plants stimulate the interest in different methods and approaches to optimize maintenance activities. Among different concepts, the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) as an approach to improve Preventive Maintenance (PM) programmes is being widely discussed an applied in several IAEA Member States. In order to summarize basic principles and current implementation of the RCM, the IAEA organized a Consultants Meeting in November 1990. The report prepared during that meeting was discussed during the Technical Committee Meeting (TCM) held in May 1991. Numerous technical presentations as well as panel and plenary discussions took place at the TCM. This document contains the report of the Consultants Meeting (modified to include comments of the TCM), a summary of the most important discussions as well as all 14 papers presented at the TCM
Regulatory surveillance of safety related maintenance at nuclear power plants. Report of a technical committee meeting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-08-01

The operational safety and reliability of a nuclear power plant as well as its availability for electricity generation depend on, among other things, its maintenance programme. Regulatory bodies therefore have considerable interest in maintenance activities. There are several approaches to maintenance, i.e. reliability centered maintenance or risk focused maintenance, aimed at optimizing maintenance by focusing on important components or systems. These approaches may result in significant changes to maintenance activities and therefore have to be considered for regulatory acceptance. In order to review and discuss the status of maintenance regulation in participating countries, the IAEA convened a Technical Committee Meeting on Regulatory Oversight of Maintenance Activities at Nuclear Power Plants in Vienna from 9 to 13 October 1995. The meeting was attended by 16 experts from 11 countries. In addition to the consideration of papers that were presented and which are reproduced here, extensive group and panel discussions took place during the meeting. These covered three main topics: general features and basic characteristics of maintenance regulation, regulatory acceptance of maintenance optimization and use of PSA for maintenance optimization. The discussion are summarized in Section 2. Section 3 discusses the following three additional topics: regulatory involvement in the maintenance programme, modifications to the maintenance programme and personnel related aspects of maintenance. The conclusions are presented in Section 4. Figs, tabs
Summary of EPRI projects for improving power plant maintenance and maintainability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shugars, H.G.; Poole, D.N.; Pack, R.W.

1979-01-01

The Electric Power Research Institute is sponsoring projects to improve power plant maintenance and maintainability. Areas presently being emphasized are improvements in plant design for maintainability, improvements in performing nuclear plant refuelings, and development of on-line monitoring and diagnostic systems for various plant components. The seven projects are reviewed. They are: (1) human factors review of power plant maintainability; (2) refueling outage improvement; (3) on-line monitoring and diagnostics for power plant machinery; (4) acoustic emission and vibrati1on signature analysis of fossil fuel plant components; (5) acoustic monitoring of power plant valves; (6) on-line monitoring and diagnostics for generators; and (7) detection of water induction in steam turbines. Each project contractor and the project manager are listed for reference. 8 references
Using the system maintenance datastore to characterize lifetime maintenance for PLiM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Watson, P.; Dam, R.; Nickerson, J.

2004-01-01

A comprehensive Plant Life Management (PLiM) program involves evaluating a large amount of information. For any plant, there are numerous maintenance, surveillance and inspection programs for the important systems, structures and components. There is extensive industry experience on component failure modes, degradation mechanisms and recommended maintenance practices. This information forms the basis of the aging assessment work, through which improvements to these plant programs are identified. AECL has developed several tools to manage the quantities of information required in aging assessment studies, such as the SYSTMS (SYtematic approach for the development of STrategy for Maintenance and Surveillance) tool and the System Maintenance Datastore (SMD). The SMD has been developed to serve as a hub to a Systematic based Adaptive Maintenance Program (SAMP), by storing maintenance resource requirements for recommended maintenance tasks for use by the other processes in a SAMP. The SMD can be used to (a) quantify the savings or cost of optimising a maintenance program, (b) characterize and understand long term trends in condition-based maintenance due to component aging, (c) quantify the resource savings due to optimum timing of component replacement or general plant refurbishment, and (d) provide aging assessment cost information for input to plant asset evaluation. The SMD contains data for regular maintenance program tasks, plant condition assessment recommendations, and equipment refurbishment costs. A prototype SMD has been developed with data tables populated with information from operating CANDU stations. The SMD is now available to be used either with a SYSTMS evaluation or with a plant's database of maintenance tasks. (author)

Simulation-based man-machine interface evaluation for plant maintenance facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakagawa, Takashi; Kitamura, Masashi; Nakatani, Yoshio; Umeda, Yoshikazu

1998-01-01

Although a lot of human errors has occurred in the maintenance of power plants, systematic approaches to the reduction of human error are not sufficient compared with those applied to operations. The authors propose a new method of evaluating and analyzing human interface design from the viewpoint of human error reduction, and have implemented the method on the DIAS system. This system consists of maintenance personnel and equipment interface simulators, and it generates a dynamic interaction between humans and the working environment. The DIAS system can calculate the human error rate and their weighted calculations according to dangerousness, the influence on the equipment, and the influence on the plant of each task by THERP, and can carry out the dynamic analysis of the panel selection error index if there is similar equipment in the neighborhood, the working time, the distance of movement, and the distance of eye movement. The authors applied this system to evaluate the interface design of actual Transformer Protection Relay Panels and their layout in a room in a nuclear power plant. Our customer accepted our evaluation and proposals modifying the panel design. (author)
Knowledge based maintenance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sturm, A [Hamburgische Electacitaets-Werke AG Hamburg (Germany)

1998-12-31

The establishment of maintenance strategies is of crucial significance for the reliability of a plant and the economic efficiency of maintenance measures. Knowledge about the condition of components and plants from the technical and business management point of view therefore becomes one of the fundamental questions and the key to efficient management and maintenance. A new way to determine the maintenance strategy can be called: Knowledge Based Maintenance. A simple method for determining strategies while taking the technical condition of the components of the production process into account to the greatest possible degree which can be shown. A software with an algorithm for Knowledge Based Maintenance leads the user during complex work to the determination of maintenance strategies for this complex plant components. (orig.)
Knowledge based maintenance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sturm, A. [Hamburgische Electacitaets-Werke AG Hamburg (Germany)

1997-12-31

The establishment of maintenance strategies is of crucial significance for the reliability of a plant and the economic efficiency of maintenance measures. Knowledge about the condition of components and plants from the technical and business management point of view therefore becomes one of the fundamental questions and the key to efficient management and maintenance. A new way to determine the maintenance strategy can be called: Knowledge Based Maintenance. A simple method for determining strategies while taking the technical condition of the components of the production process into account to the greatest possible degree which can be shown. A software with an algorithm for Knowledge Based Maintenance leads the user during complex work to the determination of maintenance strategies for this complex plant components. (orig.)
Computerized plant maintenance management information systems overview for nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kozusko, A.M.

1984-02-01

The evolution of the computer has and continues to have a great impact on society and industry. We are in an adjustment cycle with the current computer evolution, but more importantly some of us are trying to adjust to meet the changes for the coming decade. Hardware and software are continually being enhanced. Computers are becoming more powerful and will eventually provide an effective man/machine interface. This paper presents a discussion of computer systems and some of their features impacting power plant maintenance.
Computerized plant maintenance management information systems overview for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kozusko, A.M.

1984-01-01

The evolution of the computer has and continues to have a great impact on society and industry. We are in an adjustment cycle with the current computer evolution, but more importantly some of us are trying to adjust to meet the changes for the coming decade. Hardware and software are continually being enhanced. Computers are becoming more powerful and will eventually provide an effective man/machine interface. This paper presents a discussion of computer systems and some of their features impacting power plant maintenance
Remote-automated inspection and maintenance of nuclear power plant equipment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sasaki, Masayoshi; Nakano, Yoshiyuki

1984-12-01

Employing remote-control inspection and maintenance equipment in nuclear power plants increases the plant availability by decreasing the annual shutdown time (outage), as well as radiation exposure and man-power. This paper presents an outline of the latest designs for an automatic refueling machine, a control rod drive handling machine, a fuel preparation machine, and a main steam line plug, which were supplied to the Fukushima Dai-Ni No. 2 Plant of the Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (Fukushima 2-2). Also, the up-to-date developments of other new automatic machines, such as a CRD disassembly and cleaning system, spent fuel channel box volume reduction equipment, and robotics for nuclear plant use are presented.
Equipment Maintenance management support system based on statistical analysis of maintenance history data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimizu, S.; Ando, Y.; Morioka, T.

1990-01-01

Plant maintenance is recently becoming important with the increase in the number of nuclear power stations and in plant operating time. Various kinds of requirements for plant maintenance, such as countermeasures for equipment degradation and saving maintenance costs while keeping up plant reliability and productivity, are proposed. For this purpose, plant maintenance programs should be improved based on equipment reliability estimated by field data. In order to meet these requirements, it is planned to develop an equipment maintenance management support system for nuclear power plants based on statistical analysis of equipment maintenance history data. The large difference between this proposed new method and current similar methods is to evaluate not only failure data but maintenance data, which includes normal termination data and some degree of degradation or functional disorder data for equipment and parts. So, it is possible to utilize these field data for improving maintenance schedules and to evaluate actual equipment and parts reliability under the current maintenance schedule. In the present paper, the authors show the objectives of this system, an outline of this system and its functions, and the basic technique for collecting and managing of maintenance history data on statistical analysis. It is shown, from the results of feasibility tests using simulation data of maintenance history, that this system has the ability to provide useful information for maintenance and the design enhancement
The maintenance training center of the paks nuclear power plant - past, present and future

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kiss, I.

2001-01-01

The safety of the Paks nuclear power plant (Paks NPP) is a political-economic factor with general influence on the stability of the Hungarian economy. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the plant management has been taking significant efforts to learn about the factors that define plant safety and to reveal areas where safety can be further improved. Major emphasis is also placed on the provision of resources and creation of conditions necessary for the preservation of staff competence. In 1997 a separate, maintenance-specific facility was erected. The Maintenance Training Center of the Paks NPP is a worldwide major unique center. (orig.) [de
Maintenance and management of refills NPP Cofrentes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salar, J.; Blanquer, N.

2014-01-01

Maintenance in a nuclear power plant is a discipline that requires considering multiple criteria. Many risks can be involved during the jobs execution, and the preparation of activities needs an important knowledge and experience. During outages, many pieces of equipment are reviewed and inspected, and there is a huge increase of the number of risks and variables needed to perform and adequate preparation, coordination and execution of the maintenance activities. Cofrentes Nuclear Power Plant has improved the Outage preparation organization, in order to get more people involved, and make sure that all the critical parameters have been considered for each outage work. (Author)
Proactive materials aging management and multi-layered maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shoji, Tetsuo

2009-01-01

Long term operation of NPP has been receiving a great concern based upon the plant operation experiences and progressive improvement in countermeasures and mitigations. At the same time of this LTO movement, proactive materials aging management is also receiving a great concern to realize the LTO in NPP. Recent PMDM activities in Japan as well as some international one are reviewed and a necessity of an international cooperation is emphasized in relation to reliable maintenance performance connected from the top of the organization to operators and maintenance engineers at plant sites. (author)
Heuristic guidelines and experimental evaluation of effective augmented-reality based instructions for maintenance in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yim, Ho Bin; Seong, Poong Hyun

2010-01-01

Research highlights: → Augmented reality (AR) instructions were built for NPPs maintenance personnel. → 4-5 pieces of information at a time were optimum for AR instructions in this study. → A large variance in mode no. 5 implies these were also found to be critical amount. → Heuristic guidelines were suggested to make AR instructions more effective. - Abstract: As industrial plants and factories age, their maintenance requirements increase. Because maintenance mistakes directly increase the operating costs of a power plant, maintenance quality is significant concern to plant management. By law, all personnel working with nuclear technology must be re-trained every three years in Korea; however, as the statistical data show, the number of shutdown accidents at nuclear power plants (NPPs) due to maintenance failure is still high and needs to be reduced. Industries have started to adopt various technologies to increase the speed and accuracy of maintenance. Among those technologies, augmented reality (AR) is the latest multimedia presentation technology to be applied to plant maintenance, and it offers superior intuitiveness and user interactivity over other conventional multimedia. This empirical study aims to measure the optimum amounts of information to be delivered at a time and to identify what types of information enhance the learning ability of novices and to suggest heuristic guidelines by which to make effective AR training instructions. In the first experiment, the optimum amount of information in an AR learning environment for novices was found to be 4-5 pieces of information in a chunk by comparing results between a pre-test and an after-test. This result implies that intentionally made chunks help novices learn more effectively. In the second experiment, the AR training instruction based on the suggested heuristic guidelines was slightly more effective than other AR training instructions. Maintenance in nuclear power plants can be more reliable
Test and maintenance of the emergency power supply in the nuclear power plant Biblis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kotthoff, K.; Huren, H.

1986-01-01

Besides design and construction test and maintenance play an important role for the availability of the emergency power supply. As an example test and maintenance provided for the emergency power supply in a German 4-loop PWR will be described. In general one has to differentiate between test and maintenance performed during power operation of the plant and those carried out during the refuelling outage. For both periods of operation detailed information will be given including type, extent and frequency of test and maintenance work. The results of test and maintenance up to now will be discussed. (authors)
Test and maintenance of the emergency power supply in the nuclear power plant Biblis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kotthoff, K. [Gesellschaft fuer Reaktorsicherheit - GRS mbH, Schwertnergasse 1, D-5000 Koeln 1, Cologne (Germany); Huren, H. [Rheinisch-Westfaelisches Elektrizitaetswerk AG, Betriebsverwaltung Biblis, Biblis (Germany)

1986-02-15

Besides design and construction test and maintenance play an important role for the availability of the emergency power supply. As an example test and maintenance provided for the emergency power supply in a German 4-loop PWR will be described. In general one has to differentiate between test and maintenance performed during power operation of the plant and those carried out during the refuelling outage. For both periods of operation detailed information will be given including type, extent and frequency of test and maintenance work. The results of test and maintenance up to now will be discussed. (authors)
Maintenance experiences at analytical laboratory at the Tokai reprocessing plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suzuki, Hisanori; Nagayama, Tetsuya; Horigome, Kazushi; Ishibashi, Atsushi; Kitao, Takahiko; Surugaya, Naoki

2014-01-01

The Tokai Reprocessing Plant (TRP) is developing the technology to recover uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel. There is an analytical laboratory which was built in 1977, as one of the most important facilities for process and material control analyses at the TRP. Samples taken from each process are analyzed by various analytical methods using hot cells, glove boxes and hume-hoods. A large number of maintenance work have been so far carried out and different types of experience have been accumulated. This paper describes our achievements in the maintenance activities at the analytical laboratory at the TRP. (author)
Maintenance services of nuclear power plant using 3D as-built database management system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okumura, Kazutaka; Nakashima, Kazuhito; Mori, Norimasa; Azuma, Takashi

2017-01-01

Three dimensional As-built DAtabase Management System (NUSEC-ADAMS) is a system whose goal is to produce economical, speedy and accurate maintenance services of nuclear power plants by using 3D point group data. This system makes it possible to understand the plant situation remotely without field measurements. 3D point group data are collected before and after plant equipment installations, and it is stored to database after converted to viewable data on the web. Therefore, it can be shared in domestic network of a company and it can be connected with system diagram, specification of equipment, and additional information (e.g. maintenance record) by registering key information between 3D point group data and equipment's data. Thus, it reduces workload of pre-job field survey and improves work efficiency. In case of problem at a plant, if 3D as-built data is set to be seen on the network, it is possible to understand accurate information and the cause remotely in the beginning of problem. Collecting 3D point group data and updating database continuously keep as-built information up to date, therefore it improves accuracy of off-site study, and plant situation can be grasped timely. As a result, we can reduce workload and improve quality of maintenance services of nuclear power plants. (author)
Costs of construction, operation and maintenance of nuclear power plants - determinant factors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva, R.A. da

1981-01-01

A study about the construction costs of the Angra-1 nuclear power plant, including direct costs, equipment costs, installation and indirect costs such as: engineering, job-training and administration is presented. The operation and maintenance costs of the Angra-1 nuclear power plant and costs of energy generation are still studied. (E.G.) [pt
Development of management system for nuclear power plant maintenance and information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nomoto, Toshihiro

1997-01-01

In Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc., in order to make maintenance works efficient and improve the management, 'Management system for nuclear power plant maintenance and information' was developed, and its operation on full scale was begun in Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station in October, 1996. This system is composed of equipment management system, maintenance and repair management system and work management system. As the features of the system, the dispersion of functions by client/server method, the installation of the server machines for exclusive use in power stations, the adoption of optical communication network and the ensuring of reliability by the doubled system are mentioned. This system is the function dispersion system by client/server method utilizing the in-plant LAN, and has two server computers with double hot standby constitution. The main functions of three subsystems are described. These three subsystems and piping and instrumentation chart management system and whole company work budget system are connected so as to make dealing works quick and efficient. Hereafter, by reflecting the opinions of the users through the operation, further efficient works are to be aimed at. (K.I.)
Transfer of infrared thermography predictive maintenance technologies to Soviet-designed nuclear power plants: experience at Chernobyl

Science.gov (United States)

Pugh, Ray; Huff, Roy

1999-03-01

The importance of infrared (IR) technology and analysis in today's world of predictive maintenance and reliability- centered maintenance cannot be understated. The use of infrared is especially important in facilities that are required to maintain a high degree of equipment reliability because of plant or public safety concerns. As with all maintenance tools, particularly those used in predictive maintenance approaches, training plays a key role in their effectiveness and the benefit gained from their use. This paper details an effort to transfer IR technology to Soviet- designed nuclear power plants in Russia, Ukraine, and Lithuania. Delivery of this technology and post-delivery training activities have been completed recently at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Many interesting challenges were encountered during this effort. Hardware procurement and delivery of IR technology to a sensitive country were complicated by United States regulations. Freight and shipping infrastructure and host-country customs policies complicated hardware transport. Training activities were complicated by special hardware, software and training material translation needs, limited communication opportunities, and site logistical concerns. These challenges and others encountered while supplying the Chornobyl plant with state-of-the-art IR technology are described in this paper.
EHV network operation, maintenance, organization and training

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gravier, J P [Electricite de France (EDF), 75 - Paris (France)

1994-12-31

The service interruptions of electricity have an ever increasing social and industrial impact, it is thus fundamental to operate the network to its best level of performances. To face these changing conditions, Electricite de France has consequently adapted its strategy to improve its organization for maintenance and operation, clarify the operation procedures and give further training to the staff. This work presents the above mentioned issues. (author) 2 figs.
Study on the Management for the Nuclear Power Plant Maintenance and Equipment Reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoon, Kyeongseop; Lee, Sangheon; Kim, Myungjin; Lee, Unjang

2015-01-01

In our country, many studies on the regulatory policy of the plant maintenance have ever been performed since 1998, but the relevant regulatory requirements were not established yet. These background mentioned above request us to study on the regulation policy and maintenance plan to improve the safety, reliability and efficiency of NPP. To solve these problems, in this study, we deduct the management methodology for the improvement of NPP maintenance and equipment reliability that is essential to secure the safety and efficiency of the commercial NPP. For analysis the maintenance and equipment reliability management methodology in overseas NPP. We studied maintenance and equipment reliability of USA, Canada and Europe(France, England, German). We also studied status and application condition of Korean NPP maintenance management technical development. We deducted an effective maintenance methodology that is needed to Korean NPP, as a result of comparison on the technical trend of the maintenance management between overseas and Korean, such like following. - Regulation form ·Specific provision of regulation requirement and application of form that is clarifying application standard - Maintenance management methodology, Maintenance management program. This results of study could be applied for regulation policy, law and guideline establishment of NPP maintenance, operation, supervision and a system establishment for maintenance management, education data about maintenance for NPP employees

Preventive maintenance at the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Danielsson, H.

1985-01-01

The maintenance system at the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant began in 1975, and was drawn up in co-operation with other power stations within the control of the Swedish State Power Board. Preventive maintenance (PM) is part of the system and has been in operation since 1978. Great efforts have been made to build up the system and to gather input data. Since 1981, the system has been in continuous use; follow-ups and system and quality improvements in database contents have been carried out. Great effort has also been devoted to maintaining a high quality of database contents and to the interplay between the different PM measures. We believe that PM plays an important role in the safety and economic operation of the power station and that it is essential that interest in PM should exist at all levels of the power company. (author)
School Building Maintenance Procedures. School Plant Management Series. Bulletin, 1964, No. 17. OE-21027

Science.gov (United States)

Finchum, R. N.

1964-01-01

Adequate maintenance of school buildings representing a public investment of billions of dollars is a problem of grave concern to both taxpayers and school officials. This publication, one of a series dealing with school plant management problems, identifies, describes, shows the function of, and outlines maintenance procedures for many components…
Design and evaluation of augmented reality for nuclear power plant maintenance based on Cognitive activity analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koo, Jwa Jin

2008-02-01

The goals of maintenance in nuclear power plants (NPPs) are to reduce the number of plant shutdowns, to decrease the shutdown time, to minimize the maintenance costs, and to improve nuclear safety. Furthermore, it is difficult for maintenance personnel to conduct work in NPPs due to the complexity of NPPs, safety issues and time constraints. Human errors should be prevented to achieve maintenance goals in NPPs. Therefore, it is necessary to improve working conditions by introducing support systems. Augmented Reality (AR) has the potential to assist with maintenance tasks and make maintenance personnel concentrate on the tasks, which will then the reduced human error and improve human performance. The working procedure for AR systems was designed based on the characteristics of cognitive activity, and an experiment was conducted to estimate the effectiveness of AR. The results indicated that a well-designed working procedure for AR systems was more effective than a conventional paper-based working procedure. In addition, participants made fewer errors using the designed working procedure. AR systems as maintenance support systems are beneficial technology that can improve maintenance performance by reducing cognitive loads and unnecessary movements. An AR application can be attractive and effective at supporting maintenance task
A Study on User-Centered Approach to Design an Augmented Reality Maintenance Support System in Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koo, Jwa Jin; Seong, Poong Hyun

2007-01-01

In nuclear power plants (NPPs), as the plants become more reliable and complex, their inspection, maintenance and repair become increasingly challenging problems, and this requires many well experienced and well trained maintenance crew. On the other hands, reduction of life cycle costs of the plants is strongly required, and many crews are required to take charge of various kinds of devices, including their unfamiliar ones. Their task must be done under the strong time pressure of rigid maintenance schedule. This may cause human errors even by even the well experienced crews. Maintenance processes are both very important to guarantee quality for safety and often quite cumbersome. In the case of nuclear power plants, such processes usually demand access to documentation such as technical manuals, either in traditional paper form or electronic form. This is especially important where and when the procedures are performed infrequently. These considerations lead to considering Augmented Reality (AR) systems as an alternative to paper-based systems
Human cognitive task distribution model for maintenance support system of a nuclear power plant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Young Ho

2007-02-15

In human factors research, more attention has been devoted to the operation of nuclear power plants (NPPs) than to their maintenance. However, human error related to maintenance is 45% among the total human errors from 1990 to 2005 in Korean nuclear power plants. Therefore, it is necessary to study human factors in the maintenance of an NPP. There is a current trend toward introducing digital technology into both safety and non-safety systems in NPPs. A variety of information about plant conditions can be used digitally. In the future, maintenance support systems will be developed based on an information-oriented NPP. In this context, it is necessary to study the cognitive tasks of the personnel involved in maintenance and the interaction between the personnel and maintenance support systems. The fundamental purpose of this work is how to distribute the cognitive tasks of the personnel involved in the maintenance in order to develop a maintenance support system that considers human factors. The second purpose is to find the causes of errors due to engineers or maintainers and propose system functions that are countermeasures to reduce these errors. In this paper, a cognitive task distribution model of the personnel involved in maintenance is proposed using Rasmussen's decision making model. First, the personnel were divided into three groups: the operators (inspectors), engineers, and maintainers. Second, human cognitive tasks related to maintenance were distributed based on these groups. The operators' cognitive tasks are detection and observation; the engineers' cognitive tasks are identification, evaluation, target state, select target, and procedure: and the maintainers' cognitive task is execution. The case study is an analysis of failure reports related to human error in maintenance over a period of 15years. By using error classification based on the information processing approach, the human errors involved in maintenance were classified
Human cognitive task distribution model for maintenance support system of a nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Young Ho

2007-02-01

In human factors research, more attention has been devoted to the operation of nuclear power plants (NPPs) than to their maintenance. However, human error related to maintenance is 45% among the total human errors from 1990 to 2005 in Korean nuclear power plants. Therefore, it is necessary to study human factors in the maintenance of an NPP. There is a current trend toward introducing digital technology into both safety and non-safety systems in NPPs. A variety of information about plant conditions can be used digitally. In the future, maintenance support systems will be developed based on an information-oriented NPP. In this context, it is necessary to study the cognitive tasks of the personnel involved in maintenance and the interaction between the personnel and maintenance support systems. The fundamental purpose of this work is how to distribute the cognitive tasks of the personnel involved in the maintenance in order to develop a maintenance support system that considers human factors. The second purpose is to find the causes of errors due to engineers or maintainers and propose system functions that are countermeasures to reduce these errors. In this paper, a cognitive task distribution model of the personnel involved in maintenance is proposed using Rasmussen's decision making model. First, the personnel were divided into three groups: the operators (inspectors), engineers, and maintainers. Second, human cognitive tasks related to maintenance were distributed based on these groups. The operators' cognitive tasks are detection and observation; the engineers' cognitive tasks are identification, evaluation, target state, select target, and procedure: and the maintainers' cognitive task is execution. The case study is an analysis of failure reports related to human error in maintenance over a period of 15years. By using error classification based on the information processing approach, the human errors involved in maintenance were classified
New technology for optimized I and C maintenance and management of ageing of critical equipment in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hashemian, H.M.

2000-01-01

Advanced sensors and new testing and maintenance technologies have become available over the last ten years for nuclear power plants (NPPs) to replace outdated, obsolete, and troublesome instruments, provide for management of ageing of critical plant equipment, optimize maintenance activities, reduce maintenance costs and personnel radiation exposure, and at the same time, improve plant safety and availability. These new developments are reviewed in this TECDOC. The material covered here has been summarized from NUREG/CR-5501, a 1998 report written by H.M. Hashemian and his co-authors for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (author)
Study on the methodology for predicting and preventing errors to improve reliability of maintenance task in nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hanafusa, Hidemitsu; Iwaki, Toshio; Embrey, D.

2000-01-01

The objective of this study was to develop and effective methodology for predicting and preventing errors in nuclear power plant maintenance tasks. A method was established by which chief maintenance personnel can predict and reduce errors when reviewing the maintenance procedures and while referring to maintenance supporting systems and methods in other industries including aviation and chemical plant industries. The method involves the following seven steps: 1. Identification of maintenance tasks. 2. Specification of important tasks affecting safety. 3. Assessment of human errors occurring during important tasks. 4. Identification of Performance Degrading Factors. 5. Dividing important tasks into sub-tasks. 6. Extraction of errors using Predictive Human Error Analysis (PHEA). 7. Development of strategies for reducing errors and for recovering from errors. By way of a trial, this method was applied to the pump maintenance procedure in nuclear power plants. This method is believed to be capable of identifying the expected errors in important tasks and supporting the development of error reduction measures. By applying this method, the number of accidents resulting form human errors during maintenance can be reduced. Moreover, the maintenance support base using computers was developed. (author)
Effective maintenance practices to manage system aging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chockie, A.; Bjorkelo, K.

1992-01-01

For a variety of economic and technical reasons, there has been a growing concern with the aging of complex systems and components and the role that maintenance can play in reducing this degradation. A study for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was recently undertaken to identify effective maintenance practices that could be adapted by the nuclear industry in the United States to assist in managing the aging degradation of plant systems and components. Four organizations were examined to assess the influence that their maintenance programs have on their ability to address the systems and component aging degradation issues. An effective maintenance program was found to be essential to the management of system and component aging. The four key elements of an effective maintenance program that are important to an aging management program were identified. These are: the selection of critical systems and components; the development of an understanding of aging through the collection and analysis of equipment performance information; the development of appropriate preventive and predictive maintenance tasks to manage equipment and system aging degradation; the use of feedback mechanisms to continuously improve the management of aging systems and components. These elements were found to be common to all four organizations. In examining how the four organizations have structured their maintenance programs to include these key elements provides valuable lessons not only for the nuclear power industry, but also for any industrial organization that is concerned with the management of system and component aging degradation. This document provides detail, of these studies
Application of robotic systems to nuclear power plant maintenance tasks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kok, K.D.; Bartilson, B.M.; Rosen, K.L.; Renner, G.F.; Law, T.M.

1984-01-01

Robotics technology has developed to where it can provide consistent performance of well-defined tasks. Although nuclear power plant maintenance tasks are characteristically unique, there are some common subtasks which have the consistency required for robots. Several maintenance activities were selected for further study. Concepts for robotic devices and rough scenarios for their use were developed and analyzed for their effect on maintenance costs. The results of the analysis, which was performed using a 10-year life and conservative estimates and procedures, indicate cost savings ranging from $100,000 to $1.5 M in net present value per robot. Projected purchase prices for the robots were less than $200,000. Although the robot concepts used commercially available technology, they are unlike any products either in use or widely required. Robot manufacturers are concentrating on mainstream applications in production, and are unlikely to develop such specialized products. The potential for cost savings indicates that developments should be funded by the nuclear industry
Maintenance service for major component of PWR plant. Replacement of pressurizer safe end weld

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyoshi, Yoshiyuki; Kobayashi, Yuki; Yamamoto, Kazuhide; Ueda, Takeshi; Suda, Naoki; Shintani, Takashi

2017-01-01

In October 2016, MHI completed the replacement of safe end weld of pressurizer (Pz) of Ringhals unit 3, which was the first maintenance work for main component of pressurized water reactor (PWR) plant in Europe. For higher reliability and longer lifetime of PWR plant, MHI has conducted many kinds of maintenance works of main components of PWR plants in Japan against stress corrosion cracking due to aging degradation. Technical process for replacement of Pz safe end weld were established by MHI. MHI has experienced the work for 21 PWR units in Japan. That of Ringhals unit 3 was planned and conducted based on the experiences. In this work, Alloy 600 used for welds of nozzles of Pz was replaced with Alloy 690. Alloy 690 is more corrosive-resistant than Alloy 600. Specially designed equipment and technical process were developed and established by MHI to replace safe end weld of Pz and applied for the Ringhals unit 3 as a first application in Europe. The application had been performed in success and achieved the planned replacement work duration and total radiation dose by using sophisticated machining and welding equipment designed to meet the requirements to be small, lightweight and remote-controlled and operating by well skilled MHI personnel experienced in maintenance activities for major components of PWR plant in Japan. The success shows that the experience, activities and technology developed in Japan for main components of PWR plant shall be applicable to contribute reliable operations of nuclear power plants in Europe and other countries. (author)
Experiences and plot application of maintenance rule for nuclear power plant in Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Kwang Hee; Seo, Mi Ro; Kim, Myung Ki; Yoo, Sung Soo

2007-01-01

In order to enhance the effectiveness of maintenance, Korea lunched two pilot project to implement the Maintenance Rule(MR) program similar to that of USA. One for the pilot program is Ulchin units 3 and 4, Korean standardized nuclear power(KSNP) Plant, which was started in October 2003 and finished in September 2006. The other program is for Kori units 3 and 4, Westinghouse type plants, which was stared in April 2004 and completed in September 2006. MR processes consists of 'scope determination', 'safety significance determination', 'performance criteria development', 'performance monitoring' and 'disposition process between enforcement monitoring and routine monitoring'. At each process, we gave a expert panel to review output of each process and make a justification on the output. these expert panels meeting made much of technical discussions and decisions of major products on each process. In addition, Maintenance effectiveness and Target observation system(MENTOS) was developed to manage MR implementation, of which data is automatically imported from Enterprise Resource Program(ERP), and outputs are exported to ERP and the final results are shown in ERP screen. In this paper, major results and experiences gained from each application process at Ulchin 3,4 nuclear power plants were introduced
Nuclear maintenance and management system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamaji, Yoshihiro; Abe, Norihiko

2000-01-01

The Mitsubishi Electric Co., Ltd. has developed to introduce various computer systems for desk-top business assistance in a power plant such as system isolation assisting system, operation parameter management system, and so on under aiming at business effectiveness since these ten and some years. Recently, by further elapsed years of the plants when required for further cost reduction and together with change of business environment represented by preparation of individual personal computer, further effectiveness, preparation of the business environment, and upgrading of maintenance in power plant business have been required. Among such background, she has carried out various proposals and developments on construction of a maintenance and management system integrated the business assistant know-hows and the plant know-hows both accumulated previously. They are composed of three main points on rationalization of business management and document management in the further effectiveness, preparation of business environment, TBM maintenance, introduction of CBM maintenance and introduction of maintenance assistance in upgrading of maintenance. Here was introduced on system concepts aiming at the further effectiveness of the nuclear power plant business, preparation of business environment, upgrading of maintenance and maintenance, and so on, at a background of environment around maintenance business in the nuclear power plants (cost-down, highly elapsed year of the plant, change of business environment). (G.K)
Self-organizing periodicity in development: organ positioning in plants.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhatia, Neha; Heisler, Marcus G

2018-02-08

Periodic patterns during development often occur spontaneously through a process of self-organization. While reaction-diffusion mechanisms are often invoked, other types of mechanisms that involve cell-cell interactions and mechanical buckling have also been identified. Phyllotaxis, or the positioning of plant organs, has emerged as an excellent model system to study the self-organization of periodic patterns. At the macro scale, the regular spacing of organs on the growing plant shoot gives rise to the typical spiral and whorled arrangements of plant organs found in nature. In turn, this spacing relies on complex patterns of cell polarity that involve feedback between a signaling molecule - the plant hormone auxin - and its polar, cell-to-cell transport. Here, we review recent progress in understanding phyllotaxis and plant cell polarity and highlight the development of new tools that can help address the remaining gaps in our understanding. © 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.
10 CFR 50.65 - Requirements for monitoring the effectiveness of maintenance at nuclear power plants.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... maintenance at nuclear power plants. 50.65 Section 50.65 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION DOMESTIC..., including normal shutdown operations. (a)(1) Each holder of an operating license for a nuclear power plant... corrective action shall be taken. For a nuclear power plant for which the licensee has submitted the...
Flexible maintenance system (FMS). Background, concept, and results of technical development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoshikawa, Hidekazu; Watanabe, Osami; Takizawa, Yoji; Ohga, Yukiharu; Ohi, Tadashi

2006-01-01

Maintenance works of nuclear power plants have been involved with various people and organizations. Thus human errors are apt to be made. Since 2000, the project on development of flexible maintenance system (FMS) has been conducted for five years in order to make maintenance works more rational and reduce human errors probability. Background, concept and results of technical development to upgrade maintenance works and training are reviewed. Advanced technology such as optical viewing equipments, laser holography inspection systems and neural networks shall be applied to maintenance works. (T. Tanaka)
The study of the maintenance for a cryogenics pilot plant in nuclear regime

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anghel, Vasile

2002-01-01

The Cryogenic Pilot Plant, CPP, has as goal the extraction of tritium from heavy water at the CANDU Reactors in Cernavoda. Its operation allows a continuos nuclear regime. CPP consists in several modules, each of them implying static and dynamical complex equipment in which fluids circulate at cryogenic temperatures. From these reasons it results that the CPP maintenance is essential. The relational structure regarding the integrated maintenance systems in the whole ICSI's activity is presented in the frame of management decision system and contains a procedural program of maintenance (PPM). PPM includes adoption strategy for maintenance activity in the conditions required by the Manuals worked out in compliance with QA of ICSI and specific regulations of operation in nuclear regime. An explanation based on a thorough analysis is given for the strategy of maintenance, the structure of modules and the use of informatics subsystems. The structure of PPM strategy has a flowchart implying: - Reorganization, Scientific background, and Operative Maintenance strategy (inside/outside strategy) as well as PPM stage realization and specifications for maintenance assurance (manuals, cards and subsystems). Also, provided in the maintenance strategy are the PPM preparatory and proper stage conceptions
From reliability to maintenance of emergency generator sets in nuclear plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reyraud, Y.

1986-01-01

The particular conditions of operation of emergency generator sets in a nuclear energy plant induce to take up a strategy of supervision and of maintenance very different of the one recommended for production generator sets. Mechanical and thermal pulls are affected by the size of the set and the choice of rotation running in respect of the wanted power and the response time requirements for the security of nuclear reactor. Reliability studies are helpful to define the strategy of supervision tests. The importance of the number of starts with respect to the running time requires the introduction of the idea of equivalent hours for the definition of maintenance periods. The security of the equipment and the upholding of the reliability at a value close to the optimum impose rigorous choices and strict conditions of supervision and maintenance [fr
PWSCC Preventive Maintenance Activities for Alloy 600 in Japanese PWR Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamamoto, K.; Sugimoto, N.; Onishi, K.; Okimura, K.

2012-01-01

Because many nuclear plants have been in operation for ages, the importance of preventive maintenance technologies is getting higher. One conspicuous problem found in pressurized water reactor (PWR) plants is the primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) observed in Alloy 600 (a kind of high nickel based alloy) parts. Alloy 600 was used for butt welds between low alloy steel and stainless steel of nozzles of Reactor Vessel (RV), Steam Generator (SG), and Pressurizer (Pz). As PWSCC occurred at these parts may cause Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA), preventive maintenance is necessary. PWSCC is considered to be caused by a mixture of three elements: high residual tensile stress on surface, material (Alloy 600) and environment. PWSCC can be prevented by improving one of the elements. MHI has been developing stress improvement methods, for example, Water Jet Peening (WJP), Shot Peening by Ultrasonic vibration (USP), and Laser Stress Improvement Process (L-SIP). According to the situation, appropriate method is applied for each part. WJP has been applied for RV nozzles of a lot of plants in Japan. However PWSCC was observed in RV nozzles during the inspection before WJP in recent years, MHI developed the Advanced INLAY system to improve the material from Alloy 600 to Alloy 690. Alloy 600 on the inner surface of the nozzles is removed and welding with Alloy 690 is performed. In addition, heat treatments for the nozzles are difficult for its structural situation, so ambient temperature temper bead welding technique for RV nozzles was developed to make the heat treatments unnecessary. This paper describes countermeasures against PWSCC and introduces the maintenance activities performed in Japan. (author)
Organic breeding: New trend in plant breeding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Berenji Janoš

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Organic breeding is a new trend in plant breeding aimed at breeding of organic cultivars adapted to conditions and expectations of organic plant production. The best proof for the need of organic cultivars is the existence of interaction between the performances of genotypes with the kind of production (conventional or organic (graph. 1. The adaptation to low-input conditions of organic production by more eddicient uptake and utilization of plant nutrients is especially important for organic cultivars. One of the basic mechanism of weed control in organic production is the competition of organic cultivars and weeds i.e. the enhanced ability of organic cultivars to suppress the weeds. Resistance/tolerance to diseases and pests is among the most important expectations toward the organic cultivars. In comparison with the methods of conventional plant breeding, in case of organic plant breeding limitations exist in choice of methods for creation of variability and selection classified as permitted, conditionally permitted and banned. The use of genetically modified organisms and their derivated along with induced mutations is not permitted in organic production. The use of molecular markers in organic plant breeding is the only permitted modern method of biotechnology. It is not permitted to patent the breeding material of organic plant breeding or the organic cultivars. .

Computerized management of plant intervention tasks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Quoidbach, G.

2004-01-01

The main objective of the 'Computerized Management of Plant Intervention Tasks' is to help the staff of a nuclear or a conventional power plant or of any other complex industrial facility (chemical industries, refineries, and so on) in planning, organizing, and carrying out any (preventive or corrective) maintenance task. This 'Computerized Management of Plant Intervention Tasks' is organized around a data base of all plant components in the facility that might be subjected to maintenance or tagout. It allows to manage, by means of intelligent and configurable 'mail service', the course of the intervention requests as well as various treatments of those requests, in a safe and efficient way, adapted to each particular organization. The concept of 'Computerized Management' of plant intervention tasks was developed by BELGATOM in 1983 for the Belgian nuclear power plants of ELECTRABEL. A first implementation of this concept was made at that time for the Doel NPP under the name POPIT (Programming Of Plant Intervention Tasks). In 1988, it was decided to proceed to a functional upgrade of the application, using advanced software and hardware techniques and products, and to realize a second implementation in the Tihange NPP under the name ACM (Application Consignation Maintenance). (author)
Turbine maintenance and modernization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Unga, E [Teollisuuden Voima Oy, Olkiluoto (Finland)

1999-12-31

The disturbance-free operation of the turbine plant plays an important role in reaching good production results. In the turbine maintenance of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant the lifetime and efficiency of turbine components and the lifetime costs are taken into account in determining the turbine maintenance and modernization/improvement program. The turbine maintenance program and improvement/modernization measures taken in the plant units are described in this presentation. (orig.)
Turbine maintenance and modernization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Unga, E. [Teollisuuden Voima Oy, Olkiluoto (Finland)

1998-12-31

The disturbance-free operation of the turbine plant plays an important role in reaching good production results. In the turbine maintenance of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant the lifetime and efficiency of turbine components and the lifetime costs are taken into account in determining the turbine maintenance and modernization/improvement program. The turbine maintenance program and improvement/modernization measures taken in the plant units are described in this presentation. (orig.)
Study of a simplified method of evaluating the economic maintenance importance of components in nuclear power plant system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aoki, Takayuki; Takagi, Toshiyuki; Kodama, Noriko

2014-01-01

Safety risk importance of components in nuclear power plants has been evaluated based on the probabilistic risk assessment and used for the decisions in various plant managements. But economic risk importance of the components has not been discussed very much. Therefore, this paper discusses risk importance of the components from the viewpoint of plant economic efficiency and proposes a simplified evaluation method of the economic risk importance (or economic maintenance importance). As a result of consideration, the followings were obtained. (1) A unit cost of power generation is selected as a performance indicator and can be related to a failure rate of components in nuclear power plant which is a result of maintenance. (2) The economic maintenance importance has to major factors, i.e. repair cost at component failure and production loss associated with plant outage due to component failure. (3) The developed method enables easy understanding of economic impacts of plant shutdown or power reduction due to component failures on the plane which adopts the repair cost in vertical axis and the production loss in horizontal axis. (author)
Interface technology based on human cognition and understanding for the operation and maintenance of advanced human cooperative plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Numano, Masayoshi; Niwa, Yasuyuki; Itoh, Hiroko; Miyazaki, Keiko; Fukuto, Junji; Okazaki, Tadatsugi; Matsukura, Hiroshi; Tanaka, Kunihiko; Matsuoka, Takeshi; Liu, Qiao; Mitomo, Nobuo

2006-01-01

'Development of Intelligent Systems Technology for Advanced Human Cooperative Plants' was implemented as 'Nuclear Energy Fundamentals Crossover Research' by 3 institutes (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research; RIKEN, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology; AIST and National Maritime Research Institute; NMRI). Aiming at appropriate interaction between human and agents in Digital Maintenance Field which spreads widely in time and space, NMRI developed technologies on contraction of plant information, generalization and intuition of the information through visual presentation. Intuitive presentation gave on-site information for identifying the source of abnormalities to human operators. And a human-machine cooperation infrastructure for plant maintenance was proposed and developed, where an overview display was used to show position and state information of all the agents in the plant and each agent view was used to show the corresponding agent's information in detail. A part of this technology was implemented in a demonstration program. Two agents were developed to support human operators' plant maintenance activities in this program. This demonstration showed the effectiveness of human-agent cooperation for early plant abnormality detection. (author)
Results of calendar year 1995 Well Inspection and Maintenance Program Y-12 Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McMaster, B.W.

1996-07-01

This document is a compendium of results of the 1995 Monitor Well Inspection and Maintenance Program at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant. This report documents the work relating to well inspections and maintenance requests. Inspections are implemented in order to better assess the condition and maintenance needs of wells that are actively being monitored. Currently this approach calls for inspecting all wells on a routine (annual or triennial) basis which are: (1) in an active sampling program; (2) included in a hydrologic study; or (3) not in service, but not scheduled for plugging and abandonment. Routine inspections help to ensure that representative groundwater samples and hydrologic data are being collected, and contribute to the effective longevity of each well. This report formally presents well inspection and maintenance activities that were conducted at the Y-12 Plant from August through December 1995
Development of an ergonomics device for maintenance of hydraulic generators of Tucuruí hydropower plant.

Science.gov (United States)

Batista, I C; Gomes, G J C; Teles, C S; Oliveira, P F; Santos, R M; Sassi, A C; Sá, B; V, B; Pardauil, A A

2012-01-01

This paper aims to present an ergonomic device to assist in the maintenance of the units of Tucuruí Hydropower Plant. The development of this ergonomic device made possible to reduce maintenance time, reduce losses caused by billing, improve performance and reduce the physical strain for labors during the execution of services.
Enhanced human performance of utility maintenance programs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fresco, A.; Haber, S.; O'Brien, J.

1993-01-01

Assuring the safe operation of a nuclear power plant depends, to a large extent, on how effectively one understands and manages the aging-related degradation that occurs in structures, systems, and components (SSCs). Aging-related degradation is typically managed through a nuclear plant's maintenance program. A review of 44 Maintenance Team Inspection (MTI) Reports indicated that while some plant organizations appeared to assume a proactive mode in preventing aging-related failures of their SSCs important to safety, others seemed to be taking a passive or reactive mode. Across all plants, what is clearly needed, is a strong recognition of the importance of aging-related degradation and the use of existing organizational assets to effectively detect and mitigate those effects. Many of those assets can be enhanced by the consideration of organizational and management factors necessary for the implementation of an effective aging management program. This report provides a discussion of this program
Human factors in maintenance: Development and research in Swedish nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salo, I.; Svensson, Ola

2001-11-01

The present report investigated previously completed, ongoing, and planned research and development projects focusing human factors and maintenance work carried out at Swedish nuclear power plants and SKI. In addition, needs for future research and development works were also investigated. Participants from all nuclear power plants and SKI were included in the study. Participants responded to a set of questions in an interview. The interviews also generated a list of future research and development projects
Human factors in maintenance: development and research in Swedish nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salo, I.; Svenson, O.

2001-11-01

The report investigated previously completed, ongoing, and planned research and development projects focusing human factors and maintenance work carried out at Swedish nuclear power plants and SKI. In addition, needs for future research and development works were also investigated. Participants from all nuclear power plants and SKI were included in the study. Participants responded to a set of questions in an interview. The interviews also generated a list of future research and development projects. (au)
Human factors in maintenance: Development and research in Swedish nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Salo, I. [Lund Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Psychology; Svensson, Ola [Stockholm Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Psychology

2001-11-01

The present report investigated previously completed, ongoing, and planned research and development projects focusing human factors and maintenance work carried out at Swedish nuclear power plants and SKI. In addition, needs for future research and development works were also investigated. Participants from all nuclear power plants and SKI were included in the study. Participants responded to a set of questions in an interview. The interviews also generated a list of future research and development projects.
DNA maintenance in plastids and mitochondria of plants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Delene J Oldenburg

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The DNA molecules in plastids and mitochondria of plants have been studied for over 40 years. Here, we review the data on the circular or linear form, replication, repair, and persistence of the organellar DNA (orgDNA in plants. The bacterial origin of orgDNA appears to have profoundly influenced ideas about the properties of chromosomal DNA molecules in these organelles to the point of dismissing data inconsistent with ideas from the 1970s. When found at all, circular genome-sized molecules comprise a few percent of orgDNA. In cells active in orgDNA replication, most orgDNA is found as linear and branched-linear forms larger than the size of the genome, likely a consequence of a virus-like DNA replication mechanism. In contrast to the stable chromosomal DNA molecules in bacteria and the plant nucleus, the molecular integrity of orgDNA declines during leaf development at a rate that varies among plant species. This decline is attributed to degradation of damaged-but-not-repaired molecules, with a proposed repair cost-saving benefit most evident in grasses. All orgDNA maintenance activities are proposed to occur on the nucleoid tethered to organellar membranes by developmentally-regulated proteins.
76 FR 55137 - Monitoring the Effectiveness of Maintenance at Nuclear Power Plants

Science.gov (United States)

2011-09-06

... the NRC Library at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/ . Regulatory guides are not... Nuclear Power Plants AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Draft regulatory guide; request for... comment draft regulatory guide (DG) DG-1278, ``Monitoring the Effectiveness of Maintenance at Nuclear...
The health maintenance organization strategy: a corporate takeover of health services delivery.

Science.gov (United States)

Salmon, J W

1975-01-01

This paper presents a political economic framework for viewing the social organization of the delivery of health care servies and predicting a qualitatively different institutional configuration involving the health maintenance organization. The principal forces impacting American capitalism today are leading to a fundamental restructuring for increased social efficiency of the entire social welfare sector, including the health services industry. The method to achieve this restructuring involves health policy directed at raising the contribution to the social surplus from the delivery of health care services and eventual corporate domination. The health maintenance organization conceptualization is examined with suggestions as to how the HMO strategy promoted by the state leads to this corporate takeover. The mechanism and extent of the present corporate involvement are examined and implications of health services as a social control mechanism are presented.
The use of probabilistic safety assessment based maintenance indicators to increase the availability of safety related systems in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kirchsteiger, C.

1991-04-01

This work describes the theoretical development of a Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) based Performance Indicator (PI) model for a comprehensive Maintenance Efficiency Analysis (MEA) and its practical application to past operational history data of a certain Nuclear Power Plant. Plant specific equipment history and maintenance work order data have been collected and analysed using various advanced statistical procedures (nonparametric methods, multivariate analysis) in order to be able to estimate safety system related equipment and maintenance process trends. The main results of such a MEA case study are the trends in the (in)effectiveness of the performance of a selected safety system and its dominant maintenance related causes of its bad (good) equipment performance. Finally, the therefrom gained results are used to propose a new set of safety system based and maintenance related Performance Indicators, including suggestions for a corresponding plant specific maintenance data collection system. (author)
Modular robotic applications in nuclear power plant maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Glass, S.W.; Ranson, C.C.; Reinholtz, C.F.; Calkins, J.M.

1996-01-01

General-purpose factory automation robots have experienced limited use in nuclear maintenance and hazardous-environment work spaces due to demanding requirements on size, weight, mobility and adaptability. Robotic systems in nuclear power plants are frequently custom designed to meet specific space and performance requirements. Examples of these custom configurations include Framatome Technologies COBRA trademark Steam Generator Manipulator and URSULA trademark Reactor Vessel Inspection Manipulator. The use of custom robots in nuclear plants has been limited because of the lead time and expense associated with custom design. Developments in modular robotics and advanced robot control software coupled with more powerful low-cost computers, however, are helping to reduce the cost and schedule for deploying custom robots. A modular robotic system allows custom robot configurations to be implemented using standard (modular) joints and adaptable controllers. This paper discusses Framatome Technologies (FTI) current and planned developments in the area of modular robot system design
[At the plant side of formins--organizers of the actin cytoskeleton].

Science.gov (United States)

Maruniewicz, Michalina; Kasprowicz, Anna; Wojtaszek, Przemysław

2009-01-01

Rearrangements of actin cytoskeleton enable proper functioning of the cells under normal conditions, and also cellular adaptations to changes in the direct surroundings. Formins are actin binding proteins, responsible for actin nucleation and further elongation of microfilaments. The distinguishing feature of formins is the presence of conserved FH2 (formin homology domain 2) domain, as well as other domains typical for distinct formin classes. In animal cells formins are involved in cytokinesis and determination and maintenance of the cell shape and polarity, but also in the formation of filopodia, endocytosis and many other processes. The presence of proteins from the formin family in plant cells, and their involvement in the tip growth and cytokinesis, has been determined only recently. As the functional organization of plant and animal cells is different, one can assume that the range of putative functions of plant formins might also be diverse. One of such proposed functions for formins in plants is the role of linker protein within WMC continuum (cell wall-plasma membrane-cytoskeleton). Unfortunately, for that moment the state of knowledge about plant formins in comparison with animal or fungal ones is much poorer.
Engineering and maintenance applied to safety-related valves in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Verdu, M. F.; Perez-Aranda, J.

2014-01-01

Nuclear Division in Iberdrola engineering and Construction has a team with extensive experience on engineering and services works related to valves. Also, this team is linked to UNESA as Technical support and Reference Center. Iberdrola engineering and construction experience in nuclear power plants valves, gives effective response to engineering and maintenance works that can be demanded in a nuclear power plant and it requires a high degree of qualification and knowledge both in Operation and Outages. (Author)
Artificial intelligence: the future in nuclear plant maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Norgate, G.

1984-01-01

The role of robotics and remote handling equipment in future nuclear power plant maintenance activities is discussed in the context of artificial intelligence applications. Special requirements manipulators, control systems, and man-machine interfaces for nuclear applications are noted. Tasks might include inspection with cameras, eddy current probes, and leak detectors; the collection of material samples; radiation monitoring; and the disassembly, repair and reassembly of a variety of system components. A robot with vision and force sensing and an intelligent control system that can access a knowledge base is schematically described. Recent advances in image interpretation systems are also discussed
The maintenance optimization of structural components in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bryla, P.; Ardorino, F.; Aufort, P.; Jacquot, J.P.; Magne, L.; Pitner, P.; Verite, B.; Villain, B.; Monnier, B.

1997-10-01

An optimization process, called 'OMF-Structures', is developed by Electricite de France (EDF) in order to extend the current 'OMF' Reliability Centered Maintenance to piping structural components. The Auxiliary Feedwater System of a 900 MW French nuclear plant has been studied in order to lay the foundations of the method. This paper presents the currently proposed principles of the process. The principles of the OMF-Structures process include 'Risk-Based Inspection' concepts within an RCM process. Two main phases are identified: The purpose of the first phase is to select the risk-significant failure modes and associated elements. This phase consists of two major steps: potential consequences evaluation and reliability performance evaluation. The second phase consists of the definition of preventive maintenance programs for piping elements that are associated with risk-significant failure modes. (author)

Regulatory approach of the monitoring the effectiveness of maintenance at nuclear power plants program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vajgel, Stefan

2009-03-01

The electrical power generation using nuclear power plants requires this installation being safety, reliable and available for the working periods. For this purpose, an adequate, effective and well conducted maintenance program makes an essential and useful tool to the owner of the plant. However, it is necessary to follow the regulatory requirements for this program implementation which monitories this maintenance effectiveness. There are Brazilian norms requirements which must be followed. The international regulatory guides establish these requirements in good details but it is necessary to verify if this methodology for implementing can be totally applied here in Brazil. Then, the american guide NUMARC 93-01 which details how can be implemented a program for this monitoring, shows some methods for using. In this thesis, the Delphi and Probabilistic Safety Analysis were briefly included because they were preferred for implementing this monitoring.in a Brazilian plant. The results which are being obtained show that, looking the regulatory aspects, the NUMARC 93-01 follows our regulations and gives good results for the plant management. (author)
The plant cell wall integrity maintenance mechanism--a case study of a cell wall plasma membrane signaling network.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamann, Thorsten

2015-04-01

Some of the most important functions of plant cell walls are protection against biotic/abiotic stress and structural support during growth and development. A prerequisite for plant cell walls to perform these functions is the ability to perceive different types of stimuli in both qualitative and quantitative manners and initiate appropriate responses. The responses in turn involve adaptive changes in cellular and cell wall metabolism leading to modifications in the structures originally required for perception. While our knowledge about the underlying plant mechanisms is limited, results from Saccharomyces cerevisiae suggest the cell wall integrity maintenance mechanism represents an excellent example to illustrate how the molecular mechanisms responsible for stimulus perception, signal transduction and integration can function. Here I will review the available knowledge about the yeast cell wall integrity maintenance system for illustration purposes, summarize the limited knowledge available about the corresponding plant mechanism and discuss the relevance of the plant cell wall integrity maintenance mechanism in biotic stress responses. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
An Introduction to Quantitative Measures for Software Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jo, Hyun Jun; Seong, Poong Hyun

2007-01-01

The I and C system of NPP has changed from the analog system to the digital-based system using microcontrollers and software. Thus, software has become very important for NPP control system. The software life cycle is divided into the development and maintenance phase largely. Because poor software maintenance work introduces new errors and makes software much complex, we have to consider the effective maintenance methods for the reliability and maintainability of NPP software. Function Block Diagram (FBD) is a standard application programming language for the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and currently being used in the development of a fully-digitalized reactor protection system (RPS) under the KNICS project. Therefore, the maintenance work will be of great importance in a few years. This paper studies on the measures which give quantitative information to software maintainer and manager before and after modification. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 briefly describes software maintenance types and model. In Section 3-5, we introduce the quantitative measures for software maintenance and characteristics of FBD program. A conclusion is provided in Section 6
EPR design for maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krugmann, U.

1998-01-01

Preventive maintenance is very important in achieving high plant availability. For the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) preventive maintenance has been carefully addressed in the design stage. This is particularly necessary because of the traditionally different maintenance strategies employed in France and Germany. This paper emphasizes the following features introduced in the ERP design to minimize the duration of the refueling outage: (1) containment accessibility during power operation; (2) overall plant layout to facilitate inspections and maintenances within the containment; and (3) safety system design for enabling preventive maintenance during power operation. (author)
Organization patterns of PWR power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leicman, J.

1980-01-01

Organization patterns are shown for the St. Lucia 1, North Anna, Sequoyah, and Beaver Valley nuclear power plants, for a typical PWR power plant in the USA, for the Biblis/RWE-KWU nuclear power plants and for a four-unit nuclear power plant operated by Electricite de France as well as for the Loviisa power plant. Organization patterns are also shown for relatively independent and non-independent nuclear power plants according to IAEA recommendations. (J.P.)
Organization and mechanization of maintenance operations at NPPs with the WWER type reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Titov, A.A.

1983-01-01

The structure of capital investments defining organization and mechanization of maintepance operations at NPPs with the WWER type reactors is analyzed. The trends in development of optimum decisions for organization and mechanization of repair obs at NPPs being designed taking into account the prospects of nuclear powep enginerning development, the system of NPP maintenance servicing, as well as the structure of repair-productive capacities are discussed. On the basis of the analysis of the data obtained in designing the Zaporozhskaya NPP it is shown that the capital investments for organizing and mechanization of maintenance operations at the unified NPP site with four WWER-1000 reactors reach nearly 18 roubles/kW. A conclusion is drawn that at present the design of an NPP with the WWER-1000 reactor totally meets the requirements of realization of periodic maintenance operations. It is advisable to cooperate the NPP management with that of a thermal power station from the viewpoint of using manpower, which would improve the operating conditions and labour productivity of workers engaged in repair and, consequently, reduce the capital investments and repair expenditures
The ITER remote maintenance system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tesini, A.; Palmer, J.

2008-01-01

The aim of this paper is to summarize the ITER approach to machine components maintenance. A major objective of the ITER project is to demonstrate that a future power producing fusion device can be maintained effectively and offer practical levels of plant availability. During its operational lifetime, many systems of the ITER machine will require maintenance and modification; this can be achieved using remote handling methods. The need for timely, safe and effective remote operations on a machine as complex as ITER and within one of the world's most hostile remote handling environments represents a major challenge at every level of the ITER Project organization, engineering and technology. The basic principles of fusion reactor maintenance are presented. An updated description of the ITER remote maintenance system is provided. This includes the maintenance equipment used inside the vacuum vessel, inside the hot cell and the hot cell itself. The correlation between the functions of the remote handling equipment, of the hot cell and of the radwaste processing system is also described. The paper concludes that ITER has equipped itself with a good platform to tackle the challenges presented by its own maintenance and upgrade needs
Summary of typical routine maintenance activities at Tokai Reprocessing Plant. Supplement (March, 2002)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-03-01

Typical maintenance activities, such as replacement of worn out parts and cleaning of filter elements, routinely performed during steady operation are summarized. [The Summary of Typical Routine Maintenance Activities at Tokai Reprocessing Plant] (JNC TN 8450 2001-006) was already prepared in September, 2001. The purpose of this summary is to give elementary understanding on these activities to people who are responsible for explanation them to the public. At this time, the same kind of summary is prepared as a supplement of the previous one. (author)
Development of remote maintenance technology for nuclear fuel reprocessing plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawahara, Akira; Saito, Masayuki; Kawamura, Hironobu; Yamade, Atsushi; Sugiyama, Sen; Sugiyama, Sakae.

1986-01-01

In the plants for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel containing fission products, due to the facts that the facilities are in high radiations fields, and the surfaces of equipments are contaminated with radioactive substances, the troubles of process equipments are directly connected to the remarkable drop of the rate of operation of the facilities. Therefore, the development of various remote maintenance techniques has been carried out so far, but this time, Hitachi Ltd. got a chance to take part in the repair of spent fuel dissolving tanks in the Tokai Reprocessing Plant of Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. and the development of several kinds of remote checkup equipment related to the repair work. Especially in the repair of the dissolving tanks, a radiation-withstanding checkup and repair apparatus which has high remote operability taking the conditions of radioactive environment and the restriction of the repaired objects in consideration was required, and a dissolving tank repairing robot composed of six kinds has been developed. The key points of the development were the selective use of high radiation-withstanding parts and materials, small size structure and the realization of full remote operability. The full remote maintenance apparatus of this kind is unique in the world, and applicable to wide fields. (Kako, I.)
Design of an operator support system for online maintenance at nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chu Yongyue; Li Huwei; Gao Qiang; Yi Yan; Yang Ming

2013-01-01

Online maintenance based on reliability centered management is pivotal for the safe and economical operation of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). This paper presents an operator support system through which the operators can effectively manage plant configuration and identify the weaknesses in plant operation. The proposed operator support system is based on the GO-FLOW, which is a success-oriented availability analysis methodology and can be used for evaluating phased missions. In this paper, the design of the proposed operator support system is introduced through a case study of the Auxiliary Feed Water System (AFWS). (author)
Influence of Seeding Ratio, Planting Date, and Termination Date on Rye-Hairy Vetch Cover Crop Mixture Performance under Organic Management

OpenAIRE

Lawson, Andrew; Cogger, Craig; Bary, Andy; Fortuna, Ann-Marie

2015-01-01

Cover crop benefits include nitrogen accumulation and retention, weed suppression, organic matter maintenance, and reduced erosion. Organic farmers need region-specific information on winter cover crop performance to effectively integrate cover crops into their crop rotations. Our research objective was to compare cover crop seeding mixtures, planting dates, and termination dates on performance of rye (Secale cereale L.) and hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) monocultures and mixtures in the ma...
A heuristic model for risk and cost impacts of plant outage maintenance schedule

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohammad Hadi Hadavi, S.

2009-01-01

Cost and risk are two major competing criteria in maintenance optimization problems. If a plant is forced to shutdown because of accident or fear of accident happening, beside loss of revenue, it causes damage to the credibility and reputation of the business operation. In this paper a heuristic model for incorporating three compelling optimization criteria (i.e., risk, cost, and loss) into a single evaluation function is proposed. Such a model could be used in any evaluation engine of outage maintenance schedule optimizer. It is attempted to make the model realistic and to address the ongoing challenges facing a schedule planner in a simple and commonly understandable fashion. Two simple competing schedules for the NPP feedwater system are examined against the model. The results show that while the model successfully addresses the current challenges for outage maintenance optimization, it properly demonstrates the dynamics of schedule in regards to risk, cost, and losses endured by maintenance schedule, particularly when prolonged outage and lack of maintenance for equipments in need of urgent care are of concern.
Improvement of maintenance engineering using plant network and personal digital assistant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Otani, Yohei; Hasegawa, Takeshi; Hoshino, Masateru; Kato, Takahisa; Yokoi, Miki

2015-01-01

Toshiba has developed and adopted wired and/or wireless maintenance network at nuclear power plant in cooperate with industry. Toshiba also developed a tablet PC based field testing tool that enables to display test procedures and record test results in the field to improve the efficiency of such testing. Recently, we have adopted remote desktop protocol that enables to support the operator. (author)
Plant maintenance and advanced reactors issue, 2008

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Agnihotri, Newal [ed.

2009-09-15

The focus of the September-October issue is on plant maintenance and advanced reactors. Major articles/reports in this issue include: Technologies of national importance, by Tsutomu Ohkubo, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Japan; Modeling and simulation advances brighten future nuclear power, by Hussein Khalil, Argonne National Laboratory, Energy and desalination projects, by Ratan Kumar Sinha, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, India; A plant with simplified design, by John Higgins, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy; A forward thinking design, by Ray Ganthner, AREVA; A passively safe design, by Ed Cummins, Westinghouse Electric Company; A market-ready design, by Ken Petrunik, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Canada; Generation IV Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems, by Jacques Bouchard, French Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, France, and Ralph Bennett, Idaho National Laboratory; Innovative reactor designs, a report by IAEA, Vienna, Austria; Guidance for new vendors, by John Nakoski, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Road map for future energy, by John Cleveland, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria; and, Vermont's largest source of electricity, by Tyler Lamberts, Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. The Industry Innovation article is titled Intelligent monitoring technology, by Chris Demars, Exelon Nuclear.
Improving motor reliability in nuclear power plants: Volume 1, Performance evaluation and maintenance practices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Subudhi, M.; Gunther, W.E.; Taylor, J.H.; Sugarman, A.C.; Sheets, M.W.

1987-11-01

This report constitutes the first of the three volumes under this NUREG. The report presents recommendations for developing a cost-effective program for performance evaluation and maintenance of electric motors in nuclear power plants. These recommendations are based on current industry practices, available techniques for monitoring degradation in motor components, manufacturer's recommendations, operating experience, and results from two laboratory tests on aged motors. Two laboratory test reports on a small and a large motor are presented in separate volumes of this NUREG. These provide the basis for the various functional indicators recommended for maintenance programs in this report. The overall preventive maintenance program is separated into two broad areas of activity aimed at mitigating the potential effects of equipment aging: Performance Evaluation and Equipment Maintenance. The latter involves actually maintaining the condition of the equipment while the former involves those activities undertaken to monitor degradation due to aging. These monitoring methods are further categorized into periodic testing, surveillance testing, continuous monitoring and inspections. This study focuses on the methods and procedures for performing the above activities to maintain the motors operationally ready in a nuclear facility. This includes an assessment of various functional indicators to determine their suitability for trending to monitor motor component condition. The intrusiveness of test methods and the present state-of-the-art for using the test equipment in a plant environment are discussed. In conclusion, implementation of the information provided in this report, will improve motor reliability in nuclear power plants. The study indicates the kinds of tests to conduct, how and when to conduct them, and to which motors the tests should be applied. 44 refs., 12 figs., 13 tabs
Generic maintenance immunosuppression in solid organ transplant recipients.

Science.gov (United States)

Ensor, Christopher R; Trofe-Clark, Jennifer; Gabardi, Steven; McDevitt-Potter, Lisa M; Shullo, Michael A

2011-11-01

Survival after solid organ transplantation has increased in the era of tacrolimus and mycophenolate. This increased survival could be due in part to the broad clinical use of these potent and specific agents for maintenance immunosuppression. These drugs have enhanced specificity and potency for T and B lymphocytes compared with their predecessors, cyclosporine and azathioprine. Between 2008 and 2010, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved several generic formulations of both tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil. Deciding whether generic products can be safely substituted for the innovator product is a clinical dilemma similar to that which occurred when generic formulations of cyclosporine became available. We describe the concerns regarding generic immunosuppression use, summarize expert opinion and consensus statements in transplantation, analyze the potential impact of generic substitution, and provide estimates of populations affected based on generic drug market penetration. Formulary considerations such as cost, availability, and potential drug ordering and drug selection errors are described, and transplant coordinator and patient perspectives are reviewed. Finally, general recommendations about the use of generic maintenance immunosuppression in solid organ transplant recipients are provided. Although more research is needed to confirm clinical and therapeutic equivalence and pharmacoeconomic benefit, generic immunosuppressants can be safely substituted for innovator products as long as patients consistently receive the same product, patients and clinicians are aware of when substitutions occur, and enhanced therapeutic drug monitoring is provided during the transition.
Development of a tracking method for augmented reality applied to nuclear plant maintenance work

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimoda, Hiroshi; Maeshima, Masayuki; Nakai, Toshinori; Bian, Zhiqiang; Ishii, Hirotake; Yoshikawa, Hidekazu

2005-01-01

In this paper, a plant maintenance support method is described, which employs the state-of-the-art information technology, Augmented Reality (AR), in order to improve efficiency of NPP maintenance work and to prevent from human error. Although AR has a great possibility to support various works in real world, it is difficult to apply it to actual work support because the tracking method is the bottleneck for the practical use. In this study, a bar code marker tracking method is proposed to apply AR system for a maintenance work support in NPP field. The proposed method calculates the users position and orientation in real time by two long markers, which are captured by the user-mounted camera. The markers can be easily pasted on the pipes in plant field, and they can be easily recognized in long distance in order to reduce the number of pasted markers in the work field. Experiments were conducted in a laboratory and plant field to evaluate the proposed method. The results show that (1) fast and stable tracking can be realized, (2) position error in camera view is less than 1%, which is almost perfect under the limitation of camera resolution, and (3) it is relatively difficult to catch two markers in one camera view especially in short distance
Factor analysis for imperfect maintenance planning at nuclear power plants by cognitive task analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takagawa, Kenichi; Iida, Hiroyasu

2011-01-01

Imperfect maintenance planning was frequently identified in domestic nuclear power plants. To prevent such an event, we analyzed causal factors in maintenance planning stages and showed the directionality of countermeasures in this study. There is a pragmatic limit in finding the causal factors from the items based on report descriptions. Therefore, the idea of the systemic accident model, which is used to monitor the performance variability in normal circumstances, is taken as a new concept instead of investigating negative factors. As an actual method for analyzing usual activities, cognitive task analysis (CTA) was applied. Persons who experienced various maintenance activities at one electric power company were interviewed about sources related to decision making during maintenance planning, and then usual factors affecting planning were extracted as performance variability factors. The tendency of domestic events was analyzed using the classification item of those factors, and the directionality of countermeasures was shown. The following are critical for preventing imperfect maintenance planning: the persons in charge should fully understand the situation of the equipment for which they are responsible in the work planning and maintenance evaluation stages, and they should definitely understand, for example, the maintenance bases of that equipment. (author)
Organisational culture in maintenance. A case study at Olkiluoto nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reiman, T.; Oedewald, P.

2004-05-01

In the publication an assessment of organisational culture in a maintenance organisation is described in detail. The assessment is based on the Contextual Assessment of Organisational Culture (CAOC) methodology developed at VTT. On the basis of the results the development needs of the maintenance work are discussed. The case study was conducted at the maintenance unit of TVO's Olkiluoto nuclear power plant. The research consisted of three phases: characterisation of the maintenance culture (with interviews, survey, group working and a feedback seminar), assessment of the cultural features, and two development seminars for the entire maintenance unit on the basis of the assessment results. Results showed that the personnel were committed to their tasks and they perceive their work as highly meaningful. The personnel were able to perceive very well how their tasks contribute to the organisational goals. Most of the workers were also very proud of their plant and their own proficiency. General job satisfaction was quite good. Low sense of control, weak sense of solidarity and a perceived lack of positive feedback were experienced as the most negative aspects of the culture. Perceived lack of sufficient resources and an unequal distribution of labour were experienced as lowering the sense of control and causing work stress. The work itself was experienced as quite routine-like and the personnel had difficulties in identifying any challenging aspects in their own tasks. Know-how and responsibility are the central aspects that are emphasised in the artefacts (management talk, procedures etc.) of the culture. Nevertheless, it was not always clear what was meant by 'responsibility' or 'responsible behavior'. Despite the obscurity of the concept of responsibility at TVO and the cultural emphasis on certainty, safety and carefulness were considered as values of utmost importance in the organisation. Cohesiveness values were perceived to be quite low, and improvements to them
Optimization of the scheduled maintenance on the power units of the nuclear power plants with WWER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Skalozubov, V.I.; Kovrizhkin, Yu.L.; Kolykhanov, V.N.; Kochneva, V.Yu.; Urbanskij, V.V.

2008-01-01

The advanced international and domestic experience in the field of the maintenance optimization of the power units of NPPs, as well, as on the base of the planning optimization, the maintenance organization and carrying out, the technical maintenance and repair control system automatization, the testing and monitoring optimization during the service process, the modernization of the technology and technical tools of the maintenance service and control is represented

Apc1 is required for maintenance of local brain organizers and dorsal midbrain survival.

Science.gov (United States)

Paridaen, Judith T M L; Danesin, Catherine; Elas, Abu Tufayal; van de Water, Sandra; Houart, Corinne; Zivkovic, Danica

2009-07-15

The tumor suppressor Apc1 is an intracellular antagonist of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway, which is vital for induction and patterning of the early vertebrate brain. However, its role in later brain development is less clear. Here, we examined the mechanisms underlying effects of an Apc1 zygotic-effect mutation on late brain development in zebrafish. Apc1 is required for maintenance of established brain subdivisions and control of local organizers such as the isthmic organizer (IsO). Caudal expansion of Fgf8 from IsO into the cerebellum is accompanied by hyperproliferation and abnormal cerebellar morphogenesis. Loss of apc1 results in reduced proliferation and apoptosis in the dorsal midbrain. Mosaic analysis shows that Apc is required cell-autonomously for maintenance of dorsal midbrain cell fate. The tectal phenotype occurs independently of Fgf8-mediated IsO function and is predominantly caused by stabilization of beta-catenin and subsequent hyperactivation of Wnt/beta-catenin signalling, which is mainly mediated through LEF1 activity. Chemical activation of the Wnt/beta-catenin in wild-type embryos during late brain maintenance stages phenocopies the IsO and tectal phenotypes of the apc mutants. These data demonstrate that Apc1-mediated restriction of Wnt/beta-catenin signalling is required for maintenance of local organizers and tectal integrity.
The use of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) based maintenance indicators to increase the availability of safety related systems in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kirchsteiger, C.

1991-04-01

This work describes the theoretical development of a Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) based Performance Indicator (PI) model for a comprehensive Maintenance Efficiency Analysis (MEA) and its practical application to past operational history data of a certain nuclear power plant. Plant specific equipment history and maintenance work on data have been collected and analysed using various advanced statistical procedures (nonparametric methods, multivariate analysis in order to be able to estimate safety system related equipment and maintenance process trends. The main results of such a MEA case study are the trends in the (in)effectiveness of the performance of a selected safety system and its dominant components as well as the detection of the dominant maintenance related causes of its bad (good) equipment performance. Finally, the therefrom gained results are used to propose a new set of safety system-based and maintenance-related performance indicators, including suggestions for a corresponding plant specific maintenance data collection system. (author)
Results of calendar year 1994 monitor well inspection and maintenance program, Y-12 Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McMaster, B.W.; Jones, S.B.; Sitzler, J.L.

1995-06-01

This document is a compendium of results of the calendar year 1994 Monitor Well Inspection and Maintenance Program at the Department of Energy Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This report documents the work relating to well inspections and maintenance requests. Inspections are implemented in order to better assess the condition and maintenance needs of wells that are actively being monitored. Currently this approach calls for inspecting all wells on a routine (annual or triennial) basis which are: (1) in an active sampling program; (2) included in a hydrologic study; or (3) not in service, but not scheduled for plugging and abandonment. Routine inspections help to ensure that representative groundwater samples and hydrologic data are being collected, and contribute to the life expectancy of each well. This report formally presents well inspection and maintenance activities that were conducted at the Y-12 Plant during 1994. All inspections were conducted between April and December
Results of calendar year 1994 monitor well inspection and maintenance program, Y-12 Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McMaster, B.W. [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Jones, S.B.; Sitzler, J.L. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)

1995-06-01

This document is a compendium of results of the calendar year 1994 Monitor Well Inspection and Maintenance Program at the Department of Energy Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This report documents the work relating to well inspections and maintenance requests. Inspections are implemented in order to better assess the condition and maintenance needs of wells that are actively being monitored. Currently this approach calls for inspecting all wells on a routine (annual or triennial) basis which are: (1) in an active sampling program; (2) included in a hydrologic study; or (3) not in service, but not scheduled for plugging and abandonment. Routine inspections help to ensure that representative groundwater samples and hydrologic data are being collected, and contribute to the life expectancy of each well. This report formally presents well inspection and maintenance activities that were conducted at the Y-12 Plant during 1994. All inspections were conducted between April and December.
New maintenance strategy of Tokyo Electric Power Company and Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant for effective ageing management and safe long-term operation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inagaki, Takeyuki; Yamashita, Norimichi

2009-01-01

Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant is the oldest among three nuclear power plants owned and operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company, which consists of six boiling water reactor units. The commercial operation of Unit 1 was commenced in 1971 (37 years old) and Unit 6 in 1978 (29 years old). Currently ageing degradations of systems, structures and components are managed through maintenance programs, component replacement/refurbishment programs and long-term maintenance plans. The long-term maintenance plans are established through ageing management component replacement/refurbishment programs reviews performed before the 30th year of operation and they are for safe and reliable operation after 30 years (long-term operation). However the past maintenance actions and past component replacement/refurbishment programs were not always proactive and past operational experience and maintenance practices suggest that effective/proactive ageing management programs be introduced in earlier stage of the plant operation. In this circumstance, Tokyo Electric Power Company and Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant are setting up a new maintenance strategy that includes 1) improving the normal maintenance programs by using ageing degradation data, 2) effective use of information on internal/external operational experience and maintenance practices related to ageing, and 3) proactive component/equipment refurbishment programs during a refreshment outage for safe and reliable long-term operation. To accomplish the goal of this strategy, strengthening engineering capability of plant staff members is a crucial required for the plant. The objective of this paper is to briefly explain main results ageing management reviews, past and current significant ageing issues and management programs against them, and the new maintenance strategy established by Tokyo Electric Power Company and Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant. (author)
26 CFR 1.528-2 - Organized and operated to provide for the acquisition, construction, management, maintenance and...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... acquisition, construction, management, maintenance and care of association property. 1.528-2 Section 1.528-2... acquisition, construction, management, maintenance and care of association property. (a) Organized and... association are the acquisition, construction, management, maintenance, and care of association property. In...
Commissioning and maintenance experience of in-plant coal handling system of captive power plant at HWP, Manuguru (Paper No. 5.4)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murugappan, K.; Mohan Rao, A.C.; Sastry, M.S.N.

1992-01-01

For achieving a non-stop generation of power for a minimum period of one year can be a reality only if due importance is given to inplant coal handling system. The paper highlights the major commissioning and maintenance problem faced and corrective action taken for inplant coal handling system of the captive power plant at Heavy Water Plant, Manuguru. (author)
Maintenance Tools applied to Electric Generators to Improve Energy Efficiency and Power Quality of Thermoelectric Power Plants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Milton Fonseca Junior

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a specific method to improve the reliability of the equipment and the quality of power supplied to the electrical systems with the frequency and voltage control of a thermoelectric plant, to guarantee a more stable system. The method has the novelty of combining Total Productive Maintenance (TPM using only four pillars, with Electrical Predictive Maintenance based in failure analysis and diagnostic. It prevents voltage drops caused by excessive reactive consumption, thus guaranteeing the company a perfect functioning of its equipment and providing a longer life of them. The Maintenance Management Program (MMP seeks to prevent failures from causing the equipment to be shut down from the electrical system, which means large financial losses, either by reducing billing or by paying fines to the regulatory agency, in addition to prejudice the reliability of the system. Using management tools, but applying only four TPM pillars, it was possible to achieve innovation in power plants with internal combustion engines. This study aims to provide maintenance with a more reliable process, through the implantation of measurement, control and diagnostic devices, thus allowing the management to reduce breakdown of plant equipment. Some results have been achieved after the implementation, such as reduction of annual maintenance cost, reduction of corrective maintenance, increase of MTBF (Mean Time between Failures and reduction of MTTR (Mean Time to Repair in all areas. Probabilistic models able to describe real processes in a more realistic way, and facilitate the optimization at maximum reliability or minimum costs are presented. Such results are reflected in more reliable and continual power generation.
Residual life management. Maintenance improvement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sainero Garcia, J.; Hevia Ruperez, F.

1995-01-01

The terms Residual Life Management, Life Cycle Management and Long-Term Management are synonymous with a concept which aims to establish efficient maintenance for the profitable and safe operation of a power plant for as long as possible. A Residual Life Management programme comprises a number of stages, of which Maintenance Evaluation focuses on how power plant maintenance practices allow the mitigation and control of component ageing. with this objective in mind, a methodology has been developed for the analysis of potential degradative phenomena acting on critical components in terms of normal power plant maintenance practices. This methodology applied to maintenance evaluation enables the setting out of a maintenance programme based on the Life Management concept, and the programme's subsequent up-dating to allow for new techniques and methods. Initial applications have shown that although, in general terms, power plant maintenance is efficient, the way in which Residual Life Management is approached requires changes in maintenance practices. These changes range from modifications to existing inspection and surveillance methods or the establishment of new ones, to the monitoring of trends or the performance of additional studies, the purpose of which is to provide an accurate evaluation of the condition of the installations and the possibility of life extension. (Author)
Development of methods for the evaluation and reduction of risk factors for the maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Preuss, W.; Ogurek, K.H.

1988-01-01

The maintenance of a nuclear power plant is an essential requirement for its safe operation. Recent experience has however revealed increasingly more deviations and disturbances associated with maintenance work - in particular related to human error. The investigations should contribute to the further improvement of the conditions for safe and optimal maintenance procedures and thus minimize the risk of disturbances arising from them. The first step of the investigation is presented here, in which the methodological preliminary work was carried out and a suitable procedure developed. A basis was provided by means of extensive literature research and analysis. Additional information was obtained through discussions with experts (research workers as well as plant operational management). In particular suitable techniques of investigation and analysis are presented in detail, the problem structure of the field of investigation bas been worked out, and a methodology for the evaluation of data has been developed. Furthermore criteria have been formulated with which nuclear power plants and maintenance processes can be choosen for an economic way of investigation, and a procedure is presented which serves the investigator to check and to improve the methodology. Finally, proposals for further investigations are given. (orig.) [de
Integrating availability and maintenance objectives in plant design. EDF approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Degrave, Claude; Martin-Onraet, Michel

1995-01-01

Energy self sufficiency is a major strategic necessity for France. Regarding the fossil fuels power, competitiveness of nuclear energy is a key goal for Electricite de France. Accordingly, for future nuclear power plants to remain competitive, it is necessary to maintain the kWh production costs of the future units at a level close to those of the latest units under construction (N4 series), while raising the safety level. EDF therefore decided to implement an analytical and systematic process for study of the new projects to optimize the design by integration of the maintenance (durations, costs), availability and radiation exposure goals from the related operating experience. This approach, CIDEM (French acronym for Design Integrating Availability, operating Experience and Maintenance) aims at a single goal: to minimize the kWh production cost incorporating investment, operation and fuel costs, allowing for the operating experience from French and foreign units. The implementation of the CIDEM process constitutes for EDF a new approach to the study of the new Nuclear Power Plant projects. The competitivity of nuclear energy greatly depends on the success of such an approach. The studies conducted in the availability field have already highlighted a number of critical points and have made it possible to define the corresponding goal allocations and to establish a first series of structuring specifications for the project. (J.P.N.)
Uptake of organic nitrogen by plants

Science.gov (United States)

Torgny Nasholm; Knut Kielland; Ulrika. Ganeteg

2009-01-01

Languishing for many years in the shadow of plant inorganic nitrogen (N) nutrition research, studies of organic N uptake have attracted increased attention during the last decade. The capacity of plants to acquire organic N, demonstrated in laboratory and field settings, has thereby been well established. Even so, the ecological significance of organic N uptake for...
Applicability of Operational Research Techniques in CANDU Nuclear Plant Maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doyle, E. Kevin

2002-01-01

great cost over years of trial and error. The pivotal role of expert opinion via experienced users/problem owners/maintenance engineers in all phases of the method and its application was noted and will be explored in subsequent efforts. The results are displayed via economic alternatives to more easily attract the attention of Maintenance Managers. Graphical overviews of the data demonstrated that substantial insight can be gained by simply organizing the data into statistically meaningful arrays such as histograms. The conclusions highlight several very positive avenues to evaluate at this particular juncture in time. (author)
Organic plant breeding and propagation : concepts and strategies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lammerts van Bueren, E.T.

2002-01-01

Key-words : crop ideotype, genetic diversity, integrity of plants, intrinsic value, isophenic line mixture varieties, organic plant breeding, organic farming, organic propagation, participatory plant breeding, variety characteristics,

Cost estimating relationships for nuclear power plant operationa and maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bowers, H.I.; Fuller, L.C.; Myers, M.L.

1987-11-01

Revised cost estimating relationships for 1987 are presented for estimating annual nonfuel operation and maintenance (O and M) costs for light-water reactor (LWR) nuclear power plants, which update guidelines published previously in 1982. The purpose of these cost estimating relationships is for use in long range planning and evaluations of the economics of nuclear energy for electric power generation. A listing of a computer program, LWROM, implementing the cost estimating relationships and written in advanced BASIC for IBM personal computers, is included

Remote maintenance in nuclear fuel reprocessing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Herndon, J.N.

1985-01-01

Remote maintenance techniques applied in large-scale nuclear fuel reprocessing plants are reviewed with particular attention to the three major maintenance philosophy groupings: contact, remote crane canyon, and remote/contact. Examples are given, and the relative success of each type is discussed. Probable future directions for large-scale reprocessing plant maintenance are described along with advanced manipulation systems for application in the plants. The remote maintenance development program within the Consolidated Fuel Reprocessing Program at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is also described. 19 refs., 19 figs

Hypertext-based integration for nuclear plant maintenance and operations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsoukalas, L.H.; Upadhyaya, B.R.

1991-01-01

A methodology is presented that uses fuzzy graphs in the emerging paradigm of hypertext for the purpose of integrating data, information and multifaceted knowledge resources abounding in power plant operations and maintenance. A hypertext system is viewed as a set of nodes and links where with each link we associate membership functions embodying context-dependent criteria for navigating large information spaces. A general framework for navigation is outlined and graph-theory navigational tools are developed. A numerical example and a HyperCard-based prototype for monitoring special material in the MHTGR-NPR are included. 10 refs., 12 figs

Availability Improvement of German Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilhelm, Oliver

2008-01-01

High availability is important for the safety and economical performance of Nuclear Power Plants (NPP). The strategy for availability improvement in a typical German PWR shall be discussed here. Key parameters for strategy development are plant design, availability of safety systems, component reliability, preventive maintenance and outage organization. Plant design, availability of safety systems and component reliability are to a greater extent given parameters that can hardly be influenced after the construction of the plant. But they set the frame for maintenance and outage organisation which have shown to have a large influence on the availability of the plant. (author)

Maintenance for life management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hevia, F.

1997-01-01

Life Management is based on the detection, monitoring and control of long-term degradation that affects individual plant components and important populations. Experience has shown that in many cases current maintenance practices do not attend to ageing directly; instead they deal with the consequences when it is already too late, when good Life Management is no longer practical. This has brought about the need for specific Maintenance Evaluation and Improvement Programmes to adjust to the basic objective of Life Management which is to project against, monitor and mitigate ageing that can affect the safe and profitable operating life of the facility. New regulatory requirements for ageing monitoring and effective maintenance to ensure safety (Maintenance Rule) have made it even more necessary to implement the Maintenance Evaluation Programme to cope with ageing, and to integrate that tasks in both programmes to optimise effort and use of tools. This paper presents a brief description of the objectives and methodologies of these Programmes which has been applied to plants around the world and in Spain at the Garona and Vandellos II plants in Spain as part of the PIE project for developing a Remanent Life Evaluation System for nuclear power plants. (Author)

Experience with training of operating and maintenance personnel of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pospisil, M.; Cencinger, F.

1988-01-01

The system is described of the specialist training of personnel for Czechoslovak nuclear power plants. Training consists of basic training, vocational training and training for the respective job. Responsible for the training is the Research Institute for Nuclear Power Plants; actual training takes place at three training centres. Personnel are divided into seven categories for training purposes: senior technical and economic staff, shift leaders, whose work has immediate effect on nuclear safety, engineering and technical personnel of technical units, shift leaders of technical units, personnel in technical units, shift service personnel and operating personnel, maintenance workers. Experience with training courses run at the training centre is summed up. Since 1980 the Centre has been training personnel mainly for the Dukovany nuclear power plant. Recommendations are presented for training personnel for the Temelin nuclear power plant. (Z.M.)

Nuclear power plant maintenance personnel reliability prediction (NPP/MPRP) effort at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Knee, H.E.; Haas, P.M.; Siegel, A.I.

1981-01-01

Human errors committed during maintenance activities are potentially a major contribution to the overall risk associated with the operation of a nuclear power plant (NPP). An NRC-sponsored program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is attempting to develop a quantitative predictive technique to evaluate the contribution of maintenance errors to the overall NPP risk. The current work includes a survey of the requirements of potential users to ascertain the need for and content of the proposed quantitative model, plus an initial job/task analysis to determine the scope and applicability of various maintenance tasks. In addition, existing human reliability prediction models are being reviewed and assessed with respect to their applicability to NPP maintenance tasks. This paper discusses the status of the program and summarizes the results to date
Status of maintenance in the US nuclear power industry 1985. Volume 2. Description of programs and practices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1986-06-01

This report documents a review of the status of maintenance programs and practices in the US commercial nuclear power industry. The purpose of this review is to establish a baselines reference for evaluating the effectiveness of future industry activities in maintenance. Two methods used to collect progammatic data. First, a Maintenance Review Protocol was used during site visits to eight selected power plants to collect in-depth maintenance program information. Second, a Maintenance Questionnaire was filled out by NRC Resident Inspectors regarding maintenance programs at their plant. The protocol and questionnaire contained items regarding five broad categories of maintenance: (1) organization and administration, (2) facilities and equipment, (3) procedures, (4) personnel, and (5) work control. The study found that there is wide variability in industry maintenance programs. However, the industry is currently undergoing changes in maintenance practices, and adherence to INPO and NUMARC guidance in maintenance may bring about more systematically developed program practices
Homogenization of independent inspection criteria of Quality Assurance in the maintenance activities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gomez Cardinanos, R.

2012-01-01

Among the official documents governing the operation of Spanish nuclear power plants is the Quality Manual and Quality Assurance. This manual gives a formal answer to the requirements of the regulations and the Nuclear Safety Council. To monitor the compliance of its requirements, the plants are controlled by independent organizations. Since 2007, in nuclear Sta. Maria de Garona is developed a project to improve the performance of the QA inspectors during maintenance activities. Results of the project have been edited data sheets on specific activities of maintenance. The project aims to incorporate sheets that help QA inspectors in their daily inspection.
A COMPUTER BASED MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... programs to schedule for maintenance or replacement of machines has been designed such that it enables the maintenance department control all jobs associated with plant maintenance and breakdown. It predicts the time to failure of designated plants and caters for the replacement analysis of some capital equipment.
The development and evaluation of programmatic performance indicators associated with maintenance at nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wreathall, J.; Fragola, J.; Appignani, P.; Burlile, G.; Shen, Y.

1990-05-01

This report summarizes the development and evaluation of programmatic performance indicators of maintenance. These indicators were selected by: (1) creating a formal framework of plant processes; (2) identifying features of plant behavior considered important to safety; (3) evaluating existing indicators against these features; and (4) performing statistical analyses for the selected indicators. The report recommends additional testing. 32 refs., 29 figs., 11 tabs
Organizing nuclear power plant operation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adams, H.W.; Rekittke, K.

1987-01-01

With the preliminary culmination in the convoy plants of the high standard of engineered safeguards in German nuclear power plants developed over the past twenty years, the interest of operators has now increasingly turned to problems which had not been in the focus of attention before. One of these problems is the organization of nuclear power plant operation. In order to enlarge the basis of knowledge, which is documented also in the rules published by the Kerntechnischer Ausschuss (Nuclear Technology Committee), the German Federal Minister of the Interior has commissioned a study of the organizational structures of nuclear power plants. The findings of that study are covered in the article. Two representative nuclear power plants in the Federal Republic of Germany were selected for the study, one of them a single-unit plant run by an independent operating company in the form of a private company under German law (GmbH), the other a dual-unit plant operated as a dependent unit of a utility. The two enterprises have different structures of organization. (orig.) [de
Experience in operation and maintenance of PWRs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Broecker, H.; Schomer, E.

1987-01-01

At present there are 10 PWRs in operation, most of them built on turnkey basis by KWU. The availability of West German PWRs amounted to 84.7% on average for the period from 1982-86. The good operating results are attributable to the following: 1. Sophiticated design and layout of the plant with good accessibility to the primary system even during operation. 2. Reliable performance of plant and components as result of extensive quality assurance. 3. Well-organized and highly qualified operating personnel. 4. Inservice inspection and preventive maintenance. 5. Good information feedback system. (Liu)
Principles of MONJU maintenance. Characteristic of MONJU maintenance and reflection of LWR maintenance experience to FBR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakai, Satoru; Nishio, Ryuichi; Uchihashi, Masaya; Kaneko, Yoshihisa; Yamashita, Hironobu; Yamaguchi, Atsunori; Aoki, Takayuki

2014-01-01

A sodium cooled fast breeder reactor (FBR) has unique systems and components and different degradation mechanism from light water reactor (LWR) so that need to establish maintenance technology in accordance with its features. The examination of the FBR maintenance technology is carried out in the special committee for considering the maintenance for Monju established in the Japan Society of Maintenology (JSM). As a result of the study such as extraction of Monju maintenance feature, maintenance technology benchmark between Monju and LWR components and survey of LWR maintenance experience, it is clear that principles of maintenance are same as LWR, necessity of LWR maintenance experience reflection and points to be considered in Monju maintenance. The road map to establish a FBR maintenance technology in the technical aspect became clear and it is vital to acquire operation and maintenance experience of the plant to implement this road map, and to establish a fast reactor maintenance. (author)
Maintenance personnel performance simulation (MAPPS): a model for predicting maintenance performance reliability in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Knee, H.E.; Krois, P.A.; Haas, P.M.; Siegel, A.I.; Ryan, T.G.

1983-01-01

The NRC has developed a structured, quantitative, predictive methodology in the form of a computerized simulation model for assessing maintainer task performance. Objective of the overall program is to develop, validate, and disseminate a practical, useful, and acceptable methodology for the quantitative assessment of NPP maintenance personnel reliability. The program was organized into four phases: (1) scoping study, (2) model development, (3) model evaluation, and (4) model dissemination. The program is currently nearing completion of Phase 2 - Model Development
Electric motor predictive and preventive maintenance guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oliver, J.A.

1992-07-01

Electric motor performance is vital to the reliable and efficient operation of power plants. The failure of one or more critical motors could cause lost capacity and excessive repair and maintenance cost. However, existing maintenance recommendations proposed by vendors for electric motors have sometimes encouraged many overly conservative maintenance practices. These practices have lead to excessive maintenance activities and costs which have provided no extra margin of operability. EPRI has sponsored RP2814-35 to develop a guide which provides power plants with information and guidance for establishing an effective maintenance program which will aid in preventing unexpected motor failures and assist in planning motor maintenance efforts. The guide includes a technical description which summarizes technical data relative to the four basic types of motors and their components in general use in power plants. The significant causes of motor failures are investigated and described in detail and methods to optimize service life and minimize maintenance cost through appropriate preventive maintenance and conditioning program are presented. This guide provides a foundation for an effective electric motor maintenance program and simplifies the selection of predictive and preventive maintenance tasks. Its use will enable maintenance personnel in nuclear and fossil plants to plan motor repairs during scheduled outages and avoid costly unexpected failures
Maintenance and environmental qualification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martin, R.S.; Austin, D.G.

1995-01-01

The design of today's nuclear generating plants involves many detailed design considerations. This includes comprehensive look at aging effects on plant components over their expected lifetimes. This is important to ensuring that the plant operates safely throughout its life. The effects of aging are required to be documented in detail in today's designs. This documentation provides assurance that safe operating conditions are maintained throughout the station life cycle. This requirement is analogous to the longer standing requirement to ensure pressure boundary integrity. The pressure boundary integrity requirement has existed in the industry since its inception. The subject of plant aging effects and the maintenance of functionality is known as Environmental Qualification (EQ). This paper will attempt to explain the wisdom of EQ and the potential for optimizing maintenance activities (to move from reactive to proactive activities), within the context of the overall maintenance program. It is the author's intent to encourage the active involvement of maintenance professionals in the effective implementation of the ongoing EQ program so that the benefits are maximized
New activities in nuclear power plants maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mico, F.; Specht, J.

2006-01-01

This article addresses the consequences of the progressive deregulation of the electricity market of several key countries on the maintenance practices and techniques face to the growing pressures on O and M costs. The responses of the nuclear maintenance industry to make maintenance activities more efficient maintaining if not enhancing the safety of NPP's are briefly described. The article also analyses the potential impact of shortage of experience maintenance personnel to serve the NPP's in the future as some countries are already experiencing. (Author)
Predictive maintenance primer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Flude, J.W.; Nicholas, J.R.

1991-04-01

This Predictive Maintenance Primer provides utility plant personnel with a single-source reference to predictive maintenance analysis methods and technologies used successfully by utilities and other industries. It is intended to be a ready reference to personnel considering starting, expanding or improving a predictive maintenance program. This Primer includes a discussion of various analysis methods and how they overlap and interrelate. Additionally, eighteen predictive maintenance technologies are discussed in sufficient detail for the user to evaluate the potential of each technology for specific applications. This document is designed to allow inclusion of additional technologies in the future. To gather the information necessary to create this initial Primer the Nuclear Maintenance Applications Center (NMAC) collected experience data from eighteen utilities plus other industry and government sources. NMAC also contacted equipment manufacturers for information pertaining to equipment utilization, maintenance, and technical specifications. The Primer includes a discussion of six methods used by analysts to study predictive maintenance data. These are: trend analysis; pattern recognition; correlation; test against limits or ranges; relative comparison data; and statistical process analysis. Following the analysis methods discussions are detailed descriptions for eighteen technologies analysts have found useful for predictive maintenance programs at power plants and other industrial facilities. Each technology subchapter has a description of the operating principles involved in the technology, a listing of plant equipment where the technology can be applied, and a general description of the monitoring equipment. Additionally, these descriptions include a discussion of results obtained from actual equipment users and preferred analysis techniques to be used on data obtained from the technology. 5 refs., 30 figs
Budgeting for Solar PV Plant Operations & Maintenance: Practices and Pricing.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Enbar, Nadav [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Weng, Dean [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Klise, Geoffrey Taylor [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2016-01-01

With rising grid interconnections of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, greater attention is being trained on lifecycle performance, reliability, and project economics. Expected to meet production thresholds over a 20-30 year timeframe, PV plants require a steady diet of operations and maintenance (O&M) oversight to meet contractual terms. However, industry best practices are only just beginning to emerge, and O&M budgets—given the arrangement of the solar project value chain—appear to vary widely. Based on insights from in-depth interviews and survey research, this paper presents an overview of the utility-scale PV O&M budgeting process along with guiding rationales, before detailing perspectives on current plant upkeep activities and price points largely in the U.S. It concludes by pondering potential opportunities for improving upon existing O&M budgeting approaches in ways that can benefit the industry at-large.
Managing and controlling maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chavez, G.; Perla, H.F.

1980-01-01

A well-planned maintenance-management program can bring organized yet flexible scheduling, improved productivity, and a ready-access data bank. The system detailed in the article, developed for a nuclear power plant, has application to any equipment-intensive facility. Key features of the system include: documentation of all work requirements and their completion; automated prioritizing of work orders; automatic generation of work orders for repetitive work, when due; work lists in priority sequence; deferred, standby, and outage work reports; labor and work-order backlog information; equipment work histories and cumulative failure data
Manual on maintenance of systems and components important to safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1986-01-01

The Manual should serve as guidance at the plant management level for the maintenance of systems and components important to safety. It includes a detailed description of management systems, administrative controls and procedures. The Annexes contain examples of documents and practices adopted by Operating Organizations of some Member States. It is not the intention of this Manual to address the technical problem of how to maintain a particular component but rather to cover the programmatic aspects of maintenance. It also contains some aspects of surveillance and verification activities. The Manual makes only general statements about radiation protection provisions in connection with maintenance; detailed guidance can be found in other IAEA documents
Lessons learned from early implementation of the maintenance rule at nine nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Petrone, C.D.; Correia, R.P.; Black, S.C.

1995-06-01

This report summarizes the lessons learned from the nine pilot site visits that were performed to review early implementation of the maintenance rule using the draft NRC Maintenance Inspection Procedure. Licensees followed NUMARC 93-01, ''Industry Guideline for Monitoring the Effectiveness of Maintenance at Nuclear Power Plants.'' In general, the licensees were thorough in determining which structures, systems, and components (SSCS) were within the scope of the maintenance rule at each site. The use of an expert panel was an appropriate and practical method of determining which SSCs are risk significant. When setting goals, all licensees considered safety but many licensees did not consider operating experience throughout the industry. Although required to do so, licensees were not monitoring at the system or train level the performance or condition for some systems used in standby service but not significant to risk. Most licensees had not established adequate monitoring of structures under the rule. Licensees established reasonable plans for doing periodic evaluations, balancing unavailability and reliability, and assessing the effect of taking equipment out of service for maintenance. However, these plans were not evaluated because they had not been fully implemented at the time of the site visits
Inspection maintenance and planning of shutdown in thermal electric generating plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dezordi, W.L.; Correa, D.A.; Kina, M.

1984-01-01

The schedule shutdown of an industrial plant and, more specifically, of an electrical generating station, is becoming increasingly important. The major parameters to be taken into account for the planning of such a shutdown are basically of economic-financial nature such as costs of the related services (materials, equipment, manpower, etc), loss of revenue caused by the station's shutdown as well as by the station availability, and other requirements expected from it by the Load Dispatch and consumers. Improving the equipment's performances and the station's availability are the fundamental objectives to be strived for. The authors present in this paper, in an abridged form, the planning tools used for thermal electric generating plants shutdowns for inspections, maintenance and design changes implementation. (Author) [pt
People's response to the promotion of the effective use of nuclear power plants. From the viewpoint of favoring providing information about maintenance activities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sakai, Yukimi; Ueda, Yoshitaka; Goto, Manabu

2010-01-01

In order to elucidate people's response to the promotion of the effective use of nuclear power plants by high-reliability maintenance, we conducted a questionnaire survey targeting 306 respondents living in the cities of Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe. The questionnaire comprises information about maintenance contents and regulatory system concerning extension of plant operation cycle, long life operation, and plant power-up, not as a measure for safety but a measure for promoting effective use of power plants. It was found that a high number of respondents held a positive attitude towards the promotion of the effective use of plants, even if they tend to be anxious about safety problems. Moreover, the study suggests that no enhance the feeling of safety, information about maintenance activities and regulatory system was more effective than information about actual technical possibility. (author)
Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) maintenance provisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marshall, J.L.

1981-05-01

The Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) was designed with maintainability as a primary parameter, and facilities and provisions were designed into the plant to accommodate the maintenance function. This paper describes the FFTF and its systems. Special maintenance equipment and facilities for performing maintenance on radioactive components are discussed. Maintenance provisions designed into the plant to enhance maintainability are also described

Conference on the exploitation, maintenance and resale of ground-based photovoltaic plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roesner, Sven; Christmann, Ralf; Bozonnat, Cedric; Le Pivert, Xavier; Vaassen, Willi; Dumoulin, Cedric; Kiefer, Klaus; Semmel, Andreas; Doose, Eckhard; Bion, Alain; Sanches, Frederico; Daval, Xavier; Pampouille, Antoine; Goetze, Holger; Stahl, Wolf-Ruediger; Merere, Karine

2017-11-01

This document gathers contributions and debate contents of a conference. A first set of contributions addressed the situation and recent developments of ground-based photovoltaic power plants in France and in Germany with presentations of legal frameworks in these both countries. The second set addressed the optimisation of such power plants: meteorological prediction and follow-up at the service of production, risks to which these power plants are exposed during operation, and the issue of right price and good practices for maintenance contracts for these plants. A round table addressed the issue of the balance between optimisation and established practices in a new economic framework. The next set of contributions addressed reasons for and effects of the resale of photovoltaic fleet during their exploitation: actors and financing solutions, value components, point of attention and legal view on re-financing contracts. A round table discussed trends and success factors for the re-financing of photovoltaic projects
After reliability centred maintenance. Preventive maintenance living program implementation at Bruce Power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harazim, Michael L.; Ferguson, Brian J.

2003-01-01

Industrial preventive maintenance (PM) programs represent a large part of plant O and M costs. PM Optimization (PMO) projects represent an effective mechanism for identifying unnecessary PM, extending PM intervals and infusing predictive maintenance (PdM) methods. However, once optimized, what process prevents the PM program from returning to a state of disarray? This is the function of a PM living program (PMLP). In 1997, an independent performance assessment identified concerns with the applicability and effectiveness of all Ontario Power Generation, Inc. (OPGI) PM programs. In response, OPGI instituted an Integrated Maintenance Program (IMP) including Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) and a PMLP. It should be noted that the PMLP was developed for the 3 OPGI nuclear Sites (i.e. Bruce, Pickering, and Darlington). Effective 1 May 2001, the Bruce Site has been leased to a group of investors lead by British Energy. This paper is written in historical context and therefore refers to the Bruce Site as part of OPGI. The PMLP is made up of five elements: 1) process control, 2) change control, 3) worker feedback, 4) program performance metrics, and 5) deferral module. A PMLP software tool, originally applied to Duke Energy nuclear plants, was enhanced and customized specifically for the OPGI PMLP, and then implemented at all three of OPGI's nuclear sites. The objective of the OPGI PMLP was to: Provide processes/procedures for continual optimization of all site PM tasks, Ensure effective and timely revision of PM tasks in the work management system, Ensure PM tasks remain applicable/effective at all times, Maintain and enhance PM consistency on a component, system and Site basis, Ensure that new predictive maintenance techniques are applied and integrated with the PM program, Ensure that mandated PM tasks are identified and executed, Provide a mechanism for craft feedback, Meet regulatory requirements for PM program effectiveness, and Provide PM task deferral
Good practices for effective maintenance to manage aging at NPPs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scott, W.B.; Enderlin, W.I.; Levy, I.S.

1989-01-01

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research is sponsoring this effort to study maintenance as it relates to aging, under the Nuclear Plant Aging Research (NPAR). Maintenance is the primary means of combating and correcting the effects of aging degradation at nuclear power plants. Maintenance effectiveness directly affects the safety of nuclear power plants. Several recent plant events have shown that improper maintenance or a lack of maintenance can be a significant contributory cause of plant incidents (e.g., transients at Rancho Seco and Davis Besse, and the Salem anticipated transient without scram event). In these, and other events, safety related plant equipment functions have been impaired by poor maintenance practices or a lack of maintenance on the specific equipment or in ancillary equipment that affects the ability of the safety related equipment to function. In some cases, the ancillary equipment has been nonsafety-related equipment, or balance-of-plant equipment that has not received adequate maintenance attention. In addition to the potential for causing safety significant plant transients, poor or lacking maintenance may allow the licensing basis of the plant to be eroded without detection. In some cases, time-related aging degradation of equipment that has not been detected, corrected or managed by the maintenance program has been a significant contributory factor. The NPAR program has developed significant information on aging degradation, detection, mitigation, and correction practices for safety-significant structures, systems and components that can be factored into maintenance programs and their effectiveness
The nuclear power plant maintenance personnel reliability prediction (NPP/MPRP) effort at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Knee, H.E.; Haas, P.M.; Siegel, A.I.

1982-01-01

Human errors committed during maintenance activities are potentially a major contribution to the overall risk associated with the operation of a nuclear power plant (NPP). An NRC-sponsored program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is attempting to develop a quantitative predictive technique to evaluate the contribution of maintenance errors to the overall NPP risk. The current work includes a survey of the requirements of potential users to ascertain the need for and content of the proposed quantitative model, plus an initial job/task analysis to determine the scope and applicability of various maintenance tasks. In addition, existing human reliability prediction models are being reviewed and assessed with respect to their applicability to NPP maintenance tasks. This paper discusses the status of the program and summarizes the results to date
Different genome maintenance strategies in human and tobacco cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Pelczar, Pawel; Kalck, Véronique; Kovalchuk, Igor

2003-08-22

In this work, genome maintenance strategies of organisms belonging to different kingdoms (animals versus plants) but of similar genome size were investigated using a novel, universal double-strand break (DSB) repair assay. Different plasmids linearised with KpnI, Acc65I or EcoRV yielding either 3' or 5' protruding or blunt DNA termini, respectively, were transfected into HeLa cells and Nicotiana plumbaginifolia protoplasts and assayed for the efficiency and fidelity of DSB repair. We show that the mechanism of break sealing is similar but that drastic differences are seen in the fidelity of repair: in HeLa cells, 50-55% DSBs were repaired precisely, compared to as little as 15-30% in tobacco cells. Moreover, the DSB repair in plants resulted in 30-40% longer deletions and significantly shorter insertions. Combined, these led to more than twofold larger net DNA loss in tobacco cells. Our observations point to possible differences in the strategies of DSB repair and genome maintenance in plants and animals.
'Inconstant males' and the maintenance of labile sex expression in subdioecious plants

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ehlers, Bodil; Bataillon, Thomas

2007-01-01

. Depending on the genetics of sex determination, we found pure dioecy, stable subdioecy (trioecy), and situations where inconstant males coexisted with either pure females or pure males. Under selfing and pollen limitation, certain conditions selected for inconstant males which will drive populations......Here, we evaluate the role of pollen limitation and selfing in the maintenance of labile sex expression in subdioecious plant species. We used a literature survey to explore which factors correlated with a significant occurrence of hermaphrodites in dioecious species. We developed models to explore...... the selective maintenance of labile sex expression. The models had similar ecological assumptions but differed in the genetic basis of sex lability. We found that a significant frequency of hermaphrodites was associated with animal pollination, and that hermaphrodites were ‘inconstant' males with perfect...
EDF guide book for decontamination at power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Glorennec, C.; Bemer, J.P.

1988-01-01

Nuclear Power Plant components or equipment often need to be more or less decontaminated before undergoing maintenance. In order to coordinate the activities of the different maintenance specialists belonging to the corporate or site organizations, the management of EDF/Nuclear and Fossil Division has created a decontamination task force. One of the objectives of this task force was to elaborate the present Guide Book for Decontamination at Power Plants. This paper provides assistance to nuclear plants operators in the very specific field of decontamination
Design of Mobile Device Display for Nuclear Power Plant Maintenance Considering the Level of Expertise

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, In; Seong, Poong Hyun

2009-01-01

Maintaining and repairing complex technical facilities such as nuclear power plants requires comprehensive knowledge on a broad range of the system, as well as on operational and safety procedures by the performing maintenance personnel. There exists the need to have access to instruction sheets and parameter tables at the work site. This may not be practicable with printed manuals simply due to their increasing bulk. To cope with this situation, fully mobile wirelessly connected (FMWC) information and communication technologies (ICT) are thought to have high potential for improving field maintenance through increased accessibility and availability of critical information needed in on-site reference or decision making. Among many up-todate technologies, the mobile application to the maintenance support system will be proposed in this paper
Budgeting for Solar PV Plant Operations & Maintenance: Practices and Pricing.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Enbar, Nadav [Electric Power Research Inst. (EPRI), Palo Alto, CA (United States); Weng, Dean [Electric Power Research Inst. (EPRI), Palo Alto, CA (United States); Klise, Geoffrey Taylor [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2015-12-01

With rising grid interconnections of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, greater attention is being trained on lifecycle performance, reliability, and project economics. Expected to meet production thresholds over a 20-30 year timeframe, PV plants require a steady diet of operations and maintenance (O&M) oversight to meet contractual terms. However, industry best practices are only just beginning to emerge, and O&M budgets—given the arrangement of the solar project value chain—appear to vary widely. Based on insights from in-depth interviews and survey research, this paper presents an overview of the utility-scale PV O&M budgeting process along with guiding rationales, before detailing perspectives on current plant upkeep activities and price points largely in the U.S. It concludes by pondering potential opportunities for improving upon existing O&M budgeting approaches in ways that can benefi t the industry at-large.
Building Maintenance, Management, and Budgeting.

Science.gov (United States)

Pawsey, M. R.

1982-01-01

Australian methods and formulas for funding building maintenance and management are outlined and found to be haphazard. Discussed are: ultimate costs of deferred maintenance, major plant replacements, life cycle costing, types of maintenance programs (including full preventive maintenance), use of computer programs for planning, and organization…
Education and training of operators and maintenance staff at Hamaoka Nuclear Power Stations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Makido, Hideki; Hayashi, Haruhisa

1999-01-01

At Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station, in order to ensure higher safety and reliability of plant operation, education and training is provided consistently, on a comprehensive basis, for all operating, maintenance and other technical staff, aimed at developing more capable human resources in the nuclear power division. To this end, Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station has the 'Nuclear Training Center' on its site. The training center provides the technical personnel including operators and maintenance personnel with practical training, utilizing simulators for operation training and the identical facilities with those at the real plant. Thus, it plays a central role in promoting comprehensive education and training concerning nuclear power generation. Our education system covers knowledge and skills necessary for the safe and stable operation of nuclear power plant, targeting new employees to managerial personnel. It is also organized systematically in accordance with experience and job level. We will report the present education and training of operators and maintenance personnel at Hamaoka Nuclear Training Center. (author)
Criteria Document for B-plant's Surveillance and Maintenance Phase Safety Basis Document

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

SCHWEHR, B.A.

1999-01-01

This document is required by the Project Hanford Managing Contractor (PHMC) procedure, HNF-PRO-705, Safety Basis Planning, Documentation, Review, and Approval. This document specifies the criteria that shall be in the B Plant surveillance and maintenance phase safety basis in order to obtain approval of the DOE-RL. This CD describes the criteria to be addressed in the S and M Phase safety basis for the deactivated Waste Fractionization Facility (B Plant) on the Hanford Site in Washington state. This criteria document describes: the document type and format that will be used for the S and M Phase safety basis, the requirements documents that will be invoked for the document development, the deactivated condition of the B Plant facility, and the scope of issues to be addressed in the S and M Phase safety basis document
Implementation of maintenance rule for structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ashar, H.; Bagchi, G.

1999-01-01

The maintenance rule, 10 CFR 50.65, 'Requirements for Monitoring the Effectiveness of Maintenance at Nuclear Power Plants', was published by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the Federal Register (56 FR 31324) on July 10, 1991. The rule became effective on July 10, 1996, giving nuclear power plant licensees 5 years to implement it. During 1994-1995, NRC staff visited nine nuclear power plant sites to observe licensees' preparations for implementation of the rule. The teams found that most of the licensees had not established goals, or performance criteria for monitoring structures at their sites. The licensees contended that the structures were inherently reliable and required no monitoring under the maintenance rule. On the basis of earlier site visits performed by NRC staff to assess the condition of structures, the NRC staff could not accept this contention, and clarified its position in Revision 1 of Regulatory Guide 1.160, 'Monitoring the Effectiveness of Maintenance at Nuclear Power Plants'. This paper discusses the applicability of the maintenance rule criteria for structures and its usefulness in ensuring that the structures, systems, and components within the scope of the maintenance rule are capable of fulfilling their intended functions. Also discussed are the aspects of maintenance rule efforts that could be useful for license renewal applications. (orig.)
Challenges of adolescent and maturing nuclear plants: a chemistry perspective on maintenance and outages

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roberts, J.G. [Bruce Power, Chemistry Design, Plant Design Engineering, Tiverton, Ontario (Canada)]. E-mail: john.roberts@brucepower.com

2003-07-01

In his address to the Canadian Nuclear Society, Bruce Power's Section Manager for Chemistry Design will relate how Designers and Specifiers for Plant and Components have historically limited their approach to that of new plants. As nuclear plants become operational, John G. Roberts will explain how the requirements to protect the assets change as a result of changed capabilities, environments and requirements. John will offer examples to show how challenges were met during construction and commissioning. While plant changes are often necessary following commissioning to prevent serious operational problems, John will also discuss ways in which planners, suppliers and maintenance staff can broaden their views and embrace new work methods to ensure those changes don't unwittingly create new challenges. (author)
Challenges of adolescent and maturing nuclear plants: a chemistry perspective on maintenance and outages

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roberts, J.G.

2003-01-01

In his address to the Canadian Nuclear Society, Bruce Power's Section Manager for Chemistry Design will relate how Designers and Specifiers for Plant and Components have historically limited their approach to that of new plants. As nuclear plants become operational, John G. Roberts will explain how the requirements to protect the assets change as a result of changed capabilities, environments and requirements. John will offer examples to show how challenges were met during construction and commissioning. While plant changes are often necessary following commissioning to prevent serious operational problems, John will also discuss ways in which planners, suppliers and maintenance staff can broaden their views and embrace new work methods to ensure those changes don't unwittingly create new challenges. (author)
Maintenance approaches and practices in selected foreign nuclear power programs and other US industries: Review and lessons learned

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1990-04-01

The Commission published a Notice of Proposed Rule-making on Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plants on November 28, 1988, spelling out NRC's expectations in maintenance. In preparing the proposed rule, the NRC reviewed maintenance practices in other countries and considered maintenance approaches in other industries in this country. As a result of the review of maintenance practices, it was concluded that certain practices in the following areas have been found to contribute significantly to effective maintenance: (1) systems approach; (2) effectiveness monitoring; (3) technician qualifications and motivation; and (4) maintenance organization. 87 refs., 26 figs., 2 tabs.
Maintenance approaches and practices in selected foreign nuclear power programs and other US industries: Review and lessons learned

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1990-04-01

The Commission published a Notice of Proposed Rule-making on Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plants on November 28, 1988, spelling out NRC's expectations in maintenance. In preparing the proposed rule, the NRC reviewed maintenance practices in other countries and considered maintenance approaches in other industries in this country. As a result of the review of maintenance practices, it was concluded that certain practices in the following areas have been found to contribute significantly to effective maintenance: (1) systems approach; (2) effectiveness monitoring; (3) technician qualifications and motivation; and (4) maintenance organization. 87 refs., 26 figs., 2 tabs
Integrated services and maintenance in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roos, Georg

2001-01-01

The general situation concerning services and nuclear power maintenance is reviewed following liberalization of Europa's power market. Issues relating to outsourcing maintenance services, effectiveness and reducing cost structure of maintenance are addressed on the cases of power markets in northern countries, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and Hungary. A special attention is paid on range of maintenance activity offered and performanced by Framatome. Ways of reducing costs in the field of maintenance as well as of reducing outage time are indicated. In conclusion, the following items are emphasized: - liberalization of Europe's power market in eastern Europe at its beginning; - in-house service in eastern Europe with numerous personnel; - Framatome ANP covers the entire range of maintenance competence; - consultance can be the first approach for a common co-operation
Digital maintenance field technology for the maintenance of nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sato, Tomomasa; Asama, Hajime; Kita, Nobuyuki; Numano, Masayoshi

2002-01-01

This paper proposes a concept of 'Digital Maintenance Field Technology', which enables human beings and working robots making fully use of the necessary information for maintenance activity not only in any location of the maintenance field (seamless in location) but also in any moment from the past to the future (seamless in time) and in any format in presenting to human (seamless in semantics). The paper points out the following three essential components of the technology: 1) 'Digital Field Construction Technology', 2) 'Digital Field Archival Technology' and 3) 'Digital Field Presentation Technology'. The necessary capabilities are extracted and our approaches and state of the art of realizing these capabilities are introduced in addition to present the state of the art of home application example. The future extension is also illustrated. (author)
On-Line Maintenance Methodology Development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Hyo Won; Kim, Jae Ho; Jae, Moo Sung [Hanyang University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2012-05-15

Most of domestic maintenance activities for nuclear power plants are performed while overhaul. Therefore, On-Line Maintenance (OLM) is one of the proper risks informed application techniques for diffusing maintenance burden during overhaul with safety of the plant is secured. The NUMARC 93-01 (Rev.3) presents the OLM state of the art and it provides methodology. This study adopts NUMARC 93-01 (Rev.3) and present OLM. The reference component is Emergency Diesel Generator (EDG) of Ulchin 3, 4

BWR nuclear plant maintenance simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stuart, I.F.

1985-01-01

As early as 1977, the General Electric Company, USA, Nuclear Energy Operation was making plans to construct a maintenance-type simulator to support Training and Services. The Company's pioneering experience with control room simulators started in 1968 with the Dresden simulator and showed clearly the benefits of having such facilities for training, checkout of procedures and, in the case of maintenance, match-up of equipment or tools as needed. Since the dedication of the facility, it has proved to be an invaluable resource in the training of refuelling and servicing crews. The facility has also been extensively used as developmental and test facility for in-vessel servicing equipment and procedures. (author)
Maintenance Business Plans.

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Matt

2002-01-01

Discusses maintenance business plans, statements which provide accountability for facilities maintenance organizations' considerable budgets. Discusses the plan's components: statement of plan objectives, macro and detailed description of the facility assets, maintenance function descriptions, description of key performance indicators, milestone…
Maintenance in nuclear production power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lozano, J. M.

2010-01-01

This article highlights the importance and quality of maintenance in the complete phases of development, in a sector which has been often questioned by the public opinion, and that is always subject to national and international standards. The aim of maintenance is to guarantee the production of electric power in a reliable, safe, economic and friendly environmentally way, assuring a long-term production. (Author)
Ageing of reinforced concrete pipes subjected to seawater in nuclear plants: optimization of maintenance operations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Auge, L.; Capra, B.; Lasne, M.; Benefice, P.; Comby, R.

2007-01-01

Seaside nuclear power plants have to face the ageing of nuclear reactor cooling piping systems. In order to minimize the duration of the production unit shutdown, maintenance operations have to be planned well in advance. In a context where owners of infrastructures tend to extend the life span of their goods while having to keep the safety level maximum, it is more and more important to develop high level expertise and know-how in management of infrastructures life cycle. A patented monitoring technique based on optic fiber sensors, has been designed. This preventive maintenance enables the owner to determine criteria for network replacement based on degradation impacts. A methodology to evaluate and optimize operation budgets, depending on predictions of future functional deterioration and available maintenance solutions, has been developed and applied. (authors)
Operation and maintenance requirements of system design bases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Banerjee, A.K.; Hanley, N.E.

1989-01-01

All system designs make assumptions about system operation testing, inspection, and maintenance. Existing industry codes and standards explicitly address design requirements of new systems, while issues related to system and plant reliability, life, design margins, effects of service conditions, operation, maintenance, etc., usually are implicit. However, system/component design documents of existing power plants often address the code requirements without considering the operation, maintenance, inspection, and testing (OMIT) requirements. The nuclear industry is expending major efforts at most nuclear power plants to reassemble and/or reconstitute system design bases. Stone ampersand Webster Engineering Corporation (SWEC) recently addressed the OMIT requirements of system/component design as an integral part of a utility's preventive maintenance program. For each component, SWEC reviewed vendor recommendations, NPRDS data/industry experience, the existing maintenance program, component service conditions, and actual plant experience. A maintenance program that considers component service conditions and plant experience ensures a connection between maintenance and design basis. Root cause analysis of failure and engineering evaluation of service condition are part of the program. System/component OMIT requirements also are compared against system design, service condition, degradation mechanism, etc., through system/component life-cycle evaluation
Susquehanna SES maintenance supervisor training and certification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deckman, M.

1991-01-01

Susquehanna's program targets all Supervisors, Supervisor Candidates, and Temporary Supervisors that are responsible for in-plant maintenance or maintenance support activities, including: mechanical maintenance; electrical maintenance; maintenance support (labor support, radwaste, etc.); mobile construction support (mechanical and electrical); chemistry; health physics; maintenance planning; and instrument and controls. The program integrates the three major areas of direct Supervisory responsibilities: (1) Leadership and Management - Skills that require interpersonal activities that are typically humanistic and subjective; such as coaching, motivating, communications, etc. (2) Technical and Administrative - Knowledge that is directly related to the job of Supervising from the production, regulatory, accountability perspective. These topics are very objective and include training on topics such as workpackages, plant chemistry parameters, radiological concerns, etc. (3) Technical Skills - Ensure each Supervisor is technically competent in the plant systems, components, or equipment he/she is tasked with maintaining or overseeing. Typical skills found in this area are, circuit breaker maintenance, primary system sampling, or overhauling pumps
Proving maintenance practices at France's CETIC facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1987-01-01

CETIC, a PWR maintenance testing, training and validation centre became operational in September 1986. It is designed to meet the following basic requirements: development of plant maintenance processes to reduce work time, validation of tools for use during maintenance, training and qualification of teams for performing high-technology, high-risk operations in nuclear power plants. (U.K.)
Preventative Maintenance and Reliability Study for the Central Heating and Power Plant at Fort Wainwright, Alaska

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Vavrin, John L; Brown, III, William T; Kemme, Michael R; Westerman, John; Lorand, Robert T; Walden, Charles; Swinehart, Curtis

2007-01-01

... (FWA) (Vavrin et al. 2006) recommended that if the option for a new CHPP were to be pursued, among the tasks suggested for further analysis was to determine predictive maintenance requirements and new technologies for the existing plant...
Preventive Maintenance and Reliability Study for the Central Heating and Power Plant at Fort Wainwright, Alaska

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Vavrin, John L; Brown, III, William T; Kemme, Michael R; Westerman, John; Lorand, Robert; Walden, Charles; Swinehart, Curtis

2007-01-01

... (FWA) (Vavrin et al. 2006) recommended that if the option for a new CHPP were to be pursued, among the tasks suggested for further analysis was to determine predictive maintenance requirements and new technologies for the existing plant...
High Level Waste plant operation and maintenance concepts. Final report, March 27, 1995

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Janicek, G.P.

1995-01-01

The study reviews and evaluates worldwide High Level Waste (HLW) vitrification operating and maintenance (O ampersand M) philosophies, plant design concepts, and lessons learned with an aim towards developing O ampersand M recommendations for either, similar implementation or further consideration in a HLW vitrification facility at Hanford. The study includes a qualitative assessment of alternative concepts for a variety of plant and process systems and subsystems germane to HLW vitrification, such as, feed materials handling, melter configuration, glass form, canister handling, failed equipment handling, waste handling, and process control. Concept evaluations and recommendations consider impacts to Capital Cost, O ampersand M Cost, ALARA, Availability, and Reliability
Improving the development, use and control of maintenance procedures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morgenstern, M.H.; Barnes, V.E.; Radford, L.R.; Wheeler, W.A.; Badalamente, R.V.

1985-12-01

This paper describes the results of a project conducted for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to assess and document the need for guidance or regulatory involvement by the NRC in the development, upgrading, use and control of maintenance procedures in US nuclear power plants. Presented are the findings of the following activities: (1) a survey of current maintenance procedure practices in seven US nuclear power plants; (2) a review and analysis of plant administrative and maintenance procedures; (3) a survey of maintenance procedure practices in industries that share some characteristics with the nuclear industry; and (4) a review of the research pertaining to job performance aids and a brief analysis of their applicability to maintenance in nuclear power plants. Based on these findings, several recommendations to upgrade maintenance procedures are offered
Auditable safety analysis for the surveillance and maintenance of U plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cuneo, V.J.

1997-02-01

This document provides the auditable safety analysis for the post-deactivation, long-term surveillance and maintenance (S ampersand amp;M) phase of the U Plant. The U Plant is an inactive, surplus facility constructed in 1944 as one of three original chemical separations plants. However, U-Plant was never used for its original purpose and was eventually transferred to S ampersand amp;M. In 1957 it was converted to the tributyl phosphate process to recover uranium from the bismuth phosphate process waste. In 1958 it was placed on standby and was used to store inoperable and contaminated equipment from other facilities.This document evaluates the ability of the U Plant to withstand the effects of natural phenomena hazard events and describes the active support systems used to maintain ventilation and/or prevent the spread of contamination. This document also evaluates S ampersand amp;M activities that are routinely required (i.e., the S ampersand amp;M of facility barriers, equipment, structures, and postings [including repair and upgrade]; measures to identify, remove, or repair damaged asbestos; measures to identify, remove, or appropriately manage existing containers of hazardous substances; the performance of spill response measures as needed; and perform nondestructive assaying, waste characterization, and sampling). This document identifies the type and nature of the hazards presented by the U Plant and the specific controls that are required to maintain these hazards at acceptable levels
Condition-based maintenance for complex systems : Coordinating maintenance and logistics planning for the process industries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Olde Keizer, Minou Catharina Anselma

2016-01-01

Maintenance planning in the process industries is extremely complex for various reasons. Plants often run nonstop, allowing little time for performing preventive maintenance. Failures should be prevented, however, as they can lead to system downtime and high losses of revenue. Corrective maintenance
Inspection, evaluation and maintenance guidelines for reactor vessel internals in JAPAN

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sakashita, Akihiro; Goto, Tomoya; Hirano, Shinro; Dozaki, Koji

2010-01-01

Inspection and Evaluation Guidelines for reactor internals has been taken into the Rules on Fitness-for–Service for Nuclear Power Plants of The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers. It is a base of the maintenance plan of each Nuclear Power Plant. A plant maintenance methodology will have more importance to maintain the plant safety and stable plant operation. This paper introduces the systematization of the maintenance such as repair, replacement, preventive maintenance in these guidelines. Maintenance methodologies are classified follows. Repair: methodology to reinforce degraded parts by some methods or prevent progress of degradation of without replacement of the existing structure when the degradation of structure is actualized. Replacement: methodology to replace the existing structure with new one when the degradation of structure is actualized. Preventive maintenance : methodology to mitigate the damaged condition. When the maintenance methodologies are implemented in the actual plant, we have to consider the feedback of the inspection program and plant life management. (author)
Status of online maintenance in the world

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mizumachi, Wataru; Kobayashi, Masahide

2009-01-01

In many countries, online maintenance has been already introduced. Especially in US, online maintenance has been introduced to many nuclear plants which has (N+1) redundant safety systems as Japanese plants. There experience will contribute us to discuss how to introduce online maintenance in Japan. In IAEA's nuclear safety criteria and guidance, it is recognized that the outage of one safety system for maintenance is usual operation. This is normal sense in the world. In US, the risk when online maintenance is done is controlled mainly by PRA. We have to discuss how to introduce online maintenance in JAPAN under these conditions in the world. (author)
Systematic analysis and prevention of human originated common cause failures in relation to maintenance activities at Finnish nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Laakso, K. [VTT Industrial Systems, Espoo (Finland)

2006-12-15

The focus in human reliability analysis of nuclear power plants has traditionally been on human performance in disturbance conditions. On the other hand, human maintenance failures and design deficiencies, remained latent in the system, have an impact on the severity of a disturbance, e.g. by disabling safety-related equipment on demand. Especially common cause failures (CCFs) of safety related systems can affect the core damage risk to a significant extent. The topic has been addressed in Finnish studies, where experiences of latent human errors have been searched and analysed systematically from the maintenance history stored in the the power plant information systems of the Loviisa and Olkiluoto NPPs. Both the single and multiple errors (CCFs) were classified in detail and documented as error and event reports. The human CCFs involved human, organisational and technical factors. The review of the analysed single and multiple errors showed that instrumentation and control and electrical equipment are more prone to human error caused failure events than the other maintenance objects. The review of the analysed experience showed that most errors stem from the refuelling and maintenance outage periods. More than half of the multiple errors from the outages remained latent to the power operating periods. The review of the analysed multiple errors showed that difficulties with small plant modifications and planning of maintenance and operability were significant sources of common cause failures. The most dependent human errors originating from small modifications could be reduced by a more tailored planning and coverage of their start-up testing programs. Improvements could also be achieved by identifying better in work planning from the operating experiences those complex or intrusive repair and preventive maintenance work tasks and actions which are prone to errors. Such uncertain cases in important equipment require a more tailored work planning of the installation
Systematic analysis and prevention of human originated common cause failures in relation to maintenance activities at Finnish nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laakso, K.

2006-12-01

The focus in human reliability analysis of nuclear power plants has traditionally been on human performance in disturbance conditions. On the other hand, human maintenance failures and design deficiencies, remained latent in the system, have an impact on the severity of a disturbance, e.g. by disabling safety-related equipment on demand. Especially common cause failures (CCFs) of safety related systems can affect the core damage risk to a significant extent. The topic has been addressed in Finnish studies, where experiences of latent human errors have been searched and analysed systematically from the maintenance history stored in the the power plant information systems of the Loviisa and Olkiluoto NPPs. Both the single and multiple errors (CCFs) were classified in detail and documented as error and event reports. The human CCFs involved human, organisational and technical factors. The review of the analysed single and multiple errors showed that instrumentation and control and electrical equipment are more prone to human error caused failure events than the other maintenance objects. The review of the analysed experience showed that most errors stem from the refuelling and maintenance outage periods. More than half of the multiple errors from the outages remained latent to the power operating periods. The review of the analysed multiple errors showed that difficulties with small plant modifications and planning of maintenance and operability were significant sources of common cause failures. The most dependent human errors originating from small modifications could be reduced by a more tailored planning and coverage of their start-up testing programs. Improvements could also be achieved by identifying better in work planning from the operating experiences those complex or intrusive repair and preventive maintenance work tasks and actions which are prone to errors. Such uncertain cases in important equipment require a more tailored work planning of the installation
Improving regulatory oversight of maintenance programs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cook, S.

2008-01-01

Safe nuclear power plant operation requires that risks due to failure or unavailability of Structures, Systems and Components (SSCs) be minimized. Implementation of an effective maintenance program is a key means for achieving this goal. In its regulatory framework, the important relationship between maintenance and safety is acknowledged by the CNSC. A high level maintenance program requirement is included in the Class I Facilities Regulations. In addition, the operating licence contains a condition based on the principle that the design function and performance of SSCs needs to remain consistent with the plant's design and analysis documents. Nuclear power plant licensees have the primary responsibility for safe operation of their facilities and consequently for implementation of a successful maintenance program. The oversight role of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is to ensure that the licensee carries out that responsibility. The challenge for the CNSC is how to do this consistently and efficiently. Three opportunities for improvement to regulatory maintenance oversight are being pursued. These are related to the regulatory framework, compliance verification inspection activities and monitoring of self-reporting. The regulatory framework has been improved by clarifying expectations through the issuance of S-210 'Maintenance Programs for Nuclear Power Plants'. Inspection activities have been improved by introducing new maintenance inspections into the baseline program. Monitoring is being improved by making better use of self-reported and industry produced maintenance related performance indicators. As with any type of program change, the challenge is to ensure the consistent and optimal application of regulatory activities and resources. This paper is a summary of the CNSC's approach to improving its maintenance oversight strategy. (author)
Advanced maintenance research programs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marston, T.U.; Gelhaus, F.; Burke, R.

1985-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with an idea of the advanced maintenance research program at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). A brief description of the maintenance-related activities is provided as a foundation for the advanced maintenance research projects. The projects can be divided into maintenance planning, preventive maintenance program development and implementation, predictive (or conditional) maintenance, and innovative maintenance techniques. The projects include hardware and software development, human factors considerations, and technology promotion and implementation. The advanced concepts include: the incorporation of artificial intelligence into outage planning; turbine and pump maintenance; rotating equipment monitoring and diagnostics with the aid of expert systems; and the development of mobile robots for nuclear power plant maintenance
Maintenance and Outage Management Assessment (MOMA)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

The competitive environment has significant implications for nuclear power plant (NPP) operations, which include, inter alia, the need for efficient use of resources and effective management of plant activities of maintenance and outages. The purpose of NPP maintenance and outages is to allow NPPs to use all those functions necessary for safe and reliable power production by keeping them available and adequate maintenance programme is essential. The maintenance programme covers all preventive and remedial measures, both administrative and technical, necessary to identify and mitigate degradation of a functioning system, structure or component, or restore the design functions of a failed system, structure or component to an acceptable level. In response to the needs of MSs, NPES (Nuclear Power Section, Division of Nuclear Power, IAEA) plans to strengthen its services. NPES services will not only continue to provide its 'traditional' products of publications of nuclear industrial best practices and technical implementation of TC projects on plant maintenance and outage management, but also be expanded to deliver, in a timely manner, technical support missions as requested by MSs for NPPs. One of many services is Maintenance and Outage Management Assessment (MOMA). The NPP can obtain support and assistance in assessment and optimisation of its maintenance program and/or outage management. It aims to help the NPP improve its performance of maintenance and outage in a competitive nuclear power business environment. The specific benefits of the assessment are as follows: a) disseminate nuclear industrial best practices on maintenance program and outage management in the world, b) benchmark, evaluate and optimise the approach of maintenance program and outage management and c) identify solutions to known problems at nuclear power plants, if any. MOMA is conducted at the request of NPPs of any IAEA Member States. MOMA consists in a technical mission/visit for 1-3 weeks by

Maintenance cost optimization in condition based maintenance: a case study for critical facilities

OpenAIRE

Filippo De Carlo; Maria Antonietta Arleo

2013-01-01

The increasing availability required to industrial plants and the limited budget often existing to assure it, require a careful formulation of maintenance optimization models. This need is primary for process plants, for which minimization of stops and maximization of their availability, are essential for ensuring targeted production and, therefore, profitability. In this context, the choice of the maintenance strategy is hence fundamental, depending on the system features and then on the eff...
Maintenance planning and performance software for valve packing programs at nuclear power stations (ValvePro Version 2.5)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hutcheson, N.D.

1994-01-01

ValvePro Version 2.5 for Windows was developed to help power plant maintenance personnel improve maintenance productivity and quality through a simple, attractive software program, which can be installed on personal computer systems in use at many utilities today. This paper explains the functions of this software and how it can be used by a maintenance organization as a foundation for a consistent, effective valve packing program utilizing sound packing principles
Maintenance program, organization and procedures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schegk, J.R.R.

1986-01-01

The Rheinisch-Westfaelisches Elektrizitaetswerk AG (RWE) operates two pressurized water reactors (PWR) with 1.200 MW and 1.300 MW and two boiling water reactors (BWR) with an electrical output of 1.300 MW each. The PWR were commissioned in 1975 and 1977 respectively and have so far achieved a cumulative availability of 72%. The BWR started operating in 1984 and 1985. Since than they have been generating with a cumulative availability of 88%. The reliability of the nuclear power stations resulted in a trouble-free operation. For the last two years, the unscheduled non-availability amounted to 3,7% and 6,5% for the PWR and the BWR respectively. These favourable operating results derive inter alia from systematic preventive maintenance and consistent outage management. Apart from the personnel structure in the power stations the functional sequence of planning, control, performance as well as evaluation of maintenance results constitute a closed cycle. In order to ensure and support an effective cooperation of the above mentioned four functional sequences of a cycle, uniform and computer-assisted information and planning aids have been introduced such as task lists, job ordering, time scheduling and materials management. As a result of this preventive maintenance system the average refueling outage period is 35 to 42 days. (orig.)
Optimization potential in maintenance; Optimierungspotenzial in der Instandhaltung

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Janisch, H. [EnBW Kraftwerke AG, Kernkraftwerk Philippsburg (Germany)

2001-04-01

Also in the future, the supreme goal of nuclear power plant operation is going to be plant safety. At the same time, the economic component must be taken into account, which has become more important as a consequence of the deregulation in the electricity market. Until now, the electricity generating costs in nuclear power plants have been optimized by increases in electricity generation, and by high plant availabilities in terms of time and capacity. However, these capacity-based influences on the generating costs practically have been exploited to the full extent possible because of the high plant reliability reached. This makes the cost term the focal point in all optimization efforts, i.e. in existing nuclear power plants especially the maintenance costs. At the present high level of safety, which is going to develop even further, growing operating experience will allow a change to be made from preventive maintenance to cost-optimized state-oriented maintenance strategies. Other measures of advanced maintenance strategies are seen in the fields of work organization, personnel management, and personnel and plant use planning for more than one site. Important components in this effort are IT-based plant management systems allowing the complex problems to be planned, executed, controlled, and analyzed. All these measures serve to allow the operation of nuclear power plants at an even higher level of optimization, maximum safety in line with the state of the art, and demonstrably competitive electricity generating costs. (orig.) [German] Oberstes Ziel des Betriebs von Kernkraftwerken wird auch in Zukunft uneingeschraenkt deren Sicherheit sein, bei gleichzeitiger Beruecksichtigung der durch die Liberalisierung des Strommarktes bedeutungsvoller gewordenen wirtschaftlichen Komponente. Bislang wurden die Erzeugungskosten in Kernkraftwerken durch Erhoehung der Stromerzeugungsleistung und durch hohe Zeit- und Arbeitsverfuegbarkeiten optimiert. Auf Grund der erreichten
Nuclear maintenance strategy and first steps for preliminary maintenance plan of the EU HCLL & HCPB Test Blanket Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Galabert, Jose, E-mail: jose.galabert@f4e.europa.eu [F4E Fusion for Energy, EU Domestic Agency, c/Josep Pla, 2. B3, 08019, Barcelona (Spain); Hopper, Dave [AMEC Foster Wheeler, Faraday Street, Birchwood Park, WA3 6GN (United Kingdom); Neviere, Jean-Cristophe [ITER Organization, Route de Vinon-sur-Verdon, CS 90046, 13067, St. Paul Lez Durance Cedex (France); Nodwell, David [CCFE, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, OX14 3DB, Oxfordshire (United Kingdom); Pascal, Romain [ITER Organization, Route de Vinon-sur-Verdon, CS 90046, 13067, St. Paul Lez Durance Cedex (France); Poitevin, Yves; Ricapito, Italo [F4E Fusion for Energy, EU Domestic Agency, c/Josep Pla, 2. B3, 08019, Barcelona (Spain); White, Gareth [AMEC Foster Wheeler, Faraday Street, Birchwood Park, WA3 6GN (United Kingdom)

2017-03-15

Highlights: • Nuclear maintenance strategy for the two European (EU) Test Blanket Systems (TBS): i/. Helium Cooled Lead Lithium (HCLL) and ii/. Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB). • Preliminary identification of maintenance tasks for most relevant components of the EU HCLL & HCPB TBS. • Preliminary feasibility analysis for hands-on maintenance tasks of some relevant components of the European Test Blanket Systems. • Design recommendations for enhancement of the European Test Blanket Systems maintainability. - Abstract: This paper gives an overview of nuclear maintenance strategy to be followed for the European HCLL & HCPB Test Blanket Systems (TBS) to be installed in ITER. One of the several core documents to prepare in view of their licensing is their respective ‘Maintenance Plan’. This document is fundamental for ensuring sound performance and safety of the TBS during ITER’s operational phase and shall include, amongst others, relevant information on: maintenance organization, preventive and corrective maintenance task procedures, condition monitoring for key components, maintenance work planning, and a spare parts plan, just to mention some of the key topics. In compliance with the ITER Plant Maintenance policy, first steps have been taken aimed at defining nuclear maintenance strategy for some of the most relevant HCLL & HCPB TBS components, conducted by F4E in collaboration with industry. After a brief recall of maintenance strategy of the TBM Program (PBS-56), this paper analyses main features of EU HCLL & HCPB TBS maintainability and identifies, at their conceptual design phase, a preliminary list of maintenance tasks to be developed for their most representative components. In addition, the paper also presents the first nuclear maintenance studies conducted for replacement of the Q{sub 2} Getter Beds, identifying some design recommendations for their sound maintainability.
Nuclear maintenance strategy and first steps for preliminary maintenance plan of the EU HCLL & HCPB Test Blanket Systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Galabert, Jose; Hopper, Dave; Neviere, Jean-Cristophe; Nodwell, David; Pascal, Romain; Poitevin, Yves; Ricapito, Italo; White, Gareth

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Nuclear maintenance strategy for the two European (EU) Test Blanket Systems (TBS): i/. Helium Cooled Lead Lithium (HCLL) and ii/. Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB). • Preliminary identification of maintenance tasks for most relevant components of the EU HCLL & HCPB TBS. • Preliminary feasibility analysis for hands-on maintenance tasks of some relevant components of the European Test Blanket Systems. • Design recommendations for enhancement of the European Test Blanket Systems maintainability. - Abstract: This paper gives an overview of nuclear maintenance strategy to be followed for the European HCLL & HCPB Test Blanket Systems (TBS) to be installed in ITER. One of the several core documents to prepare in view of their licensing is their respective ‘Maintenance Plan’. This document is fundamental for ensuring sound performance and safety of the TBS during ITER’s operational phase and shall include, amongst others, relevant information on: maintenance organization, preventive and corrective maintenance task procedures, condition monitoring for key components, maintenance work planning, and a spare parts plan, just to mention some of the key topics. In compliance with the ITER Plant Maintenance policy, first steps have been taken aimed at defining nuclear maintenance strategy for some of the most relevant HCLL & HCPB TBS components, conducted by F4E in collaboration with industry. After a brief recall of maintenance strategy of the TBM Program (PBS-56), this paper analyses main features of EU HCLL & HCPB TBS maintainability and identifies, at their conceptual design phase, a preliminary list of maintenance tasks to be developed for their most representative components. In addition, the paper also presents the first nuclear maintenance studies conducted for replacement of the Q_2 Getter Beds, identifying some design recommendations for their sound maintainability.
Advances in safety related maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-03-01

The maintenance of systems, structures and components in nuclear power plants (NPPs) plays an important role in assuring their safe and reliable operation. Worldwide, NPP maintenance managers are seeking to reduce overall maintenance costs while maintaining or improving the levels of safety and reliability. Thus, the issue of NPP maintenance is one of the most challenging aspects of nuclear power generation. There is a direct relation between safety and maintenance. While maintenance alone (apart from modifications) will not make a plant safer than its original design, deficient maintenance may result in either an increased number of transients and challenges to safety systems or reduced reliability and availability of safety systems. The confidence that NPP structures, systems and components will function as designed is ultimately based on programmes which monitor both their reliability and availability to perform their intended safety function. Because of this, approaches to monitor the effectiveness of maintenance are also necessary. An effective maintenance programme ensures that there is a balance between the improvement in component reliability to be achieved and the loss of component function due to maintenance downtime. This implies that the safety level of an NPP should not be adversely affected by maintenance performed during operation. The nuclear industry widely acknowledges the importance of maintenance in NPP safety and operation and therefore devotes great efforts to develop techniques, methods and tools to aid in maintenance planning, follow-up and optimization, and in assuring the effectiveness of maintenance
Technical requirements on knowledge base and instrumentation system for decision making in plant operation and maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kitamura, Masaharu; Yoshikawa, Shinji; Hasegawa, Makoto

1998-03-01

A series of technical surveys and studies are described in this report to examine and identify technical requirements to be posed on knowledge base and instrumentation system as the fundamental in high reliability computational decision making in operation and maintenance of nuclear power plants. Monitoring and diagnosis are focused as the important tasks among the operation/maintenance-related tasks. A concrete monitoring and diagnosis system configuration has been proposed consisting of distributed symptom database and of on-demand measurement subsystem. An prototype of the proposed system configuration has been successfully verified. (author)
PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE. HONEYWELL PLANNING GUIDE.

Science.gov (United States)

Honeywell, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.

THIS HONEYWELL PAMPHLET DISCUSSES SOME ASPECTS OF PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE OF AUTOMATIC CONTROLS, HEATING, VENTILATING, AND AIR CONDITIONING, AND COMPARES IN-PLANT WITH CONTRACT SERVICE, CONCLUDING THAT CONTRACT SERVICE IS PREFERABLE AND DESCRIBING A NUMBER OF MAINTENANCE PLANS WHICH THEY FURNISH. PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE PROVIDES--(1) MORE EFFICIENT…
Maintenance and repair aspects of the steam generator modules for the United States' LMFBR demonstration plant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Devlin, R W

1975-07-01

This paper describes the main considerations relating to the field maintenance and repair of the steam generator modules for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant and the development approaches being employed for some of the critical elements of these operations. In particular, the approach to plant chemical cleaning of the waterside of the modules and the approach to recovery from leaks between the water and sodium sides of the modules are discussed. (author)
Maintenance and repair aspects of the steam generator modules for the United States' LMFBR demonstration plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Devlin, R.W.

1975-01-01

This paper describes the main considerations relating to the field maintenance and repair of the steam generator modules for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant and the development approaches being employed for some of the critical elements of these operations. In particular, the approach to plant chemical cleaning of the waterside of the modules and the approach to recovery from leaks between the water and sodium sides of the modules are discussed. (author)
Quality assurance organization for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1983-01-01

This Safety Guide provides requirements, recommendations and illustrative examples for structuring, staffing and documenting the organizations that perform activities affecting quality of a nuclear power plant. It also provides guidance on control of organization interfaces, and establishment of lines for direction, communication and co-ordination. The provisions of this Guide are applicable to all organizations participating in any of the constituent areas of activities affecting quality of a nuclear power plant, such as design, manufacture, construction, commissioning and operation
Status and problem for Nuclear Power Plant Maintenance Training Center

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nanjoh, Takuo

1991-01-01

The Nuclear Power Plant Maintenance Training Center of Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. was founded in October, 1983, and seven years elapsed since then. The education and training of 37,000 persons were carried out to meet the situation in the plants and to enhance the facilities. Though the main policy of the practical training for preventing the recurrence of troubles does not change, the situation changed from the time of the foundation, and the role has expanded, including PA activities. The see-through plant model installed for technical education in April, 1989 is the about 1/25 scale model of the actual machine with two loops, which actually generates steam and slight electric power, and is useful for promoting the understanding of nuclear power generation theory. It accomplishes the important role that the visitors to the Center (7500 persons in 1989 fiscal year) understand the mechanism of nuclear power generation. In 1990, the education curriculum, the method of education, the time of education and so on are reviewed, aiming at the improvement of education. The execution of education and training, the training of practical techniques, the reflection of the examples of troubles to education, and the expansion of facilities are reported. (K.I.)
The development and evaluation of programmatic performance indicators associated with maintenance at nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wreathall, J.; Fragola, J.; Appignani, P.; Burlile, G.; Shen, Y.

1990-05-01

This report summarizes the development and evaluation of programmatic performance indicators of maintenance. These indicators were selected by: (1) creating a formal framework of plant processes; (2) identifying features of plant behavior considered important to safety; (3) evaluating existing indicators against these features; and (4) performing statistical analyses for the selected indicators. The report recommends additional testing. This document provides the appendices to the report. These appendices are: synopsis of process model; detailed results of statistical analysis; and signal processing analysis of daily power loss indicator
Current problems and perspectives of maintenance at NPPs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hevia Ruperez, F.; Garcia, R.; Manso Osuna, R.

1994-01-01

The highest levels of availability and efficiency for a plant in service, together with other, not less important, objectives such as improving plant safety, reliability and operability cannot be achieved if there is no adequate maintenance of plant systems and equipment. The combination of the large number of such system and equipment, diversity of their design, complexity of their interrelations and operation and maintenance requirements, make it difficult at times to obtain the right degree of technical and economic effectiveness. From the regulatory point of view, mention must be made of the Maintenance Rule (10/CFR/50.65) entitled ''Requirements for Monitoring the Effectiveness of Maintenance at Nuclear Power Plants'' published on 10 July 1991 by the NRC. This Rule will come into force in the USA in 1996. This paper presents, on the one hand, a general view of the current status of NPP maintenance, enumerating the problems, difficulties and complications affecting its workability and, on the other, outlines new trends and methodologies (RAM, RCM, PRA, Remaining Lifetime Management, etc), for analysing and evaluating maintenance programmes, improving and optimizing them, and at the same time enhancing plant availability and lifetime. (Author)
Performing maintenance activities on-line a risk perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Darling, S.S.; Mairs, T.P.

1993-01-01

The US nuclear power industry is attempting to deal with the issue of optimizing the performance of maintenance activities with the advent of the maintenance rule. The impact of any maintenance activity on the safe operation of a nuclear power facility can be quantified on the basis of risk. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the industry to accommodate the regulator and present a maintenance optimization program in terms that explicitly address the potential risk inherent in its concept and implementation. The motivation for utilities to perform maintenance while the plant is operating (i.e., on-line) is readily perceived to offer the following advantages: 1. greater system availability; 2. higher plant capacity factor; 3. more evenly distributed workload for the maintenance department; and 4. overall safer plant operation. However, risks inherent in undertaking maintenance activities during power operation could amount to the realization that reapportionment of these tasks is not cost-beneficial. Therefore, it is important that any utility considering implementing such a paradigm in maintenance philosophy establish a rigorous process to select, perform, and monitor maintenance tasks performed while operating
Human errors related to maintenance and modifications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laakso, K.; Pyy, P.; Reiman, L.

1998-01-01

The focus in human reliability analysis (HRA) relating to nuclear power plants has traditionally been on human performance in disturbance conditions. On the other hand, some studies and incidents have shown that also maintenance errors, which have taken place earlier in plant history, may have an impact on the severity of a disturbance, e.g. if they disable safety related equipment. Especially common cause and other dependent failures of safety systems may significantly contribute to the core damage risk. The first aim of the study was to identify and give examples of multiple human errors which have penetrated the various error detection and inspection processes of plant safety barriers. Another objective was to generate numerical safety indicators to describe and forecast the effectiveness of maintenance. A more general objective was to identify needs for further development of maintenance quality and planning. In the first phase of this operational experience feedback analysis, human errors recognisable in connection with maintenance were looked for by reviewing about 4400 failure and repair reports and some special reports which cover two nuclear power plant units on the same site during 1992-94. A special effort was made to study dependent human errors since they are generally the most serious ones. An in-depth root cause analysis was made for 14 dependent errors by interviewing plant maintenance foremen and by thoroughly analysing the errors. A more simple treatment was given to maintenance-related single errors. The results were shown as a distribution of errors among operating states i.a. as regards the following matters: in what operational state the errors were committed and detected; in what operational and working condition the errors were detected, and what component and error type they were related to. These results were presented separately for single and dependent maintenance-related errors. As regards dependent errors, observations were also made
Joint application of AI techniques, PRA and disturbance analysis methodology to problems in the maintenance and design of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okrent, D.

1989-01-01

This final report summarizes the accomplishments of a two year research project entitled ''Joint Application of Artificial Intelligence Techniques, Probabilistic Risk Analysis, and Disturbance Analysis Methodology to Problems in the Maintenance and Design of Nuclear Power Plants. The objective of this project is to develop and apply appropriate combinations of techniques from artificial intelligence, (AI), reliability and risk analysis and disturbance analysis to well-defined programmatic problems of nuclear power plants. Reactor operations issues were added to those of design and maintenance as the project progressed
Joint application of AI techniques, PRA and disturbance analysis methodology to problems in the maintenance and design of nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Okrent, D.

1989-03-01

This final report summarizes the accomplishments of a two year research project entitled Joint Application of Artificial Intelligence Techniques, Probabilistic Risk Analysis, and Disturbance Analysis Methodology to Problems in the Maintenance and Design of Nuclear Power Plants. The objective of this project is to develop and apply appropriate combinations of techniques from artificial intelligence, (AI), reliability and risk analysis and disturbance analysis to well-defined programmatic problems of nuclear power plants. Reactor operations issues were added to those of design and maintenance as the project progressed.
Long-term safety of the maintenance and decommissioning waste of the encapsulation plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nummi, O.; Kylloenen, J.; Eurajoki, T.

2012-12-01

This report, Long-term safety of the maintenance and decommissioning waste of the encapsulation plant, presents the disposal concept for the low and intermediate level waste (L/ILW) that is generated during the operation and decommissioning of the encapsulation plant, and assesses the long-term safety of the disposal of the waste. Radioactive waste originates from the spent nuclear fuel transferred and dried in the encapsulation plant. Radioactive waste accumulates also in the maintenance of the components and systems of the encapsulation plant. The waste is collected, exempted from control if possible and treated for final disposal if necessary. The waste is disposed of in the L/ILW hall which is currently planned to be located at a depth of -180 meters along the access tunnel to the repository for spent fuel. The main engineered barrier in the L/ILW hall is a concrete basin that encases the dried liquid waste. The safety concept of L/ILW disposal is based on the slow release of radioactivity from the L/ILW hall and its limited transport through the bedrock into biosphere. The release and transport of the radioactivity is described by the assessment scenarios, which include expected evolution and unlikely events affecting the long-term safety. The scenarios act as guidelines according to which the conceptual and mathematical models are formed. The long-term safety of the L/ILW hall is assessed using deterministic and probabilistic modeling. Special issues such as human intrusion and radiation effects on other biota are also assessed. The most significant contributor to the dose rates is the short-lived radionuclide 90 Sr followed by long-lived nuclides 129 I and 108 mAg. The annual doses to the public, and release rates of radioactive substances stay below the regulatory constraints in all analyzed scenarios. (orig.)

CERN experience and strategy for the maintenance of cryogenic plants and distribution systems

CERN Document Server

Serio, L; Claudet, S; Delikaris, D; Ferlin, G; Pezzetti, M; Pirotte, O; Tavian, L; Wagner, U

2015-01-01

CERN operates and maintains the world largest cryogenic infrastructure ranging from ageing installations feeding detectors, test facilities and general services, to the state-of-the-art cryogenic system serving the flagship LHC machine complex. After several years of exploitation of a wide range of cryogenic installations and in particular following the last two years major shutdown to maintain and consolidate the LHC machine, we have analysed and reviewed the maintenance activities to implement an efficient and reliable exploitation of the installations. We report the results, statistics and lessons learned on the maintenance activities performed and in particular the required consolidations and major overhauling, the organization, management and methodologies implemented.
CERN experience and strategy for the maintenance of cryogenic plants and distribution systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Serio, L; Bremer, J; Claudet, S; Delikaris, D; Ferlin, G; Pezzetti, M; Pirotte, O; Tavian, L; Wagner, U

2015-01-01

CERN operates and maintains the world largest cryogenic infrastructure ranging from ageing installations feeding detectors, test facilities and general services, to the state-of-the-art cryogenic system serving the flagship LHC machine complex. After several years of exploitation of a wide range of cryogenic installations and in particular following the last two years major shutdown to maintain and consolidate the LHC machine, we have analysed and reviewed the maintenance activities to implement an efficient and reliable exploitation of the installations. We report the results, statistics and lessons learned on the maintenance activities performed and in particular the required consolidations and major overhauling, the organization, management and methodologies implemented. (paper)
Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Decontamination and Decommissioning Program surveillance and maintenance plan, FY 1993--2002

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schloesslin, W.

1992-11-01

The Decontamination and Decommissioning (D ampersand D) Program at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS) is part of the Environmental Restoration (ER) and Waste Management (WM) Programs (ERWM). The objective of the ER Program is to provide PORTS the capability to meet applicable environmental regulations through facility development activities and site remedial actions. The WM Program supports the ER Program. The D ampersand D Program provides collective management of the sites within the plant which require decontamination and decommissioning, prioritizes those areas in terms of health, safety and environmental concerns, and implements the appropriate level of remedial action. The D ampersand D Program provides support to facilities which formerly served one or more of the many Plant functions. Program activities include (1) surveillance and maintenance of facilities awaiting decommissioning; (2) planning safe and orderly facility decommissioning; and (3) implementing a program to accomplish facility disposition in a safe, cost effective, and timely manner. In order to achieve the first objective, a formal plan which documents the surveillance and maintenance needs for each inactive facility has been prepared. This report provides this documentation for the PORTS facilities currently included in the D ampersand D Program and includes projected resource requirements for the planning period of FY 1993 through FY 2002
Effects of Message Interactivity upon Relational Maintenance Strategy in Digital Communications between Organizations and the Public

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zhan-Qing

2012-01-01

Digital communication between organizations and the public is strategically important in shaping mutual understanding and long term relationship. The primary focus of this project was to investigate the relationship between message interactivity and relational maintenance strategy in the email communication process on organization websites. At…
Integrated maintenance program (IMP)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zemdegs, R.T.; Chout, Q.B.

1998-01-01

Approaches to the maintenance of nuclear power plants have undergone significant change in the past several decades. The traditional breakdown approach has been displaced by preventive (calendar-based) maintenance and more recently, by condition-based maintenance (CBM). This is largely driven by the fact that traditional maintenance programs, derived primarily from equipment vendor recommendations, are generally unsuccessful in controlling maintenance costs or equipment failures. Many advances in the maintenance field have taken place since the maintenance plans for Ontario Hydro's nuclear plants were initially established. Ontario Hydro nuclear plant operating costs can be substantially reduced and Incapability Factor improved with the application of modern maintenance processes and tools. Pickering is designated as the lead station for IMP. Of immediate concern is the fact that Pickering Nuclear Division has been experiencing a significant backlog of Operating Preventive Maintenance Callups. This backlog, over 2000, is unacceptable to both station management and the nuclear regulator, the Atomic Energy Control Board. In addition there are over 500 callups in various stages of revision (in hyperspace) without an adequate control nor reporting system to manage their completion. There is also considerable confusion about the classification of l icensing c allups, e.g. callups which are mandatory as a result of legal requirements. Furthermore the ineffectiveness of the Preventive Maintenance (PM) has been the subject of peer audits and Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) findings over the past several years. The current preventive maintenance ratio PM2 /(PM+CM3) at Pickering ND is less than 20%, due to the current high load of equipment breakdown. This past summer, an Independent Integrated Performance Assessment (IIPA) review at Ontario Hydro confirmed these concerns. Over the past several years, Ontario Hydro nuclear staff have evaluated several programs to improve
Precursor Report of Data Needs and Recommended Practices for PV Plant Availability Operations and Maintenance Reporting.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hill, Roger R. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Photovoltaic and Distributed Systems Integration; Klise, Geoffrey Taylor [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Photovoltaic and Distributed Systems Integration; Balfour, John R. [High Performance PV, Phoenix, AZ (United States)

2015-01-01

Characterizing the factors that affect reliability of a photovoltaic (PV) power plant is an important aspect of optimal asset management. This document describes the many factors that affect operation and maintenance (O&M) of a PV plant, identifies the data necessary to quantify those factors, and describes how data might be used by O&M service providers and others in the PV industry. This document lays out data needs from perspectives of reliability, availability, and key performance indicators and is intended to be a precursor for standardizing terminology and data reporting, which will improve data sharing, analysis, and ultimately PV plant performance.
Regulatory oversight of maintenance activities at nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pape, M.

1997-01-01

Regulation of nuclear safety in the UK is based on monitoring of compliance with licence conditions. This paper discusses legislation aspects, license conditions, license requirements for maintenance and maintenance activities in the UK. It also addresses the regulator utility interaction, the regulatory inspection of maintenance and the trends in maintenance. (author)
Instrumentation maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mack, D.A.

1976-09-01

It is essential to any research activity that accurate and efficient measurements be made for the experimental parameters under consideration for each individual experiment or test. Satisfactory measurements in turn depend upon having the necessary instruments and the capability of ensuring that they are performing within their intended specifications. This latter requirement can only be achieved by providing an adequate maintenance facility, staffed with personnel competent to understand the problems associated with instrument adjustment and repair. The Instrument Repair Shop at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory is designed to achieve this end. The organization, staffing and operation of this system is discussed. Maintenance policy should be based on studies of (1) preventive vs. catastrophic maintenance, (2) records indicating when equipment should be replaced rather than repaired and (3) priorities established to indicate the order in which equipment should be repaired. Upon establishing a workable maintenance policy, the staff should be instructed so that they may provide appropriate scheduled preventive maintenance, calibration and corrective procedures, and emergency repairs. The education, training and experience of the maintenance staff is discussed along with the organization for an efficient operation. The layout of the various repair shops is described in the light of laboratory space and financial constraints
Task oriented evaluation system for maintenance robots

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Asame, Hajime; Endo, Isao; Kotosaka, Shin-ya; Takata, Shozo; Hiraoka, Hiroyuki; Kohda, Takehisa; Matsumoto, Akihiro; Yamagishi, Kiichiro.

1994-01-01

The adaptability evaluation of maintenance robots to autonomous plants has been discussed. In this paper, a new concept of autonomous plant with maintenance robots are introduced, and a framework of autonomous maintenance system is proposed. Then, task-oriented evaluation of robot arms is discussed for evaluating their adaptability to maintenance tasks, and a new criterion called operability is proposed for adaptability evaluation. The task-oriented evaluation system is implemented and applied to structural design of robot arms. Using genetic algorithm, an optimal structure adaptable to a pump disassembly task is obtained. (author)
The MERC maintenance system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Izquierdo, J.J.; Chauvire, P.; Plessis, L.

1991-01-01

Maintenance in the modern commercial reprocessing plants is a subject of the highest priority in order to guarantee availability for the whole life of the plant. The design concept of the UP3 reprocessing plant at La Hague identified several categories of equipment according to their maintenance design principles. Among them, Standard Process Equipment such as pumps, valves, ejectors and filters which need periodic maintenance. These equipment items are designed in removable modular form to avoid the need to disconnect piping. Removal is performed under shielding and without breach of containment through the use of a transfer cask that is connected to the cell containing the equipment to be removed. This transfer cask is called MERC (Mobile Equipment Replacement Cask). Containment is preserved by an air-tight system consisting of coupled doors, with a special connecting gasket. This system can remove and replace failed equipment, without spreading contamination to work areas. (author)
Research priorities at the European Commission in relation to maintenance optimization and nuclear power plant life management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Contri, Paolo

2009-01-01

Analysis of experience in many countries operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) suggests that, while differences in long term operation (LTO) programs are mainly related to the various national regulatory processes, the main features and basic technical requirements are similar. The implementation of these however needs reshaping in an integrated plant life management (PLIM) framework, bearing in mind the specific safety implications of LTO. R and D is essential to support this process, not only for long term extrapolation of the component integrity and behaviour, but also for a proper maintenance system and for an adequate management structure ensuring effective management strategies at plant level, able to address organisational issues, spare part management, staff ageing, component obsolescence, etc. This is recognised by the European Commission, which supports R and D in targeted areas in the framework of the EURATOM programme, both by “direct actions” i.e. projects managed and executed by its Directorate General Joint Research Centers (JRC) and by indirect actions i.e. funding of selected projects, managed by the Directorate General Research (RTD). This paper outlines the JRC's priorities in the current 7th Framework Programme in relation to R and D tasks for maintenance and ISI to support the highest safety level at member's NPPs and appropriate decision-making tools for the optimisation of these programs. A newly developed UE model for PLIM, also integrating maintenance optimisation issues, is presented for further discussion. (author)
Computerized plant maintenance management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kozusko, A.M.

1986-01-01

The evolution of the computer has and continues to have a great impact on industry. We are in an adjustment cycle with the current computer evolution, and will need to adapt to make the changes for the coming decade. Hardware and software are continually being enhanced. Computers are becoming more powerful and will eventually provide an effective man-machine interface. This paper shares experiences encountered during implementations of computerized maintenance systems
Plant design and layout of the different buildings with respect to safety, operational and maintenance requirements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liebich, H.

1981-01-01

The descriptions and pictures in this lecture show that the arrangement of the buildings and the location of components and systems are based on proven ideas with the aim to fulfil safety, operational and maintenance requirements also from the point of view of plant layout. (orig.)
Total Productive Maintenance at Paccar INC

OpenAIRE

Ştefan Farkas

2010-01-01

This paper reports the application of total productive maintenance method at Paccar Inc. truck’s plant in Victoria, Australia. The total productive maintenance method and total productive maintenance house are presented. The global equipment effectiveness is computed and exemplified. The production structure and organising maintenance are presented. Resultas of the variation of global equipment effectiveness and autonomous maintenance in a two weeks period of time are reported.
Deficiency within pavement Maintenance Organization in Tanzania ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In addition, the rules and regulations of the public administrative system do not allow for an effective and efficient management of road maintenance. Lack of equipment and adequate qualified personnel in the field of road maintenance is too an added deficiency. As a consequence, Tanzania has started to put road ...
9th International conference on CANDU maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-01-01

The 9th International Conference on CANDU Maintenance was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on December 4-6, 2011. The conference focused on Nuclear plant reliability and maintenance. Equipment reliability is a critical factor in achieving safe and reliable Nuclear Power Plant operations for many reasons. For one it reduces the challenges upon the operating staff and allows station personnel to 'go on the offence' instead of having to play defense in a reactive mode. Plant reliability ensures that there is time to study the issues in detail and develop solutions for long-term success. Let us not forget that the owner carries the burden of demonstrating the return on investment, and plant reliability goes a long way in helping to make the case for plant life extension. A good reputation for plant reliability provides the public capital necessary to build confidence and facilitate the licensing process. The proceedings papers and presentations given at the 9th International Conference on Candu Maintenance covered topics that include: Managing Worker; Radiation Dose; Full Life Cycle Management; Managing Maintenance Refurbishment; Designing for Maintainability; Inspection Techniques; and, Mitigating Degradation.
Plant life management. An integral part of operation and maintenance policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Faidy, C.; Hutin, J.-P.

2002-01-01

Electricite de France is now operating 58 PWR nuclear power plants that produce 75% of electricity in France. Besides maintaining safety and availability on a routine basis, it is outmost important to protect the investment. That is the reason why EDF is devoting important resources to implement ageing management concern as an integral part of operation and maintenance programs (for example through appropriate data collection and analysis, specific repair and replacement projects and important anticipation efforts, taking in account the high level of standardisation of the units). A particular organisation has been set up to continuously observe and analyse all activities so as to make sure that ageing concern is correctly taken in account in strategies and that no decisions are susceptible to impair plant lifetime. This 'lifetime program' is paying attention to technical issues associated with main components but is also dealing with issues related to economics and industry situation. (orig.)
Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) staff assessment and views of current maintenance practices of a four unit CANDU plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malek, I.

1995-01-01

This paper discusses the AECB practices in assessing maintenance activities at one four unit CANDU nuclear plant.-it outlines the authority of the AECB in enforcing the licence condition concerned with maintenance, and how this is interpreted by AECB site staff to measure and report maintenance activities. The AECB staff attaches great importance to proper maintenance as it affects safe operation. Programs used by the licensee staff to identify safety important components, or to predict degradations and failures are of particular interest. In our experience, the application of such programs has been generally good. However, their integration into an overall maintenance scheme can be improved, and the possibilities of integration are not well understood. This paper includes examples of such integration to illustrate our views and to highlight the resultant benefits that AECB staff believes are possible. (author)
Radiological investigation in the boiler's maintenance operations in a Coal-Fired power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robles, Beatriz; Mora, Juan C.; Cancio, David; Baeza, Antonio; Corbacho, Jose A.

2008-01-01

As part of a study being performed in the four biggest coal-fired power plants in Spain, the formation of scales of radioisotopes in parts of the heat recovery system was investigated. This effect should be more important in the case of 210 Po and 210 Pb. Thereby, it is likely in given specific chemical conditions that scales could be formed with a high concentration of 210 Pb, probably in secular equilibrium with 210 Po and 210 Bi. Those scales could reach activity concentrations of some hundreds of Bq g -1 . In order to study within the boiler this scale formation, an investigation during the maintenance operations programmed in the 'Compostilla' coal-fired power plant (Ponferrada-Spain) was carried out. Those operations are performed each 2-3 years and last for around 30 or 40 days. Measurements of ambient dose equivalent (H * (10)) in the boiler before and after the entrance of the operators, together with beta surface contamination on the bottom ashes attached in the walls and on the tubes, were performed. The last measurements were carried out for screening purposes in order to select those areas on the tubes which could present Po scales. Even if chemical conditions are in general oxidising within the boiler, since conditions are not homogeneous, some zones were localized in which surface contamination was measured. In these spots, samples were collected and then measured in the laboratory. Moreover, an analysis of maintenance tasks, used personal protection equipment, working times and other important parameters was also carried out. This analysis is important in order to perform radiological evaluations, as realistic as possible, of the effective doses that could be received by maintenance operators. In the present study, the values of the measurements performed and the results of the assessment of the effective doses for the workers are presented. (author)
ORGANIC WASTE USED IN AGRICULTURAL BIOGAS PLANTS

OpenAIRE

Joanna Kazimierowicz

2014-01-01

Treatment of organic waste is an ecological and economical problem. Searching method for disposal of these wastes, interest is methane fermentation. The use of this process in agricultural biogas plants allows disposal of hazardous waste, obtaining valuable fertilizer, while the production of ecologically clean fuel – biogas. The article presents the characteristics of organic waste from various industries, which make them suitable for use as substrates in agricultural biogas plants.

Total Productive Maintenance at Paccar INC

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ştefan Farkas

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This paper reports the application of total productive maintenance method at Paccar Inc. truck’s plant in Victoria, Australia. The total productive maintenance method and total productive maintenance house are presented. The global equipment effectiveness is computed and exemplified. The production structure and organising maintenance are presented. Resultas of the variation of global equipment effectiveness and autonomous maintenance in a two weeks period of time are reported.
Support for cooperative control and maintenance operation in advanced nuclear power plant from generalized and intuitive viewpoints

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Numano, Masayoshi; Niwa, Yasuyuki; Miyazaki, Keiko; Fukuto, Junji; Tanaka, Kunihiko; Okazaki, Tadatsugi; Itoh, Hiroko; Matsuoka, Takeshi

2002-01-01

To keep safety and effectiveness in control and maintenance operations of large and complex plants like nuclear power plants, cooperative operation among human and machine agents is proposed. The concept is that the cooperation augments human capability as an individual by closely related team members with adequate interfaces. This paper describes a basic concept of the cooperation, necessary interface functions, infrastructure of the cooperation and communication logging for accumulation and sharing of knowledge. (author)
The CIDEM project for integrating availability, operating experience and maintenance in the design of future nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Degrave, C.; Martin-Onraet, M.

1998-01-01

To minimize the kWh cost of future nuclear plants EDF has decided to implement the CIDEM project (French acronym for Design Integrating Availability, Operating Experience and Maintenance), an analytic and systematic process for studying new projects. The first CIDEM application is centered on the future French nuclear unit construction program, known as the REP 2000 Program but the approach could be applied to other Reactor type. The CIDEM studies at the beginning, were oriented to the issues strongly impacting the availability. They have concerned: planned outages, forced outages and preventive maintenance. The studies were carried out by a team grouping engineers from the 3 EDF's Divisions (Engineering-Generation-Research), and working together in a Concurrent Engineering-Mode. This team works in close collaboration with the vendors and the German Utilities involved in the REP 2000 EPR program. The implementation of the CIDEM process constitutes for EDF a new approach to the study of the new Nuclear Power Plant projects. The studies conducted in the availability field have already highlighted a number of critical points and have made it possible to establish a series of specifications for the REP 2000/EPR project. The integration in the design process of Preventive Maintenance and Logistic Support studies will allow a better control of the maintenance cost. The competitiveness of nuclear energy greatly depends on the success of such an approach. (author)
Plant equipment integrity monitoring and diagnosing method and device therefor, plant equipment maintenance and inspection time determining method and device therefor, as well as nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kato, Takahiko; Ando, Masashi; Osumi, Katsumi; Horiuchi, Tetsuo; Asakura, Yamato; Akamine, Kazuhiko.

1995-01-01

The present invention can accurately forecast a time for occurrence of troubles of plant equipments in contact with recycling water, to conduct its maintenance and inspection before occurrence of the troubles. Namely, change of water quality in plant equipments caused by corrosion of recycling water occurred in constitutional parts of the plant equipments is measured. The time upon occurrence of the troubles of the plant equipments to corrosion of the recycling water is forecast based on the measured value. A time till the occurrence of the change of water quality after starting the use of the plant equipments is calculated based on the measured value. The calculated time is compared with a correlation between the time of occurrence of the troubles after starting the use of the plant equipments and the time of occurrence of change of the water quality, to forecast the time of occurrence of the troubles. Preferably, electroconductivity and pH of recycling water in the inside or at the exit of the plant equipments are measured as an object for the measurement of change of water quality. (I.S.)
Stochastic maintenance optimization at Candu power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doyle, E.K.; Duchesne, T.; Lee, C.G.; Cho, D.I.

2004-01-01

The use of various innovative maintenance optimization techniques at Bruce has lead to cost effective preventive maintenance applications for complex systems as previously reported at ICONE 6 in New Orleans (1996). Further refinement of the station maintenance strategy was evaluated via the applicability of statistical analysis of historical failure data. The viability of stochastic methods in Candu maintenance was illustrated at ICONE 10 in Washington DC (2002). The next phase consists of investigating the validity of using subjective elicitation techniques to obtain component lifetime distributions. This technique provides access to the elusive failure statistics, the lack of which is often referred to in the literature as the principal impediment preventing the use of stochastic methods in large industry. At the same time the technique allows very valuable information to be captured from the fast retiring 'baby boom generation'. Initial indications have been quite positive. The current reality of global competition necessitates the pursuit of all financial optimizers. The next construction phase in the power generation industry will soon begin on a worldwide basis. With the relatively high initial capital cost of new nuclear generation all possible avenues of financial optimization must be evaluated and implemented. (authors)
Equipment reliability process improvement and preventive maintenance optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Darragi, M.; Georges, A.; Vaillancourt, R.; Komljenovic, D.; Croteau, M.

2004-01-01

The Gentilly-2 Nuclear Power Plant wants to optimize its preventive maintenance program through an Integrated Equipment Reliability Process. All equipment reliability related activities should be reviewed and optimized in a systematic approach especially for aging plants such as G2. This new approach has to be founded on best practices methods with the purpose of the rationalization of the preventive maintenance program and the performance monitoring of on-site systems, structures and components (SSC). A rational preventive maintenance strategy is based on optimized task scopes and frequencies depending on their applicability, critical effects on system safety and plant availability as well as cost-effectiveness. Preventive maintenance strategy efficiency is systematically monitored through degradation indicators. (author)
Health and maintenance outages in nuclear power plants: an epidemiological survey

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Telle, M.A.; Huez, D.; Niedbala, J.M.; Auclair, J.; Canales, J.P.; Duverge, C.; Forest, H.; Gerondal, M.; Paris, P.M.; Renault, J.C.; Bossevain, L.; Blaise, P.; Blanc, M.C.; Goldberg, M.; Charpak, Y.

1995-01-01

An epidemiological survey, started in 1989, was carried out at the nuclear power plants in the Loire river valley and at Le Blayais (France). Working conditions, work organisation and their impact on health during annual maintenance outages were studied. The main areas covered in this cross-sectional study were: anxiety and symptoms of depression using the Spielberger and CES-D scales. Comparisons were made during both a scheduled outage and in normal operation on four distinct groups of workers, each individual being his own control. A chi-square test was used for the quantitative variables and a test on differences for the quantitative variables. During a unit outage, more frequent overtime and atypical working hours were reported (p<0.01); working rhythms and safety rules were felt as more restrictive and exposure to radiation higher (p<0.01). Detrimental modifications of anxiety and symptoms of depression were observed on controllers whereas expected on maintenance agents. Similar results were observed when considering the rates of outages. Possible readings are given with reference to qualitative studies carried out on this topic, which implies extending our research with both the quantitative and qualitative approaches. (authors). 10 refs., 6 tabs
Performance objectives and criteria for plant evaluations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1983-04-01

Maintenance organization and administration should ensure effective implementation and control of maintenance activities. The criteria are: A. The organizational structure is clearly defined. B. Staffing and resources are sufficient to accomplish assigned tasks. C. Responsibilities and authority of each management, supervisory, and professional position are clearly defined. D. Personnel clearly understand their authority, responsibilities, accountabilities, and interfaces with supporting groups. E. Administrative controls are employed for maintenance activities important to plant safety and reliability. F. Performance appraisals are effectively utilized to enhance individual performance
Guide for decontamination in P.W.R. power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Herisson, J.; Glorennec, C.

1992-01-01

Nuclear power plant components or equipment often need to be more ore less decontaminated before maintenance. In order to coordinate the activities of the various maintenance specialists belonging to the corporate or Site Organizations, the Management of EDF/Nuclear and Fossil Division has created a 'Decontamination Task Force'. The first objective of this Task Force was to prepare this 'Decontamination Guide for Nuclear Power Plants'. This document is the result of a close collaboration, within a specific working group, between representatives of Nuclear Fossil Division (from Nuclear Power Plants and Corporate Departments) and EDF Project and Construction Group. It will provide assistance to Nuclear Plants Operators in the very specific field of decontamination. (author)
Participatory plant breeding and organic agriculture: A synergistic model for organic variety development in the United States

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrienne C. Shelton

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Organic farmers require improved varieties that have been adapted to their unique soils, nutrient inputs, management practices, and pest pressures. One way to develop adapted varieties is to situate breeding programs in the environment of intended use, such as directly on organic farms, and in collaboration with organic farmers. This model is a form of participatory plant breeding, and was originally created in order to meet the needs of under-served, small-scale farmers in developing countries. A robust body of literature supports the quantitative genetic selection theory of participatory plant breeding, and helps to explain its increasing prevalence among organic breeding projects in the United States. The history of the organic farming movement in the United States highlights the cultural relevance of engaging organic farmers in the breeding process, complementing the biological rationale for participatory plant breeding. In addition, limited private investment in organic plant breeding encourages the involvement of plant breeders at public institutions. This paper synthesizes the biological, cultural, and economic justifications for utilizing participatory plant breeding as an appropriate methodology for organic cultivar development.
Impact of mechanical- and maintenance-induced failures of main reactor coolant pump seals on plant safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azarm, M.A.; Boccio, J.L.; Mitra, S.

1985-12-01

This document presents an investigation of the safety impact resulting from mechanical- and maintenance-induced reactor coolant pump (RCP) seal failures in nuclear power plants. A data survey of the pump seal failures for existing nuclear power plants in the US from several available sources was performed. The annual frequency of pump seal failures in a nuclear power plant was estimated based on the concept of hazard rate and dependency evaluation. The conditional probability of various sizes of leak rates given seal failures was then evaluated. The safety impact of RCP seal failures, in terms of contribution to plant core-melt frequency, was also evaluated for three nuclear power plants. For leak rates below the normal makeup capacity and the impact of plant safety were discussed qualitatively, whereas for leak rates beyond the normal make up capacity, formal PRA methodologies were applied. 22 refs., 17 figs., 19 tabs
Advice for the repair and maintenance of industrial refrigeration plants with screw compressors; Hinweise fuer die Wartung und Instandhaltung von Industriekaelteanlagen mit Schraubenverdichtern

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brinkmann, R. [Johnson Controls Systems and Service GmbH, Mannheim (Germany)

2007-07-01

Apart from the mentioned advice several special focuses are of particular importance for the corresponding plant when repair and maintenance works are carried out at industrial refrigeration plants with screw compressors. Apart from the plant components in the engine room like compressor, separators, pumps, circuit plants and safety devices the other plant components up to the corresponding steamer, like main pipelines, valve stations, bushings for roof and walls, mountings require particular attention. Problems with under-cooling the coolants, lack of coolants, low levels in collectors can lead to a malfunctioning of the coolant pumps. Coolant shifts and badly adjusted control valves are causes to strive for improving the availability and the energy efficiency of the plant operation. Hence we recommend to the user to develop tailored repair and maintenance concepts for special refrigeration plants with his expert service company. These concepts should include the latest state of technology and regular training of the operating personnel. (orig.)
[A preliminary evaluation of mental status and an investigation of occupational health knowledge demand in operating and maintenance personnel in wind power plants].

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, S Q; Zhang, Q; Zhu, X H; Sun, K; Chen, S Z; Liu, A G; Luo, G L; Huang, W

2016-10-20

Objective: To investigate the mental status, level of occupational health knowledge, health behaviors, and occupational health knowledge demand in operating and maintenance personnel in wind power plants, and to provide a basis for formulating protective measures of occupational health for operating and maintenance personnel in wind power plants. Methods: A cluster sampling was performed in regionally representative wind power plants in the wind power industry from May 2014 to June 2015, and the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) and a self-made evaluation questionnaire were used to investigate the general status, mental health, and occupational health knowledge demand in 160 operating and maintenance workers. Results: Of all respondents, 26.9% had mental health issues. The awareness rate of infectious disease knowledge and preventive measures was 11.9%. Of all workers, 96.5% wanted to know the occupational hazard factors in the workplace, and 96.3% wanted to get the knowledge of the prevention of related diseases. Conclusion: Mental health issues in operating and maintenance personnel in wind power plants cannot be neglected and there is a high demand for occupational health services and related knowledge. Comprehensive intervention measures for health promotion in the workplace should be adopted to improve working environment, enhance individual mental health education, increase the level of occupational health management, and protect the health of workers.
Advanced plant design recommendations from Cook Nuclear Plant experience

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zimmerman, W.L.

1993-01-01

A project in the American Electric Power Service Corporation to review operating and maintenance experience at Cook Nuclear Plant to identify recommendations for advanced nuclear plant design is described. Recommendations so gathered in the areas of plant fluid systems, instrument and control, testing and surveillance provisions, plant layout of equipment, provisions to enhance effective maintenance, ventilation systems, radiological protection, and construction, are presented accordingly. An example for a design review checklist for effective plant operations and maintenance is suggested
Implementation of the maintenance rule in Spain the PSA role

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gerez, L.; Coello, A.

2000-01-01

The 10CFR50, 65 (Maintenance Rule) requires commercial nuclear power plant licensees to monitor the effectiveness of maintenance activities for safety important plant equipment in order to minimise the likelihood of failures and events caused by the lack of effective maintenance. (Author)
ORGANIC WASTE USED IN AGRICULTURAL BIOGAS PLANTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joanna Kazimierowicz

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Treatment of organic waste is an ecological and economical problem. Searching method for disposal of these wastes, interest is methane fermentation. The use of this process in agricultural biogas plants allows disposal of hazardous waste, obtaining valuable fertilizer, while the production of ecologically clean fuel – biogas. The article presents the characteristics of organic waste from various industries, which make them suitable for use as substrates in agricultural biogas plants.
Intelligent control and maintenance of management integrated system based on multi-agents for coal preparation plant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meng, F.; Wang, Y. [China University of Mining and technology, Xuzhou (China). School of Information and Electrical Engineering

2006-06-15

This paper discusses the progress of computer integrated processing (CIPS) of coal preparation and then presents an intelligence controlled production process, device-maintenance and production-management system of coal preparation based on multi-agents (IICMMS-CP). The construction of the IICMMS-CP, the distributed network control system based on live intelligence control stations and the strategy of implementing a distributed intelligence control system are studied in order to overcome the disadvantages brought about by the wide use of the PLC system by coal preparation plants. The software frame, based on a Multi-Agent Intelligence Control and Maintenance Management integrated system, is studied and the implementation methods of IICMMS-CP are discussed. The characteristics of distributed architecture, cooperation and parallel computing meet the needs of integrated control of coal preparation plants with large-scale spatial production distribution, densely-related processes and complex systems. Its application further improves the reliability and precision of process control, accuracy of fault identification and intelligence of production adjustment, establishes a technical basis for system integration and flexible production. The main function of the system has been tested in a coal preparation plant to good effect in stabilizing product quality, improving efficiency and reducing consumption. 17 refs., 4 figs.
Application of integrated logistic techniques to operation, maintenance and re engineering processes in Nuclear Power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santiago Diez, P.

1997-01-01

This paper addresses the advisability of adapting and applying management and Integrated Logistic engineering techniques to nuclear power plants instead of using more traditional maintenance management methods. It establishes a historical framework showing the origins of integrated approaches based on traditional logistic support concepts, their phases and the real results obtained in the aeronautic world where they originated. It reviews the application of integrated management philosophy, and logistic support and engineering analysis techniques regarding Availability, Reliability and Maintainability (ARM) and shows their inter dependencies in different phases of the system's life (Design, Development and Operation). It describes how these techniques are applied to nuclear power plant operation, their impact on plant availability and the optimisation of maintenance and replacement plans. The paper analyses the need for data (type and volume), which will have to be collected, and the different tools to manage such data. It examines the different CALS tools developed by EA for engineering and for logistic management. It also explains the possibility of using these tools for process and data operations through the INTERNET. It also focuses on the qualities of some simple examples of possible applications, and how they would be used in the framework of Integrated Logistic Support (ILS). (Author)
Pricing and performance in health maintenance organizations: a strategic management perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Conant, J S; Mokwa, M P; Burnett, J J

1989-03-01

Innovative, consumer-oriented pricing strategies have contributed to the impressive growth of health maintenance organizations (HMOs). In a national study of HMO marketing directors, the relationships between strategic management style and (1) the relative importance of pricing in competitive marketing strategy, (2) the effectiveness of price strategy planning, and (3) financial performance are examined. The findings indicate that HMOs practicing effective price planning also perform well on an overall basis. Insight into the content and substance of HMO pricing strategies is also provided.
Maintenance rule: a system to guarantee maintenance effectiveness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Torralbo, J.R.

1995-01-01

In the last few years, maintenance activities in nuclear plants have been given prime attention in view of their repercussion on the performance of such plants. One of the results of that attention is a new rule published in the U.S. known as M aintenance Rule . The paper describes the philosophy and main guidelines of the new regulation, and presents the procedure brought into action by the nuclear industry in Spain so to make their application contribute to a real improvement of safety and performance in nuclear plants. (Author)

Manpower development for safe operation of nuclear power plant. China. Advice on maintenance planning. Activity: 3.1.2-Task-06. Technical report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chihara, Y.; Imai, K.

1996-01-01

Regarding the matter of quality assurance related to maintenance activities, we provided appropriate advice on the details of maintenance technologies and on quality control for the nuclear power plant. The advice was provided based on our experience in Japan, with explanations made from specialists' points of view in the form of a lecture. This also included an exchange of questions and answers regarding our experiences with quality control and maintenance activities in Japan
Photovoltaic power plants maintenance; El mantenimiento en plantas fotovoltaicas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Suanzes, F.; Rodelgo, I.

2010-07-01

It is reviewed the evolution of the maintenance contracts in solar facilities in a young environment and with a large projection. Thus, is described the preventive maintenance in this kind of facilities, and are also analyzed the most relevant cases of corrective maintenance. (Author)
The importance of maintainability in maintenance cost management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allen, R.R.

1996-01-01

This paper provides specific examples and results from ongoing projects at Power Plants, and for offshore oil platforms. The paper describes the vital role maintainability has on plant availability. How the application of equipment maintainability principles, if addressed using state of the art computer tools and advanced business processes can bring annual return on investment results as high as 15 to 1. The maintenance process of today and for the future must provide for high plant availability at the lowest possible cost. The high cost of obtaining equipment reliability levels necessary to meet required availability demands has not proved to be sustainable. Therefore new business decision processes that address equipment failures as part of the maintenance process have been developed. Repair costs require that equipment failures be selective and controlled so that a high level of safety and plant availability is assurance. This can only be accomplished by the use of advanced computer tools in the hands of well trained maintenance-engineering specialist. The relationship between Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), Condition Directed Planned Maintenance (CDPM), and maintainability is also presented
Status of Technical Requirements Development for Maintenance Effectiveness Management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahn, Sang Kyu; Kim, Yun Il; Lee, Chang Ju; Chang, Gun Hyun

2012-01-01

It is well known that proper maintenance at nuclear power plant is essential to plant safety and that there is a clear link between effective maintenance and safety as it relates to such factors as the number of transients and challenges to safety systems and the associated need for operability, availability, and reliability of safety equipment. Good maintenance is also important in providing assurance that failures of non-safety related structures, systems, and components (SSCs) that could initiate, adversely affect, or mitigate a transient or an accident are also minimized. Maintenance is also important to ensure that design assumptions and margins in the original design basis are maintained and are not degraded to an unacceptable level. Therefore, good maintenance practice at nuclear power plants is of utmost importance in protecting public health and safety. This paper introduces the status of the development of regulatory technical requirements (Drafts) for utility's management of maintenance effectiveness. The process of Maintenance Effectiveness Management is shown in Figure 1
Remote maintenance system for nuclear facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maeda, Masafumi

1993-01-01

In the facilities related to atomic energy, from the viewpoint of the reduction of radiation exposure of workers and the heightening of the rate of operation of the facilities, the development of remote maintenance system is regarded as important. Meidensha Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd. developed the bilateral control type manipulator, BILARM-83, in 1979, and has developed high performance manipulator systems. As the design of the plant that realizes the remote operation maintenance of process machinery and equipment during plant operation, the remote maintenance system by canyon cell techniques, which was adopted in Savannah River plant, USA, and has been operated for nearly 50 years, has been known. The concept of the full remote maintenance system by large scale cell techniques was shown and has been developed by Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. In order to realize the remote maintenance of such large scale cells, Meidensha is developing the both arm type bilateral servo manipulator, the single arm type power manipulator, the transport system for moving them, the power and signal system and so on. Those systems were adopted for the glass solidification facilities. (K.I.)
Pilot Study for Maintenance Rule at KSNP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Kwang Hee; Jeong, Hyeon Jong; Jee, Moon Hak; Hong, Sung Yull

2005-01-01

Maintenance Rule (MR), which was developed to monitor the effectiveness of maintenance in a nuclear power plant (NPP), has been received as highly successful program by and large since its implementation in 1996 in the United States. Korea has initiated two pilot programs to implement the Maintenance Rule program in 2003. Selected plants for the pilot implementation are Kori 3 and 4 units and Ulchin 3 and 4 units, where Kori 3 and 4 units are Westinghouse units and Ulchin 3 and 4 units are Korean Standardized Nuclear Power (KSNP) Plant units. This paper describes the results of each key tasks completed to date and insights gained from pilot study on the KSNP units. Currently, Scoping of the functions of maintenance rule and determination of safety significance level have been completed during first year. As first task, total 607 functions were identified and defined by detailed function analysis on 135 systems that cover all plant systems. About 55% of total functions are selected as within the scope of maintenance rule. Among these inscoped functions, 56% of scoped functions are safety related and 44% are non-safety related functions. Evaluation of safety significance for each function was determined by expert panel consist of eight experts in field of plant maintenance, operation, PSA, work schedule and system engineers. As a result, about 46% of functions were determined to be high safety significant functions and rest of the functions were classified as low safety significant. The remaining tasks that are included determination of performance criteria and preparation of implementing guideline will be performed in following years
Maintenance for the Millennium: Another Approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sculthorpe, Barruy R.

2002-01-01

Nuclear units nationwide are struggling to increase plant reliability and availability while at the same time reduce their operating and maintenance costs. Some very costly investments have been made in programs such as Reliability Centered Maintenance [RCM]. Florida Power and Light's approach at the St. Lucie Nuclear Plant has taken a slightly different approach. Building on our knowledge of the RCM process and an already existing 'World Class' Predictive Maintenance Program, a 'Condition-Based' Maintenance Program that takes advantage of the RCM philosophy and our toolbox full of advanced and highly successful predictive maintenance technologies. These tools currently consist of vibration analysis, lubricant analysis (both physical property and wear metals analysis, thermographic analysis, motor current signature analysis, tribology and process parameter trending. All employed with the intent to evaluate a machines health. This machine health check allows the forecasting of future preventative maintenance [PM's] tasks and the revision of existing PM's to maximize machine performance and eliminate 'no-value-added' maintenance activities/costs. Within the last year, the Condition-Based Maintenance Program has produced a cost saving of approximately $1.5 million dollars. As the program matures, these cost savings will accumulate well into the millennium. (authors)
Conceptualization of an intellectual maintenance management system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suda, Kazunori; Yonekawa, Tsuyoshi; Yoshikawa, Shinji; Ozawa, Kenji

1997-04-01

It is studied in many research institute to enhance availability and safety of nuclear power plants operation and maintenance. On this account, development of autonomous plants has been carried out to replace the role of operators with artificial intelligence and autonomous robots. We have been developing an intellectual maintenance management system since 1994. As the first step, concept of an intellectual maintenance management system was constructed. The intellectual maintenance managerial system is in charge of maintenance function of an autonomous plant. The intellectual maintenance managerial system has three functions which is monitoring state and judging abnormal machine and deciding maintenance plan by autonomy. This system has an important role of indication and communication of the result to an autonomous operation system and autonomous robot. In this examination, we adopted the distributed and cooperative system technique by multi-agent of AI technology and examined a method to enforce problem solving by cooperation of sensor and actuator. In this report, we examined trouble detection and troubleshooting evaluation and maintenance plan decision function by the distributed and cooperative system technology, the distributed and cooperative system communication-function that these information releases functions was taken on. In conceptualization of the intellectual maintenance managerial system, we clarified of major functions to constitute this system and relation between autonomous operation system and autonomous robots. We clarified the information exchange scheme between this system and an outside system furthermore. In future, we will prototype each function and inspect the total system. (author)
Remote-automation of nuclear power plant equipment inspection and maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sasaki, Masayoshi; Kawamura, Hironobu; Nakano, Yoshiyuki; Izumi, Shigeru.

1984-01-01

The remotely operated automation of the checkup and maintenance of nuclear power generation facilities has largely contributed to the rise of capacity ratio of plants due to the shortening of regular inspection period and to the reduction of radiation exposure dose during working, the labor saving in working and so on. In this paper, the new technologies adopted in an automatic fuel exchanger, a remotely operated automatic CRD exchanger, a new type channel handling machine, pressure-withstanding main steam line plugs and so on for No.2 plant in the Fukushima No.2 Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc., are reported. Besides, the state of development of new remotely operated automatic machines for nuclear power use, such as CRD disassembling and cleaning device, volume reduction equipment for spent fuel channel boxes and control rods, multi-functional robots for use under high radiation and so on is described. Also the trend of development of latest robot technology which will be put in practical use in near future is outlined, such as a running manipulator for checkup and inspection, a variable form crawler vehicle and a five-leg movable manipulator. (Kako, I.)
Application of T2 Control Charts and Hidden Markov Models in Condition-Based Maintenance at Thermoelectric Power Plants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emilija Kisić

2015-01-01

Full Text Available An innovative approach to condition-based maintenance of coal grinding subsystems at thermoelectric power plants is proposed in the paper. Coal mill grinding tables become worn over time and need to be replaced through time-based maintenance, after a certain number of service hours. At times such replacement is necessary earlier or later than prescribed, depending on the quality of the coal and of the grinding table itself. Considerable financial losses are incurred when the entire coal grinding subsystem is shut down and the grinding table found to not actually require replacement. The only way to determine whether replacement is necessary is to shut down and open the entire subsystem for visual inspection. The proposed algorithm supports condition-based maintenance and involves the application of T2 control charts to distinct acoustic signal parameters in the frequency domain and the construction of Hidden Markov Models whose observations are coded samples from the control charts. In the present research, the acoustic signals were collected by coal mill monitoring at the thermoelectric power plant “Kostolac” in Serbia. The proposed approach provides information about the current condition of the grinding table.
Repeat-containing protein effectors of plant-associated organisms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carl H. Mesarich

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Many plant-associated organisms, including microbes, nematodes, and insects, deliver effector proteins into the apoplast, vascular tissue, or cell cytoplasm of their prospective hosts. These effectors function to promote colonization, typically by altering host physiology or by modulating host immune responses. The same effectors however, can also trigger host immunity in the presence of cognate host immune receptor proteins, and thus prevent colonization. To circumvent effector-triggered immunity, or to further enhance host colonization, plant-associated organisms often rely on adaptive effector evolution. In recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that several effectors of plant-associated organisms are repeat-containing proteins (RCPs that carry tandem or non-tandem arrays of an amino acid sequence or structural motif. In this review, we highlight the diverse roles that these repeat domains play in RCP effector function. We also draw attention to the potential role of these repeat domains in adaptive evolution with regards to RCP effector function and the evasion of effector-triggered immunity. The aim of this review is to increase the profile of RCP effectors from plant-associated organisms.
The human factor in maintenance work

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hansson, B.

1996-01-01

In most of the maintenance works performed at operating plants, the personnel is the warranty for both efficient performance and good quality. To reach the right quality level in performance, the personnel needs adequate tools and of course a maintenance strategy and an organisation that supports the efficient work. The human factor is mostly referred to when something went wrong and analyses are done. There is a great potential of doing preventive analysis. The presentation will focus on experience in this field and what has been done at Barsebaeck NPP to analyse and improve the maintenance work. As maintenance work can't be seen as an isolated area, the rest of the plant organisation is included in the presentation. (author) figs., tabs
Project organization for automating an industrial power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Williams, D.R.; McCowen, R.R.

1988-01-01

This paper reports on the controls for three boilers and three turbine generators at the power plant at the John Deere Waterloo Works that have been retrofit with a microprocessor based monitoring, control, and optimization system. The factors driving the project in the 15 mW, 500,000 lb/hr, 35 year old plant were reduced electricity costs due to peak shaving, energy conservation, labor savings, reduced maintenance costs and improved reliability. A turnkey design/build arrangement was sought after a preliminary study indicated an attractive return on investment Control system vendors and design/build contractors were evaluated using a group decision making method. A design/build contractor was chosen to do an in-depth study and write specifications for the control system were negotiated with the contractor The project was managed by the Power Plant and Energy Management Department, rather than by the staff department normally responsible for capital projects
Repression of Lateral Organ Boundary Genes by PENNYWISE and POUND-FOOLISH Is Essential for Meristem Maintenance and Flowering in Arabidopsis.

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Madiha; Ragni, Laura; Tabb, Paul; Salasini, Brenda C; Chatfield, Steven; Datla, Raju; Lock, John; Kuai, Xiahezi; Després, Charles; Proveniers, Marcel; Yongguo, Cao; Xiang, Daoquan; Morin, Halima; Rullière, Jean-Pierre; Citerne, Sylvie; Hepworth, Shelley R; Pautot, Véronique

2015-11-01

In the model plant Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), endogenous and environmental signals acting on the shoot apical meristem cause acquisition of inflorescence meristem fate. This results in changed patterns of aerial development seen as the transition from making leaves to the production of flowers separated by elongated internodes. Two related BEL1-like homeobox genes, PENNYWISE (PNY) and POUND-FOOLISH (PNF), fulfill this transition. Loss of function of these genes impairs stem cell maintenance and blocks internode elongation and flowering. We show here that pny pnf apices misexpress lateral organ boundary genes BLADE-ON-PETIOLE1/2 (BOP1/2) and KNOTTED-LIKE FROM ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA6 (KNAT6) together with ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA HOMEOBOX GENE1 (ATH1). Inactivation of genes in this module fully rescues pny pnf defects. We further show that BOP1 directly activates ATH1, whereas activation of KNAT6 is indirect. The pny pnf restoration correlates with renewed accumulation of transcripts conferring floral meristem identity, including FD, SQUAMOSA PROMOTER-BINDING PROTEIN LIKE genes, LEAFY, and APETALA1. To gain insight into how this module blocks flowering, we analyzed the transcriptome of BOP1-overexpressing plants. Our data suggest a central role for the microRNA156-SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE-microRNA172 module in integrating stress signals conferred in part by promotion of jasmonic acid biosynthesis. These data reveal a potential mechanism by which repression of lateral organ boundary genes by PNY-PNF is essential for flowering. © 2015 American Society of Plant Biologists. All Rights Reserved.
The plant operating procedure information modeling system for creation and maintenance of procedures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fanto, S.V.; Petras, D.S.; Reiner, R.T.; Frost, D.R.; Orendi, R.G.

1990-01-01

This paper reports that as a result of the accident at Three Mile Island, regulatory requirements were issued to upgrade Emergency Operating Procedures for nuclear power plants. The use of human-factored, function-oriented, EOPs were mandated to improve human reliability and to mitigate the consequences of a broad range of initiating events, subsequent failures and operator errors, without having to first diagnose the specific events. The Westinghouse Owners Group responded by developing the Emergency Response Guidelines in a human-factored, two-column format to aid in the transfer of the improved technical information to the operator during transients and accidents. The ERGs are a network of 43 interrelated guidelines which specify operator actions to be taken during plant emergencies to restore the plant to a safe and stable condition. Each utility then translates these guidelines into plant specific EOPs. The creation and maintenance of this large web of interconnecting ERGs/EOPs is an extremely complex task. This paper reports that in order to aid procedure documentation specialists with this time-consuming and tedious task, the Plant Operating Procedure Information Modeling system was developed to provide a controlled and consistent means to build and maintain the ERGs/EOPs and their supporting documentation
Study on optimization of normal plant outage work plan for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aoki, Takayuki; Kodama, Noriko; Takase, Kentaro; Miya, Kenzo

2011-01-01

This paper discusses maintenance optimization in maintenance implementation stage following maintenance planning stage in nuclear power plants and proposes a methodology to get an optimum maintenance work plan. As a result of consideration, the followings were obtained. (1) The quantitative evaluation methodology for optimizing maintenance work plan in nuclear power plants was developed. (2) Utilizing the above methodology, a simulation analysis of maintenance work planning for BWR's PLR and RHR systems in a normal plant outage was performed. Maintenance cost calculation in several cases was carried out on the condition of smoothening man loading over the plant outage schedule as much as possible. (3) As a result of the simulation, the economical work plans having a flat man loading over the plant outage schedule were obtained. (author)
Experience based reliability centered maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haenninen, S.; Laakso, K.

1993-03-01

The systematic analysis and documentation of operating experiences should be included in a living NPP life management program. Failure mode and effects and maintenance effects analyses are suitable methods for analysis of the failure and corrective maintenance experiences of equipment. Combined use of the information on occurred functional failures and the decision tree logic of the reliability centered maintenance identifies applicable and effective preventive maintenance tasks of equipment in an old plant. In this study the electrical motor drives of closing and isolation valves (MOV) of TVO and Loviisa nuclear power plants were selected to serve as pilot study objects. The study was limited to valve drives having actuators manufactured by AUMA in Germany. The fault and maintenance history of MOVs from 1981 up to and including October 1991 in different safety and process systems at TVO 1 and 2 nuclear power units was at first analyzed in a systematic way. The scope of the components studied was 81 MOVs in safety-related systems and 127 other MOVs per each TVO unit. In the case of the Loviisa plant, the observation period was limited to three years, i.e. from February 1989 up to February 1992. The scope of the Loviisa 1 and 2 components studied was 44 respectively 95 MOVs. (25 refs., 22 figs., 8 tabs.)
PSAD-a monitoring and aid to diagnosis system participating in saving on maintenance and operation costs and for plant life extension

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brasseur, S.; Morel, J.; Joussellin, A.

1997-01-01

Monitoring nuclear plants components enable to save on operation and maintenance costs by reducing incidents gravity and casual plant stoppages thank to early detection and fast diagnosis. Improving the knowledge of the behaviour of the plant will also allow to optimize maintenance and to increase plant life. In order to improve monitoring and diagnosis capabilities in nuclear power plants. Electricite de France (EDF) is extending the existing data processing chains towards automatic aided interpretation and diagnosis. Therefore, EDF has designed an integrated monitoring and diagnosis assistance system: PSAD-Poste de Surveillance et d'Aide au Diagnostic, including several monitoring functions of the main components. It integrates on-line monitoring, off-line diagnosis and knowledge based systems. PSAD stations provide homogeneous aids to diagnosis which enable plant personnel to pinpoint the mechanical behaviour of plant equipment. The objective of PSAD is to provide them with high-efficiency and user-friendly tools which can considerabily free them from routine tasks. The first version of the prototype is working on a French Plant. This version includes the software host structure and two monitoring functions: the Reactor Coolant Pumps and the Turbo-generator Monitoring functions. Internal Structures Monitoring function and Loose Parts Detection are still under development and should be integrated into PSAD prototype in 1998
Maintenance Trades Guidelines

Science.gov (United States)

Weidner, Theodore J.

2008-01-01

In 2002, APPA published "Maintenance Staffing Guidelines for Educational Facilities," the first building maintenance trades staffing guideline designed to assist educational facilities professionals with their staffing needs. addresses how facilities professionals can determine the appropriate size and mix of their organization. Contents…
An industrial application virtual reality. An aid for designing maintenance in nuclear plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fertey, G.; Thibault, G.; Delpy, T.; Lapierre, M.

1995-09-01

This paper shows a use of virtual reality in the industrial context of nuclear plant maintenance. The objective is to build a realistic simulation fool by means of virtual reality techniques. With such a tool, the designer of a maintenance operation can validate tools and sequencing of operations, reduce the time of intervention and minimize the radiation doses received by the operator on site. Several major functionalities have been studied: a navigation in 3D geometries faithfully reproducing terrain, geometries obtained by 3D digitization of installations; an optimized navigation to the intervention sites with both management of obstacles present along the way and room walls and guiding of navigator from one room to another by means of visual indicators (arrows) which he can capture and which virtually carry him; a programming of the environment in keeping with and translating faithfully the breakdown and sequencing of intervention operations; real time information on the surrounding radiation. (author)

Maintenance improvement program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Derbonne, D.R.; Plunkett, T.F.; Simpson, J.R.

1989-01-01

During fuel cycle 1 at River Bend station, considerable effort was expended to reduce corrective maintenance work orders (MWOs) to <1,000. This was done by complementing the plant staff with costly contract personnel. Coming out of the first refueling outage, most contract personnel were released. The change in MWO backlog started a steady rise. It became readily apparent that to avoid costly contract staff time, a maintenance improvement program (MIP) was necessary. The MIP Was primarily directed at two areas: crew efficiency improvements and improved preplanned MWO packages. The overall effect of the MIP was to achieve significant productivity improvements with reduced operation and maintenance cost by providing frequent accountability to all levels of maintenance supervision. The MIP also produced a feeling of pride among the maintenance department employees that had not really existed before. This was the best benefit of all
Systematic maintenance analysis with decision support method and tool for optimizing maintenance programme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laakso, K.; Simola, K.; Dorrepaal, J.; Skogberg, P.

1999-01-01

This report describes an approach to evaluate the effectiveness of test and maintenance programs of technical systems used during several years. The method combines an analysis of the historical data on faults and repairs with an analysis of the history of periodic testing and preventive maintenance action programs. The application of the maintenance analysis from the methodological point of view in the reliability centered maintenance (RCM) project for Barsebaeck nuclear power plant is described. In order to limit the analysis resources, a method for ranking of objects for maintenance analysis is needed. Preliminary suggestions for changes in maintenance action programs are based on signals from simple maintenance indicators and qualitative analysis of underlying data on failures and maintenance. To facilitate generation of maintenance indicators, and make the maintenance analysis more efficient, a powerful and suitable data treatment tool is needed for analysis of the work order history. In the final maintenance decisions, additional decision criteria must be taken into account, and thus a more formal decision analysis is often needed for decision support. (au)
7 CFR 1767.27 - Operation and maintenance expenses.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) ACCOUNTING REQUIREMENTS FOR RUS ELECTRIC BORROWERS Uniform System of... Waterways 544Maintenance of Electric Plant 545Maintenance of Miscellaneous Hydraulic Plant Other Power....1Load Dispatch-Reliability 561.2Load Dispatch-Monitor and Operate Transmission System 561.3Load Dispatch...
Guideline for the procedure of preparing and executing of maintenance and modifications in nuclear power plants (dated May 10th, 1978)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1978-01-01

Based on the terms defined for this guideline and on legal provisions, it is the purpose of this guideline to render a contribution to the guaranteeing of safe operation and to foster the safety of work while taking the safety of the plant into account by means of a uniform procedure for the preparation and execution of maintenance and modifications carried out in nuclear power plants. The criteria to be taken into account and the procedural steps necessary, organisational measures and controls, technical aspects to be taken into account and determinations to be made are given. Matters concerning plant safety (protection of objects) are pointed out, if they are to be taken into account as marginal conditions when determining measures for the safety of work and the safety of the plant. The guideline serves as a basis for the set-up and assessment of a maintenance-regulation adapted to the resp. organisation of the plant and for the elaboration and check-up of the detailed complementary documents as e.g. accident report blanks, cut-off blanks and safety certificates. (orig.) [de
Joint application of AI techniques, PRA and disturbance analysis methodology to problems in the maintenance and design of nuclear power plants. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Okrent, D.

1989-03-01

This final report summarizes the accomplishments of a two year research project entitled ``Joint Application of Artificial Intelligence Techniques, Probabilistic Risk Analysis, and Disturbance Analysis Methodology to Problems in the Maintenance and Design of Nuclear Power Plants. The objective of this project is to develop and apply appropriate combinations of techniques from artificial intelligence, (AI), reliability and risk analysis and disturbance analysis to well-defined programmatic problems of nuclear power plants. Reactor operations issues were added to those of design and maintenance as the project progressed.
EHV transmission maintenance. A total asset strategy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bronsdon, J.A.N.

1996-01-01

For countries whose economies are rapidly expanding, the demand for power, and in particular electricity, is resulting in rapid expansions of the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. This means that a new plant is being installed which, apart from some minor post commissioning problems, will be free from major maintenance for several years to come. Consequently, in such cases, maintenance is confined to basic annual shutdown checks and routine online monitoring. As equipment and plant age it is important to commence planning for additional maintenance over and above these basic annual checks; to monitor performance; to monitor faults and defects and to use that information to engineer out design faults, to influence current maintenance techniques and to influence future procurement specifications. Also, provided that sufficient information is available, informed decisions can be taken as to when a power plant should be decommissioned or refurbished. This process can be described as a total asset management strategy covering all decisions from procurement through to commissioning, ongoing maintenance, refurbishment, decommissioning and reappraisal of specifications for future procurement. Based upon the author's experience within the United Kingdom Electricity Supply industry, a total asset strategy will be proposed for EHV transmission plant that will optimise current and future expenditure while maximizing reliability and minimising downtime. 1 ref., 5 figs
Planning and execution of jobs in nuclear power plants according to IWRS II. Pt. 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hilmer, R.; Hauck, W.

1986-01-01

This paper deals with various efforts taken for a reduction of the radiation exposure of nuclear power plant staff. Health physics considerations range from the design of plants to include components requiring less time for maintenance and repair, to plant operation and optimization of job processes with special consideration of requirements made by radiation protection and maintenance. The paper presents in detail legal provisions and their translation into job process organization, job assignment and job schedulling. (HAG) [de
Principal scheme of preventive maintenance support system for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishiyama, Takuya; Terano, Takao; Yokoo, Takeshi; Shinohara, Yasushi

1985-01-01

It is of great importance to turn lessons learned from abnormal event experiences to advantage as well as taking apriori actions for prevention of abnormal events in nuclear power plants. From this point of view, a consultation system, named as Preventive Maintenance Support System (PMSS), which is to possess accumulated knowledges drawn from the past abnormal events in nuclear power plants infer occurrences, factors and developments of abnormal events and recommend preventive countermeasures on the basis of the knowledges, has been proposed. This report presents the principal scheme of PMSS. To begin with, following to the discussion of the purpose and use of PMSS, the fundamental functions PMSS should perform are specified. They are (1) event factors analyzation, (2) event prediction (event development estimation and analogous event estimation), (3) event significance evaluation and (4) preventive countermeasures presentation. In the next place, it is asserted that such a system should be constructed as a knowledge engineering one. Then, the R and D subjects and related schedule for PMSS are set up. (author)
A method for accounting for maintenance costs in flux balance analysis improves the prediction of plant cell metabolic phenotypes under stress conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheung, C Y Maurice; Williams, Thomas C R; Poolman, Mark G; Fell, David A; Ratcliffe, R George; Sweetlove, Lee J

2013-09-01

Flux balance models of metabolism generally utilize synthesis of biomass as the main determinant of intracellular fluxes. However, the biomass constraint alone is not sufficient to predict realistic fluxes in central heterotrophic metabolism of plant cells because of the major demand on the energy budget due to transport costs and cell maintenance. This major limitation can be addressed by incorporating transport steps into the metabolic model and by implementing a procedure that uses Pareto optimality analysis to explore the trade-off between ATP and NADPH production for maintenance. This leads to a method for predicting cell maintenance costs on the basis of the measured flux ratio between the oxidative steps of the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway and glycolysis. We show that accounting for transport and maintenance costs substantially improves the accuracy of fluxes predicted from a flux balance model of heterotrophic Arabidopsis cells in culture, irrespective of the objective function used in the analysis. Moreover, when the new method was applied to cells under control, elevated temperature and hyper-osmotic conditions, only elevated temperature led to a substantial increase in cell maintenance costs. It is concluded that the hyper-osmotic conditions tested did not impose a metabolic stress, in as much as the metabolic network is not forced to devote more resources to cell maintenance. © 2013 The Authors The Plant Journal © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Ageing nuclear plants inspection, maintenance and performance monitoring eased by Data Validation and Reconciliation (DVR) approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Quang, A. Tran; Chares, R.

2012-01-01

With the long term operation of nuclear power plants, decisions to replace or repair should be optimized from an economical, human resource and safety point of view. In that frame, the operation requires a continuous inspection and testing of systems in order to detect degradations and failures at an early stage. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that such assiduous vigilance ensures safety, it is not optimized in terms of man power and maintenance costs. Preventive strategies show the same types of drawbacks. On top of that, these maintenance procedures rely on process measurements which accuracy, availability and reliability cannot always be ensured. The present paper introduces a new approach to the maintenance management of ageing installations and suggests a method that overcomes the actual drawbacks. The Reconciliation and Validation of data (DVR) is an advanced and innovative technology that relies on process data statistics, thermodynamic and on-site process knowledge. Benefits of real-time applications are also presented. (author)
Final Report on the Operation and Maintenance Improvement Program for Concentrating Solar Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cohen, Gilbert E.; Kearney, David W.; Kolb, Gregory J.

1999-01-01

This report describes the results of a six-year, $6.3 million project to reduce operation and maintenance (O ampersand M) costs at power plants employing concentrating solar power (CSP) technology. Sandia National Laboratories teamed with KJC Operating Company to implement the O ampersand M Improvement Program. O ampersand M technologies developed during the course of the program were demonstrated at the 150-MW Kramer Junction solar power park located in Boron, California. Improvements were made in the following areas: (a) efficiency of solar energy collection, (b) O ampersand M information management, (c) reliability of solar field flow loop hardware, (d) plant operating strategy, and (e) cost reduction associated with environmental issues. A 37% reduction in annual O ampersand M costs was achieved. Based on the lessons learned, an optimum solar- field O ampersand M plan for future CSP plants is presented. Parabolic trough solar technology is employed at Kramer Junction. However, many of the O ampersand M improvements described in the report are also applicable to CSP plants based on solar power tower or dish/engine concepts
Final Report on the Operation and Maintenance Improvement Program for Concentrating Solar Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cohen Gilbert E.; Kearney, David W.; Kolb, Gregory J.

1999-06-01

This report describes the results of a six-year, $6.3 million project to reduce operation and maintenance (O&M) costs at power plants employing concentrating solar power (CSP) technology. Sandia National Laboratories teamed with KJC Operating Company to implement the O&M Improvement Program. O&M technologies developed during the course of the program were demonstrated at the 150-MW Kramer Junction solar power park located in Boron, California. Improvements were made in the following areas: (a) efficiency of solar energy collection, (b) O&M information management, (c) reliability of solar field flow loop hardware, (d) plant operating strategy, and (e) cost reduction associated with environmental issues. A 37% reduction in annual O&M costs was achieved. Based on the lessons learned, an optimum solar- field O&M plan for future CSP plants is presented. Parabolic trough solar technology is employed at Kramer Junction. However, many of the O&M improvements described in the report are also applicable to CSP plants based on solar power tower or dish/engine concepts.
APPLICATIONS LIQUID ORGANIC FERTILIZER AND COMPOSITION OF PLANT MEDIA TO RESULT OF SELADA PLANTS (Lactuca sativa L

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sri Hidayati

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract: Lettuce (lactuca sativa is a vegetable that has a very high economic value. Where this plant can be grown in temperate and tropical regions, Lettuce production is still low, then this plant needs to be given fertilizer treatment. One of the fertilizer that can be used is liquid organic fertilizer. Liquid Organic Fertilizer has several benefits such as to encourage and increase the growth and yield of plants. Objective: To know the effect of combination of planting media composition and liquid organic fertilizer to growth and yield of lettuce crop; To know the influence of plant plant composition on growth and yield of lettuce plant; To know the effect of liquid organic fertilizer on growth and yield of lettuce plant. The experiment was conducted in experimental garden of Faculty of Agriculture Universitas Merdeka Surabaya Jl.Ketintang Madya VII / 2 Surabaya, with the space 0-20 meters above sea level. This research is a pot experiment and is a two factor factorial research with Randomized Block Design (RAK, the first factor is Liquid Organic Fertilizer with 3 levels and the second factor is the composition of planting media with 4 levels. Where Factor I: liquid organic fertilizer consisting of: P1: 1 ml / plant; P2: 2 ml / plant; P3: 3 ml / plant, Factor II: planting medium consisting of 4 (four levels, namely: M1: soil + manure + rice husk: 2: 1: 1; M2: soil + manure + rice husk: 1: 1: 1; M3: ground + manure + sand: 2: 1: 1; M4: ground + manure + sand: 1: 1: 1, treatment repeated 3 times and each treatment there are 2 plant samples, so the number of plants as much 72 or 72 polybag.Based on the results of research conducted, it can be concluded as follows:1. POC concentration factor (P showed significant influence on all variables studied such as leaf number, plant length and wet weight of plant.2. The media composition factor (M showed a nonsignificant effect
Appropriate zinc addition management into PWR primary coolant after the plant long-term maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirose, Atsushi; Matsui, Ryo; Imamura, Haruki; Takahashi, Akira; Shimizu, Yuichi; Kogawa, Noritaka; Nagamine, Kunitaka

2014-01-01

Zinc addition into the PWR primary coolant is known as an effective method to reduce the radioactivity build up. The reduction effect has been confirmed by actual plant experience of the Genkai Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 to 4 and the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 to 2 which are operated by Kyushu Electric Power Co. in Japan. Zinc addition is suspended at shut-down, and is resumed after heat up or arrival at full power. In usual maintenance, the period when zinc addition is not applied is short; thus it is considered that suspension of zinc addition does not have practical influence on the corrosion and the radioactivity buildup in the oxide layer of surface for the primary equipment and piping. On the other hand, in case the maintenance period is much longer, the new oxide which does not contain zinc has grown, and then the structure of the oxide layer may be changed. Therefore, it is considered that zinc addition suspension in long-term period has possibilities to deteriorate the dose reduction effect. In order to verify the effect of long-term suspension of zinc addition upon oxide layer, the lab experiment was carried out using TT690 alloy which is the constitution material of the steam generator tubes under the conditions of long-term and the subsequent resuming operations. After the experiment, the specimens were analyzed by IMA and chemical analysis. These measurement results suggest the difference of the oxide layer is little or none between long-term suspension of zinc addition and short-term suspension of zinc suspension. Hence it is considered that influence of long-term maintenance on the oxide layer is small. Furthermore, in this study, in order to evaluate the influence of the suspension of zinc addition in the operation period, specimens of oxide film formed with zinc were carried out the corrosion test in the simulated RCS condition without zinc. These measurement results indicate the effect of reduction of the activity build up will become less
Maintenance as a corporate strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Clarke, D

2000-11-01

As we move towards the 21st century, those Manufacturing Industries that survive, will have changed their "efficiency" focus away from the conventional wisdom of "efficient individual tasks", to focus on the "effectiveness of a total manufacturing process". This seemingly insignificant change of emphasis, (from task to process) must include "the integration of process plant maintenance into the production process". Manufacturing companies, which do not include an effective plant maintenance strategy into their business strategy, will not survive the business environment of the 21st Century.
The operating organization for nuclear power plants. Safety guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2001-01-01

This Safety Guide was prepared under the IAEA programme for safety standards for nuclear power plants. The present publication is a revision of the IAEA Safety Guide on Management of Nuclear Power Plants for Safe Operation issued in 1984. It supplements Section 2 of the Safety Requirements publication on Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Operation. Nuclear power technology is different from the customary technology of power generation from fossil fuel and by hydroelectric means. One major difference between the management of nuclear power plants and that of conventional generating plants is the emphasis that should be placed on nuclear safety, quality assurance, the management of radioactive waste and radiological protection, and the accompanying national regulatory requirements. This Safety Guide highlights the important elements of effective management in relation to these aspects of safety. The attention to be paid to safety requires that the management recognize that personnel involved in the nuclear power programme should understand, respond effectively to, and continuously search for ways to enhance safety in the light of any additional requirements socially and legally demanded of nuclear energy. This will help to ensure that safety policies that result in the safe operation of nuclear power plants are implemented and that margins of safety are always maintained. The structure of the organization, management standards and administrative controls should be such that there is a high degree of assurance that safety policies and decisions are implemented, safety is continuously enhanced and a strong safety culture is promoted and supported. The objective of this publication is to guide Member States in setting up an operating organization which facilitates the safe operation of nuclear power plants to a high level internationally. The second objective is to provide guidance on the most important organizational elements in order to contribute to a strong safety
The operating organization for nuclear power plants. Safety guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

This Safety Guide was prepared under the IAEA programme for safety standards for nuclear power plants. The present publication is a revision of the IAEA Safety Guide on Management of Nuclear Power Plants for Safe Operation issued in 1984. It supplements Section 2 of the Safety Requirements publication on Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Operation. Nuclear power technology is different from the customary technology of power generation from fossil fuel and by hydroelectric means. One major difference between the management of nuclear power plants and that of conventional generating plants is the emphasis that should be placed on nuclear safety, quality assurance, the management of radioactive waste and radiological protection, and the accompanying national regulatory requirements. This Safety Guide highlights the important elements of effective management in relation to these aspects of safety. The attention to be paid to safety requires that the management recognize that personnel involved in the nuclear power programme should understand, respond effectively to, and continuously search for ways to enhance safety in the light of any additional requirements socially and legally demanded of nuclear energy. This will help to ensure that safety policies that result in the safe operation of nuclear power plants are implemented and that margins of safety are always maintained. The structure of the organization, management standards and administrative controls should be such that there is a high degree of assurance that safety policies and decisions are implemented, safety is continuously enhanced and a strong safety culture is promoted and supported. The objective of this publication is to guide Member States in setting up an operating organization which facilitates the safe operation of nuclear power plants to a high level internationally. The second objective is to provide guidance on the most important organizational elements in order to contribute to a strong safety
The operating organization for nuclear power plants. Safety guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

This Safety Guide was prepared under the IAEA programme for safety standards for nuclear power plants. The present publication is a revision of the IAEA Safety Guide on Management of Nuclear Power Plants for Safe Operation issued in 1984. It supplements Section 2 of the Safety Requirements publication on Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Operation. Nuclear power technology is different from the customary technology of power generation from fossil fuel and by hydroelectric means. One major difference between the management of nuclear power plants and that of conventional generating plants is the emphasis that should be placed on nuclear safety, quality assurance, the management of radioactive waste and radiological protection, and the accompanying national regulatory requirements. This Safety Guide highlights the important elements of effective management in relation to these aspects of safety. The attention to be paid to safety requires that the management recognize that personnel involved in the nuclear power programme should understand, respond effectively to, and continuously search for ways to enhance safety in the light of any additional requirements socially and legally demanded of nuclear energy. This will help to ensure that safety policies that result in the safe operation of nuclear power plants are implemented and that margins of safety are always maintained. The structure of the organization, management standards and administrative controls should be such that there is a high degree of assurance that safety policies and decisions are implemented, safety is continuously enhanced and a strong safety culture is promoted and supported. The objective of this publication is to guide Member States in setting up an operating organization which facilitates the safe operation of nuclear power plants to a high level internationally. The second objective is to provide guidance on the most important organizational elements in order to contribute to a strong safety
Differential Effect of Plant Lipids on Membrane Organization

Science.gov (United States)

Grosjean, Kevin; Mongrand, Sébastien; Beney, Laurent; Simon-Plas, Françoise; Gerbeau-Pissot, Patricia

2015-01-01

The high diversity of the plant lipid mixture raises the question of their respective involvement in the definition of membrane organization. This is particularly the case for plant plasma membrane, which is enriched in specific lipids, such as free and conjugated forms of phytosterols and typical phytosphingolipids, such as glycosylinositolphosphoceramides. This question was here addressed extensively by characterizing the order level of membrane from vesicles prepared using various plant lipid mixtures and labeled with an environment-sensitive probe. Fluorescence spectroscopy experiments showed that among major phytosterols, campesterol exhibits a stronger ability than β-sitosterol and stigmasterol to order model membranes. Multispectral confocal microscopy, allowing spatial analysis of membrane organization, demonstrated accordingly the strong ability of campesterol to promote ordered domain formation and to organize their spatial distribution at the membrane surface. Conjugated sterol forms, alone and in synergy with free sterols, exhibit a striking ability to order membrane. Plant sphingolipids, particularly glycosylinositolphosphoceramides, enhanced the sterol-induced ordering effect, emphasizing the formation and increasing the size of sterol-dependent ordered domains. Altogether, our results support a differential involvement of free and conjugated phytosterols in the formation of ordered domains and suggest that the diversity of plant lipids, allowing various local combinations of lipid species, could be a major contributor to membrane organization in particular through the formation of sphingolipid-sterol interacting domains. PMID:25575593
Performance-based inspection and maintenance strategies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vesely, W.E.

1995-01-01

Performance-based inspection and maintenance strategies utilize measures of equipment performance to help guide inspection and maintenance activities. A relevant measure of performance for safety system components is component unavailability. The component unavailability can also be input into a plant risk model such as a Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) to determine the associated plant risk performance. Based on the present and projected unavailability performance, or the present and projected risk performance, the effectiveness of current maintenance activities can be evaluated and this information can be used to plan future maintenance activities. A significant amount of information other than downtimes or failure times is collected or can be collected when an inspection or maintenance is conducted which can be used to estimate the component unavailability. This information generally involves observations on the condition or state of the component or component piecepart. The information can be detailed such as the amount of corrosion buildup or can be general such as the general state of the component described as ' high degradation', ' moderate degradation', or ' low degradation'. Much of the information collected in maintenance logs is qualitative and fuzzy. As part of an NRC Research program on performance-based engineering modeling, approaches have been developed to apply Fuzzy Set Theory to information collected on the state of the component to determine the implied component or component piecepart unavailability. Demonstrations of the applications of Fuzzy Set Theory are presented utilizing information from plant maintenance logs. The demonstrations show the power of Fuzzy Set Theory in translating engineering information to reliability and risk implications

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