Application of deterministic and probabilistic methods in replacement of nuclear systems

The economic equipment replacement problem is one of the oldest questions in Production Engineering. On the one hand, new equipment are more attractive given their best performance, better reliability, lower maintenance cost, etc. New equipment, however, require a higher initial investment and thus a higher opportunity cost, and impose special training of the labor force. On the other hand, old equipment represent the other way around, with lower performance, lower reliability and specially higher maintenance costs but in contrast having lower financial, insurance, and opportunity costs. The weighting of all these costs can be made with the various methods presented. The aim of this paper is to discuss deterministic and probabilistic methods applied to the study of equipment replacement. Two types of distinct problems will be examined, substitution imposed by the wearing and substitution imposed by the failures. In order to solve the problem of nuclear system substitution imposed by wearing, deterministic methods are discussed. In order to solve the problem of nuclear system substitution imposed by failures, probabilistic methods are discussed. (author)