Paper Classification number: T-I
30 Years
OfMSR
Restoration And Upgrade, An Experience Base For Future
Designs
Abraham
L.
Yarden
Thermal Engineering [nternational
California, USA
Clement
W.
Tam
Thermal Engineering [nternational
California, USA
AkiraOkabe
Hitachi, Ltd., Power & Industrial
System, Japan
Abstract
Many existing Nuclear power plants world-wide
are
undergoing a new birth - approaching the end
of
their
initial licensing period, their generating capacity is now
being uprated through a recognition
of
the conservatism
of
their initial design; their MSRs upgraded to restore
deteriorated performance, eliminate historically high
maintenance costs and to meet the added needs
of
this
plant
uprating;
and
re-licensed
for
continued
operation
into
the years ahead. An important aspect
of
this process is the
recognition that the moisture separator reheaters (MSRs)
can
no
longer be considered to be mere balance-of-plant
(BOP) auxiliaries - their significant impact on MWe
generation, plant operating stability, and reliability has
become increasingly appreciated. Over the years
in
excess
90 sets
of
MSRs have been already redesigned and
reconstructed worldwide.
Over the past 30 years, MSRs
of
every type, and lately
MS
vessels have been upgraded for a variety
of
operational
reasons to take full advantage
of
the advancing technology
that has emerged on many
ITonts.
While this has permitted
the plant upratings currently in progress and decreased the
unacceptably high maintenance costs and MWe loss
experienced, it has also, perhaps more importantly, pointed
the way toward the efficient, reliable MSR designs
required
for
the new generation
of
much
larger
nuclear
power plants being built and planned for the years ahead.
1
INTRODUCTION
There
are
a wide variety
of
specific moisture
separator
reheater (MSR) designs and several moisture separator
(MS) designs for original equipment, which were created
over the years. For this reason, MSR and
MS
redesign and
reconstruction projects have,
of
necessity, been unique
to
the specific design - there is no standard to the MSR or
MS upgrade process. These projects run the gamut
ITom
mere moisture-separation system replacement
all
the way
to total redesign and replacement
of
entire MSRs including
the vessels. To illustrate both the range and specifics
of
these successfully completed projects, several are cited
here. Overall, this will clearly show that the nuclear
industry has
in
hand the wherewithal to meet the
continuing needs
of
today and challenges
of
the future
in
providing the advanced MSR technology that will assure
long-term successful operation
of
the new, large LWR
nuclear power plants to come.
A good example
of
this is the relatively recent advent
of
nuclear power in the Peoples Republic
of
China which has
given stimulus to new MSR original-equipment designs.
Although its first indigenous nuclear power plant, a 300-
MWe PWR at the Qinshan site, was equipped with MSRs
largely similar to the licensor's original design, the four
new 700-MWe units now under construction
and
nearing
completion employ advanced MSR designs and are
expected
to
show improvements
in
performance,
reliability, and life over those recently built
in
east Asia
using standard earlier designs. These new designs at
Qinshan do not depart from the well-established design
principles
of
the past. Rather, they evolve
ITom
them and
improve them
in
areas
of
real
impact - size, accessibility,
flow streamlining,
and
resistance
to
flow-assisted corrosion
(FAC).
Broadly speaking, MSR components can be classified as
moisture separators, reheaters,
and
vessels. Within each
of
these component classifications, there exist a wide variety
of
active
and
passive element considerations - thermal,
hydraulic, mechanical, metallurgical, radiological,
architectural, and structural for example including
unique installation problems and schedules.
2 MOISTURE SEPARATORS (MS)
The efficiency
of
originally installed moisture separators
(MS)
in
non-reheat and reheat nuclear steam cycles, has
always been doubtful. Efficiency levels achieved
in
old
MS
technologies lacked means
of
quantification, and
assumptions made regarding their efficiency were highly
optimistic. As a result these MSs
in
reheat cycles have
traditionally been unnecessarily high consumers
of
inlet
throttle and/or extraction steam,
if
only
to
evaporate
moisture not mechanically separated. This inefficiency