AMS was awarded five Research and Development (R&D) grants  from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to advance instrumentation  and control testing and diagnostic techniques for commercial nuclear power facilities and research reactors. These projects are currently underway. Funded under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, the projects are separated into three phases, which take the technologies from conception and feasibility to commercial applications.
The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has a long history of service to the nation and is expected to continue to operate for many more years. Recently, ATR was designated as a user facility making it accessible to a wider spectrum of researchers, engineers, and scientists from around the globe. This makes ATR an even more valuable asset that must be preserved using the state of the art in maintenance technologies. To achieve this goal, a research and development (R&D) effort will be performed by AMS to establish the feasibility of modern maintenance technologies for implementation at ATR. In particular, this R&D will employ the latest in on-line monitoring technologies to optimize the reliability of ATR and its equipment. The focus of the R&D will be on maintenance of ATR’s rotating equipment and instrumentation and control (I&C) systems. The technologies to be developed under this project will have applications in most research reactors even though the proposed R&D will use the ATR as the test bed.
The designs of many existing Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) incorporate a Digital Rod Position Indication (DRPI) system to monitor the positions of the control and shutdown rods within the reactor. These DRPI systems have been in service for over 30 years in nuclear power stations worldwide, and are currently being used as the basis for the rod position indication systems in the new Westinghouse AP1000 designs. In recent years, however, aging and obsolescence issues have led to an increase in problems with the DRPI systems including analog card failures and coil cable connection problems that, in some cases, may result in unplanned reactor trips. These problems, along with plans for plant life extension, have prompted the industry to actively seek viable options to monitor the health and accuracy of these DRPI systems in order to ensure reliable plant operations for decades to come.
The existing plants will be facing the end of qualified life for several components of the existing DRPI systems during the next decade and are actively seeking replacement options at this time. As such, AMS will conduct a Research and Development (R&D) effort to establish the feasibility of an advanced DRPI diagnostic system for existing and new PWR reactors.
The project will result in development of an integrated on-line condition monitoring system which will be implemented during Phase II in a commercial nuclear power plant. Two host utilities have formally agreed to allow this implementation in their nuclear power plants and have provided official letters of support to that effect. The main features of the system are:
- provides a means to verify the accuracy and reliability of process instrumentation;
- provides plants with the means to automatically assess the condition of critical plant equipment and processes;
- offers a practical tool to optimize plant maintenance activities and improve efficiency, reduce costs, and contribute to plant safety;
- provides the foundation for an automated condition monitoring system to be embedded in the design of the next generation of reactors.
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The goal of the Phase II project is to establish the foundation for commercial implementation of wireless technologies for equipment and process condition monitoring and other applications in nuclear power plants. This goal will be achieved through a hands-on R&D effort to include:
- Design and development of a prototype system for acquisition, qualification, and storage and display of data from wireless sensors.
- Testing the prototype system using data from wireless sensors as installed in a laboratory test loop.
- Assessment of wireless technology security risks and development of recommendations and procedures for risk reduction.
- Investigation of electromagnetic and radio frequency interference (EMI/RFI) to include the effects of wireless transmissions on existing plant equipment, including digital systems.
- Implementation of the prototype system for selected application(s) in a host utility plant.
- Resolution of implementation issues and development of procedures and guidelines for deployment of wireless technologies in nuclear power plants.
- Recommendations for wireless equipment integration in the design of next generation of nuclear reactors.
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 Research reactors such as the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have a long history of service to the nation and are expected to continue to operate successfully for many more years. However, these reactors are aging and have not fully benefited from recent advances in maintenance and diagnostics technologies that they should use to manage aging and ensure continued safety and reliability. For example, advanced technologies have been developed for predictive maintenance of motors, compressors, fans, and turbines and for on-line condition monitoring of plant instrumentation. These methods have been used successfully for numerous applications in industrial processes such as equipment and process health and condition monitoring, reliability assessment, aging management, life extension, troubleshooting, safety improvements, and process optimization. Although some research reactors including HFIR and ATR have taken advantage of some of these developments, there has been little progress toward a systematic implementation of these technologies in research reactors. A part of the problem is the lack of test sensors for predictive maintenance in research reactors. Furthermore, wiring existing research reactors with test sensors for predictive maintenance would be problematic, expensive, and time consuming. Fortunately, wireless sensors can help alleviate these problems and help HFIR, ATR, and other research reactors to take advantage of a great array of new technologies for predictive maintenance and condition monitoring. As such, this project offers to conduct an R&D effort to establish the feasibility of adapting wireless sensors for predictive maintenance of critical equipment in research reactors.
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cess Instrumentation and Health of Nuclear Power Plants