Controlling O&M Costs of Advanced SMRs using Prognostics and Enhanced Risk Monitoring
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Advanced small modular reactors (AdvSMRs) can contribute to safe, sustainable, and carbon-neutral energy production. The economics of small reactors (including AdvSMRs) will be impacted by the reduced economy-of-scale savings when compared to traditional light water reactors. The most significant controllable element of the day-to-day costs involves operations and maintenance (O&M). Enhancing affordability of AdvSMRs through technologies that help control O&M costs will be critical to ensuring their practicality for wider deployment.A significant component of O&M costs is the management and mitigation of degradation of components due to their impact on planning maintenance activities and staffing levels. Technologies that help characterize real-time risk of failure of key components are important in this context. Given the possibility of frequently changing AdvSMR plant configurations, approaches are needed to integrate three elements – advanced plant configuration information, equipment condition information, and risk monitors – to provide a measure of risk that is customized for each AdvSMR unit and support real-time decisions on O&M. This article describes an overview of ongoing research into diagnostics/prognostics and enhanced predictive risk monitors (ERM) for this purpose.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1158479
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-100828; RC0113000
- Journal Information:
- Nuclear Plant Journal, Vol. 32, Issue 1; ISSN 0892-2055
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
An Updated Methodology for Enhancing Risk Monitors with Integrated Equipment Condition Assessment
Technical Needs for Enhancing Risk Monitors with Equipment Condition Assessment for Advanced Small Modular Reactors