Darlington Steam Generator Life Assurance Program

Abstract

The Darlington Nuclear Generating Station belonging to Ontario Hydro is one of the most modern and advanced nuclear generating stations in the world. Four reactor units each generate 881 net MW, enough to provide power to a major city, and representing approximately 20% of the Ontario grid. The nuclear generating capacity in Ontario represents approximately 60% of the grid. In order to look after this major asset, many proactive preventative and predictive maintenance programs are being put in place. The steam generators are a major component in any power plant. World wide experience shows that nuclear steam generators require specialized attention to ensure reliable operation over the station life. This paper describes the Darlington steam generator life assurance program in terms of degradation identification, monitoring and management. The requirements for chemistry control, surveillance of process parameters, surveillance of inspection parameters, and the integration of preventative and predictive maintenance programs such as water lancing, chemical cleaning, RIHT monitoring, and other diagnostics to enhance our understanding of life management issues are identified and discussed. We conclude that we have advanced proactive activities to avoid and to minimize many of the problems affecting other steam generators. An effective steam generator maintenance program must expand the knowledge horizon to understand life limiting processes and to analyze and synthesize observations with theory.