IMPLEMENTATION OF A RISK-INFORMED SURVEILLANCE FREQUENCY CONTROL PROGRAM FOR THE NEXTERA ENERGY NUCLEAR FLEET

摘要

NextEra Energy obtained NRC approval for implementation of Risk-Informed Surveillance Test Frequency Control Programs (SFCPs) for several of its plants prior to 2015. However, there had been limited progress in actually making changes in surveillance test intervals. NextEra s senior management was aware of the potential benefits of the SFCP and wanted to promote more rapid adoption of surveillance test changes. NextEra management challenged the fleet to implement an extension of the EDG auto-start/loading test prior to each plant s next refueling outage. A strategic initiative was added for the fleet to implement this test extension for all eight units within an eighteen-month period from early 2015 through mid-2016. The effort required significant involvement from both site and fleet engineering, as well as PRA resources. All plants successfully met this challenge. As a result of this intensive involvement of the staff at each plant in the process of implementing this complex test extension, followed by immediate savings in outage workload in the next outage, interest in the SFCP process was stimulated at most of the plants. Plant groups began to identify additional surveillance requirements as candidates for frequency extension. Many of the plants have since implemented additional test extensions as follow-on projects. The paper describes the process that was implemented, lessons learned from the projects, and insights for other plants that are seeking to promote interest in the SFCP program.