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Conference Spotlight
2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Fusion Science and Technology
November 2025
Latest News
Modernizing I&C for operations and maintenance, one phase at a time
The two reactors at Dominion Energy’s Surry plant are among the oldest in the U.S. nuclear fleet. Yet when the plant celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023, staff could raise a toast to the future. Surry was one of the first plants to file a subsequent license renewal (SLR) application, and in May 2021, it became official: the plant was licensed to operate for a full 80 years, extending its reactors’ lifespans into 2052 and 2053.
Melissa Golyski
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 71 | Number 3 | April 2017 | Pages 422-425
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1293413
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The high contamination potential of the release of radioactive tritium facilitates the demand for and development of a stringent and comprehensive approach to operational maintenance of tritium systems. Prompt and efficient maintenance is necessary to ensure the accepted operational safety basis is adhered to and a continued safe state of operation is achieved. This will help to mitigate and avoid potential hazards that result from a tritium release to the public and facility personnel. Because of the hazards associated with a release of tritium contamination the process systems are in large kept within a series of inerted glovebox environments that must be maintained to keep structural integrity. The nature of a tritium release from a glovebox could have significant consequences for the general public as well as for personnel. As such, the maintenance philosophy is developed to help facilitate operations in the adherence to the facility’s safety code of conduct.
To effectively facilitate the safe operation goals mentioned a well-defined maintenance philosophy has been developed that encompasses routine and non-routine maintenance activities. Examples of routine activities include preventative maintenance such as line-break inspections, helium leak tests to ensure components are leak tight, weld inspections and overall surveillance testing of essential components and infrastructure. Predictive maintenance also falls into this category. Predictive maintenance activities are developed over time in response to non-routine maintenance work. Non-routine maintenance or corrective maintenance activities are performed in response to a specific failure or to resolve a particular inadequacy in performance of tritium systems. When corrective maintenance is performed trends are often studied and more predictive maintenance can be scheduled to compensate for more routine failures.
This technical note will identify key operational maintenance considerations which when applied, will ensure that tritium handling systems are operated safely.
