May-June 2018 NPJ

Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2018 NuclearPlantJournal.com 19 sample in which a contaminant exceeds a certain concentration, a specific action is taken. ‘Action level one’ may be to clean up the contaminant. Higher levels may involve reducing the plant’s power.” “With better information and analytics, we may be able to reimagine the water chemistry guidelines,” said Edwards. “In some cases, it may be more suitable for the limits or action levels to be based on an ‘integrated exposure’ to many chemicals over a longer time, rather than on a single sample or limited set of samples. Advanced analytics could be used to calculate such an exposure. For example, a plant that operates for an entire fuel cycle with very low contaminant levels may be well-protected even if a short-term elevation occurs.” “With automation technology combined with data analytics, we can discern combinations of impurities developing across the plant and indicating a risk to materials, fuel, or radiation management,” said Frattini. “Based on such patterns, the guidelines could signal a set of actions to correct the situation.” The Path Forward to Smart Chemistry Next steps for the Smart Chemistry Initiative include incorporating lessons from the demonstration, closing technology gaps, working with vendors to fine-tune the instruments, developing a cost-benefit analysis, optimizing maintenance, enhancing analytics, and revising water chemistry guidelines. A full-scale demonstration and rollout of automated water chemistry are targeted for 2021. “We’re going to do a final demonstration in 2021, applying everything we have learned since this year’s demonstration—optimized instrumentation, improved analytics, and more effective operational guidelines,” said McElrath. “The purpose of this three-year project is to apply better information to water chemistry control with fewer resources,” said Edwards. “We’re approaching this comprehensively, with a methodical plan and a solid vision. The project pursues the nuclear industry’s important objective of reducing cost, and it puts us on a path to have better water chemistry information on which to base operational decisions.” Contact: EPRI, email: techexpert@ eprijournal.com. The above document was reprinted from the EPRI Journal with permission from EPRI. To subscribe, go to www. eprijournal.com . Each skid in EPRI's demonstration consists of separate modules for various instruments, conditioning of water samples, and data acquisition. This is a design drawing of one of the skids. ©2018 Endeavor Robotics. All rights reserved. Endeavor Robotics is a registered trademark of Endeavor Robotics. For more information, email sales@EndeavorRobotics.com or 978.769.9333 Extend your reach