Optimal integration of Maintenance Programs with other safety related programs in a Plant Life Management framework

摘要

Due to current social and economical framework, in last years many nuclear power plant owners started a program for the Long Term Operation (LTO)/PLIM (Plant Life Management) of their older nuclear facilities. PLIM/PLEX (Plant Life Extension) has already been implemented in many countries (USA, Russia,etc). This process has many nuclear safety implications, other than strategic and political ones. The need for tailoring the available safety assessment tools to such applications has become urgent in recent years and triggered many research actions.The review of regular maintenance and ageing management programs is widely used in LTO/PLIM context in many Countries. However, most of these programmes are rather general and in many cases they need reshaping in an LTO/PLIM framework before application, with focus to the safety implications of the LTO/PLIM. Many Countries and plants radically modified their maintenance rules towards a condition based approach as a precondition for the implementation of LTO/PLIM programs.Moreover, a PLIM framework requires both a detailed review of the features of the main safety programs (Maintenance, ISI, Surveillance) and a complete integration of these programs into the general management system of the plant. New external factors, such as: large use of subcontractors, need for efficient management of spare parts, request for heavy plant refurbishment programs demand for updated techniques in the overall management of the plant. Therefore new organisational models have to be developed to appropriately support the PLIM framework, integrating both safety related and non safety related issues.In 2004 a network of European Organisations operating Nuclear Power Plants, SENUF, under the coordination of the JRC-IE, carried out an extensive questionnaire on maintenance practice in their facilities aiming at capturing the aspects of the maintenance programs where research is mostly needed. This paper uses some results of the questionnaire, which was not oriented to LTO/PLIM, to draw some conclusions on how the current maintenance programs could support a potential LTO/PLIM, among the other programs running at NPPs. A joint IAEA-JRC workshop in 2006 confirmed the conclusions of the questionnaire and added new issues to the picture.The paper aims at identifying the technical attributes of the maintenance programs more directly affecting the decision for a long-term safe operation of a nuclear facility, the issues related to their implementation and the most suitable organisational framework for a proper implementation.