Balance-of-Plant Heat Exchanger Conditions Assessment and Inspection Program Overview
K. Krzywosz, EPRI NDE Centre, Charlotte, USA
ABSTRACT Nuclear utilities in the 90's face a competitive market in the generation business, which forces them to reduce operating and maintenance costs to remain competitive. As such, inspection resources, especially for balance-of-plant heat exchangers, must be allocated wisely and effectively to extend the availability of essential heat exchangers. Keys to a successful condition assessment and inspection program are to minimise tube leaks by targeting key heat exchanger components for testing, assess current conditions of selected heat exchangers using reliable and proven eddy current examination techniques to help identify and remedy problems before they occur, extend inspection intervals or eliminate non-essential examinations, apply realistic plugging criteria and reduce insurance plugs, and plan for timely heat exchanger replacements by trending and forecasting using successive examination data.This paper presents a risk-based and experienced based condition assessment and inspection program by attempting to answer the following questions: "Which heat exchanger components to inspect?"; "How often and how many tubes to examine?"; "Which examination techniques to use?"; "What tube plugging criteria to use?"; and "When to replace heat exchangers?".
Publication Source: First International Conference on NDE in Relation to Structural Integrity for Nuclear and Pressurised Components , 20 - 22 October 1998, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Held by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.
Publisher: Woodhead Publishing Limited
© NDTnet
NDTnet
