Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) Staff Assessment and Views of Current Maintenance Practices at a Four Unit Candu Plant

Abstract

This paper discusses the AECB practices in assessing maintenance activities at one four unit CANDU nuclear plant. It outlines the authority of the AECB in enforcing the license condition concerned with maintenance, and how this is interpreted by AECB site staff to measure and report maintenance activities. The AECB staff attaches great importance to proper maintenance as it affects safe operation. Programs used by the licensee staff to identify safety important components, or to predict degradations and failures are of particular interest. In our experience, the application of such programs has been generally good. However, their integration into an overall maintenance scheme can be improved, and the possibilities of integration are not well understood. This paper includes examples of such integration to illustrate our views and to highlight the resultant benefits that AECB staff believes are possible.