Improving the productivity of LWRs

The US Department of Energy is conducting programmes to improve the availability of PWRs. The principal categories of outages are: refuelling and maintenance operations, others, either scheduled or forced, for maintenance and testing, and equipment failures. Projects therefore are directed to improving procedures for refuelling/maintenance operations, developing techniques for chemical decontamination, and for chemical cleaning of steam generators. Other projects are aimed at improving component reliability, employing acoustic emission monitoring in order to reduce inspecting requirements, preventing pellet-cladding interactions, and improving primary system purification. Improvement of plant availability depends also upon organisation so that, if the results are to be properly implemented, institutional problems do not restrict technological achievement. (UK)