Implementation of condition-based maintenance at the Japan Atomic Power Company

Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) techniques have been successfully used in on a variety of equipments in US nuclear power plants for the past twenty years. These techniques have had the benefit of improving overall plant reliability and availability while at the same time reducing maintenance costs by as much as fifty percent. The typical pay-back period for the implementation of CBM is less than one year. Emergency diesel engines are one specific piece of equipment for which CBM has been particularly successful in US nuclear power plants. The Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC) began to implement CBM for rotating components three years ago and, also has recently begun to apply DG diagnostic techniques at three nuclear power plants with the technical support by MPR associates, Inc. The application of CBM to Japanese nuclear power plants is similar to US nuclear power plants but differences in the regulatory structure and current maintenance practices in Japan results in some unique challenges. This paper provides a description of the CBM methods used for diesel engines in nuclear standby service, a summary of the experience with these methods at US nuclear power plants, and experience with the application of these methods to JAPC nuclear power plants. (author)