Abstract
Operating experience in U. S. light water reactors (LWRs) has shown that the impact of refueling outages on plant unavailability is much higher than has been previously anticipated. The purpose of this summary is to identify the principal causes of the extensions of refueling outages, the effect of these outages on plant productivity, and an alternate refueling cycle to reduce their impact. In order to provide a perspective on the effects of refueling outages, major outages greater than 100 hours in duration are also included in this assessment. Both the refueling outages and other major outages are displayed as a function of plant age; this method allows identification of trends in these outages as a plant matures. The result of the evaluation indicates that utilities can improve plant availability by up to six percent per year by increasing the time between refuelings (i.e., from an annual to an eighteen-month refueling cycle).
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© 1980 Plenum Press, New York
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Burns, E.T., Fullwood, R.R., Erdmann, R.C. (1980). Outage Trends in Light Water Reactors. In: Lewins, J., Becker, M. (eds) Advances in Nuclear Science and Technology. Advances in Nuclear Science and Technology, vol 12. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9916-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9916-2_4
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