The Long-Term Operation of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) calls for innovative methods to monitor the ageing of safety systems. New instrumentation will also lead to improve decision-making in accidental conditions thanks to additional information, complementing the material and organisational modifications decided after the Fukushima accident. The project FIND aims first to adapt innovative technologies deployed in other industries to prevent the failure of metallic pipes. FIND will work on Structural Health Monitoring technologies (ultrasonic guided waves and acoustic emission) to detect defects in real time during plant operation, even in inaccessible locations. In addition, Digital Twins will be developed to better predict degradation phenomena, with combination of detailed mechanical models and real plant data (strain, temperature and vibration measurements). Tests in experimental and industrial conditions (including NPPs) will be performed, representative of the following phenomena:
• Local corrosion and large deformations of raw service water pipes,
• Stress corrosion cracking and fatigue on the primary circuit,
• Flow accelerated corrosion on the turbine extraction line.
Concerning accidental instrumentation, FIND will first develop systems to track water movements during a loss-of-coolant accident. This will include localisation of breach thanks to heated thermocouples and data science approaches. FIND will evaluate feasibility to monitor progression of severe accidents, thanks to analysis of fission products in containment, either by gamma ray spectroscopy or physicochemical analysis. Technologies developed in FIND are low intrusive and cost effective. They will help to anticipate maintenance, and will complete or replace some Non-Destructive Testing. This will result in higher availability of NPPs, lower operator dosimetry, and reduced costs, which will foster their adoption. FIND is led by IRSN, French public expert for nuclear risks and encompasse.
Project funding:
Euratom Research and Training Programme
Project results:
1. Developed real time, more representative and remote monitoring systems for safety significant defaults in metallic pipes due to the ageing of NPPs.
2. Developed instrumentation to collect more information about the state of safety systems and the reactor core during incidents and accidents.
3. Proved ability of innovative NDE technologies to keep their performances in the nuclear context.
4. Prepared adoption of the new technologies by the nuclear sector.
5. Informed nuclear operators of relevant monitoring technologies, and informed monitoring technology providers of relevant use-cases to increase nuclear safety.
Period of project implementation: 2024-10-01 - 2028-09-30
Project coordinator: Institut de radioprotection et de surete nucleaire (IRSN)
Project partners: COMMISSIONER FOR ATOMIC ENERGY AND ALTERNATIVE ENERGIES, STATE ENTERPRISE "STATE SC, IENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL CENTER FOR NUCLEAR AND RADIATION SAFETY" (SSTC NRS), Kaunas University of Technology, FRAMATOME GMBH, TEKNOLOGIAN TUTKIMUSKESKUS VTT, Electricite de France (EDF), IPP-CENTER LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY (IPP), LGI SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION (LGI), VUEZ AS, TRACTEBEL ENGINEERING S.A. (TRACTEBEL)
