Online monitoring of rod control systems in combustion engineering pressurized water reactors - 195
- Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station PO Box 52034 (United States)
- Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation 9119 Cross Park Drive Knoxville, TN 37923 (United States)
Current designs of Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) are equipped with control and shutdown rods that are inserted and withdrawn from the reactor core to control reactivity. In Combustion Engineering (CE) plants, these rods are moved using the Control Element Drive Mechanism (CEDM) and controlled by the CEDM Control System (CEDMCS). In the event of system failure, troubleshooting activities can have a substantial impact on plant resources. Furthermore, CEDM component failures have occurred without warning, which has led to increased costs for the plants. These issues, combined with the inherently complex design of the CEDMCS, create a need for an online diagnostics system that can improve system health monitoring, increase diagnostic capabilities, and decrease troubleshooting time. This paper describes an advanced analysis and diagnostics system that monitors the CEDMCS during plant operation and provides critical information to onsite personnel to help detect and prevent problems before they impact normal plant operation. This system uses existing CEDMCS test points to acquire data and needs no modifications to the CEDMCS for implementation. The online monitoring capabilities automatically collect data during normal operation and diagnose failure events, reduce troubleshooting time and provide plant personnel with valuable information which is not currently available. Additionally, the system has built-in features used to streamline routine surveillance testing, collect stationary and movement data on multiple rods simultaneously, automate analysis, and generate reports. This system was developed with input from industry CEDMCS engineers at existing commercial facilities and has been deployed in multiple operating nuclear plants. The system has demonstrated itself to be a valuable tool for CEDMCS health monitoring, not only in reducing required man-power for routine system testing, but also in detected impending coil faults and allowing plant engineers to mitigate system component failures to prevent impending plant shut downs. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 23035321
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: NPIC and HIMIT 2017: 10. International Conference on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technologies, San Francisco, CA (United States), 11-15 Jun 2017; Other Information: Country of input: France; 3 refs.; available from American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (US)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
COMBUSTION
CONTROL ELEMENTS
MONITORING
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTIVITY
REACTOR CONTROL SYSTEMS
REACTOR CORES
REACTOR INSTRUMENTATION
REACTOR OPERATION
REACTOR SHUTDOWN
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS
TESTING