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Service water systems supply cooling water for power plant balance of plant and turbine support systems. In nuclear plants, these systems may also provide heat removal for safety-related systems such as containment coolers or serve an important safety function by providing a backup water source for the emergency feedwater pump.
By their very nature, service water systems present unique aging management challenges. All service water systems are site-specific--from source to discharge. They are vulnerable to multiple degradation mechanisms that can decrease their design service life. Unlike other critical plant systems, service water systems may operate intermittently and are subject to stagnation, which can hinder distribution of anti-corrosion water treatments and can result in restrictions due to corrosion products, settled solids, and biofouling products. Sources are important--salt water systems face different degradation problems than freshwater systems.
Degradation may lead to reduced reliability and breakdown of critical equipment (e.g., intake pipes, debris traveling screens, pumps, heat exchangers). This can result in expensive repairs and early component replacements leading to reduced efficiency and plant downtime.
Altran Solutions provides a number of services and tools to address the reliability and aging management issues in service water systems. These include:
- Equipment reliability assessment
- Corrosion studies
- Micro- and macro-fouling studies
- Material analysis
- Component degradation studies
- Heat Exchanger performance studies
- Design basis and configuration management support.