Methodology to account for load factor and availability during conceptual design phase of a gen IV nuclear power point

D. Vernhet (1) , M. Libessart (2)

1 CEA-DES (ex-DEN) - CEA-Direction des Energies (ex-Direction de l'Energie Nucléaire)
2 Airbus Defence and Space [Saint-Médard-en-Jalles]

Increasing availability is a permanent objective of the nuclear plant designers and operators.For ASTRID SFR project, this consideration was taken into account at the very beginning of the reactor conceptual design.The parameters on which the plant designer can focus their action are - The increase of the power production cycles duration,- The reduce of the refueling et inspection outages,- The increase of equipment reliability and parts availabilities.This overall work is conducted progressively and iteratively on all the ASTRID SFR reactor equipment and functions.This original work has led to - identify the functions or equipment on which it was necessary to focus in priority.- Question on equipment or function failure consequences (and the solution to avoid being a Driver).- Set reliability targets by system or function and to assess gap between the target and the current design.

Keywords: SFR; ASTRID; reliability; maintenability; availability; RAM

Domains: Nuclear Experiment [nucl-ex]; Nuclear Theory [nucl-th]

D. Vernhet, M. Libessart. Methodology to account for load factor and availability during conceptual design phase of a gen IV nuclear power point. ICAPP 2016 - International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants, Apr 2016, San Francisco, United States. ⟨cea-02509807⟩