Nuclear plant reliability analysis. Optimization of test intervals for standby systems in nuclear power plants. Final report
Engineered safety systems are standby systems. They are tested periodically to confirm that they are operational and then returned to the standby status. Although some failures or components in standby systems are self-annunciating, there are other unsafe failures that are not revealed until the next periodic test. The longer the interval between tests, the higher the probability that a failure has occurred since the last test. On the other hand, testing the system too frequently may take it out of service too often or even wear it out prematurely--both of which lead to increased unavailability. To be meaningful, any reliability goal must be enforced throughout the lifetime of the nuclear power plant. As a result, these goals are of concern to the design engineer at the conceptual stage, as well as to the plant operator, who must demonstrate continued performance capability of systems. The purpose of this research is the general subject of testing engineered safety systems and concentrates specifically on the following areas: (1) The time interval between tests as a design consideration; (2) Optimizing the availability of proper selection of the time interval between tests; and (3) Adjusting the time interval between tests on the basis of field data on failure rates to assure conformance to an availability goal over the nuclear power plant lifetime.
- Research Organization:
- Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge (USA). Energy Lab.
- OSTI ID:
- 6918084
- Report Number(s):
- PB-80-166028
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
220900* -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Reactor Safety
ENGINEERED SAFETY SYSTEMS
ENGINEERING
FAILURES
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
OPTIMIZATION
PERFORMANCE TESTING
POWER PLANTS
RELIABILITY
SAFETY ENGINEERING
TESTING
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
TIME DEPENDENCE