EPRI RESEARCH IN QUALIFICATION OF SAFETY-RELATED ELECTRICAL-EQUIPMENT

Environmental qualification of safety-related electrical equipment easily qualifies for the top-10 list of issues in nuclear power safety during the past decade. This article gives an overview of what qualification is and is not, why qualification requirements may have reached a point of diminishing return in terms of improved safety, and how the research sponsored by utilities through the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is helping them to meet growing qualification requirements in a technologically consistent manner and at minimum cost. Results to date from five EPRI research efforts are summarized: a review of equipment-aging technology, a computeried equipment qualification data bank, radiation effects on organic materials in plant equipment, shake-table tests to examine the need for aging before seismic qualification, and hydrogen burn tests to determine the conditions under which qualified equipment can survive degraded-core accidents.