Long-term optimization of outage performance

Deregulation of the power markets and the accompanying pressure on electricity prices have forced all electric utilities to reduce their power generating costs in order to be able to hold their own in the new market environment. This has also particularly affected the operators of nuclear power plants since they have to compete against the lower power generating costs of fossil-fired combined-cycle power plants and, in Germany are faced with a difficult political climate. The areas identified as having the greatest cost-cutting potential were fuel costs, operating costs and measures to increase plant availability. The main objective behind increasing plant availability was not only to improve the already high standard of operational reliability and plant safety even further, but also to significantly shorten the downtime needed for annual refueling outages. A variety of measures aimed at shortening scheduled plant outages have thus been developed and successfully implemented by nuclear plant operators. At the same time, process improvements and new technologies have been introduced by the service providers. Both initiatives together have contributed towards substantially reducing outage time and cost. (author)