Maintenance cycle extension in advanced light water reactor plant design
Loading...
Authors
Galvin, Mark Robert.
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2001-06
Date
June 2001
Publisher
Monterey California. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
en_US
Abstract
A renewed interest in new nuclear power generation in the United States has spurred interest in developing advanced reactors with features which will address the public's concerns regarding nuclear generation. However, it is economic performance which will dictate whether any new orders for these plants will materialize. Economic performance is, to a great extent, improved by maximizing the time that the plant is on-line generating electricity relative to the time spent off-line conducting maintenance and refueling. Indeed, the strategy for the advanced light water reactor plant IRIS (International Reactor, Innovative and Secure) is to utilize an eight year operating cycle. This thesis has developed a formalized strategy to address, during the design phase, the maintenance-related barriers to an extended operating cycle. The top-level objective of this thesis was to develop a methodology for injecting component and system maintainability issues into the reactor plant design process to overcome these barriers. A primary goal was to demonstrate the applicability and utility of the methodology in the context of the IRIS design. The first step in meeting the top-level objective was to determine the types of operating cycle length barriers that the IRIS design team is likely to face. Evaluation of previously identified regulatory and investment protection surveillance program barriers preventing a candidate operating PWR from achieving an extended (48 month) cycle was conducted in the context of the IRIS design. From this analysis, 54 known IRIS operating cycle length barriers were identified. The resolution methodology was applied to each of these barriers to generate design solution alternatives for consideration in the IRIS design. The methodology developed has been demonstrated to narrow the design space to feasible design solutions which enable a desired operating cycle length, yet is general enough to have broad applicability.
Type
Thesis
Description
CIVINS (Civilian Institutions) Thesis document
Series/Report No
Department
Nuclear Engineering
Organization
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
CIVINS
Format
144 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.
Citation
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.