Maintenance rule: a system to guarantee maintenance effectiveness

In the last few years, maintenance activities in nuclear plants have been given prime attention in view of their repercussion on the performance of such plants. One of the results of that attention is a new rule published in the U.S. known as Maintenance Rule. The paper describes the philosophy and main guidelines of the new regulation, and presents the procedure brought into action by the nuclear industry in Spain so to make their application contribute to a real improvement of safety and performance in nuclear plants. (Author)