Considering plant life management influences on new plant design

After operating successfully for more than half their design life, owners of CANDU reactors are now engaging in Plant Life Management (PLiM) activities to ensure not only life attainment, but also life extension. For several years, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) has been working with domestic and offshore CANDU utilities on a comprehensive and integrated CANDU PLiM program that will see existing CANDU plants successfully and reliably operate through their design life and beyond. To support the PLiM program development, a significant level of infrastructure has been, and continues to be, developed at AECL. This includes the development of databases that document relevant knowledge and background to allow for a more accessible and complete understanding of degradation issues and the strategies needed to deal with these issues. As the level of integration with various project, services and R and D activities in AECL increases, this infrastructure is growing to encompass a wider range of design, operations and maintenance details to support comprehensive and quantitative assessment of CANDU stations. With the maturation of the PLiM program, these processes were adapted for application to newer plants. In particular, a fully integrated program was developed that interrelates the design basis, operations, safety, and reliability and maintenance strategies, as applied to meet plant design goals. This has led to the development of the maintenance-based design concept. The various PLiM technologies, developed and applied in the above programs with operating stations, are being modified and tailored to assist with the new plant design processes to assure that ACR- Advanced CANDU Reactor meets its targets for operation, maintenance, and lifetime performance. Currently, the ACR, developed by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), is being designed with features to increase capacity factors, to reduce the risk of major equipment failures, to improve access to key components requiring maintenance, and to require less operating staff than previous CANDUs. This paper will provide an overview of the highly integrated PLiM program that AECL continues to enhance. Further, the application of the program to develop a maintenance-based design will be discussed. In particular, the PLiM processes that are being developed and refined to assist in the design of the newest ACR design will be described. The results of this approach will show how PLiM considerations are being used to improve the advantages of the CANDU design for the future. (author)