Six nuclear power reactors in Taiwan have been operating over beyond thirty years. They are all operated by Taiwan Power Company (TPC) and expected to have 40-year lifetimes. The limited original suppliers and obsolete components are the challenge to comply with current licensing basis and maintaining a high level reliability. Therefore, the procurement of basic components from the second source is very important to the plant safety and operation.

This paper describes the dedication process applied to commercial power distribution panels in a harsh environment. The safety functions of power distribution panels provided backup power input connection for mobile diesel generators while station blackout (SBO). After Fukushima-Accident, the utility needs to setup diversity power to comply with regulatory requirements in Taiwan. The power distribution panels dedication activity include the function testing, aging, seismic qualifications (SQ), and environmental qualifications (EQ) based on EPRI NP 5652, IEEE Std. 323, and IEEE Std. 344 standards. Some subcomponents could not meet the acceptance criteria during testing and the anomalies were noticed to the customer and the utility. One of these anomalies reported to regulatory due to the subcomponent failure after accident radiation endurance test.

Commercial-Grade Item dedication is second source to obtain safety related components according to 10 CFR 21.3 definitions. In the past nineteen years, Institute of Nuclear Energy Research (INER) has actively performed the dedication service to help local nuclear power plants solve their procurement problems of nuclear grade items, due to reduced availability of qualified suppliers and/or obsolete issues of qualified components. Although the codes and standards for dedication in Taiwan refer to those in USA, the challenges may happen due to different regulators, utility, manufacture’s quality culture, and personal responsibility. This paper introduces the self-reliant experiences in dedication and economic benefit to local nuclear power plants.

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