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EPRI’S Approach To Longer Term Operations

EPRI has been supporting the nuclear industry over the last several decades to provide the technical bases and research to support the operation of the current fleet of nuclear power plants beyond their initial licensing period (typically 30-40 years of operation). Hundreds of technical reports and guidance documents have been issued on topics ranging from developing and implementing aging management programs, identification, and evaluation of degradation mechanisms, and remaining useful life of key passive components (e.g., reactor vessel internals, cables, and concrete). A previous 2019 ANS Environmental Degradation Conference paper discussed the research goals and results of EPRI up to 2019 for concrete and cables. These research results provide a living technical basis as these results are supplemented regularly with industry operating experience, inspection results, and condition monitoring or non-destructive evaluations.

Product Number: ED22-17191-SG
Author: Emma L. Wong, Andrew Mantey, Samuel Johnson, Jean Smith
Publication Date: 2022
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When considering longer term operations of nuclear power plants beyond 80 years of operation, EPRI has taken the approach of forming a solid technical basis based on key aging parameters and not based simply on age (in years) of the plant. These key parameters indicate when a system, structure, or component may need additional analysis, consideration or even inspections. When these key parameters reach a limit to where additional aging management actions are needed, EPRI has a provided a toolbox of options to monitor components, assess and estimate remaining life, to mitigate effects during ongoing operations and options to provide specific repair or replacement of certain critical components. This basis has been developed based upon decades of accumulated and documented past research, operating experience, and inspection results. When dealing with the uncertainty of operating a nuclear power plant past 80 years, EPRI has implemented an approach to use Issue Management Tables to capture knowledge gaps for aging management of post 80 years of operations. These knowledge gaps relate to condition monitoring to assess the ongoing viability of components, advanced modeling and digital twins to predict remaining useful life, advanced repair technologies, and replacement strategies. This paper will provide an overview of the EPRI approach and will specifically focus on the key issues calling for future research in the areas of reactor vessel and internals, cables, and concrete.

When considering longer term operations of nuclear power plants beyond 80 years of operation, EPRI has taken the approach of forming a solid technical basis based on key aging parameters and not based simply on age (in years) of the plant. These key parameters indicate when a system, structure, or component may need additional analysis, consideration or even inspections. When these key parameters reach a limit to where additional aging management actions are needed, EPRI has a provided a toolbox of options to monitor components, assess and estimate remaining life, to mitigate effects during ongoing operations and options to provide specific repair or replacement of certain critical components. This basis has been developed based upon decades of accumulated and documented past research, operating experience, and inspection results. When dealing with the uncertainty of operating a nuclear power plant past 80 years, EPRI has implemented an approach to use Issue Management Tables to capture knowledge gaps for aging management of post 80 years of operations. These knowledge gaps relate to condition monitoring to assess the ongoing viability of components, advanced modeling and digital twins to predict remaining useful life, advanced repair technologies, and replacement strategies. This paper will provide an overview of the EPRI approach and will specifically focus on the key issues calling for future research in the areas of reactor vessel and internals, cables, and concrete.