CANDU Services is committed to helping customers achieve optimum and safe reactor operation. Our proactive plant life management and plant life extension programs are designed to help reactors achieve long life, high reliability and high predictability. We offer our utility customers expert support to promote plant life extension, return to service of laid up nuclear units, longer operating cycles, operations and maintenance cost reductions, and economic upgrades.
Plant Life Management (PLiM)
CANDU Services’ integrated Plant Life Management (PLiM), also known as Life Cycle Management (LCM), is designed to help utilities maximize revenue from nuclear assets. We offer systematic health assessments for passive and active components (life condition assessment), system-based maintenance assessments, preventive maintenance and optimization of customers’ system health monitoring strategies. Our experts can:
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improve/update plant component programs, including transient monitoring, in-service inspections, periodic inspection programs, relief valves and heat exchangers
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provide economic evaluation and business case support
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extend outage intervals and improve output options
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provide tools, procedures and plans, training and R&D
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Supply data management support tools, including chemistry, systems and component health monitors
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ChemAND
AECL has developed a new system health monitor, ChemAND (Chemistry Analysis and Diagnostics), to monitor and manage CANDU plant chemistry. ChemAND tracks systems on-line in real-time, improving the monitoring and control of plant chemistry, enhancing capacity factors and extending plant life. ChemAND features automated monitoring, alarming, diagnostics, prediction and on-line execution of analysis codes. It provides plant operators with on-the-spot access to current and past plant chemistry conditions, and offers models to assess the effect of these conditions on plant life. It makes chemistry information more accessible, facilitates the sharing of information, promotes a timely response to, or predicts, events and facilitates management of equipment health and lifetime. An effective tool in existing stations, ChemAND is also an integral part of the SMART CANDU reactor concept.
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ThermAND
AECL is presently developing health monitors for existing stations and as integral parts of the SMART CANDU reactor concept. ThermAND is a system health monitor for heat transport circuits, and is a close ‘relative’ to ChemAND, AECL’s chemistry monitoring and diagnostics system in operation at Gentilly-2, Quebec, Canada. ThermAND provides monitoring and diagnostic functionality to help manage the health of the major CANDU heat transport systems, including the primary heat transport system (HTS), the secondary heat transport system (steam cycle), the moderator, and auxiliary systems, such as end-shields. Health monitoring of these systems will include performance and condition monitoring of the piping and components such as pumps, vessels and heat exchangers. Planned enhancements include predictive models that will help utilities better manage system health.
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SYSTMS
Effectiveness and efficiency are key to maintenance today and more effort is being put into understanding, optimizing, planning and improving maintenance, surveillance and inspection practices. AECL’s SYSTMS (SYstematic approach for the development of STrategy for Maintenance and Surveillance) is a fully integrated, user-friendly, software tool designed by AECL to assist plants in dealing with these demands.
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