Wireless Online Position Monitoring of Manual Valve Types for Plant Configuration Management in Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

In the current competitive energy market, the nuclear industry is committed to lowering operations and maintenance costs and increasing productivity and efficiency while maintaining a safe and reliable operation. The present nuclear power plant operating model is dependent on a large technical staff, which has put the nuclear industry at a long-term economic disadvantage. Technology can play a key role in nuclear power plant configuration management to offset labor costs by automating manually performed plant activities. The technology being developed, tested, and demonstrated in this paper will support continued safe operation of today’s fleet of light water reactors by providing the technical means of monitoring components in nuclear power plants today that are only routinely monitored through manual activities. The wireless-enabled valve position indicators that are the subject of this paper are able to provide a continuously available, rather than periodically available, valid position indication. A real-time (online) availability of valve positions using affordable technologies is vital to plant configuration when compared with long-term labor rates and it provides information that can be used for a variety of plant engineering, maintenance, and management applications.