July 24, 2014
Fatigue Monitoring in Nuclear Power Plants
AREVA GmbH supplies high added-value products and services to support the operation of the global nuclear fleet. For lifetime extension of the plants a fatigue monitoring system is essential. AREVA uses Gantner Instruments measurement equipment for the acquisition of temperature transient data. The modules A104 for thermocouple type K signal conditioning and A107 for cold junction compensation of the Q.raxx series were customized for installation inside the controlled area of a nuclear power plant. That requires highest measurement accuracy, robustness under harsh environmental conditions and long term stability. In several power plants around the world up to 300 channels per system are in a stable 24/7 operation.
The complete measurement system have to be tested recurrently and the test time for the engineers needs to be as short as possible to reduce the time under radiation exposure. Gantner Instruments developed a portable testing device that can be used inside the controlled area of the plant. With a special test adapter the measurement accuracy of up to 30 channels can be tested. The testing device can be operated remotely by use of a robust tablet computer. The test engineer can leave the harsh environment once the test adapter is installed.
“The flexibility and strong intention to adapt the existing robust hardware to our specific needs was the key to select Gantner Instruments as the supplier for our fatigue monitoring systems. Combined with the very customer friendly and fast reacting service team the products could be implemented into our system very fast.”
Said Mrs. Bruckmüller, Product Manager Fatigue Monitoring at AREVA GmbH
