Development of a web-based aging monitoring system for an integrity evaluation of the major components in a nuclear power plant

Structural and mechanical components in a nuclear power plant are designed to operate for its entire service life. Recently, a number of nuclear power plants are being operated beyond their design life to produce more electricity without shutting down. The critical issue in extending a lifetime is to maintain the level of safety during the extended operation period while satisfying the international regulatory standards. However, only a small portion of these components are of great importance for a significant aging degradation which would deeply affect the long-term safety and reliability of the related facilities. Therefore, it is beneficial to build a monitoring system to measure an aging status. While a number of integrity evaluation systems have been developed for NPPs, a real-time aging monitoring system has not been proposed yet [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7] and [8]. This paper proposes an expert system for the integrity evaluation of nuclear power plants based on a Web-based Reality Environment (WRE). The proposed system provides the integrity assessment for the major mechanical components of a nuclear power plant under concurrent working environments. In the WRE, it is possible for users to understand a mechanical system such as its size, geometry, coupling condition etc. In conclusion, it is anticipated that the proposed system can be used for a more efficient integrity evaluation of the major components subjected to an aging degradation.