A Plant Life Management Model as Support to Plant Life Extension Programs of Nuclear Installations - Effective Integration of the Safety Programs into an Overall Optimization of the Operating Costs

摘要

Main objectives of this report, as outcome of the research activities carried out in 2008 and in previous years by the research network SENUF, are the following:1.To collect the experience of the European Countries in the field of Plant Life Management (PLIM) and Plant Life Extension (PLEX), seen as two crucial programs in safety and cost optimisation at operating plants2.To settle a model for PLIM also suitable to support a PLEX program, tailored to the European market3.To validate the proposed model against the European practice.The basic goal of PLiM, as it is defined in this research, is to satisfy requirements for safe, possibly long-term, supplies of electricity in an economically competitive way. The basic goal of the operating companies is to operate as long as economically reasonable from the safety point of view. PLiM is a management tool for doing that. Therefore PLiM is a system of programmes and procedures developed in many Countries, with some differences due to the national framework, to satisfy safety requirements for safe operation and for power production in a competitive way in a time frame which is rational from both the technical and economical point of view. PLiM programmes address both technical and economic issues, as well as knowledge management issues.This report makes reference to the first part of this study that was completed in 2007, when a PLIM model was proposed and validated at real Nuclear Power Plants. This report adds some important contributions in three areas: definition of the PLIM scope, review of the Ageing Management Program for selected structures, management of contractors and strategic alliances. These contributions were selected after a thorough analysis of the European best practice, also with the contribution of the SENUF network Members. The validation of the proposed PLIM model, including the improvements described in this report, represents only the first step of a more ambitious program of validation/improvement that will be implemented in the course of 2009.