Abstract
Since the Fukushima accident in 2011, nuclear safety has emerged as a very important political and social issue. Under this circumstance, the importance of configuration management (CM) is emphasized in order to ensure the reliability and safety of facility. However, configuration management (CM) is still in its conceptual stage in the nuclear industry due to the ambiguity of CM definitions, insufficiency of CM procedures, paucity of computerized systems and lack of CM professionals. In an attempt to address this issue, a previous study proposed a comprehensive CM framework for nuclear power plants (NPPs) by comparing CM concepts in seven different industries where the CM is actively utilized. In order to facilitate the practical implementation of the conceptual framework, this paper proposes an assessment methodology for prioritizing the importance of CM application areas based on the physical subjects of NPP structures, systems, components (SSCs). The proposed methodology is composed of an ‘extended CM framework’ with further details and ‘evaluation criteria’ based on CM functions. This study developed an SSCs list by analyzing Design Control Document (DCD) of Westinghouse AP1000 and also identified evaluation criteria through an extensive literature review. The concept of CM in this study encompasses the entire NPP project life-cycle in order to promote the practical CM application. The results of case-study performed in this paper would provide the SSCs priorities and guidelines for practical configuration management (CM) for sustainable NPP facilities.
Highlights
Nuclear power has drawn attention as an eco-friendly energy source, to respond to the issue of environment pollution problems caused by the indiscreet development and depletion of petroleum resources
The purpose of this study is to propose a methodology for assessing the relative importance of configuration management (CM) implementation based on ‘structures, systems and components (SSCs)’ elements for effective nuclear power plants (NPPs) CM applications
The ‘mutual impact by the change (MC.A1)’ means the degree of a mutual change occurring between three CM properties when a system changes
Summary
Nuclear power has drawn attention as an eco-friendly energy source, to respond to the issue of environment pollution problems caused by the indiscreet development and depletion of petroleum resources. The efforts to ensure the safety and reliability of nuclear power plants (NPPs) have been continuously made. As one such effort, the importance of configuration management [1] has been emphasized. The processes and procedures for practical configuration management (CM) implementation are not well developed [3] and the concept of CM is not clear yet in the industry [1]. For these reasons, the CM application to actual business is quite limited [7]
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