Application and Innovation of Equipment Reliability Management in Nuclear Power Stations

Equipment reliability is a key factor to achieve excellent production capability and maintain high security for nuclear power stations. As the modern nuclear power industry develops in China, much effort is devoted to promoting the research on application of advanced equipment reliability management concepts and technologies. Besides the introduction and convergence of external advanced methods, some domestic innovations on equipment reliability technologies have also been accomplished recent years based on the long-term research and operating experience. These new ideas and technologies are fostered within the rapid development of China nuclear industry in the near decade, and aim at solving the emergent and common issues. As a typical representative of advanced equipment reliability management technology, INPO (Institute of Nuclear Power Operations) AP-913 equipment reliability process is accepted universally in global nuclear power industry and has been recommended by EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute), INPO and other authoritative organizations worldwide. It was originally introduced by many nuclear power stations in China as a reference model to establish their own equipment reliability management systems. As continuous research, attempts and ameliorations conducted, domestic innovations have been performed to develop more comprehensive and adaptive equipment reliability management technology, including integrating many existing reliability technologies, such as RCM, CCM, TCM, PFU, COMIS, and so on. This paper introduces some new research achievements on implementation of INPO AP-913 equipment reliability process at nuclear power stations in China. For each section contained in AP-913 process, the primary plans and suggestions proposed to meet the basic intent of AP-913 is firstly introduced to establish the practicable access for further development. And then, some improvement-step strategies and technologies are also presented to perform more sophisticated and effective management to improve equipment reliability in routine work. Finally, based on the actual conditions and demands of China nuclear power industry nowadays, some comprehension and advice beyond AP-913 process itself, which can also be considered as the localized modification, are presented. Moreover, the instance of AP-913 based equipment reliability management and development in Da Ya Bay Nuclear Power Station is also introduced as illustration. For Chinese nuclear power stations, these innovative attempts not only impelled the sustainable improvement of equipment management, but also exploited a feasible and compatible way to progress in Chinese nuclear industry pattern independently instead of seeking external support overseas.