Cost-optimal Scheduling of Nuclear Component Maintenance Subject to Reliability Constraints
Abstract
Preventive maintenance is a key element in the maintenance policy of many industries, including the power sector. To achieve the reasonable and effective maintenance of nuclear power plants (NPPs), proper aging management is crucial and should be optimized from the viewpoints of both safety and economy. To this end, we propose a mixed-integer maintenance-scheduling model that minimizes the total cost of maintenance activities over the lifetime of an NPP while ensuring the reliability of safety-critical functions. Built into the model is the recognition that effective maintenance activities differ depending on the cause of the latent failure and that the cost associated with maintenance varies depending on the type of maintenance activity. The value of the proposed model is demonstrated by applying it to an illustrative case in which optimal maintenance schedules for a single representative system component are produced. Importantly, the model enables the user to quantitatively evaluate the tradeoff between the reliability of safety-critical functions and total maintenance cost.
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