Nuclear Plant Journal, July-August 2015 NuclearPlantJournal.com
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accounting for many plant and
cycle specific factors including
replacement power costs during
the coastdown period, fuel costs,
coastdown rate, fuel cycle length,
power level, interest rates, and the
Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems brings its expertise in these areas to U.S. utility customers:
Reactor vessel closure heads
Since 1996, the company has successfully designed, manufactured, and delivered 39 replacement reactor
vessel closure heads (RRVCHs) with Alloy 690 penetrations to global customers. Mitsubishi has the facilities and
expertise to manufacture replacement RVCHs using tools and processes the company has developed over the
past half-century.
Control rod drive mechanisms
Mitsubishi has designed, manufactured and delivered over 1,400 control-rod drive mechanisms (CDRMs) around
the world, helping electric utilities prolong the operating life of nuclear power plants. Mitsubishi fabricates and
assembles head adapters, latch assemblies, latch housings and rod travel housings for replacement CDRMs.
Water-jet Peening of Alloy 600 Materials
Mitsubishi’s Water Jet Peening (WJP) technique mitigates stress corrosion cracking in nozzles contained within
the reactor vessel. The entire WJP process is conducted underwater during plant outage, with no foreign materials
or heat introduced into the reactor. Mitsubishi has successfully provided more than three dozen WJP applications
and operates a complete training center for WJP services.
Your Energy. Our Experience.
Mitsubishi Replacement Components and Services Extend
the Operating Lives of Nuclear Power Plants
energy capability of the new fuel. All
inputs can be tailored for the specific
plant and time period of interest.
The spreadsheet model can also be
used for quick evaluation of “what
if” scenarios to determine what the
financial impacts are if any of the
input assumptions (e.g., forward
power prices) are different than
predicted.
3) The optimum power coastdown
strategy is also described in Exelon
procedures and is integrated into the
reload process to ensure the energy
utilization plan reflects the optimum
coastdown length at the start of the
design process.
4) Projected coastdown length is
monitored via station performance
indicators on a monthly basis and the
results are fed back into the design
strategy for subsequent fuel cycles.
Productivity/Efficiency
The optimum power coastdown
strategy results in a significant reactor
core efficiency improvement and
also productivity improvements due
to a reduction in the number of fuel
assemblies that need to be handled. The
efficiency of the reactor core is evident
Graphic 2: Net Fuel Cycle Savings vs. Planned Coastdown Length.
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