Download or read book DOE NE Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear power has contributed almost 20% of the to.

Download or read book Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Computer-Based Procedure (CBP) research effort is a part of the Light-Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program, which is a research and development (R & D) program sponsored by Department of Energy (DOE) and performed in close collaboration with industry R & D programs that provides the technical foundations for licensing and managing the long-term, safe, and economical operation of current nuclear power plants. One of the primary missions of the LWRS program is to help the U.S. nuclear industry adopt new technologies and engineering solutions that facilitate the continued safe operation of the plants and extension of the current operating licenses. One area that could yield tremendous savings in increased efficiency and safety is in improving procedure use. Nearly all activities in the nuclear power industry are guided by procedures, which today are printed and executed on paper. This paper-based procedure process has proven to ensure safety; however, there are improvements to be gained. Due to its inherent dynamic nature, a CBP provides the opportunity to incorporate context driven job aids, such as drawings, photos, and just-in-time training. Compared to the static state of paper-based procedures (PBPs), the presentation of information in CBPs can be much more flexible and tailored to the task, actual plant condition, and operation mode. The dynamic presentation of the procedure will guide the user down the path of relevant steps, thus minimizing time spent by the field worker to evaluate plant conditions and decisions related to the applicability of each step. This dynamic presentation of the procedure also minimizes the risk of conducting steps out of order and/or incorrectly assessed applicability of steps.

Download or read book Overview of the US Department of Energy Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The US Department of Energy Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program is focused on the long-term operation of US commercial power plants. It encompasses two facets of long-term operation: (1) manage the aging of plant systems, structures, and components so that nuclear power plant lifetimes can be extended and the plants can continue to operate safely, efficiently, and economically; and (2) provide science-based solutions to the nuclear industry that support implementation of performance improvement technologies. An important aspect of the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program is partnering with industry and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to support and conduct the long-term research needed to inform major component refurbishment and replacement strategies, performance enhancements, plant license extensions, and age-related regulatory oversight decisions. The Department of Energy research, development, and demonstration role focuses on aging phenomena and issues that require long-term research and/or unique Department of Energy laboratory expertise and facilities and are applicable to all operating reactors. This paper gives an overview of the Department of Energy Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program, including vision, goals, and major deliverables.

Download or read book Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Digital Architecture Requirements written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Digital Architecture effort is a part of the Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored Light-Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program conducted at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The LWRS program is performed in close collaboration with industry research and development (R & D) programs that provides the technical foundations for licensing and managing the long-term, safe, and economical operation of current nuclear power plants (NPPs). One of the primary missions of the LWRS program is to help the U.S. nuclear industry adopt new technologies and engineering solutions that facilitate the continued safe operation of the plants and extension of the current operating licenses. Therefore, a major objective of the LWRS program is the development of a seamless digital environment for plant operations and support by integrating information from plant systems with plant processes for nuclear workers through an array of interconnected technologies. In order to get the most benefits of the advanced technology suggested by the different research activities in the LWRS program, the nuclear utilities need a digital architecture in place to support the technology. A digital architecture can be defined as a collection of information technology (IT) capabilities needed to support and integrate a wide-spectrum of real-time digital capabilities for nuclear power plant performance improvements. It is not hard to imagine that many processes within the plant can be largely improved from both a system and human performance perspective by utilizing a plant wide (or near plant wide) wireless network. For example, a plant wide wireless network allows for real time plant status information to easily be accessed in the control room, field workers' computer-based procedures can be updated based on the real time plant status, and status on ongoing procedures can be incorporated into smart schedules in the outage command center to allow for more accurate planning of critical tasks. The goal of the digital architecture project is to provide a long-term strategy to integrate plant systems, plant processes, and plant workers. This include technologies to improve nuclear worker efficiency and human performance; to offset a range of plant surveillance and testing activities with new on-line monitoring technologies; improve command, control, and collaboration in settings such as outage control centers and work execution centers; and finally to improve operator performance with new operator aid technologies for the control room. The requirements identified through the activities in the Digital Architecture project will be used to estimate the amount of traffic on the network and hence estimating the minimal bandwidth needed.

Download or read book Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program aims to develop and deploy technologies that will make the existing U.S. nuclear fleet more efficient and competitive. The program has developed a standard methodology for determining the impact of new technologies in order to assist nuclear power plant (NPP) operators in building sound business cases. The Advanced Instrumentation, Information, and Control (II&C) Systems Technologies Pathway is part of the DOE’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program. It conducts targeted research and development (R&D) to address aging and reliability concerns with the legacy instrumentation and control and related information systems of the U.S. operating light water reactor (LWR) fleet. This work involves two major goals: (1) to ensure that legacy analog II&C systems are not life-limiting issues for the LWR fleet and (2) to implement digital II&C technology in a manner that enables broad innovation and business improvement in the NPP operating model. Resolving long-term operational concerns with the II&C systems contributes to the long-term sustainability of the LWR fleet, which is vital to the nation’s energy and environmental security. The II&C Pathway is conducting a series of pilot projects that enable the development and deployment of new II&C technologies in existing nuclear plants. Through the LWRS program, individual utilities and plants are able to participate in these projects or otherwise leverage the results of projects conducted at demonstration plants. Performance advantages of the new pilot project technologies are widely acknowledged, but it has proven difficult for utilities to derive business cases for justifying investment in these new capabilities. Lack of a business case is often cited by utilities as a barrier to pursuing wide-scale application of digital technologies to nuclear plant work activities. The decision to move forward with funding usually hinges on demonstrating actual cost reductions that can be credited to budgets and thereby truly reduce O&M or capital costs. Technology enhancements, while enhancing work methods and making work more efficient, often fail to eliminate workload such that it changes overall staffing and material cost requirements. It is critical to demonstrate cost reductions or impacts on non-cost performance objectives in order for the business case to justify investment by nuclear operators. The Business Case Methodology (BCM) addresses the ?benefit? side of the analysis—as opposed to the cost side—and how the organization evaluates discretionary projects (net present value (NPV), accounting effects of taxes, discount rates, et cetera). The cost and analysis side is not particularly difficult for the organization and can usually be determined with a fair amount of precision (not withstanding implementation project cost overruns). It is in determining the "benefits" side of the analysis that utilities have more difficulty in technology projects and that is the focus of this methodology.

Download or read book Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Integrated Program Plan written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear power has safely, reliably, and economically contributed almost 20% of electrical generation in the United States over the past two decades. It remains the single largest contributor (more than 70%) of non-greenhouse-gas-emitting electric power generation in the United States. Domestic demand for electrical energy is expected to experience a 31% growth from 2009 to 2035. At the same time, most of the currently operating nuclear power plants will begin reaching the end of their initial 20-year extension to their original 40-year operating license for a total of 60 years of operation. Figure E-1 shows projected nuclear energy contribution to the domestic generating capacity. If current operating nuclear power plants do not operate beyond 60 years, the total fraction of generated electrical energy from nuclear power will begin to decline--even with the expected addition of new nuclear generating capacity. The oldest commercial plants in the United States reached their 40th anniversary in 2009. The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy's Research and Development Roadmap (Nuclear Energy Roadmap) organizes its activities around four objectives that ensure nuclear energy remains a compelling and viable energy option for the United States. The four objectives are as follows: (1) develop technologies and other solutions that can improve the reliability, sustain the safety, and extend the life of the current reactors; (2) develop improvements in the affordability of new reactors to enable nuclear energy to help meet the Administration's energy security and climate change goals; (3) develop sustainable nuclear fuel cycles; and (4) understand and minimize the risks of nuclear proliferation and terrorism. The Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program is the primary programmatic activity that addresses Objective 1. This document summarizes the LWRS Program's plans.

Download or read book Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program A Reference Plan for Control Room Modernization written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Light Water Reactor Sustainability ACCOMPLISHMENTS REPORT written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Welcome to the 2014 Light Water Reactor Sus?tainability (LWRS) Program Accomplishments Report, covering research and development highlights from 2014. The LWRS Program is a U.S. Depart?ment of Energy research and development program to inform and support the long-term operation of our nation's commercial nuclear power plants. The research uses the unique facilities and capabilities at the Depart?ment of Energy national laboratories in collaboration with industry, academia, and international partners. Extending the operating lifetimes of current plants is essential to supporting our nation's base load energy infrastructure, as well as reaching the Administration's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by the year 2050. The purpose of the LWRS Program is to provide technical results for plant owners to make informed decisions on long-term operation and subsequent license renewal, reducing the uncertainty, and therefore the risk, associated with those decisions. In January 2013, 104 nuclear power plants operated in 31 states. However, since then, five plants have been shut down (several due to economic reasons), with additional shutdowns under consideration. The LWRS Program aims to minimize the number of plants that are shut down, with R & D that supports long-term opera?tion both directly (via data that is needed for subsequent license renewal), as well indirectly (with models and technology that provide economic benefits). The LWRS Program continues to work closely with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to ensure that the body of information needed to support SLR decisions and actions is available in a timely manner. This report covers selected highlights from the three research pathways in the LWRS Program: Materials Aging and Degradation, Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characteriza?tion, and Advanced Instrumentation, Information, and Control Systems Technologies, as well as a look-ahead at planned activities for 2015. If you have any questions about the information in the report, or about the LWRS Program, please contact me, Richard A. Reister (the Federal Program Manager), or the respective research pathway leader (noted on pages 26 and 27), or visit the LWRS Program website (www.inl.gov/lwrs). The annually updated Integrated Program Plan and Pathway Technical Program Plans are also available for those seeking more detailed technical Information.

Download or read book Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Advance written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reliable instrumentation, information, and control.

Download or read book Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Compute written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The nuclear power industry is highly proceduralize.

Download or read book Light Water Reactor Sustainability LWRS Program written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Executive Summary [partial] The purpose of the non-destructive evaluation (NDE) R & D Roadmap for Cables is to support the Materials Aging and Degradation (MAaD) R & D pathway. A workshop was held to gather subject matter experts to develop the NDE R & D Roadmap for Cables. The focus of the workshop was to identify the technical gaps in detecting aging cables and predicting their remaining life expectancy. The workshop was held in Knoxville, Tennessee, on July 30, 2012, at Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation (AMS) headquarters. The workshop was attended by 30 experts in materials, electrical engineering, and NDE instrumentation development from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory), universities, commercial NDE service vendors and cable manufacturers, and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

Download or read book Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Demonst written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The online monitoring of active components project.

Download or read book Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Grizzly Year End Progress Report written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Grizzly software application is being developed under the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program to address aging and material degradation issues that could potentially become an obstacle to life extension of nuclear power plants beyond 60 years of operation. Grizzly is based on INL's MOOSE multiphysics simulation environment, and can simultaneously solve a variety of tightly coupled physics equations, and is thus a very powerful and flexible tool with a wide range of potential applications. Grizzly, the development of which was begun during fiscal year (FY) 2012, is intended to address degradation in a variety of critical structures. The reactor pressure vessel (RPV) was chosen for an initial application of this software. Because it fulfills the critical roles of housing the reactor core and providing a barrier to the release of coolant, the RPV is clearly one of the most safety-critical components of a nuclear power plant. In addition, because of its cost, size and location in the plant, replacement of this component would be prohibitively expensive, so failure of the RPV to meet acceptance criteria would likely result in the shutting down of a nuclear power plant. The current practice used to perform engineering evaluations of the susceptibility of RPVs to fracture is to use the ASME Master Fracture Toughness Curve (ASME Code Case N-631 Section III). This is used in conjunction with empirically based models that describe the evolution of this curve due to embrittlement in terms of a transition temperature shift. These models are based on an extensive database of surveillance coupons that have been irradiated in operating nuclear power plants, but this data is limited to the lifetime of the current reactor fleet. This is an important limitation when considering life extension beyond 60 years. The currently available data cannot be extrapolated with confidence further out in time because there is a potential for additional damage mechanisms (i.e. late blooming phases) to become active later in life beyond the current operational experience. To develop a tool that can eventually serve a role in decision-making, it is clear that research and development must be perfomed at multiple scales. At the engineering scale, a multiphysics analysis code that can capture the thermomechanical response of the RPV under accident conditions, including detailed fracture mechanics evaluations of flaws with arbitrary geometry and orientation, is needed to assess whether the fracture toughness, as defined by the master curve, including the effects of embrittlement, is exceeded. At the atomistic scale, the fundamental mechanisms of degradation need to be understood, including the effects of that degradation on the relevant material properties. In addition, there is a need to better understand the mechanisms leading to the transition from ductile to brittle fracture through improved continuum mechanics modeling at the fracture coupon scale. Work is currently being conducted at all of these levels with the goal of creating a usable engineering tool informed by lower length-scale modeling. This report summarizes progress made in these efforts during FY 2013.

Download or read book Report from the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Workshop on Advanced Instrumentation Information and Control Systems and Human System Interface Technologies written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program is a research and development (R & D) program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The program is operated in close collaboration with industry R & D programs to provide the technical foundations for licensing and managing the long-term, safe, and economical operation of Nuclear Power Plants that are currently in operation. The LWRS Program focus is on longer-term and higher-risk/reward research that contributes to the national policy objectives of energy and environmental security. Advanced instruments and control (I & C) technologies are needed to support the safe and reliable production of power from nuclear energy systems during sustained periods of operation up to and beyond their expected licensed lifetime. This requires that new capabilities to achieve process control be developed and eventually implemented in existing nuclear assets. It also requires that approaches be developed and proven to achieve sustainability of I & C systems throughout the period of extended operation. The strategic objective of the LWRS Program Advanced Instrumentation, Information, and Control Systems Technology R & D pathway is to establish a technical basis for new technologies needed to achieve safety and reliability of operating nuclear assets and to implement new technologies in nuclear energy systems. This will be achieved by carrying out a program of R & D to develop scientific knowledge in the areas of: Sensors, diagnostics, and prognostics to support characterization and prediction of the effects of aging and degradation phenomena effects on critical systems, structures, and components (SSCs) Online monitoring of SSCs and active components, generation of information, and methods to analyze and employ online monitoring information New methods for visualization, integration, and information use to enhance state awareness and leverage expertise to achieve safer, more readily available electricity generation. As an initial step in accomplishing this effort, the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Workshop on Advanced Instrumentation, Information, and Control Systems and Human-System Interface Technologies was held March 20-21, 2009, in Columbus, Ohio, to enable industry stakeholders and researchers in identification of the nuclear industry's needs in the areas of future I & C technologies and corresponding technology gaps and research capabilities. Approaches for collaboration to bridge or fill the technology gaps were presented and R & D activities and priorities recommended. This report documents the presentations and discussions of the workshop and is intended to serve as a basis for the plan under development to achieve the goals of the I & C research pathway.

Download or read book Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Power Uprate Research and Development Strategy written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The economic incentives for low-cost electricity generation will continue to drive more plant owners to identify safe and reliable methods to increase the electrical power output of the current nuclear power plant fleet. A power uprate enables a nuclear power plant to increase its electrical output with low cost. However, power uprates brought new challenges to plant owners and operators. These include equipment damage or degraded performance, and unanticipated responses to plant conditions, etc. These problems have arisen mainly from using dated design and safety analysis tools and insufficient understanding of the full implications of the proposed power uprate or from insufficient attention to detail during the design and implementation phase. It is essential to demonstrate that all required safety margins have been properly retained and the existing safety level has been maintained or even increased, with consideration of all the conditions and parameters that have an influence on plant safety. The impact of the power uprate on plant life management for long term operation is also an important issue. Significant capital investments are required to extend the lifetime of an aging nuclear power plant. Power uprates can help the plant owner to recover the investment costs. However, plant aging issues may be aggravated by the power uprate due to plant conditions. More rigorous analyses, inspections and monitoring systems are required.

Download or read book Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program written by Justin L. Coleman and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book DOE NE Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program and EPRI Long Term Operations Program Joint Research and Development Plan written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear power has contributed almost 20% of the total amount of electricity generated in the United States over the past two decades. High capacity factors and low operating costs make nuclear power plants (NPPs) some of the most economical power generators available. Further, nuclear power remains the single largest contributor (nearly 70%) of non-greenhouse gas-emitting electric power generation in the United States. Even when major refurbishments are performed to extend operating life, these plants continue to represent cost-effective, low-carbon assets to the nation's electrical generation capability.