Understanding aging in containment cooling systems Original Research Article

A study has been performed to assess the effects of aging in nuclear power plant containment cooling systems. Failure records from national databases as well as plant-specific data were reviewed and analyzed to identify aging characteristics for this system. The predominant aging mechanisms were determined, along with the most frequently failed components and their associated failure modes. This paper discusses the aging mechanisms present in the containment spray system and the containment fan cooler system, which are two systems used to provide the containment cooling function. The failure modes, along with the relative frequency of each, are also discussed.