ChemAND-A System Health Monitor for Plant Chemistry

Abstract

Effective management of plant systems throughout their lifetime requires much more than data acquisition and display-it requires that the plant's system health be continually monitored and managed. AECL has developed a System Health Monitor called ChemAND for CANDU plant chemistry. ChemAND, a Chemistry ANalysis and Diagnostic system, monitors key chemistry parameters in the heat transport system, moderator-cover gas, annulus gas, and the steam cycle during full-power operation and feeds these parameters to models that calculate the effect of current plant operating conditions on the present and future health of the system.Chemistry data from each of the systems are extracted on a regular basis from the plant's Historical Data Server and are sorted according to function, e.g., indicators for condenser in leakage, air in-leakage, heavy water leakage into the annulus gas, fuel failure, etc. Each parameter is conveniently displayed and is trended along with its alarm limits. ChemAND currently has two analytical models developed for the balance-of-plant. CHEMSOL V calculates crevice chemistry conditions in the steam generator (SG) from either the SG blowdown chemistry conditions or from a simulated condenser leak. This information will be used by operations personnel to evaluate the potential for SG tube corrosion in the crevice region. CHEMSOL Valso calculates chemistry conditions throughout the steam-cycle system, as determined by the transport of volatile species such as ammonia, hydrazine, morpholine, and oxygen. A second model, SLUDGE, calculates the deposit loading in the SG as a function of time, based on concentrations of corrosion product in the final feedwater and plant operating conditions.Operations personnel can use this information to predict where to inspect and when to clean. In a future development, SLUDGE will track deposit loading arising from start-up crud bursts and will be used in conjunction with the thermohydraulics code, THIRST, to predict the effect of fouling on degradation of thermal performance. ChemAND is currently undergoing a field trial at the Gentilly-2 nuclear power plant, and a commercial version is planned to be available within a year.