Online Monitoring in Small Modular Reactors

Small modular reactors (SMRs) are at the forefront of the nuclear industrys options for deployment of new reactors to meet the growing electricity needs of the world. However, the designs of SMR plants are not yet far along enough to know the type and number of instruments that will be included in each design other than tentative statements by potential suppliers that they plan to use existing instrumentation designs as the starting point. As such, there is a need for research to identify suitable instrumentation for SMRs, and more importantly, for integration of SMR instrumentation with existing and new online monitoring (OLM) technologies for condition-based maintenance of the instrumentation and other plant equipment. This proposal offers as its first task to research instrumentation options for SMRs including their physical configuration, placement, redundancy, and performance specifications. Secondly, the instrumentation options for SMRs will be evaluated based on their amenability to existing OLM technologies for remote maintenance of their performance. The goal of these efforts will be to provide the SMR designers, vendors, and utilities with optimum instrumentation that is amenable to OLM and to demonstrate the feasibility of OLM technologies for performance monitoring and predictive maintenance of SMR equipment. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: This project will benefit the nuclear industry and the general public in a number of ways. First, SMRs are expected to serve as an economical and safe source of electricity generation that is not harmful to the environment and is immune to security risks. With the technologies to be provided to SMRs under this project, the plants will be made safer, more efficient, and highly economical. This will benefit the general public in reduced electricity prices and a carbon free source of energy and will contribute to diversity of electricity supply and independence from foreign sources of energy.