Status of the Reliability Centered Maintenance Program at Ontario Hydro's Bruce 'A' Nuclear Division

Abstract

Bruce A started a preventive maintenance (PM) quality improvement program in August of 1991. This initiative was taken to address the concerns expressed by the AECB and the Peer Audits finding. The concerns were on the quality of the Bruce A PM pro- gram and its execution in the field. Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) analysis was selected as the PM program quality improvement and optimization technique. Therefore, RCM became a key component of Bruce A's Integrated PM program and maintenance strategy. As a result of RCM implementation, and improvements in the work planning and scheduling process, Bruce A is seeing downward trends in the corrective maintenance work load, maintenance preventable forced outages, over-duel missed PM tasks and corrective maintenance backlog. Control Room Operators have reported observing an improvement in systems and equipment response to transients. Other benefits include a documented, controlled and traceable PM program. In addition, the team approach required by RCM has started to improve staff confidence in the PM program which, in turn, is improving the compliance with the PM program.