Nondeterministic method to analysis of the aging effects in PWR power plants components

•The aging process can to impact in the increase of failure probability of a system.•The study of the aging is important to guarantee the safety of an installation.•The methodology application is directed to the Containment Spray Injection System.•The impact of the aging effects portrays the need of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of nuclear energy 2015-07, Vol.81, p.249-256
Main Authors: Borges, Diogo da Silva, Lava, Deise Diana, Guimarães, Antonio Cesar Ferreira, Moreira, Maria de Lourdes
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aging Process
Containment
Economics
Fault Tree Method
Maintenance Policy
Nuclear power generation
Nuclear power plants
Nuclear reactor components
Policies
Power plants
Pressurized Water Reactors
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Summary:•The aging process can to impact in the increase of failure probability of a system.•The study of the aging is important to guarantee the safety of an installation.•The methodology application is directed to the Containment Spray Injection System.•The impact of the aging effects portrays the need of the use of PSA techniques. This paper presents a contribution to the study of aging process of components in commercial plants of Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs). The analysis is made through application of the Fault Trees Method, Monte Carlo Method and Fussell–Vesely Importance Measure. The approach of the study of aging in nuclear power plants, besides giving attention to the economic factors involved directly with the extent of their operational life, also provide significant data on security issues. In Brazil, for example, the Angra 1 Nuclear Power Plant invested $ 27 million to perform corrective actions in its network installation. This fact has generated an estimated operating life extension of Angra 1 in twenty years, offering great economy compared with building cost of a new plant and anterior decommissioning, if it had reached the time operating limit of forty years. The extension of the operating life of a nuclear power plant must be accompanied by a special attention to the components of the systems and their aging process. With the application of the methodology (aging analysis of the injection system of the containment spray) proposed in this paper, it can be seen the increase in the rate of component failure, due the aging process, generates the increase in the general unavailability of the system that containing these basic components. The final results obtained were as expected and may contribute to the maintenance policy, preventing premature aging process in Nuclear Plant Systems.
ISSN:0306-4549
1873-2100
DOI:10.1016/j.anucene.2015.02.045