6045 Cochran Road
Cleveland, OH 44139
440-542-3628
email:
linkedin.com/company/victoreen
@flukevictoreen
Over the past 75 years, Victoreen has been recognized as a global leader in
providing solutions to detect, monitor, and characterize ionizing radiation. Today,
with a wide range of solutions, Victoreen delivers the safety, reliability and quality
needed to guarantee top performance for the global atomic energy community.
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Continuous Area Monitors
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Process Monitors
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Radiation Detectors
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Digital Readouts
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Samplers
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Sampling Skids
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Remote Indicators and Alarms
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Custom Design and Prototypes
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Engineering and Licensing Support
Managing Radiation Monitoring System (RMS) Obsolescence
Obsolescence of RMS equipment and instrumentation has become a significant issue affecting nuclear power plants. Much of
this equipment was installed in the 1970s and 1980s and has become obsolete. Not only are spare and replacement parts becoming more
difficult to find, but many of the original equipment manufacturers have decided to exit the market.
“What we are seeing is equipment that was intended to be in operation for 10 years, being used for 20, 30, or even 40 years,”
says Jon Hale, consultant for Victoreen, a long term supplier of RMS equipment. “Some plants have done upgrades over the past 20
years, but now even that equipment has started to become obsolete.”
The fact is it’s difficult to get funding for non-megawatt producing equipment. However, utilities have to take a close look at
the escalating costs of maintaining obsolete equipment, which can include increased maintenance costs, spare parts costs that are at least
double those of the latest models, as well as the substantial engineering costs to reverse engineer obsolete products that are no longer
supported by the manufacturer. The time will come when the age of this equipment must be addressed.
But obsolescence isn’t just a problem for existing plants. Many of the new-build projects face the same dilemma of buying
obsolete products frommanufacturers they can trust, or buying newer equipment from novice manufacturers, which don’t necessarily have
the experience to ensure long term equipment reliability. Hale points out, “there is obvious pressure to keep costs low on these projects,
but at the same time, what if the low cost manufacturer products fail after one year and the manufacturer turns around and gouges you on
spare parts, or worse yet, what if some of the sourced parts turn out to be fraudulent? You have to be very cautious in this industry.”
Hale provided the following words of advice for utilities and suppliers while facing obsolescence issues:
Most plants have a 5 year or a 10 year plan, but also need to be thinking about how to get from today until the end of the plant lifetime,
and no RMS equipment is going to last the full lifetime without a replacement or overhaul.
When considering a replacement of equipment, think about what got your equipment to last this long (or not as it may be). Don’t be
attracted by features that may sound nice, but are either not required or likely to require maintenance in 3-5 years. Buy equipment you
know will last another 10-15 years at a minimum.
The most successful upgrade projects utilize a proactive approach where the utility and the selected vendor worked together to create a
comprehensive obsolescence management plan for the RMS. Don’t wait until the entire RMS can no longer be supported. Be proactive
with your vendor and determine a solution that’s right for you.
Contact: Phil Mathewson, Fluke Corporation, telephone: (440)498-2568, email:
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