EPRI Quick Guides Make Condition-Based Maintenance Easier

摘要

Plant modernization can equip nuclear plants with updated technologies and improved processes to deliver greater economic efficiency and reliability. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is leading and coordinating a global industry effort for implementing new processes and value-adding technologies in plants. Among the first modernization opportunities we saw early on and rolled out in the past 15 years was conditioned-based maintenance (CBM). CBM is simply a maintenance strategy whereby preventive maintenance is based on the condition of the equipment, not a date on the calendar. CBM is not a new concept, but implementing a CBM strategy is new to the nuclear industry. To ensure continued safety and reliability, the industry has been risk-averse in its approaches to engineering and maintenance. Transitioning to a 100-percent CBM strategy can be a daunting task. However, EPRI research has shown that properly implementing a CBM program can maintain safety and reliability and potentially cut costs.