Schulz Electric’s nuclear group specializes in nuclear motor repair. We offer a variety of nuclear services including environmentally qualified form and random wound insulation, contaminated electric motor repair with RCP electric motor overhaul and rewind, safety-related repairs, electric motor testing capabilities, high-quality, costeffective solutions for MOV dilemmas, all from our nuclear motor repair facility and in-house decontamination facility.
The Primary Challenge
Schulz Electric™ was contacted by a nuclear power plant in the New England region that serves a community of over 2 million homes. After five years of service, a 1500 HP, 4 kV, 24-pole circulating water pump motor (measuring approximately 7’ wide, 8’ tall, and weighing several tons) needed refurbishing while the plant was still online. To add to their concern, the power plant is located close to the ocean. The aging motor was not only approaching the end of its serviceable life, but was highly susceptible to moisture intrusion and the salt-laden air, which can build up in air passages within the motor. These environmental conditions can lead to elevated operating temperatures and corrosion developing on the rotor, stator, and shaft components. These factors combined, placed the plant at an increased risk of downtime that could have potentially led to a significant loss of revenue if they were forced into a shutdown event.
Discover Why EXOSENS Detectors are Essential for Advanced Reactor Monitoring in Extreme Conditions
As the global energy landscape shifts towards safer, smaller, and more flexible nuclear power, Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and Gen. IV* technologies are at the forefront of innovation. These advanced designs pose new challenges in size, efficiency, and operating environment that traditional instrumentation and control solutions aren’t always designed to handle.
Figure 1. inDRUM Demonstration facility at Studsvik for simulated waste (left) and a drum being loaded into the container treatment unit (right)
Studsvik AB has completed construction of the new inDRUM Demonstration Facility outside of Nykoping, Sweden. We can now demonstrate how the inDRUM technology will process a wide range of problematic and legacy wastes through the removal of all liquids, organics and other materials, resulting in a stable and reduced volume product that can be disposed of in a suitable repository.
General Atomics SiGA Cladding Accident Tolerant Fuel Rods
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) is charting a path to advance SiGA® silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic matrix composite cladding for nuclear fuel rods to provide enhanced safety, improved operational performance, and economics benefits for the existing Light Water Reactor (LWR) fleet as well as future advanced reactor systems.
Are Metal Projectile Scrapers a Safe Cleaning Option for Maintaining the Integrity of Surface Condenser Tubes?
Maintaining clean condenser tubes is vital for the reliable and efficient operation of power plants. Condenser tubes can accumulate a variety of deposits, ranging from soft organic materials to hardened mineral scales.
Fouling impacts condenser tubes in two significant ways: it reduces heat transfer efficiency and promotes under-deposit corrosion. Reduced heat transfer efficiency hampers steam condensation, leading to lower vacuum and less efficient steam turbine operation. The main types of fouling encountered include deposition or particulate, scaling or crystallization, microbiological fouling, debris or macrofouling, and corrosion.
Figure 1: The Reactor Vessel was first emptied of its internals.
For the Crystal River 3 accelerated decommissioning project, Orano Decommissioning Services (ODS) applied its patented Optimized Segmentation strategy to plan and execute the removal, packaging, off-site transportation, and disposal or onsite storage of all the reactor vessel and internals components in a total of only two Class A industrial type large containers, one Class C Type B large container, and two GTCC Rad Waste Canisters (excluding the head and the secondary waste).