Remote Prognostics for Nuclear Plant ECCS Systems

Under the U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (NERI) program, research is underway by PNNL. Scientists are developing a methodology for a more accurate prediction indicating the useful life of critical machinery that has been placed under unusual duress (Bond 2000). This research involves running machinery to failure in the laboratory by the introduction of intentional faults. At the same time, advanced diagnostic/prognostic sensors and analysis systems monitor the environmental stressor levels, correlate them with expected degradation rates, and predict the resulting machinery performance levels and lifetime. The application of a first-principles physics approach is expected to produce prognostic methodologies of significantly higher accuracies than are currently available.