Plant Performance Evaluation Using the Maintenance Effectiveness Monitoring Program

For the safety of nuclear systems, the quality of maintenance is getting more and more attention, as maintenance provides the foundation of the health of plant systems. The maintenance effectiveness monitoring program is an NRC regulation in the US, called Maintenance Rule (MR). It is recognized that the MR helped the nuclear industry enhance the performance of nuclear power plants whereas the MR was initiated from the regulatory needs. Even if the MR is not a regulatory requirement in Korea, Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) is taking a strategic approach to implement the maintenance effectiveness monitoring program, adopting the general methodology delineated in NUMARC93-01 which provided a basis for the US Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) to implement the MR. In this paper, the KHNP's approach to the maintenance effectiveness monitoring program, i.e., the MR program, is introduced, and an insight to the usefulness of the program will be discussed