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2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
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Fusion Science and Technology
August 2024
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Nuclear new build procurement considerations
It may seem counterintuitive, but the best time to enhance the ability to support operations and maintenance for a new plant is before construction starts. This is one of many lessons learned by the currently operating nuclear fleet. As construction and startup of many nuclear facilities was completed, it quickly became evident that the ability to efficiently support operations and maintenance was limited. Most of the information necessary to establish and manage procurement of spare and replacement items, maintenance, and configuration of the facilities was unavailable and had to be gathered on a case-by-case, “on-demand” basis. Absence of necessary information and the associated challenges resulted in the need for staff augmentation and multiyear-long projects to develop equipment bills of material and maintenance programs and to perform technical evaluations for the huge quantities of spare and replacement items being requested.
Anisia Mihaela Bornea, George Ana, Ovidiu Balteanu, Diana Bogdan, Gheorghe Bulubasa, Ciprian Bucur, Ionut Faurescu, Denisa Faurescu, Alina Niculescu, Iuliana Stefan, Irina Vagner, Elvis Udrea, Carmen Varlam, Felicia Vasut, Mihai Vijulie, Marius Zamfirache
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 3 | May 2024 | Pages 365-373
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2214700
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A current concern of researchers from the Experimental Pilot Plant for Tritium and Deuterium Separation (PESTD) within the National R&D Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies in Rm. Valcea is the solution of a combined electrolysis catalytic exchange (CECE) isotopic separation process that aims to be part of a new liquid waste decontamination technology. The experimental installation, defined as module M1100, has interfaces with the PESTD process and auxiliary systems and is placed within the PESTD area.
The installation has its own automation and control system that allows for safe operation. Two operating modes are presented. The first mode is in “open-circuit” mode to evaluate the individual separation performances of the two technological processes, water electrolysis and water-hydrogen catalytic isotopic exchange, respectively. The second mode is in “closed loop,” which corresponds to the CECE isotopic separation process where the tritium/deuterium are concentrated in the water within the electrolyzer.
The preliminary experimental investigations were performed with low-concentrated tritiated water (HTO; ~100 Bq/l] in order to have a reduced degree of contamination as the concentration of the processed water was increased (~1000 Bq/l). The evaluation of the separation performances was made by comparing correlations from direct measurements with the calculated ones provided by the software developed for the CECE isotopic separation process in the open-circuit operating mode. For the closed-loop operation mode, the data provided by the calculation program for the representation of the nonstationary CECE isotopic separation regime were compared with the measured data. The preliminary results show a good correlation between the measured and the calculated data considering these experiments were carried out mainly in order to improve the operating performance.