Heat Exchanger Performance Demonstration Program for the Power Industry
K. Krzywosz, EPRI NDE Center
ABSTRACT
Nuclear utilities are facing a competitive market in the generation business that forces them to reduce operation and maintenance (O&M) costs to remain competitive. Performance and reliability of balance-of-plant (BOP) heat exchangers are receiving more attention to maintain the plant capacity factor up while maintaining the integrity of the essential heat exchangers to keep the plant in a safe shutdown condition during scheduled and unscheduled shut downs. Available inspection resources for BOP heat exchangers must be spent wisely to assess conditions of key heat exchanger components and minimize tube leaks. Reliable examination of BOP heat exchanger tubing has been difficult because of the wide variety of alloys, tube sizes, and corrosion/mechanical damage forms. Since the examination is not mandated under the ASME Code or the regulatory Guide r equirements, the eddy current examination practices and the associated test results vary from one heat exchanger component to another. The EPRI NDE Center has been actively involved in developing a uniform but consistent heat exchanger condition assessment program. One essential component of the program involves heat exchanger performance demonstration. This paper describes the EPRI BOP performance demonstration program to evaluate the proficiency of operators to detect and characterize realistic tubing flaws.
Publication Source: 2nd International Conference on NDE in Relation to Structural Integrity for Nuclear and Pressurized Components, May 24-26, 2000, New Orleans, Louisiana USA. Publisher: EPRI - [Homepage]
