Disparities in nuclear power plant performance in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany

Technical Report · Sat Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:5827189

Hansen, K F; Winje, D K

This report presents data comparing the performance of light water reactors in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The comparisons are made for the years 1980 to 1983 and include 21 Westinghouse Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs), 22 General Electric Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) in the US; and 6 Kraftwerk Union (KWU) PWRs and 4 KWU BWRs in the FRG. Data on capacity losses are presented in a disaggregated form for scheduled outages, forced outages, and regulatory imposed outages. Further, within the scheduled and forced outages, the data are subdivided into losses associated with the nuclear island, the balance of plant, or other causes. The report also surveys a number of observations relating to the causes of discrepancies between the US and West Germany. These observations were obtained from interviews with executives and engineers in both nations, including people from vendors, utilities, regulators, and architect/engineers. These discussions are distilled into observations relating to national differences in the broad areas of economics and economic regulation, safety regulations, and technical and managerial differences. 9 refs., 2 figs., 26 tabs.

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge (USA). Energy Lab.; Technische Univ. Berlin (Germany, F.R.)
• OSTI ID: 5827189
• Report Number(s): MIT-EL-84-018; ON: TI85901889
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210100* -- Power Reactors
Nonbreeding
Light-Water Moderated
Boiling Water Cooled
210200 -- Power Reactors
Nonbreeding
Light-Water Moderated
Nonboiling Water Cooled
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290600 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Nuclear Energy
BWR TYPE REACTORS
CAPACITY
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
ECONOMICS
EUROPE
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
MANAGEMENT
NORTH AMERICA
OUTAGES
PERFORMANCE
PWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTORS
REGULATIONS
USA
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS
WESTERN EUROPE