Adopting risk informed techniques for electrical testing

As the electrical deregulation saga in the US continues to unfold, economic pressures for nuclear power stations to produce electricity at lower costs will continue to increase. The use of risk informed approaches has been both identified and encouraged as an option to improve management of station resources more effectively and this technique has seen notable successes in the areas of in-service inspection and testing. Because of those successes, IEEE´s Nuclear Power Engineering Committee has directed its Working Group 3.1 to evaluate integration of risk informed approaches into its electrical testing standard-IEEE Std 338. This paper will report on considerations for adopting, similar risk-based techniques to fine-tune testing intervals for electrical and I&C equipment at nuclear power stations. These approaches will be based on techniques successfully employed by STP Nuclear Operating Company at the South Texas Project Electric Generating Station in Wadsworth, Texas.