| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/M018210/1 |
| Title: |
Design and Maintenance of Nuclear Safety Systems for Life Extension (DaMSSLE) |
| Principal Investigator: |
Andrews, Professor J |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Faculty of Engineering |
| Organisation: |
University of Nottingham |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research - NR1 |
| Starts: |
01 December 2015 |
Ends: |
30 November 2019 |
Value (£): |
557,930
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
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| Related Grants: |
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| Panel History: |
| Panel Date | Panel Name | Outcome |
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28 Jan 2015
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UK India Civil Nuclear Energy 3
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Announced
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
For infrastructure intensive industries such as nuclear power generation it is frequently more cost effective to extend the operational life of aging assets rather than enter a new build programme. For new build, new design reactors the approach would be to plan for a long operating life throughout the design and development stages.
Safe and cost effective management of the infrastructure's aging process requires a robust initial system design together with the implementation of a focussed maintenance regime which dynamically adjusts to address the changing system needs throughout their operation. A third option to control risk is through the generation of a grace period in the event of an uncontrolled accident initiation. During this period there would be a high chance of restoring the critical system functionality.
The safety critical systems, design and maintenance options would focus on preventing an uncontrolled hazardous event. The generation of a grace period would provide an opportunity to make the reactor safe even when the accident sequence had progressed.
Through the three features described the project will investigate the most cost-effective way to produce safe and reliable life extension for the reactors. Both current aging nuclear reactors and also those in the design phase would be considered. For current reactors where the design is fixed, the system state will be controlled through the effective use of maintenance. The maintenance will vary throughout phases in the operational life-time to respond to the different aging processes encountered on the plant. In this context maintenance will include: servicing, testing/inspection, reactive repairs, preventive replacement due to use, age or condition and also renewal. For new reactor designs the full range of defence options can be considered with the expectation of increasing the operating life for longer than the current design life specification.
By embedding the modelling methodology into a decision support framework the different risk defence options will be considered to produce cost effective selections for safe and reliable plant performance.
The methodology produced will be demonstrated by application to reactor systems.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk |