Wire System Ageing Assessment and Condition Monitoring (WASCO)
Activity Acronym:
WASCO
Authors:
M. Ekelund, P. F. Fantoni, U.W. Gedde
Abstract:
Nuclear facilities rely on electrical wire systems to perform a variety of functions for successful operation. Many of these functions directly support the safe operation of the facility; therefore, the continued reliability of wire systems, even as they age, is critical.
In this report 3 techniques for cable global ageing assessment were tested and evaluated. The EAB technique is a destructive, local technique that is often used as a reference for other methods. The indenter is a local, in-situ mechanical technique that is currently quite often used in NPPs. LIRA is an electrical method, full line, in-situ. LIRA correlated quite well with EAB and both tend to flatten when the ageing time reaches 40 years. The only cable type that was difficult to assess for all the 3 methods was the medium type in air environment. These tests considered only thermal ageing, up to 50 years and should be completed by considering also gamma irradiation ageing.
Keywords:
Condition monitoring, cable aging, transmission lines, hot spot detection, fault detection, frequency domain reflectometry, time domain reflectometry, standing wave reflectometry, LIRA, positron
NKS Reports 
