An overview of the United States Department of Energy plant lifetime improvement program [electronic resource].

Published: Washington, D.C. : United States. Dept. of Energy, 1993.
Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy.
Physical Description: 11 pages : digital, PDF file
Additional Creators: Sandia National Laboratories, United States. Department of Energy, and United States. Department of Energy. Office of Scientific and Technical Information

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Summary

Today, 109 nuclear power plants provide over 20 percent of the electrical energy generated in the US. The operating license of the first of these plants will expire in the year 2000; one third of the operating licenses will expire by 2010 and the remaining plant licenses are scheduled to expire by 2033. The National Energy Strategy assumes that 70 percent of these plants will continue to operate beyond their current license expiration to assist in ensuring an adequate, diverse, and environmentally acceptable energy supply for economic growth. In order to preserve this energy resource in the US three major tasks must be successfully completed: (1) establishment of the regulations, technical standards, and procedures for the preparation and review of a license renewal application; (2) development, verification, and validation of the various technical criteria and bases for needed monitoring, refurbishment, or replacement of plant equipment; and (3) demonstration of the regulatory process. Since 1985, the US Department of Energy (DOE) has been working with the nuclear industry and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to establish and demonstrate the option to extend the life of nuclear power plants through the renewal of operating licenses. This paper focuses primarily on DOE`s Plant Lifetime Improvement (PLIM) Program efforts to develop the technical criteria and bases for effective aging management and lifetime improvement for continued operation of nuclear power plants. This paper describes current projects to resolve generic technical issues, including degradation of long-lived components, reactor pressure vessel (RPV) embrittlement management approaches, and analytical methodologies to characterize RPV integrity.

Report Numbers

E 1.99:sand--93-1116c
E 1.99: conf-940436--1
conf-940436--1
sand--93-1116c

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Note

Published through SciTech Connect.
08/01/1993.
"sand--93-1116c"
" conf-940436--1"
"DE93019074"
4. international meeting on nuclear thermal hydraulics, operations and safety,Taipei (Taiwan, Province of China),3-6 Apr 1994.
Harrison, D.L.; Rosinski, S.T.; Clauss, J.M.

Funding Information

AC04-76DP00789

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