July-August 2018 NPJ

42 NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, July-August 2018 Wireless Vibration Sensor By Tennessee Valley Authority. Nuclear Energy Institute’s Top Innovative Practice Awards highlight the nuclear industry’s most innovative techniques and ideas. This innovation won a 2018 Top Innovative Practice Award. The team members who participated included Andy Pawley, Joshua Berry, Sam Boozer, Thomas Fischer, Tim Bowman, John Kaplan, Brandon Schwartz, Eric Swift, Will Walker, Chris Welch, Sam Bertram, Heriberto Gonzales, Tennessee Valley Authority. Nuclear power plants are facing many challenges today, including a need for increased monitoring of critical equipment as operating licenses are extended and initiatives to substantially reduce O&M costs are being implemented. Limiting the time spent to collect data manually would allow more time for higher priorities such as data review and monitoring for fast identification of problems. TVAhasdevelopeda remotevibration sensor that is easy to install and totally wireless. The sensor can be magnetically attached to pumps ,motors or fans that do not have vibration sensors installed to collect and transmit data to a central monitoring center without the need to install cabling. The sensor transmits data across the Plants radio system using the radio frequency installed at our nuclear sites also known as a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) and uses a battery as a source of power. The sensor is programmable. The limitations associated with using batteries as the power source are resolved by controlling the sample rate for the sensor and inducing a sleep mode when the sensor is not needed. This extends battery life to as much as two years. The sensor has been tested at the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant by installing the device on the Seal Injection Pump and comparing the output with data from traditional handheld data acquisition. All test results were satisfactory with good correlation between the two methods. Innovation TVA has developed a first-of-a- kind device which allows for vibration data collection and wirelessly sends the data to a central monitoring center. This allows for currently installed equipment without vibration sensors to be remotely monitored without the necessity to install cabling or mounting hardware. There are no identified devices similar to this design commercially available. Safety The vibration sensor is a non- intrusive installation which reduces personnel error from damaging equipment and prevents personnel injury when installing. As a remote monitoring device, the risks associated with man- machine interface when acquiring data are eliminated. Pumps, fans or motors in a high radiation field can also be monitored remotely which reduces the amount of exposure individuals receive resulting in lower dosage for plant personnel. Cost-Savings Impact Cost savings come from several areas. This device reduces Component Engineering workload by transitioning from traditional trending and monitoring plans to use of Central Monitoring while maintaining the ability to proactively identify adverse equipment performance trends and degradation. The estimated cost savings is $200,000 per year. Sensors can be permanently or temporarily installed for monitoring of equipment that does not have vibration sensors without the necessity of running cabling or mounting hardware. Without the need for cabling or mounting hardware there is a substantial cost avoidance associated with modification of equipment and installation of instrumentation. It has been observed that modifications associated with instrumentation of equipment have exceeded upwards of $1,000,000 to implement. The sensors may also be used in the development of Condition-Based Maintenance strategies in lieu of Time- Based maintenance resulting in an Wireless Vibration Sensors.