Impact of CSPE jackets on accelerated aging of harvested cable insulations in support of remaining useful life assessments

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Abstract

Nuclear power plants (NPPs) are operating beyond their original 40-year operating lifetime, with more than 80% operating on the first license renewal for an extended 20-years. To sustain the effective and cost-effective operation of their electrical cables, understanding cable material performance in current and future environments can lead to effective maintenance strategies and condition monitoring protocols. Addressing the issue of long-term operation and viability, accelerated aging was carried out on chlorosulfonated polyethylene (CSPE) / ethylene propylene rubber (EPR) insulations that were removed from harvested electrical cables. Cables were obtained as part of the Light Water Reactor and Sustainability (LWRS) Zion Harvesting Project in cooperation with Energy Solutions and the U.S. NRC. Zion NPP was in operation for 25 years prior to decommissioning before its 40-year operation license had expired. For the Boston Insulated Wire (BIW) manufactured EPR insulation with outer CSPE jackets, degradation was observed in mechanical properties with respect to time and temperature was observed. This degradation was impacted by the outer CSPE jacket as the increase in to the time to degradation at the same temperature was observed for EPR insulations with the outer CSPE jacket removed prior to aging. The correlation of IM and density to EAB also suggested that these parameters could also be used effectively in the estimates of activation energy with additional data. Arrhenius analysis on the mechanical degradation as measured by EAB for the two types of BIW EPR insulations with outer CSPE jackets estimated activation energies slightly different (BIW-A without outer CSPE jacket 1.58 eV, BIW-B with outer CSPE jacket 1.10 eV) than the 1.24 eV found in from analysis of EAB data found in Zion NPP BIW insulation documentation. These values were higher than those previously reported of 0.90 eV to 0.96 eV for CSPE and EPR materials in the literature and additional measurements are needed to further validate the increase in activation energy for these harvested materials and possible impact on remaining useful life estimation. Finally, FTIR analysis showed differences in the oxidation as measured by decrease in C-H bonds in EPR insulation and CSPE jackets and increase in C-O bonds in certain cases.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication11th Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technologies, NPIC and HMIT 2019
PublisherAmerican Nuclear Society
Pages1707-1719
Number of pages13
ISBN (Electronic)9780894487835
StatePublished - 2019
Event11th Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technologies, NPIC and HMIT 2019 - Orlando, United States
Duration: Feb 9 2019Feb 14 2019

Publication series

Name11th Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technologies, NPIC and HMIT 2019

Conference

Conference11th Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technologies, NPIC and HMIT 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityOrlando
Period02/9/1902/14/19

Funding

This work was supported under the U.S. Department of Energy – Office of Nuclear Energy Light Water Reactor and Sustainability (LWRS) Program. This work was supported under the U.S. Department of Energy - Office of Nuclear Energy Light Water Reactor and Sustainability (LWRS) Program. The authors would also like to thank the discussion and feedback received from Andrew Mantey at EPRI, Keith Leonard at ORNL, and Leo Fifield at Pacific Northwest Laboratory. ∗This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

Keywords

  • Cable aging
  • Cable insulation
  • Hypalon
  • Second license renewal

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