Refueling outage trends in light water reactors

Technical Report · Tue Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1978

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6543320· OSTI ID:6543320

Burns, E. T.

Operating experience in U.S. light water reactors (LWRs) has shown that the impact of refueling outages on plant unavailability is much higher than has been previously anticipated. The purpose of this report is to identify the principal causes of the extensions of refueling outages, the effect of these outages on plant productivity, and an alternative refueling cycle to reduce their impact. Both the refueling outages and other major outages are displayed as a function of plant age; this method allows identification of trends in these outages as a plant matures. In addition, 27 refuelings are investigated in depth to determine the contributors to refueling outage extensions. Based upon this summary of refueling outages, an evaluation is made of the decision to refuel on an annual basis versus a longer cycle (i.e., 18 months). The result of the evaluation indicates that utilities can improve plant availability by up to 6 percent per year by increasing the time between refuelings from an annual to an 18 month refueling cycle.

• Research Organization: Science Applications, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6543320
• Report Number(s): EPRI-NP-842
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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