DETECTING AND MITIGATING AGING IN COMPONENT COOLING WATER-SYSTEMS

The time-dependent effects of aging on component cooling water (CCW) systems in nuclear power plants has been studied and documented as part of a research program sponsored by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It was found that age related degradation leads to failures in the CCW system which can result in an increase in system unavailability, if not properly detected and mitigated. To identify effective methods of managing this degradation, information on inspection, monitoring, and maintenance practices currently available was obtained from various operating plants and reviewed. The findings were correlated with the most common aging mechanisms and failure modes, and a compilation of aging detection and mitigation practices was formulated. This paper discusses the results of this work.