NPP refueling process monitoring based on the refueling machine current signals

Abstract

The paper is aimed at safety improvement of nuclear power plants by monitoring the refueling process carried out by the fuel-handling machine. The article confirms the necessity to develop a monitoring system that prevents failures during refueling operations. It is shown that the development of the monitoring system should be preceded by the stage of monitoring the object current parameters in the process of multiple operations with fuel and absorbing rods. The schemes of diagnostic signals registration and approaches to their analysis are presented. The paper presents results of the current signals analysis of the main hoist drive of the refueling machine at Rostov NPP. The development of refueling operation portraits based on current parameters is demonstrated. The principal component method is applied to them for the purpose of clustering. The paper shows the possibility to control the refueling machine efforts when extracting fuel by presenting diagnostic signals from the main hoist drive in the principal component space. In general, the paper substantiates the prospects of developing a refueling monitoring system through current consumed by the main hoist drive of the refueling machine