A breakthrough in reducing RCM costs

Journal Article · Sun Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1993 · Nuclear News

OSTI ID:486223

Worledge, D

Preliminary findings from two industry projects indicate how to reduce the costs of reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) applied on a large scale and how to reduce maintenance costs at nuclear plants while meeting new Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations. The projects involve the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and, separately, Philadelphia Electric Co, (PECo) and Boston Edison Co. (BECo). Industry experience has shown that numerous benefits can be obtained by using RCM. These include eliminating unnecessary preventive maintenance (PM) tasks, decreasing corrective maintenance, reducing forced outages, improving plant availability, and increasing the focus of maintenance resources on critical equipment. RCM is an approach to maintenance that involves consideration of which components support important system functions, and the consequent choice of PM tasks based on the best available engineering judgment. It was developed for utility use by the nuclear industry with the support of EPRI. About 50 nuclear power plants in the United States are now investigating this maintenance optimization process. Many tools, guidelines, and lessons learned have been produced by EPRI during the last six years, as the industry has learned how RCM evaluations can be done more cost-effectively.

• OSTI ID: 486223
• Journal Information: Nuclear News, Journal Name: Nuclear News Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 36; ISSN NUNWA8; ISSN 0029-5574
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
COST
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
OPTIMIZATION
REACTOR MAINTENANCE